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Getting good sound quality below 200Hz

I run open baffles with currently 15" Eminence Alpha bass drivers with their dedicated Rotel amp and crossed over at 200Hz with 24db slope.

This underpins the upper driver beautifully but by contrast if I play it on its own its not at all impressive, lacking primarily in both definition around the sounds and also impact.

My first question "is this typical of what sound is like below 200Hz"

Secondly looking to improve this should I concentrate on improving the 15"drivers or the amp?

 

Please don’t recommend a powered sub as I have one already which will eventually underpin the 15"drivers when I have that bit right.

Thanks

bumpy48
bumpy48 OP
27 posts
 

Yes it means exactly what you said. The midrange is disconnected and the 15" drivers play on their own without changing volume setting. The volume is never excessive.

I have no idea if it sounds natural as I have never experienced music played below 200 Hz - hence the question.

erik_squires
15,643 posts
 

OP:

 

Measurements are your friend here. :)  I encourage you to find a way either via Room EQ Wizard and a calibrated mic or otherwise to see what's going on.

bumpy48 OP
27 posts
 

Good suggestion, but I would still like to know of others listening experiences to just the frequencies below 200 Hz. Surely I'm not the only person to have done this.

 

ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
1,047 posts
 

I'd say that no, this is not necessarily typical of bass below 200 Hz. 

But, I think you might begin to get a more insightful frame of reference here, if you simply, say, try a different set of woofers to experiment with. Eminence woofers are relatively high sensitivity. That makes them good for lower powered amps, but high sensitivity woofers IME tend to not exactly plumb the bass depths and changing those woofers out for something like, say, Acoustic Elegance ob woofers (which are likely a bit more expensive) and you're at a sensitivity of around 90 or 91 dB. It may require a little more power than the Eminence, but you might experience a sizably different character of bass response in the room. One that may begin to show you just what a wide world of bass choices there exists out there to try out and to discover. 

By the time you've taken a crack or two at that, maybe then it may make more sense for you to resort to measuring to further your cause.

In the long run, I suspect ob bass will be better for you to get an overall satifying result than with boxed subs, but with a little more experience down that road, you might discover more reliably than now which you might really prefer, the clean, open ob sound that isn't as fully impactful, or the wallop of a good boxed sub that isn't really as transparent overall. 

Hope this helps.

pedroeb
493 posts
 

Looking at the graph posted on https://eminence.com/products/alpha_15a it seems like it might not be possible.

Graph

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