Product Review of the CS-3X Jr. from Movie Sound Page, the web page for the professional cinema industry.

SMART Devices, even though not exhibiting at CES, made an appearance at the booth of Widescreen Review magazine. At the booth, Widescreen Review was giving away a new product developed by SMART Devices, Inc. It's the SMART Center Surround 3X adapter, also called the CS‑3X, Jr., because it's the home theatre version of the adapter used in movie theatres, the CS‑3X. Like the ADA 6.1 Surround Processor, the CS‑3X, Jr. is connected to the Surround outputs of your 5.1 receiver or processor to extract the back surround channel. The back surround channel level is adjusted with a control knob on the front, and there is also a "Bypass" button to enable or disable decoding. This is convenient when listening to content with a monophonic surround presence such as Dolby Surround. And there is a red LED that will illuminate when the unit senses back surround information. On the rear, there are both speaker level and line level inputs, and the appropriate outputs. In addition, there is a subwoofer output jack, which filters frequencies from 125Hz and below for those wishing to add a subwoofer for the back surround. Also in the rear of the unit are two extra "special" outputs for future applications. Basically, the CS‑3X, Jr. is a Circle Surround™ 5‑channel matrix decoder (if used as a Circle Surround decoder, the main front channels would be connected to the unit as the surround channels would for Dolby Digital Surround EX™, and the "3X' output would be the center channel, and the two "special" outputs would be the surround channels). Each channel can be adjusted for level with trim pots on the rear of the unit. And, a very nice feature of the CS‑3X. Jr. is its internal pink noise generator. The CS‑3X, Jr. is going for $299. At this price, in my opinion, the CS‑3X, Jr. from SMART Devices is a great deal. The subwoofer output, and the test tone generator, gives the unit a big plus and advantage over other similar devices.

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