"Slam"--what is it, is it really accurate?


I put this question under speakers because I assume "slam" is mostly a function of the speakers, but perhaps a certain level of amplification is required. The only places I have experienced slam is listening to certain demos at audio shops, and some live music. Most speaker demos I have heard over the years did not produce slam.

So, what mostly accounts for a system producing that "slam" you can feel in your chest? Is it that certain speakers are "voiced" with a mid-bass hump that causes it? Do they EQ the signal to produce it? Do they employ super powerful amps?

Secondly, how accurate is slam? How much of a goal in speaker selection should the ability to produce slam be?

The reason for the questions is that I am getting close to being in the market for new main speakers. My current amp is a McCormack DNA 1, BTW. Thanks for any info!


mtrot

Showing 2 responses by genjamon

Hypex Ncore technology has really upped the performance standard for Class D. I have a pair of monoblocks for sale right now here on Audiogon if you're interested.

But I would caution that amp power, while important to deliver slam, is not the only precondition. You also need clean and dynamic source electronics capable of driving the amps well. Since slam is about dynamics, if you don't have high resolution and low noise signal, it will blur the dynamics and detract from the slam. We are always fighting some level of dynamic constriction in recordings, some worse than others with the loudness wars, but even really well recorded stuff is much less dynamic than real life. Such is the nature of recording vs live. In order to maximize dynamics, the entire signal chain needs to be clean and clear, and electronics need to have good impedance matching with each other so they aren't strained and have enough "drive" to create that realistic slam. A good preamp is often key to giving that last bit of drive and dynamics to the music.

I also think clean power into all electronics is highly critical. Good in restrictive power conditioning like the Pi Audio units and power cables that do a good job of rejecting and filtering noise can really reduce the noise floor of your system, which in turn increases dynamic contrasts and slam. Of course it also greatly improves imaging, soundstage, and micro dynamics as well, so it's not either/or when it comes to slam and other audiophile characteristics.

Finally, I would say proper management of bass resonance and nulls in your room are vital to slam in the bass frequencies. Untreated rooms are a horror show of bass anomalies that produces varying levels of boom and suck out at different frequencies. If you can use room treatment, multiple subs in a distributed array, EQ, and/ or combinations of these to even out the room response, your system will be capable of producing clean and even bass that will then slam rather than booming.
Alright, so maybe we're talking about different things when it comes to slam. For me, it's about when a solid bass note comes out of nowhere and you can both hear and feel it in a gutteral way. In my experience, it takes removing room resonance, electronic overhang, and noise out of the equation for those bass frequencies to be fully resolved and to have the fullest aesthetic impact. However, I also acknowledge that you can get there by leveraging uneven bass response in speakers, untreated room loading, and other "inaccurate" characteristics to make bass kick pretty hard. But in this case, you'll be trading in many other important aspects of the sound in order to maximize that bass impact.

Like others have mentioned, speaker design will play a big part. Ported speakers in general will "bump" more than other designs due to the resonant frequency of the port emphasizing at that frequency. It's not a completely even response, but it does give you that sense of drive and bass dynamics. That can be pretty fun if done well.