Why not the piano as a reference for bass
I see a lot of commentary/reviews on a systems bass response that all seem to hinge on the 41 hz double bass and such range. At 27.5 the A0 note on a piano seems a better point to judge. Lots of piano in normal music vs say an organ note. I know when I feel that deep chord played it is one of things I enjoy about listening the most! Was listening to Wish you were here live and the piano was sublime.
So is it more of how much musical energy is perceived in the 40 hz range or what that makes this more of a reproduction benchmark?
I welcome your input!
New Joe Bonamassa out BTW!
You are mistaken. The piano is classified as 314.122, considered a "cordophone" because they "produce their sounds by means of the vibration of a string or strings that are stretched between fixed points." More info here. Percussion instruments are classified idiophones. |
I was once tasked with designing a speaker system for amplifying electric piano. So I had to figure out how low in frequency the speaker system needed to go. Well it turns out that the fundamental of the 27.5 Hz low-A is down in level so much that it is of negligible audible significance. And, likewise its first overtone at 55 Hz! In fact a piano's lowest audibly significant frequency is the 62 Hz first overtone of low-B. So that was my target, and the customer liked the cab enough that he ordered a second one. Anyway, my point is, while piano DOES have very low frequency fundamentals, the energy of those fundamentals (and in some cases even their first overtone) is so low in level that, imo, piano is not really a suitable instrument for evaluating a speaker's bass response. Duke
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Yep, that bass is a plucked double bass but on the released track it was 'doubled' by a bass electric guitar, according to the clip. My point was that there is much more you can do with a double bass than just pluck it. With classical music you can go to concerts which are not subject to electronic manipulation so there is a real reference for judging reproduced sound quality. A bowed double bass will make all your drivers work hard, including the tweeters! |
One of the interesting things about the piano is that the pianist’s ’touch’ does not alter the harmonics present in the note being struck. The best example I can give of this is the astonishing recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto released in multiple surround sound formats by the Norwegian label 2L.no - see GRIEG Piano Concerto - Percy Grainger, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, R – 2L Music Store Originally recorded on piano rolls in 1921, the new recording has a full symphony orchestra and a modern Steinway piano, played mechanically! This is one of those unusual recordings where both the performance and the sound quality are superb. Percy Grainger was a very interesting character, being Australian, a pianist, a composer, an athlete and a sadomasochist. His ideal instruments would have been synthesizers, but they were yet to be invented. I can’t let this go without mentioning the Australian designed and built Stuart and Sons’ Concert Grand Pianos, some of which extend the ’standard’ 88 note keyboard to 108 keys with the lowest note a subsonic 16-Hz |
