Does Your Wife/Partner Like Bass?

[Pharos]

Bass quality is an interesting thing, many speakers that I have had distorting its dynamic representation.

Many bass waveforms are transient in nature, and then 'tail off' in a slope to zero. But an under BLed, and an underdamped woofer will do two things to alter bass. The former will under excurt, and so not reach the necessary peaks, and the latter will continue the oscillation after the signal has ceased.

This results in an under-represented peak value, and an over represented duration of the note, which combined, is a tendency to 'drone'.

It is for me only recently that I have appreciated this fully with what I currently have, my friend saying there is too much bass, but often there is less as well; my conclusion is that I am getting a more realistic representation of the variations of level with time.

[Pigmy Pony]

Not sure going to see a band in a pub or wherever will give us an idea what 'proper' bass should sound like, the equipment used is often not much cop, and being surrounded by dozens of bodies will mess with acoustics as well. I've often found the sound at gigs to be quite rough, and it's really the atmosphere that swings it for me, and of course some good trouser-flapping bass. Try to recreate that bass at home, and then you'll get some real complaints.

[Pigmy Pony]

I'm told that to get a proper 'live' bass that you can feel as well as hear you're going to need big cones that can shift a lot of air, pointing straight at you. Subwoofers are just not going to cut it, not without spending BIG money. This makes sense to me.

[Macca]

Not sure going to see a band in a pub or wherever will give us an idea what 'proper' bass should sound like, .

Very true. Especially if you are listening to a recording where the bass guitar was recorded direct into the desk. I.e most of them.

[Starterman]

Bass quality is an interesting thing, many speakers that I have had distorting its dynamic representation.

Many bass waveforms are transient in nature, and then 'tail off' in a slope to zero. But an under BLed, and an underdamped woofer will do two things to alter bass. The former will under excurt, and so not reach the necessary peaks, and the latter will continue the oscillation after the signal has ceased.

This results in an under-represented peak value, and an over represented duration of the note, which combined, is a tendency to 'drone'.

It is for me only recently that I have appreciated this fully with what I currently have, my friend saying there is too much bass, but often there is less as well; my conclusion is that I am getting a more realistic representation of the variations of level with time.

Spot on.
Ported speakers are generally a 4th order system at roll off. This means poor transient response - exactly as you describe. Of course if you can tune this group delay to a low enough frequency then the audible effect can be reduced. I think most audiopills are now conditioned to think this "overhung" bass is correct. Their wifes actually know better!!

[Hypnotist]

Glad I'm not the only one then, my wife likes Tinny Sounds - period

[Pharos]

"Ported speakers are generally a 4th order system at roll off. This means poor transient response - exactly as you describe. Of course if you can tune this group delay to a low enough frequency then the audible effect can be reduced. I think most audiopills are now conditioned to think this "overhung" bass is correct. Their wifes actually know better!!"

Yes true, and most speakers are these days ported, with a compromise on transient response. Dr Richard Small sent me a copy of the analysis and synthesis of passive, ('drone cone') design, showing the compromise.

I too, particularly recently have realised that I had conditioned myself to the underdamped overhung bass, (little slam and soggy/plumby), and in retrospect think that many professional systems are better, ATC for eg..

[struth]

Not big on uncontrolled bass either needs to be tight and not to overpower the rest of music.
I had difficulty finding anything suitable on my budget that fitted my room so built my own full range ones. It worked out very well

[fatmarley]

I started diy speaker design with sealed boxes because I much prefer the tight, deep (shallow roll-off) bass you get with a sealed speaker, BUT if you want high efficiency then the boxes would have to be MASSIVE or have very limited bass. Scanspeak do small drivers that produce deep bass in a smallish box, but you'd need loads of them to achieve a descent high efficiency design, and they cost a fortune.

There are quite a few reasons why ported speakers can produce a soggy/slow bass. My old 10" 2-way ported speakers would punch you in the chest with super tight bass. They didn't go very deep but it was an experiment to produce a large, efficient speaker that had the punchy bass of a good, small standmount speaker. They were great fun and easily my best design so far --- 12" high efficiency 3-way next. Dynamics, excellent low volume ability and obviously sound quality (flat frequency response) are my goals. They wont go as deep as an equivalent sealed box but that's a compromise i'm willing to take.

[Macca]

Wise not to generalise too much regarding ports. I'd probably agree that at the budget, small speaker level I'd take a sealed box most of the time. But beyond that all bets are off. These JBLs are easily the best passive speaker I've ever heard and the ports are big enough for a badger to get into them: