Mine goes to eleven!
I'd agree that quality of bass, and control as well as balance, is all very important. Just because a speaker can reproduce down to XXhz does not mean that it does a convincing job in portraying those lower frequencies and the instruments that produced them. I think this is one of those things that reveal the limitations of graphs/numbers/measurements in telling the whole story. Here's where having two ears comes in mighty handy, and gives you a better idea of what the speaker in question is capable of. As far as why such a stress is put on it, one need only take a listen to a system that really gets that right can bring to the table, in order to understand why it is so coveted in spite of the fact that the majority of what we listen to exists on the middle rather than the extremes. It brings in one of our others senses big time (touch/feeling) and connects with us in an almost primordial way. I think it is also VERY difficult for a speaker/system/room to do well, so when that is done well, it's pretty amazing to experience.
I'd agree that quality of bass, and control as well as balance, is all very important. Just because a speaker can reproduce down to XXhz does not mean that it does a convincing job in portraying those lower frequencies and the instruments that produced them. I think this is one of those things that reveal the limitations of graphs/numbers/measurements in telling the whole story. Here's where having two ears comes in mighty handy, and gives you a better idea of what the speaker in question is capable of. As far as why such a stress is put on it, one need only take a listen to a system that really gets that right can bring to the table, in order to understand why it is so coveted in spite of the fact that the majority of what we listen to exists on the middle rather than the extremes. It brings in one of our others senses big time (touch/feeling) and connects with us in an almost primordial way. I think it is also VERY difficult for a speaker/system/room to do well, so when that is done well, it's pretty amazing to experience.