I think it is important to draw a distinction between three different categories of people who "decry their system's lack of bass," and to resist the temptation to lump them together.
One would be the kind of person who has a high quality system, who typically listens to high quality recordings, and who might be an Audiogon member. In that case, typically the complaint is well justified -- having a system that can reproduce deep bass accurately, especially at high volume levels (when called for by the recording) usually comes at a considerable cost, in terms of money, size, practicality, saf (spouse acceptance factor), and sometimes accuracy in other parts of the spectrum.
A second category would be home theatre enthusiasts, who want to duplicate movie sound effects as closely as possible to what they hear in a movie theatre.
The third (and I think the most common) category would be those who listen to music on low-fi or mid-fi systems, or in automobiles with absurd subwoofer arrangements. In my experience and that of several friends who have very high quality audio systems, that type of person, upon hearing a high quality system that can cleanly reproduce bass which is both deeper and louder than anything they have ever previously heard, will invariably immediately ask "where's the bass?"
The reason being, of course, that what they are accustomed to hearing is over-emphasized mid-bass (with non-existent deep bass, or deep bass with very highly levels of harmonic distortion), and their knowledge of the sound of live music, especially unamplified music, is limited or non-existent.
Regards,
-- Al
One would be the kind of person who has a high quality system, who typically listens to high quality recordings, and who might be an Audiogon member. In that case, typically the complaint is well justified -- having a system that can reproduce deep bass accurately, especially at high volume levels (when called for by the recording) usually comes at a considerable cost, in terms of money, size, practicality, saf (spouse acceptance factor), and sometimes accuracy in other parts of the spectrum.
A second category would be home theatre enthusiasts, who want to duplicate movie sound effects as closely as possible to what they hear in a movie theatre.
The third (and I think the most common) category would be those who listen to music on low-fi or mid-fi systems, or in automobiles with absurd subwoofer arrangements. In my experience and that of several friends who have very high quality audio systems, that type of person, upon hearing a high quality system that can cleanly reproduce bass which is both deeper and louder than anything they have ever previously heard, will invariably immediately ask "where's the bass?"
The reason being, of course, that what they are accustomed to hearing is over-emphasized mid-bass (with non-existent deep bass, or deep bass with very highly levels of harmonic distortion), and their knowledge of the sound of live music, especially unamplified music, is limited or non-existent.
Regards,
-- Al