Do most people prefer tight bass or non tight bass?


Today I compared a McIntosh 462 to a Moon audio 761 amp. Both sounded really good. I noticed the bass was tight on the Moon Audio 761 while it was not tight on the McIntosh 462. Both on Dynaudio towers (do not know the model but they go for about 14k).

It is hard for me to know which type of bass I would like better in the long run. The tight bass sounded awesome and the non tight bass sounded more fuller.  Curious, do most people prefer the tight bass or the non tight bass?

dman777

Showing 1 response by knotscott

It’s a matter of preference, room response, system character, and the bass in the recording.  Ideally, it’s good for the system to reveal differences between recordings as opposed to having a constant bass characteristic/coloration, but nothing is perfect and many things can affect what’s heard.  

My smallish Dynaco 70 tube amps tend to have a softer bass bloom rather than an impactful tight slam and extension, but it was often on the pleasant side, depending on the recording.  Adding the VTA mods helped, but the best solution I’ve achieved for good bass with my room and system is to bi-amp with a solid state amp to the woofers for low bass (below ~65hz), and tubes from the lower mids (lowest vocal range) and up.  Best of both worlds.