Bass sensation like a loud car system in home?

All of what you are saying about requirements for large rooms is why I thought it made the most sense to just have a sub right next to the main listening position.  FWIW the main genres I listen to are hip hop and EDM which are mostly sine wave based bottom end genres.  Just would like to feel the bass in my body without rattling things all over my house.  I’ve had the pleasure of chasing down rattles in a couple of cars and really have no desire to open floors and walls to add dampening material anytime soon.

OP chose the wrong forum for this query. 

Uh oh. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UU19UE4IOWg

@myjostin

Yep multiples of 10” are the quickest bass that can be had from a standard driver, but with servo control you can go larger.


To the quibblers here, I dare you to reproduce this song as it was performed at the 2002, I think, Bastille day celebration in Boston. Their entire stage sat on banks of 12” woofs, and it rattled the glass up and down the street, crossing into the subsonic. Music since the Synth is not your mommies orchestra.
https://youtu.be/Lux9J5ckKFw

OP:  Have you seen the movie "Howard Stern Private Parts"?  If you haven't, do so and find the scene where they have the giant sub in the studio.   That's what you need to do .

I don't think it is that giant. I distinctly remember hearing him say one time when he was excited, it is a full three inches.

@mijostyn --

You do not need to resort to huge drivers to get the best bass. They take up way too much room when you factor in the enclosures they require.
Today’s subwoofers are way more powerful than drivers of old. Their Xmax is much higher, up to 2 inches is not uncommon. The old drivers you were lucky to get 1/4 inch out of them. The larger drivers also tend not to move straight in and out. They wobble! I have seen it with high speed photography. In a 16 X 30 foot room four 12" drivers in corners and along the front wall (were they are most efficient) will do fine given enough power and a little EQ. Eight 12" drivers would be definite overkill.

More displacement area means less cone movement needed for the same SPL, which again is less distortion and cleaner sound. Indeed: smaller cones moving more violently to equate the SPL of larger cones moving less, sound different; you sense their effort producing bass (a bi-product of any direct radiating bass system, really, compared to horn-loaded bass) even though they mayn’t be working close to their limits. Inertia build-up in the moving parts of a driver, inevitable with prodigious excursion, IS audible - negatively, that is, as a smearing of transient ability. Ample displacement, not least combined with high efficiency and horn-loading simply creates a more effortless, smooth and relaxed bass by comparison. The cones of the 15" pro drivers (B&C) in my tapped horn subs move a few mm’s at most when making the air viscerally shake in the whole listening room (and beyond), at dB’s that’re downright scary. No wobbling of cones, I can assure you, and totally effortless at these levels.

Btw, there’s no "overkill" with bass; only an approximation of sufficient headroom ;)

The one concept I really dislike is the one that requires different bass for different functions like theater vs 2 channel. My 2 channel system doubles for theater and I do not make any adjustments between these functions. Last week I almost scared the projector tech to death with Star Wars then next I put on Dave Holland. No adjustments. Accurate bass is accurate bass regardless of what you are listening to. Maybe people like juicing the low end for theater because they think it’s cool like oversaturating the colors. Definitely, there are way more theater people than us audiophiles and you always want to buy equipment that was designed especially for your purpose which is marketing garbage. A good is a good amp regardless. Accuracy is exactly the same for theater and 2 channel. Maybe some of us audiophiles are thinking we don’t have to go down that low. You don’t have to do anything but in regards to the performance it is a vital part of projecting realism and making you think you are really in a much larger room. Many systems start dying at 100 Hz. The specs might say 28 Hz to 20 kHz but that is at one meter in an anechoic chamber not three meters in a 15 X 25 foot room. Just get a measurement microphone. Actually, don’t do that. It can be very depressing. Sh-t! I was listening to that??

Wholeheartedly agree here. What I’ve realized is that less clean bass means that you have to "negatively compensate" with less level for it not to be too conspicuous, and this really robs music (and movies) of a foundation that it should ideally have. That’s why, I gather, many feel the need to "juice up" the levels again with movies, because otherwise they don’t have proper impact and energy. With my former sub set-up that’s exactly what it lead to (re: negative compensation with music), whereas now the gain of my tapped horn subs sits at the same value, where it should, with both music and movies.

Regarding proper extension, this is where displacement and efficiency (and, ultimately, size) really matters, because hearing acuity lessens with lower frequencies, and so your sub setup needn’t only be linear down low but with progressing amplitude the lower the frequency. That’s why, with bass, headroom is so important, and for that "overkill" makes all the more sense.

Bass sensation like a loud car system in home?

Two speaker that do good one note bass with no extension, instantly come to mind, Bose 901 and old Klipsch.

