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of physics make it difficult to achieve a smooth, extended, and articulate bottom end in our listening rooms
Consequently, many of us live with less than great bass performance.
But wonderful-sounding bass is immensely rewarding musically. The bottom end forms the tonal foundation of som
types of music, and in others bass is the source of music’s rhythmic drive, propulsion, and energy. The visceral, wh
body experience of a great drummer and bass guitarist locking into a groove—the kick drum’s transient and the atta
of the bass guitar strings combining synergistically—is one of music’s supreme pleasures (at least for me).
In this “Guide to Better Bass,” we’ll look at how you can improve the bottom end of your existing audio system, exp
different options if you’re just starting out or upgrading, and consider some general principles for getting great bass
Let’s start with some fundamentals about bass reproduction. Despite what I just wrote about the importance of bass
possible to put together an extremely involving music system based on smaller speakers that don’t reproduce bass
below about 50Hz. This is particularly true for listeners whose tastes lean toward chamber and smaller-scale works
classical music, singer/songwriters in pop, and acoustic jazz. Listeners with those musical inclinations are better off
smaller speakers with limited bass response than with full-range speakers of a similar price that may be compromis
throughout the entire sonic spectrum.
Second, bass quality is vastly more important than bass quantity. A leaner presentation without much extension is
preferable to lots of bass if that bass is thick, colored, and sluggish. If the bass isn’t well reproduced, we’d rather no
hear it at all. The poor bass performance becomes a constant annoyance and a reminder that we’re listening to a
reproduction. This is why a superbly engineered mini-monitor can be more musically involving than a large
floorstanding speaker.
Third, accurate bass reproduction is expensive. The lower the frequency accurately reproduced, the more expensiv
bass becomes. Note the word “accurate” in both sentences; you can buy a $500 loudspeaker that has output below
40Hz, but it’s unlikely that the bass it produces will be accurate. Realistic reproduction of the bottom octave (16Hz–
32Hz) requires large woofers, which in turn requires a large cabinet. The larger the cabinet the more prone it is to
vibration that will color the sound. Enclosure vibration colors the music tonally and destroys music’s dynamic structu
The solution is to build heroic enclosures that don’t vibrate, but such enclosures are extremely dense, heavy, and
expensive.
Fourth, a system’s bass presentation affects such seemingly unrelated aspects of the sound as midrange clarity an
soundstaging. Thickness in the midbass reduces the midrange’s transparency. A cleaner midbass not only makes t
midrange sound more open, it also lets you hear more clearly into the extremely low frequencies. Moreover, extend
a system’s bottom end has the odd effect of increasing soundstage depth and our overall sense of the recorded
acoustic, even on music with no low-frequency energy. I’ve heard an unaccompanied voice in a large hall reproduc
by a pair of mini-monitors with and without a subwoofer. Adding the subwoofer revealed the full extent of the hall’s s
as well as presented the vocalist as a more tangible image within the acoustic.
With those concepts in mind, let’s see how we improve a system’s bass performance.
Match the Speaker to the Room
The deeper the loudspeaker’s bass extension and the more bass output it produces, the larger the room needed to
realize great bass performance. Lots of very low bass will overload a small room, making it almost impossible to ge
smooth response. This fundamental fact is played out countless times at hi-fi shows as exhibitors fight to get a large
full-range loudspeaker to work in a hotel room. If you choose too much speaker for your room, you’ll wage an uphill
battle in getting good-sounding bass.
Loudspeaker Placement
Correctly positioning your loudspeakers is the single most important thing you can do to achieve better bass. The to
is beyond the scope of this article, but you can get an idea of its importance from the accompanying sidebar “The
Physics of Bass.” For specific loudspeaker-placement techniques, download the free booklet “Robert Harley’s Syste
Set-Up Secrets” at avguide.com/hifibooks. The booklet is an excerpt from The Complete Guide to High-End
Audio (Third Edition).
Bass Tweaks
So far, we’ve talked about bass problems on a macro-level: room-induced peaks and dips of 15dB, excessive bass
caused by lack of low-frequency absorption, poor subwoofer integration, and the significant differences in bass
performance between sealed and ported loudspeakers.
But there’s another, more subtle, approach to getting better bass that works on the micro-level, relatively speaking.
approach includes system matching and tuning, and the careful use of just the right accessories. Objectively, these
techniques and products have a miniscule effect on the signal compared to the effects of room-induced peaks and
but they are significant nonetheless. A fundamental tenet of high-end audio holds that there’s not a linear relationsh
between the magnitude of a difference and the musical effect of that difference—that is, a “small” improvement can
have a profound influence on musical perception. This is why a tweak can be audible and significant even in the fac
room-induced peaks and dips of 15dB.
Particularly effective accessories that can tighten up the bass are feet, cones, and isolation devices, particularly und
tubed equipment. I’ve heard isolation feet that make the bass sound tighter, weightier, and more articulate tonally a
The right choice of cable and interconnects can also push a system that last little bit into perfect bass balance. I
recommend trying cables under consideration in your own system before buying. Similarly, the right AC conditioner
seemingly add low-end extension, authority, and a more realistic rendering of bass textures.
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