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What happened to my bass?

Ok, for those of you willing to read a bit, I have, as usual, something driving me nuts. I'm a speaker builder. Current speakers look like Watt/Puppy, consist of 11 inch Eton, 7 inch Scan Speak, Scan Speak Revelator tweeter. They perform very well and I haven't changed anything about them in 5 years.....but I have changed houses and of course rooms. Prior room was twice the size of the current, rather small, living room. Bass was a tad shy in the prior bigger room which was in a basement with a good amount of exposed insulation and floor joists up above. Current room is plaster covered drywall, bass traps in front room corners. Bass is generally quite a bit better in the smaller room and according to my pipe organ tracks, very low bass is no problem. So, finally, to the point. Yesterday I am listening to Bygone Days (Eileen Ivers violin track) and it dawns on me that that track has sounded different in the past. In fact, on second listen, there are bass notes completely missing that I clearly remember. I assume the memory goes back to the prior bigger, bass-shy room! I just don't get it. My sense is that bass is fuller and more balanced in this room on everything else I have listened to, and then I get to this Ivers track and there are bass notes that actually had some growl to them, completely missing? It's really wierd when you anticipate something in music and it has disappeared. Room null? By the way, it makes no difference where I am in the room. I even stuck my head behind the speakers. Am I the only one whose system drives them nuts from time to time?
240zracer
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Is the stereophile CD 'calibrated' to the RS meter? The meter....at least the analogue needs some corrections to whatever it reads.
The Rives Audio disk has such corrections 'built it' so what it reads, is what it IS.
77jovian
385 posts
 
Thanks, Shadorne. I have some good condenser mikes and will be looking into your software suggestions.
240zracer OP
121 posts
 
Magfan, you are absolutely right. I didn't know about the Rives CD till about a week ago when I stumbled on it here. And my meter is analog.
tmsorosk
1,013 posts
 
I have found larger rooms seem to have more bass , I won't try to argue why this should or should not be , but in the recent past I have had 4 different sound rooms and the bigger ones always seem to produce more bass , and less room related problems . Of coarse room dimentions play a big part too .
240zracer OP
121 posts
 
My former, larger room is still what you see when you look at my "system" photos. It was very unusual with all the exposed insulation and floor joists and 2x4 walls. While it was probably a dead room, it also must have been a sound-absorbing room. My bass in that room was definately on the slim side. I am starting to have the opinion that the bass I heard in this track of music, in that room, was probably some anomaly that doesn't happen in my current room. Too bad because the track sounds way better with the bass. I was initially pretty worried that if I was missing something in that piece of music, I must be missing something in general. That really doesn't seem to be true though based on listening and my crude testing. So that CD is going on the back shelf and I say thank you to everyone who chimed in. In time I'll get set up for some better method of measuring response.
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