Cheers George

REL subs. Two columns of S/510 3 subs in each column, one left one right. 

If you have room to fit  Energy ES-18XL , it will blow you away.

I use a second electronics system, amp and pre-amp, to drive my excellent mains and  quality subs. Since both sets are driven by thr same models of amps and pre-amps, and since I measured and time aligned all of my speakers, it works great. an added benefit is complete control of how much bass is either added, either to somewhat suppeiment my mains, or really rock out.  On really good recordings, the volume controls are set the same.    .   

Why would you ever want that? When I think of car audio, I think of the ghetto blasters that are played so loud that the sound of the plastic car body sounding like it’s gonna vibrate clear off the car frame is louder than the music itself. 

Why would you ever want that? When I think of car audio, I think of the ghetto blasters that are played so loud that the sound of the plastic car body sounding like it’s gonna vibrate clear off the car frame is louder than the music itself.

If you've ever actually spent time in a car with a proper system and adequate dampening materials installed you hear no rattles or buzzing inside.  It's similar to having a massage chair when it's bumping loudly.  But you're right about "ghetto blasters" being what I'm referring too.  I have a high end high powered sub sitting in my garage that I thought I could use for this.

You guys who don't listen to the type of music that is built around slamming bass will never comprehend why anyone would want this.  It'd be stupid to build that style of system to listen to symphonies and jazz.  You don't need a bass volume knob for that type of listening :P

Sounds like you're a candidate for a Woojer!
The wearable subwoofer.
Hey, it's a hobby! Have fun your own way...
Peace.

https://www.woojer.com/products/vest-edge%E2%84%A2?currency=USD&variant=36151926685859&utm_m...

Auto bass in the home.....🤪

What's not to like?!
Crack that sheetrock, all the seams rippling like the pond subjected to a stream of rocks.....Big Rocks (not yours, sorry....*L*)
Renovating in mind?  Get that old lath cleared of horsehair plaster bits.....
(Your woofs will get dusty....wear a mask, which ought to be part of your 'lifestyle' anyway....unless you're interested in creating a vacancy by one means or another....)

"Let's evolve CV-19, v.G!"

no

The potential nice effect of major home subs that mimic car rattling ones' is that your bowels Will Move....so be aware....*LOL*

Topic is closed.  This discussion has devolved into s-posting and is not helpful.

My only question would be, why?
Unless I am watching a battle scene from Avatar or Midway, the last thing I want is bass that is disproportional to the way it was recorded.    

the last thing I want is bass that is disproportional to the way it was recorded

The type of music that you want this bass for is produced, mixed and mastered with slamming bass setups in the studios.  Purpose built studios have the benefit of being able to float all of the floors to decrease carryover but you still can feel the bass through most of the building while a session is really pumping.  Obviously this is the absolute wrong forum to even have asked this question on.  Lets let it die now.

@tony1954 -

My only question would be, why?
Unless I am watching a battle scene from Avatar or Midway, the last thing I want is bass that is disproportional to the way it was recorded.

I believe I understand what the OP is after, that "inside your head" kind of bass that’s produced in a car, and I find it is most closely reproduced with a mono-coupled DBA sub set-up in your home. I like it for what it is, many aspects actually, but ultimately I find the "outside your head" bass that’s created with stereo-coupled, symmetrically placed subs - usually a pair only placed fairly close to the main speakers - to be the more natural sounding. The real culprit it seems isn’t as much whether there’s stereo information in the bass below 80-100Hz, but that what’s effectively a pair of subs are placed symmetrically to the mains - i.e.: with equal distance to your ears - and that may put even a symmetrically placed DBA subs setup in a disadvantage. Some may want to convince (that is, ’correct’) us timing in bass doesn’t matter, but it absolutely does to those sensitive to it for whatever reason. In any case, that’s not what the OP is asking for, so: mono-coupled DBA from my chair.

The thing about "bass that is disproportional to the way it was recorded" is a bit tricky, if not easily misleading. If anything I’d say most hifi setups fall short of reproducing bass proportionately (i.e.: with proper energy and immersion), and moreover an addition in capacity doesn’t dictate for it to be dialed in overly "hot." That said cleaner and more effortless bass can (and usually should) be dialed hotter to recapture and natural balance and foundation in music (and movies) that a less capable bass system can’t approach without making itself too "visible" in the mix.

Get a rotary subwoofer and use it conjunction with a regular subwoofer

The question was simply whether having a powerful sub right next to your seating position will provide a similar effect to sitting in a powerful “ghetto blaster” car systems drivers seat at a more sensible volume then as loud as is comfortable.

