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Bass rant

Does anyone else surmise that the minions weaned on exaggerated THX sound in sticky floored cineplex's, sold on window-shaking subwoofers in their motor vehicles, and subjected to hearing loss in loud stadium concerts - might have trouble understanding what constitutes an accurate bass guitar tone/timbre/volume? I read post after post on this and other forums of those decrying their systems lack of bass. While I grew up listening to a lot of live music in nightclubs and stadiums from Bobby Short at The Carlyle, to Yo Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble, to John Fogerty at The Greek Theater, I believe I can differentiate the realism of an upright bass and one unnaturally amped (acoustic or electric), and yet I cannot understand all the bleeding over of the home theater systems exaggerated bass sound into many dedicated audiophile sound systems. Please educate me.
byegolly
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
I like bass in Movies, I love the impact. I agree with Elizabeth on theaters though. I hate the way they have the sound configured, sometimes it literally hurts my ears, that's why I like home theater better than movie theater many times.

That said, when I watch a movie, I do have the LFE turned up on the soundtrack. "BOOOOM"!! cool.

On music, I like it to integrate better. I have a Rel B-1 and the volume on the high level (music) connects is only turned up to 4(out of about 25-30) and it's crossed over at 39. Still adds bottom end, but not realistic.

If I use the AppleTV through the reciever (turning off the preamp and using the HT Passthrough) it sound really bloated and kind of slow.
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
sorry, I meant "but realistic"
macrojack
1,303 posts
 
It speaks to our modern business plan. Nobody is trying to make a better mousetrap. The focus is on making a better selling mousetrap. The American consumer has conditioned American manufacturers to believe that they needn't make it better --- all they have to do is convince us that they made it better.

And among our population there is little ability to evaluate quality. Our mentality is first and foremost quantitative. A woofer is better than no woofer and a cheaper woofer is better than an expensive one. You can get twenty cheap ones for what a good one will set you back.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
I'd love to have a separate HT room.
Failing that, my good 2.1 setup does double duty.
I don't mess with any settings. When listening to music, either XM or CD, there is a wide variation in bass quality and quantity.
How loud I listen also makes a difference. Louder is usually better and when cranked up and I go to another room, it sounds like a band is in-house.

If I started changing settings....depending....I'm sure I'd drive myself nuts.
I keep my x-over to about 40hz for my panels. I went thru a couple weeks of listen/change until I settled on the current settings.

Want to read some weird stuff about bass? Go to the Car Audio sites! That'll knock your socks off.
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