What is Tight Bass?

Keep in mind that many people prefer the general rumble, as in car radios and juke boxes.  Gives the sound a comfortable cushion and warmth that is pleasing to the ear. 

If you get the bass too tight, the music will sound too lean. 

Controlling the woofer after it has been put in motion by the signal. No extra bass caused by improper 'loose' movement after the signal.

i.e. My vintage 15" woofers, Electrovoice 15W's weigh 37 lbs each, very strong spider, rigid magnet enclosure, and a 5-1/4 lb Alnico Magnet to push/pull 'tightly' control the cone.

you could have an 18" woofer with a less strong spider and less powerful magnet, but longer throw, i.e. move more air, more bass (the iron law), but it would NOT be tight bass.

Somewhat anachronistic term for well damped, not ringy or boomy etc. Fairly intuitive. Nothing more than that. The bass player for Blood, Sweat & Tears described the Altec 421a as ’tight’ in an ad on the back cover of Guitar Player in 1969, e.g. I recall AR loudspeakers being described that way occasionally, as far as hi-fi goes.

@artemus_5  You are the first person I've heard say tube amps produce better bass. I think I agree with that. I thought I must be wrong because EVERY review says SS produce great bass and tubes do midrange and vocals better. So many audiophile facts that I don't agree with.

Audiophiles' desire is that bass should have articulation, energy, speed delivery, and coherence. This desire is erroneously given the name of  "tight bass", although for legitimate reason: the main barrier to good bass was looseness, lack of definition and energy in the past.

Now, when we correct the lack of energy, definition, speed and dynamics, then we get good bass. This is also experienced as the bass "tightening" as audiophiles say. However, the "tightning" is an improvement only to a certain degree, after a point it becomes just as much a coloration to sound as the lack of focus is.

Good bass has articulation, energy, speed and coherence. Yet, it is neither overly tight, nor overly loose. A common problem with audio systems is / was their inability to reproduce clean and coherent bass, and people (audiophiles) summed this up as "loose" or "colored" bass. However, most audiophiles do not realize that coloring applies to BOTH ends of the palette: bass can be colored either to be too loose, or to be too tight. Over thight bass is just as colored as overly loose bass.

My observations tell me that the fascination with overly "tight" bass arose from people using studio recordings as reference, where the hall acoustics information is lost, resulting in an overly dry, sharp bass rendering. To me that kind of bass is unacceptable, as it is missing a lot of the textural information, the three dimensionality, and reaches a point where it blends the clipping/distortion characteristics of the system. (Which occur much, much before audiophiles realize it.)

With over-tight bass you are also missing out much of the technique of the player. In the case of drums, the systems described as having "very tight" bass render the drums as if the drummer was very very strong, punches the set with double impact, but his technique is missing out a LOT. Basically, we get a mediocre drummer with very strong arms, dominating the band and the midbass. The other end of the spectrum (described as loose bass) describes a situation where the drummer is weak, there's no energy in his snaps and kicks, the tone is smeared, and we can't focus on the technique either - I get no information whether the drummer has good or bad technique.

The truth lies in between: bass with proper energy delivery, proper timing, textural definition, proper dynamic range.

Focusing on "tightness" to me is turning your system into a sharpness filter, coloring the sound, removing you from high fidelity.