This is for electronic and hip hop genres that are designed to be played back on systems with slamming subs.  Great info about subs has been shared but its mostly not relevant to the question.

Go see Yngwie Malmsteen, then ask his crew what they do . Big wall of amps , and what feel like Butt Kickers . Also saw a Sarah McLachlan concert that had significant bass . I think they just had huge sub array across the front below the stage and digital correction . Better start with some big dedicated circuits . Woo Hoo my uvula is jiggling . Regards , Mike .

Hi Yukispier,

I understand you and your question is valid. It’s quite possible to get astounding bass in your home that will surprise you. The devialet Expert Pro 220 with SAM engaged at 100% and DPM on, will produce massive bass response using the right speakers without a sub. Many full-range speakers are capable of prodigious bass, with the right source. In my opinion for bass, vinyl can produce massive and highly resolved bass. As the marvelous and gifted designer Bob Carver demonstrated so many years ago with his sound spectrometer - whatever its called - the waveform of analogue vinyl is different than digital CD or for that matter streaming. The analogue waveform is significantly wider and spread over time than the digital signal. One can hear it listening to a great vinyl system; that big, dense, tonally rich dynamic sound created so easily by vinyl is quite different that the digital we are used to hearing. I remember walking into discos in the late 70s and 80s where the vinyl front end was driving powerful class ab solid state amps driving a number of horn compression driver speakers and bass cabs. That sound would pulse right through you. Fantastic.

you can get an idea of this sound by listening to say house or disco music sets recorded from vinyl decks. Weird. Even though its been digitized, that waveform still comes through and one can hear the analogue vinyl signature.

but for all that, digital and vinyl alike, try a system like Devialet’s Expert Pro with their Digital Power Management (DPM) and Speaker Active Management (SAM) engaged. Even with a sealed box design like Magico S3, the mid bass bloom and richness and massive room-filling bass will be mesmerising.

Make room for a cerwin vega earthquake box. 
They will rattle windows n everything else.

@phusis , I would feel free in saying the vast majority of us do not have the room for subwoofer horns. In my case it would not work anyway. I have to form a line source with them which means 4 or more drivers in most situations. If you put the subs in corners and in a wall floor intersection you do increase their efficiency requiring about 1/4th the power to get the same volume. In this case as a line source 4 12" drivers can do a lot of damage in your typical room. My own system will shortly have 8 12" drivers in 4 sealed cylindrical balanced force enclosures.

@mijostyn --

I would feel free in saying the vast majority of us do not have the room for subwoofer horns.

Maybe so. And yet; if you have the allocated space anyway it seems to me the sheer will to do it is the predominant factor, unless the horn cabinet volume itself turns out to be acoustically obstructive, something I haven't faced even when they've taken up a combined 100 cf. in moderate spacings. 

They are bandwidth restricted in their upper range, certainly tapped horns like mine, so you have to know what you're dealing with in how to best suit your specific needs. I take it you're fully aware of that.

... In my case it would not work anyway. I have to form a line source with them which means 4 or more drivers in most situations. If you put the subs in corners and in a wall floor intersection you do increase their efficiency requiring about 1/4th the power to get the same volume. In this case as a line source 4 12" drivers can do a lot of damage in your typical room. My own system will shortly have 8 12" drivers in 4 sealed cylindrical balanced force enclosures.

I've wondered myself why your setup didn't comprise line source bass towers when your main speakers are configured this way, but that seems to be underway now. It should make for an interesting, dare I say significant upgrade even. Please keep us informed. 

For subsonic measure in Richter scale.  Sub-sub system flat to 4 Hz. Therefore dba meter pegged and not useful.  Car audio limited vs larger room volumes.

Most all these answers will never give you what you want. You just need one subwoofer from Stereo Integrity and it is 24 inches in diameter and will handle 5000 W and has an 85 pound magnet on it and it will move 5 inches peak to peak travel and has audiophile quality sound.  It will change your whole reference for what subwoofers can do . Believe me you need to FEEL the bass.

@phusis , You could do two floor to ceiling towers in the corners with four 12 subs in each tower and get decent results and here is why I do not do it that way. It is virtually impossible to control resonances and vibration in an enclosure that big. The problem with most subwoofers is they are not just speakers. They are musical instruments. Enclosure design is not so simple. Any vibration or shaking of the enclosure is distortion. Keeping the enclosure from becoming a musical instrument requires a very heavy stiff walled enclosure. The Stiffest enclosure would be a sphere. Spheres are unfortunately hard to make and work with. Next in line is a cylinder. Put a driver in each end of the cylinder and you cancel forces that want to shake the enclosure. A heavy cylinder with 1.5" walls will not resonate. No resonating and no shaking. Perfect. Place four of these units along the front and in the corners and you have an extremely low distortion horizontal line source. If you recall. line sources do not radiate sound off the ends, in my case the sides! The subwoofer line source system has only one early reflection, the ceiling. My listening room is open to the kitchen and then the dining room. The nearest full wall is 75 feet away. I still have some nodal behavior in the room but it is greatly diminished. It sounds like you are in a much larger room. 

