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Why is good, deep bass so difficult? - Myths and their Busters

This is a theme that goes round and round and round on Audiogon. While looking for good sources, I found a consultancy (Acoustic Frontiers) offering a book and links:

http://www.acousticfrontiers.com/guide-to-bass-optimization/?utm_source=CTA

Interestingly: AF is in Fairfax, CA, home to Fritz Speakers. I really have to go visit Fairfax!

And a link to two great articles over at sound and vision:

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/schroeder-frequency-show-and-tell-part-1
https://www.soundandvision.com/content/schroeder-frequency-show-and-tell-part-2

Every audiophile who is dissatisfied with the bass in their room should read these free resources.

Let me state unequivocally, deep bass is difficult for the average consumer. Most audiophiles are better off with bass limited speakers, or satellite/subwoofer systems. The former limits the danger you can get into. The latter has the most chance of success IF PROPERLY IMPLEMENTED.

The idea that large drivers/subs are slow is a complete and utter myth. Same for bass reflex. The issue is not the speed of the drivers. The issue is usually that the deeper a speaker goes the more it excites room modes, which the audiophile is then loathe to address.

Anyway, please read away. I look forward to reading comments.
erik_squires

Showing 9 responses by geoffkait

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Car systems are cool. Battery power and pneumatic isolation. Nothing wrong with them apples.

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
johnk
Schrodinger didn’t microwave a cat. He came up with a thought experiment Schrödinger’s cat about the bizarre nature of quantum superposition’s. To me one making such a wrong comment in a technical article shows incompetence of author.

I trust he was attempting a little audio humor in light of the fact microwaves had not yet been invented in 1935. That didn’t come along for another 10 years. Maybe the author would have been well advised to write, Schrodinger was the dude who shot the cat, or poisoned the cat or smothered the cat. Say, how could the cat live inside the box with no air? More to the point the cat was alive. It was alive AND dead at the same time. Duh! 😛
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
johnk
Schrodinger didn't microwave a cat. He came up with a thought experiment Schrödinger's cat about the bizarre nature of quantum superposition's. To me one making such a wrong comment in a technical article shows incompetence of author.

I trust he was attempting a little audio in light of the fact microwaves had not yet been invented in 1935. Maybe the author would have been well advised to write, Schrodinger was the dude who shot the cat, or poisoned the cat or smothered the cat. Say, how could the cat live inside the box with no air? 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Yamamura used to make some very elegant limited slip plate thingamabobs for speakers. You can actually knock them off if you know what you’re doing. Limited slip plate devices offload excess energy from the speaker cabinet by converting that energy to work performed by the movement of the speaker allowed by the 3 piece limited slip plate arrangement under the speakers As far as mass goes, what can I say? People say things. People talk. Some people swear up and down that VPI bricks work due to increased mass. What else is new?

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I don’t know but I have a sneaking suspicion nobody ever ran curves for anything from the listening position. That’s not something in an audiophile’s bag of tricks. 👜 What audiophiles do is try something. Listen. Move it a little. Listen again. Try something else. Listen again. Ad infinitum. And they wonder why audiophiles frequently come down with a bad case of audio nervousa. 😬

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
It’s not really a mass issue for the tops of speakers. It’s placing something that acts like a diode and allows the otherwise trapped energy in the speaker cabinet to rapidly escape to the outside air via a path of least resistance.  This is why things like those Totem Beaks or cones, especially NASA grade ceramic DH Cones, very hard but not very massive, but massive enough, are often so effective placed on top of speakers. 🍦 There used to be a product Tekna Sonic that was purpose built for attaching to speaker cabinets that accomplished the same thing. For the same reason cones can often be placed on top of the electronics chassis or tube traps and accomplish the same sort of thing, dissipate energy rapidly from the system. Crystals also dissipate mechanical energy in similar circumstances.

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
audiokinesis, thanks for the Acme Audio Engineering School lecture. Looks like this is going to be one of those he said, she said things.  😀

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
"Upon graduation from Acme Audio Engineering school today many of you will go on to do great things. The rest of you will be in pro audio."

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I hate to judge before all the facts are in but it appears a big advantage of headphones is you can get very good bass performance without all the angst, effort and cost oft required to obtain very good bass performance for speaker systems. And that's if you're lucky and don't actually make matters worse.

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