What does "real" base sound like? (1 Viewer)

[EdNichols]

I have read many threads on "boomy" subs and how a good sub isn't boomy. I have a cheap sub (which I will be upgrading) that I think sounds boomy on some music but I am not sure. I am pretty sure that real boomy sound is what you hear when a car stereo a block away has the 1000 watt radio turned up full blast. I read one thread where a couple people said that you can't hear "good" base you "feel" it. I know in movies with low LFE at loud levels this may be the case, but what about music? Are you supposed to feel base and not hear it in music also? Any opinions?

 

[Dustin B]

Well it will be really tough to hear a base :p) Sorry couldn't resist (don't worry Brian should be hear shortly to remind me how I used to spell baffle).

Good bass sounds like the real thing. A bass drum sounds like a real bass drum not just a boom. As for feel vs hear, this doesn't come into play until you get down to the bottom of the first octave and very little music makes use of this area. So I very much disagree with the statment that you feel not hear good bass.

The thing is most people have never turned their speakers off to hear only the sub. They'd be surprised how much of the sound they thought was their sub wasn't.

 

[Jeff Bamberger]

All your base........

 

[EdNichols]

Yeah, Yeah, I know, I know. First base, home base, not speaker base. It was early in the morning and I just got back from fishing......... by the way I caught a 10 lb. bass!!!!!

 

[EdNichols]

Quote;

The thing is most people have never turned their speakers off to hear only the sub. They'd be surprised how much of the sound they thought was their sub wasn't.

Dustin,

I don't think my receiver has this capability other than lowering the main speaker levels a far as they will go with the test tones. By the way, by this statement, do you think the "boominess" may be coming from the main speakers and not the sub?

 

[Brian Bunge]

I don't like bass. They're ugly and smell fishy!

 

[Nathan J]

If your reciever cant do this, simply unplug your speaker wires.


As for the hearing vs. feeling....some bass you will hear, some you will feel. If you have a good sub with a decent amount of power, you will feel alot of it. Some really, really low bass though isnt really audible (like below 20hz)The sub is just pressurizing the air, and you end up feeling it more than hearing it.

 

[EdNichols]

Dustin,
You were right. Brian did show up!!! He must be the official spell checker.

By the way, the fish has a 9 lb magnet and a long throw pole. I bet it'll put out some loud rumbling base!!

 

[Philip Hamm]

All your base

Are belong to us.

With the controversy regarding the Patagonian Toothfish and overfishing, I have chosen to refrain from eating "Chilean Sea Bass".

 

[Lee Bailey]

If you want to experience real bass, you need to go to some concerts, preferably with several types of music. If you are talking movie bass, try going to a theater that is THX rated. That way you know that there is some sort of standard in place.

 

[Terry St]

Are you supposed to feel base and not hear it in music also? Any opinions?

If you can, go to a live pipe organ performance. That should answer this question pretty thoroughly. Organ music is a favorite addiction of the typical bass-fiend. The deep "bass you can feel" in a drum or bass is also there, but not on nearly the same scale.

As for evaluating subs... I second Dustin's suggestion that you turn off your speakers so you can listen to just the sub. The differences between subs become quite clear when you do this. For organ music, a good sub will make picking out different notes easy while the poorest subs will just go "Thuuuuummmmmmp... Thuuuuuuummmmp..." at a relatively constant pitch. Likewise, when a bass is plucked you should here something like a "Boing!" rather than yet another "Thumpa". Keep in mind that not all of a given bass pluck or organ note is necessarily below your crossover. Organ music in particular has a lot of harmonics that extend much lower than the actual notes. In such a case even the best subs won't sound quite like the real thing without the mains switched on. However, in a side by side comparison it should be easy to tell a mere thumper from a real sub just from the variety of sounds it can reproduce.

You should also be aware of the fact that a fantastic sub can sound like a low end car-stereo-boom-tube if it's not set up correctly. Having the sub levels set too high in relation to the mains can give an impression of boominess, as will improper placement within the room. Buy a SPL meter and calibrate your sub with either a disc like AVIA or your processor/receiver's test tones. Then start reading up on sub placement. There are a lot of hotly debated opinions on the topic out there that are often contradictory. I would suggest finding a copy of Alton Everest's "Master Handbook of Acoustics" and going through the relevant chapters before anything else. This will give you an appreciation of why reproducing deep bass accurately is one of the biggest challenges in home audio.

One final thing... In a perfect system a lot of recordings will still sound boomy. Unfortunately many recordings just aren't well recorded. Some have horrendously cooked bass that literally makes them unplayable on a full range system. Keep this in mind when you are picking music to demo subs with. As a general rule of thumb, classical recordings tend to be the safest bet in this regard.

 

[ChristopherBer]

You wanna hear real base or bass. Take a visit to your Lexus car dealer. The Mark Levinson sound systems have subwoofers designed by Revel that handle bass only lower than 60 Hz. It should be good enough to hear real bass.

 

[Scott Simonian]

If you are talking movie bass, try going to a theater that is THX rated.

THX certification = no

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I like bass but I don't care for bass. Sometimes I'll listen to bass when I catch bass. I just have to make sure the bass doesn't scare bass because I need bass to survive.

Anyways, I love THX bass. It almost always sounds clean at the proper levels and isn't ear fatiguing like some subs that have distortion added.

The cheap car subs play bass that hurts your ears when it's not even playing loud. Good subs can play bass notes very accurately and clean so it lacks the ear fatiguing distortion.

Boomy subs hit each note, but then the driver continues to resonate and take time to refresh. A boomy sub can have a dominant resonance frequency that makes it sound like a one tone subwoofer rather than a transparent one.

IMO, a good sub is neither boomy, nor too tight and accurate. It is one that can't be classified because it merely becomes whatever the music calls for.

 

[terence]

EdNichols, once you have been exposed to REAL BASS! You will never forget it and you will know it when you hear it. All of the terms you have heard that describes subs and bass will make sense. Such as tight,accurate,clean,flat,boomy, etc.

Then a feeling comes over you and you say......... I need one sub (maybe two) to rule them all!!

With in your budget of course.

 

[EdNichols]

Terry(or anybody), in regards to listening to bass heavy music (pipe organs etc.)what would be a good music disk to get to try that out. I prefer one that has some other good music also so I don't waste money. I hope this question is OK to ask here, I know this is not the music section.

 

[Lyden]

ever feel a large truck coming befor you hear it? i'd think thats a good example of bass(however its really spelt). you sure its not possible at all for a human to hear beyond the hearing rang of normal people? i can tell where a sub is placed regardless of how good it is and room ... i tend to ehar lower notes that my friends dont in music .... but i have a sensitive ear ... is it possible or is my brain just making me think i heard it?

 

[Lee Bailey]

The final requirement for accurate multi-channel sound reproduction is accurate deep bass response. All THX subwoofers are designed to precisely match LCR speakers through the Electronic Crossover in a Home THX Controller or Receiver. THX Subwoofers must have an accurate in-room response down to 20 Hz. Approved systems must be able to play 105 dB sound pressure level or louder without distortion. THX subwoofers come in a variety of configurations and can be use singly or in multiples to match the requirements of even the largest listening room.

I did not see any reference anywhere about

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Terry(or anybody), in regards to listening to bass heavy music (pipe organs etc.)what would be a good music disk to get to try that out.

Teldec has a series of CDs of JS Bach organ music; pretty much any of those will get you that low gut-wrenching bass you're looking for. Teldec is a quality label and the bass comes through very well.

 

[Greg_R]

THX certification = no