Getting a horn to do 18 Hz requires an extremely big horn. I know of one fellow who casted bass horns in his house's foundation. The drivers were in the basement. The horns curved outwards and upwards opening up at the bottom of the front wall making a "U" turn. I only saw pictures. This was before DSP. Those drivers had to 15 feet behind the rest on the system. That is a huge delay. I have screwed around with delays just to see what I could detect audibly. 1.5 ms is clearly audible in the midrange.
If your subs crossed over like mine at 120 Hz 1.5ms would also be clearly audible. Much lower and you would be able it pick it out in an A/B comparison. It gets more difficult as you go lower. It becomes not what you hear but what you feel. 

Let me put it this way: with my new (last couple of weeks) sub placement, I am now getting bass so powerful that I can’t imagine something similar in a car. It would be far too distracting and therefore dangerous. 

I listen to almost all genres of music. Some of them require some thud to the bass, even classical. It’s nice to FEEL the cellos and double bass at the end the adagio to Mahler’s 5th under Karajan’s wand. 

The one genre I almost never listen to is rap: with the exception of a handful of artists such as Notorious BIG and going back to Grandmaster Flash, I find it to be too misogynistic and with a range of emotion that rarely ventures beyond vicious anger and violence.

@yukispier
Have you tried cranking up the volume then listen from outside (exterior windows and doors closed) ? It may not be as loud as you think

Maybe you can borrow or get a returnable sub to evaluate the exterior sound leakage.

Tolerance of other home noise is dependent on the neighborhood. I have neighbors who occasionally have parties and “occasionally” jack up the music at “reasonable” (non sleeping) hours which I don’t mind because sometimes people just need to cut loose (destress) usually on weekends. So chances are it’s ok to jack up music occasionally during reasonable hours.

Or you can play better music that your neighbors enjoy :)

I'll stand by my initial post, rude as it may be considered.
I've heard wayyy too many auto 'bassers' loosening the bolts in their cars with just floppy butt bass...therefore, the 'bowels' inference....🤨

An approach could be multiple large drivers for the audio/tactile point, transferring to tactile drivers in the seating. (Drivers first, bolt seating Down second....)

Complex?  Perhaps....how far you want to go with your concept and desire?  Likely the answer could get complex and expensive depending on the results desired....

I like big bass too....relative to the genre', of course....;)

Good luck, J

You can build a room within a room to not disturb your neighbors. 

https://youtu.be/GFXfAux7wYA

Just for bass the Devialet Phantom Gold are very impressive  but costs around $5k. That includes a few thousand watts of amplification. 

@yukispier, I have experienced this type of bass in an upstairs room using four far field subs and one near field sub. The subs were JL audio, two with dual drivers and three with single drivers. The speakers were the large Klipsch Palladiums. The volumes this person played were extreme and probably damaging to his hearing. I actually feared he was damaging his house.     

I can experience this type of bass in my upstairs system using Innersound Eros speakers and an Earthquake MKV-15 subwoofer. 

The construction of the room is a very important factor. What works on wood floors is not as effective on a concrete slab. On concrete tactile transducers may be the answer you are looking for.    

The best tactical experience I have felt and highly recommend is found on another forum. Google, The Hideaway Theater. Some people have taken this concept to the extreme; there is a tactile bass thread on the same forum. You do not need to go that far. It is not difficult to build, it is customized for your space, and is not very expensive. This concept allows me to experience tactile bass without the usual extremely high SPLs required to produce it. I use a Mini-DSP so I can equalize the bass curve, timing, and volume to My satisfaction. I can also turn it off with the flip of a switch.  

In conjunction with the BOSS platform, I use two large sealed subwoofers, one in the front left corner and one in the rear right corner. I balance the sound of the subs with the effect of the platform so vibrations and sub volume are well matched. My primary use is movies but some use it for music as well. Now that I have experienced it, I would not want to live without it.     

The relatively small enclosure space of a car is a big part of it but so is the nearfield aspect.  You can sit a lot closer to most speakers than people think.  I've used floorstanders on each side of my desk in a bunch of situations and it's very satisfying.  There's a punch and liveliness that dissipates with distance.  I think every audio enthusiast should experiment with listening to speakers that are only a couple of feet away.  You might be surprised by how much you like it.