subwoofer Bass in Systems


I believe one of the challenges of our hobby, is that we are scarce and therefore have limited exposure other systems. It is at least true for me. I am a member of a local Audiophile club who used to do system hop days and looked forward to those. I do get to drop into a local high end store and know the owner and on a few occasions each year, give a 20 min listen to their ultra high end 100-300k System.

I have met a few people through buying and selling via Craigslist and those past system hop days and have been had several people spend some time listening to my systems.

Most people i've met and heard their systems do not use a subwoofer with full range or monitor speakers.

So, this recent visit a person came by and really seemed over-whelmed by the bass in my system. to keep this short and on the way to my point, my system components are

#1-Celestion SL700 , Revel B12 subwoofer, Plinius SA100 Mk III amp
#2 -Celestion SL600 Celestion System 6000 subwoofers, AirTight ATM-3 monos, powering the SL600s.

I prefer the Celestions, because to me they are boxless sounding and of course they are well known for their imaging and mid-range clarity.

I like that idea and the idea of the subs to provide what the Celestions lack, bass.

My systems are set up with the sub output fairly low, when i hear some smearing of the mid-band, I step off and down off the subwoofer level.

My listening reference is what i would expect to hear in a live setting. I expect to somewhat feel the bass note, or at least know within that instrument there is weight and some heft.

To my point, at least half of the persons who have heard my system have always commented on the bass level, and being a good host I adjusted it down to their preference. This last visit, i kept the bass level at what this visitor had me drop it to and listened for an evening after he left.

At this particular level, it is best described that there was a bass player or bass note within songs, but it was blended in within the same level of the other instruments or voices. To me, it wasn't right, and I feel, personal preference or not, it isn't what would be considered a natural real level.

So, finally to my point of discussion to you all, my only thought is, a lot of us in the hobby put together their systems without the consideration of the lower end sub or bass frequencies, or have smaller monitors not capable of it, or lack sufficient power to run a full range to obtain a level of subass or bass. Maybe it is their living space or neighbor set up where they can't have low bass. I am not saying anyone is wrong, but also see in terms of audiophile marketing , i see the least amount of focus on bass. Bass is a big marketing point in home theater, for which I am not interested in, but again not 2 channel audio.

Again, having heard other persons systems, it is my experience that priorities are elsewhere, which in my opinion, I want the entire spectrum of audio.

Am I in the minority here ?

Your thoughts would be very welcomed

Good Listening
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Showing 2 responses by foster_9

I'm with you. I love bass that loads the room enough to hear and feel. I have struggeled to get that in my family room. I just recently found that the same subwoofer I had been using with one particular preamp and amp configuration sounds completely different with a different amp connected in the system. I never moved the sub or changed the gain on the sub, just changed the amp---and the sub is connected to preamp the way it was before via rca cables!!!!!. From this experience, I learned that many of the subs I've owned (and sold )were better subs than I ever got to hear, but they were not matching well with the gear I had at the time and therefore I never got to hear what they could do when performing to their true potential. That's a disappointment. System matching often makes this hobby a bitch. But yes, I love a good bass foundation to all my music. To me, it's a must to make music more involving.
Yea Pkbkr999 I had a Rythmik F15HP-SE and sold it because it didn't give me the bass I expected for its size. My conclusion based on my recent experience is that the problem was not the sub, but simply a case of the sub not being a good match with my preamp and amp, probably an impedance mismatch.