"Hook up a spectrum analyzer."
Good idea!
I had one (Audio Control I think?) years ago. The spectrum analyzer was a display mode on the equalizer as I recall. It is quite educational to see what is really in the sounds you hear frequency-wise, both coming over the wire and as detected in room using a microphone! |
Because part of the music occurs there normally with a good recording or live and this is the " high end" audio site where everything that you can or should be able to hear matters.
Having said that, it does not in practice really matter to many.
I could live without it if I had to but prefer to not.
Elizabeth is probably on to something with the "guy thing" assessment. |
Often one will chose to not worry about it initially then tackle it later once all the rest sounds right.
True that most can detect the lowest normally audible frequencies but not the highest as ears age. |
"Sit mid hall or balcony and you won't experience the visceral impact of low bass."
Often but not always true.
Sitting at Dress Circle balcony level in Carnegie Hall, I felt the visceral impact of the tympanis when struck to the greatest degree I recall at recent live concert events.
If I go back there or elsewhere and do not hear and feel it, I will now know for sure I am missing something.
BTW, this is a good thread! |
"When you hear the rumble, T-Rex may be near, and that is exciting, know?"
Or if not, maybe just Tweety bird..... |
"Electronica artists have the freedom to create music without the limitations of traditional instruments. They can be creative in any octave they want and I don't want to miss out."
Very good point!
Those that shun anything electronically produced will likely be less affected by missing the lowest octave.
Those that care about sound quality and listen to electronically produced music will care more if it is not there. |
"some like low bass and others do not"
I'll go out on a limb and propose that many that like good sound and do not like low bass need to hear it done well and not like it is done most of the time. |
"My idea of really bad low frequency is driving, then hearing some morons' thumping crap subs from five cars away at a stoplight, and being stuck till' the light turns green. "
Yes, I agree. That IS the worst!!!!
Some of the things I have heard in Best Buy and other stores that target the masses are close behind.
I used to sell car stereos at Radio Shack years ago. I am proud to say I managed to always resist the urge to sell car stereos and make commissions by cranking up distorted bass. I did OK though despite by just trying to keep focused on quality, not quantity. |
"removal of the lowest source frequencies (requiring the greatest energy) from an upper bass driver and the main amplifier"
That is usually a good thing and common with a good sub setup.
Also true with good full range one box designs that are not undersized and do not ask small or lesser bass drivers to do too much alone.
I am of the opionion that a well executed Walsh bass driver like those found in modern OHM Walsh line speakers, is an inherently optimal approach for delivering balanced coherent, and extended bass from a single driver. |
From Wikipedia:
"A distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation."
So if it is in the source but not heard, it is an alteration and can be considered a form (by omission) of distortion.
How acceptable is it in those terms now, audiophiles?
This is truly how I look at it personally and why I find I cannot be satisfied fully (despite being satisfied greatly still though in practice ) by even excellent smaller speakers otherwise that punt by design and chose to omit the lowest octaves in order to achieve greatness. |
"Imagine the impact of the tympani had you been sitting closer."
I can only imagine, but I would propose that it is possible the impact could be less sitting closer if sitting on a more rigid floor or foundation. Its possible that being higher up and further away yet in an elevated balcony transmitted some of that bass energy through the structure, ie "the place was literally rocking" maybe.
Also, the balcony was elevated with the tympani in direct line of sight so I suspect it took a direct hit from the soundwaves, whereas the floor is closer but below the stage, so the sound waves transmitted might be lesser as well.
YEs, Tvad, we audio kooks are an anal bunch indeed....
I will never forget the visceral sound of that particualr tympani in that particular setting though. It was almost an "out of body" experience that seemed to defy physics. I was left disoriented for a moment and trying to figure out how what I just heard actually happened?
ISn't that the kind of thrills we misguided audio head cases seek,afterall? |
BTW, despite all appearances otherwise, let me make it clear that I am NOT obsessed with the lower octave.
I prefer to call it "enamored"........ |
|
"How else to listen to your Yello collection?"
Oh Yeah!! |
I cared more about a clear high end when I started and when I was younger with younger ears.
My first good speakers used Heil Air Motion Transformers to that end for better or for worse.
I realized the importance of a quality and complete low end to me as well only within say the last 5-10 years or so. |
The reason most hifi home audio gear has almost always been spec'ed from 20hz-20000khz is because that covers the useful range in the audio spectrum that people can generally hear.
Individual hearing ability varies though. Many cannot hear this full range and some may be able to hear even more, but these are fairly rare and extreme outlier cases.
Many recordings have little or no content towards the extremes. Some good ones do though.
Put the common limits of human ears and the recordings played together and the cases where a low end of consequence exists, can be heard and the listener actually cares are relatively few.
If you care, in general you will pay a premium of some sort generally to enable it in a home system in a quality manner that does not negatively impact all the other good stuff. |
It took me years to achieve it, but now my best recipe or great bass for reasonable cost are newer OHM series 3 or X000 series Walsh speakers driven by a good 500w/ch Icepower AMP. MIT networked ICs seem to work well in this combo.
Set this up well and use decent gear around it and you have some mighty tasty and hard to fault bass that hangs with the best.
And the rest is right up there as well. |
Dan,
Yes, the resolution of the analyzer I used was limited, but you still got a decent picture of how the music was distributed across the audible frequency spectrum, so that was educational albeit an approximation that does not relate all the details
I'm sure there are some good analyzers out there these days if one is interested, maybe more on the professional gear side. |
I have OHM 5 series 3 near full range floorstanders that do well down into the 20-30hz range and Dynaudio Contour 1.3mkII monitors that I would estimate do well into the 40-50 hz range on the same system.
That extra low end makes a big difference on most everything play!
I had the monitors first to see if I really needed the low end I knew was not there. I do to be totally satisified, though the Dyns do a ver satisfying job with the low end UNTIL you compare with the others that plunge the depths way better by design. |
Good point that even instruments do not have a single sound. It is a function of the environment played in (ie the venue) and the sensors used to detect the sound (ie your ears, microphones, etc) that create the variations.
Facts like these are the reason why while can appreciate the value of a good venue, I always have to chuckle when it is suggested the room you listen in has to be effectively neutralized completely to get the correct sound.
The fact is the room in which the music is recorded and the room in which the music is played are both factors in the resulting sound in a home system, as much so and often even more so than the system played on.
Practically, the goal should be to optimize the resulting sound to sound good to you, not to achieve some perceived standard of perfection that does not even exist and cannot practically be achieved at any cost.
That thinking is good for the vendor though! It keeps everybody chasing the carrot and draining their funds indefinitely to achieve an impossible goal. |
