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Audiophile Bass?

I was reading an article about spikes vs. rubber feet and the author mentioned what he called "audiophile bass". His assertion was that the bass that audiophiles pursue is not real life bass. One comment from the article (paraphrasing) states that when you listen to bass at a live performance it will not be the tight, clean bass that you will hear from most audiophile's systems when they are playing music. The discussion in the article was that in order to get audiophile bass you would need spikes to reduce the transfer into the floor (because of the very small contact points). The rubber feet will cause the bass to be less clean and tight. I tried this on my system and he was right, with the rubber feet the bass was definitely boomier. But I do prefer the spikes. I like to here the notes on a bass guitar, it's not enough that it is just bass. Have any of you had similar experiences?
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Showing 1 response by oregonpapa

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oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
^^^ Bass should have a tonal accuracy to it. My system produces it. There are three 10" woofers on each side of the speakers, one front-firing, one rear-firing, and one down-firing. I had a devil of a time getting the room dialed in, in order to get that accurate bass sound.

An acoustic, stand-up bass, should sound like an acoustic stand-up bass. Same with orchestral kettle drums, bass drums, and Koto drums. After all, bass is music, right?

On HT ... I'm not into that, but I have heard fantastic HT systems set up properly with amazingly accurate bass. Cannon shots, explosions, helicopters flying overhead, etc., sound exactly as they should.  It is a totally immersive experience for sure.

If a person is talking about bass "slam," in my opinion, they are on the wrong track.

Frank
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