frequency range for instrument vs speaker


http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

After seeing this link in another thread, I wonder about this. Let say that you don't listen to any classical instrument/music, normal rock and pop with no heavy synthetizer, just drum, guitar, etc, it seems that there isn't really any need for speakers that go much below 40Hz, considering that the lowest instrument, the kick drum (I assume it is the same thing as bass drum?) only go down to 50Hz.
Certainly listening to this type of music via speaker that go down flat to 40Hz vs 20Hz, bottom end is certainly quite different but I am not sure what is it that I hear in the subbass area (according to the chart) that is not suppose to be there, at least according to the instrument's frequency? Does drum give out something lower than its fundamental?
suteetat

Showing 1 response by kiwi2

For me, having a flat response down to at least 30hz is also for hearing the space the music was recorded in. I like listening to a lot of live recorded jazz tracks and such and find the low bass replays the resonance of the particular room of the performance. i.e, one live jazz album I have sounds as if it was played in a venue in a high rise building on a windy day. There is just that low frequency resonance that you get in such a building. Or I was once listening to a track of a choir in an old large church and there must of been a truck passing the road outside the church. It had that unique sound of outside traffic noise passing through the thick stone walls of an old church.

Maybe some people think such sounds will subtract from the music... but to me it adds to the sense of 'being there'. And individual tracks have their unique character that regard.