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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
jeffloistarca
1,004 posts
 
My Linn Classik has tone controls, and they do help some. I tilted the bass up a notch or two with my ProAc Tablette 2000's and there was audible benefit in doing so. Bear in mind, this system is used in a 8 x 10 room with the music played at low levels so fiddling with the tone controls makes sense. Having a system in your office at work means compromises but certainly worthwhile. I'm not sure I'd use tone controls if the system was played at "normal" levels in a larger room. Trust your ears!
bomarc
501 posts
 
If I recall correctly, in the old days Radio Shack sold an Optimus(?) line of amp-speaker systems that were designed in just this way, with the amp compensating for the speakers' weaknesses. The current NAD all-in-one system also has a bass boost tailored, I presume, to the PSB Alpha Minis that it is often marketed with. It's heresy at the high end, of course, but in the low- to mid-fi ranges, it may well be the most logical way to go.

Now that I think about it, if I were a manufacturer, I might be tempted to hide an equalizer inside my powered speakers, to achieve just the effect you're describing. I could get better bass response from smaller speakers, and the audiophiles would never know!
hotrod
60 posts
 
get a audio control phase coupled activator which sub synthesises bass below 50 and lowers its frequency in half,in other words 50 is25 40 is 20 etc, this works great with small speakr amp systems ,way better than tone controls or eqs, has gain control so you can adjust blend . regards mike
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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ljgj
955 posts
 
A very "fun" piece of equipment is the Peavey Kozmos. Go to the peavey.com site for more info. Once you put one in your system it will be hard to take it out.
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