Wow a revelation.
The order of getting more/better bass
Say you have a nice 2-way speaker system. Maybe you are starting in your hobby, and maybe you have decided the bottom octaves are a place to improve. What next? Here's my perspective as a long term audiophile and DIY speaker builder and tinkerer who has lived with and tried a number of solutions.
To be clear: 2 way speakers are generally lot easier to live with than conventional 3-way speakers. Why? The lack of bass makes them more room friendly and unlikely to cause issues.
So, what should you do? In general, I suggest before moving onto bigger speakers to go through this list:
1 - Get good room treatment, especially bass traps. This doesn't always work, but I have found that often flattening the bass makes smaller speakers sound a lot larger. You may be done here.
2 - Add a subwoofer with great EQ.
And here is where your options kind of explode. The EQ can be before the DAC (miniDSP), built into your pre/integrated (Anthem/Lyngdorf/T+A/etc.) or subwoofer only. Sometimes this is even part of the speaker with Vandersteen and others offering powered subs with built in EQ as part of the speaker.
To me, the difference here is how much control you want over your DAC and the purity of the signal. A sub only EQ is limited in how much it can fix as well as how much it can break.
I want to point out that not all room correction/auto EQ is the same. It is critically important you audition before purchasing, as ultimately the choices made, and target curves, are not at all equivalent.
3 - Add a second (or more) subwoofer
This is of course great if you lack output, but to actually fix issues you have to have a great deal of flexibility in how you place the subs. If your sub is loud and deep, but you have no control over where they go they will not help you compensate for each other.
Properly set up/calibrated a satellite/subwoofer set up is glorious. In 90% of living rooms I'd put a good 2way/sub combo up against almost any large floor stander and beat them. However, honestly, the proper set up part is a lot harder than it sounds.
What are your tips for the starter audiophile who wants to improve the bottom end?
Best,
Erik
To be clear: 2 way speakers are generally lot easier to live with than conventional 3-way speakers. Why? The lack of bass makes them more room friendly and unlikely to cause issues.
So, what should you do? In general, I suggest before moving onto bigger speakers to go through this list:
1 - Get good room treatment, especially bass traps. This doesn't always work, but I have found that often flattening the bass makes smaller speakers sound a lot larger. You may be done here.
2 - Add a subwoofer with great EQ.
And here is where your options kind of explode. The EQ can be before the DAC (miniDSP), built into your pre/integrated (Anthem/Lyngdorf/T+A/etc.) or subwoofer only. Sometimes this is even part of the speaker with Vandersteen and others offering powered subs with built in EQ as part of the speaker.
To me, the difference here is how much control you want over your DAC and the purity of the signal. A sub only EQ is limited in how much it can fix as well as how much it can break.
I want to point out that not all room correction/auto EQ is the same. It is critically important you audition before purchasing, as ultimately the choices made, and target curves, are not at all equivalent.
3 - Add a second (or more) subwoofer
This is of course great if you lack output, but to actually fix issues you have to have a great deal of flexibility in how you place the subs. If your sub is loud and deep, but you have no control over where they go they will not help you compensate for each other.
Properly set up/calibrated a satellite/subwoofer set up is glorious. In 90% of living rooms I'd put a good 2way/sub combo up against almost any large floor stander and beat them. However, honestly, the proper set up part is a lot harder than it sounds.
What are your tips for the starter audiophile who wants to improve the bottom end?
Best,
Erik