2. amps-preamps
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Tone controls to get bass from small speakers?

Have you ever thought you'd like to have tone controls at your disposal to do a good job of extending the bass of small speakers? (aw, c'mon, admit it).

Anyway, it seems that whenever a product (usually a budget product) actually does have tone controls, it is set to boost bass around the 100 hz level, and this seems fairly useless. In the past, however, I had an astounding little system consisting of Spica TC-50's, a Marantz CD63, and an AMC 3030 integrated.

The Spicas weren't exactly Jurassic Park dinosaur stompers, but the really cool thing about the AMC was that it boosted bass around 50 hz, not 100 hz. This gave the apparent effect of giving the Spicas real, extended bass.

Do you know of any combination of small speakers and amplification-with-tone-controls that can pull a thirty foot organ pipe out of a hat?

Thanks guys.
stevegolf1

Showing 1 response by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
Hotrod, DBX was the first on the market with that type of device. It was called a "Sub-Harmonic Synthesizer". It halved the frequency and then boosted output of that signal. While this can help out bass shy recordings or speakers, it can also EASILY overload small vented speakers if played too loudly. The end result would be massive "doubling" ( mega-distortion ) and possible driver damage. As such, care with any type of tone control should be excercised.

If you're going to attempt such a thing, sealed speakers respond best since they have the shallowest bass roll-off after resonance. Phil Marchand makes such a device for this very purpose called the "Basis". Only thing is that sealed speakers are also power suckers, so you could run into too much draw from a small amp. Sean
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