Apologies to Norah Jones, I needed more bass!


I've read a lot of positive reviews about Norah Jone's, both in her individual talent and the quality of the recordings.  I've been "meh!" for years.

The last six months I upgraded my main speakers with dual 10" woofers per side and enormous amplifier power and wow, suddenly I really enjoy Norah Jones!! I just didn't have enough bass to do her recordings justice. 

erik_squires

@kevn  - 

You ask some good questions, and sorry if I've gotten prickly of late, have no patience for being policed by readers who are upset every thread on A'gon is not for them, straw-men arguments or having my integrity impugned without merit. 

So, yes, I stand by my original statements: 1) Not every system needs a subwoofer.  2) Treat your room a little first. 

However, I also think I mucked up my last move. Meaning, I think my 2-way speakers sounded a lot better in a previous home than this one.  I did measure and got some useful but not excellent measurements all the way down to 20 Hz.,  Also, my new HT / 2- channel combo was far too complicated so I ended up with the subwoofer on the HT only. 

My experience is that I've heard several systems by audiophiles with subwoofers, without glorious bass.  Some had glorious bass, some had adequate bass, and some had terrible bass.  It's hard work.  

One of the best examples of this is Fritz speakers in a hotel room.  He uses moderate sized 2-way speakers and travels with 6-8 acoustic panels and that's literally all he needs in those rooms. 

Now, let's revisit your question: 

might you now reconsider complementing your listening with a carefully integrated subwoofer set-up? 

In my specific case right now, no. Should you?  Sure, so long as you are prepared to do the work. 

Now, why not for me?  Because I went from a 2-way, passive design with 1x 6.5" woofers to 3-way active system with dual 10" woofers.  So, one way to look at this is that I added 4x 10" subwoofers with a high crossover point (250Hz), 2x 250W amps and DSP capabilities.  Dual 10" woofers have nearly the same surface area as a 14" or 15" per side. 

Sitting to the side I have a Hsu Subwoofer with an actual 15" subwoofer.  My HT receiver is configured ot  use it for low frequency effects (LFE) and the bass for the center and surround channels.  If I tried now to "add" bass by setting a high pass filter and routing bass to the sub I'd actually be diluting the bass capabilities. 

 

 

while I am a fan of her, I think her greatest performance was speaking dirty to a Teddy Bear reminiscing about having sex with the bear. And the back story for it must have been Seth MacFarlane always wanted Jones to speak dirty to him.

Alas! i am discarded, and did not mind about Norah Jones , now i know why, my subwoofer is 8 inches...

smiley

But wait a minute, i recognized she sing  well listening to her for the first time , (i never listened anyway to most female or male  pop of folk singer even the very good one ) with my 8 inches woofer...

I think i could recognise his gift with only my 4 inches Edifier  speakers without their  sub... Am i normal ? 

( i apologise to the OP for my irony ) 

I appreciate all OP thread even this one by the way ...smiley

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the Peter Malick/Norah Jones albums.  I hadn’t heard them prior and they are very nice!  Norah does a great job with her blues vocals and Peter adds excellent feeling and tone with his guitar work.  

To clarify, the title of my thread was that I needed more bass, not bigger speakers! :) 

In prior rooms I would have liked Norah Jones a lot more with the smaller speakers.  So, no I'm not suggesting at all you can't really appreciate Norah Jones or any other artist unless your woofers are at least X inches in diameter.  I'm saying bass matters in a lot of music you wouldn't think it does.