Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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When I hear you say "Everything makes a difference", then I know all thinking has stopped

Posted by Richard BassNut Greene on December 14, 2006 at 08:23:08

In Reply to: not true posted by 20Hz on December 12, 2006 at 13:35:31:

You could not possibly hear a 1" movement of a subwoofer enclosure under blind conditions unless that movement was 1" closer to a wall and the wall suddenly started rattling! Measuring the frequency response results of such a move would be nearly impossible too.

There are no bass transients from musical instruments.

The leading edge of bass notes from conventional bass instruments, such as the slap of a pedal on a kick drum, or the pluck of a bass guitar string, is in the mid-range frequencies.

I suppose a synthesizer could be set up to create a pure "bass transient" tone but I don't listen to electronic "music" much and can't recall hearing such a note.

Should the leading edge of the bass note arrive at the ears at exactly the same time as the rest of the note?

Of course that would be best in theory but is impossible in practice because:

- We have timing effects from having a bass note spread over two or even three drivers,

- We have phase effects from crossover filters, and

- We have huge phase effects from early reflections off room surfaces to deal with.

The "best" subwoofer position is one that blends almost perfectly with the main speakers and provides the smoothest possible frequency response.

Unfortunately almost every possible subwoofer position will have bass peaks up to +6dB and partial nulls of at least -12dB, so the words "smoothest possible frequency response" and "bass" probably should not be used in the same sentence.

You keep moving your subwoofers by 1".

I'll be busy eliminating EVERY bass peak measured at my listening seat with a parametric EQ and at least trying to keep my ears away from the deepest portion of partial bass nulls by moving my chair.

Then we can compare the bass quality.

I'm extremely confident a carefully equalized subwoofer placed (without any measurements) between the two main speakers, or near one of them if there is minimal subwoofer output above 80Hz., will sound much more natural than the "perfect position" (whatever that is) unequalized subwoofer (regardless of price) in most rooms, to most listeners.

1" makes no difference with 100Hz. (11 foot wavelength) or lower frequencies except in your overactive imagination.

You do however, sound like a salesman.

Everything does not make a difference.

That's audio reality.
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Richard BassNut Greene
My Stereo is MUCH BETTER than Your Stereo

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