We've done quite a lot of research in psycho acoustic response of the human ear. We did this in particular for our PARC device and BARE software (and thus focused on the bass frequencies), so I was hoping we could shed some light on the subject. However, Ezmeralda has already summed it up very nicely. Good post.
Someone explain human hearing of subbass......
I remember my old Pioneer receiver having a "loudness" switch, which basically emphasized the lowest frequencies when playing at low volumes. Is our hearing not as sensitive to subbass frequencies at low volume? If so, how do you equalize this? High end preamps have no equalizer, does this mean you necessarily will not get decent bass at low volume levels?