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In Reply to: How many love deep extended bass and have the equipment to do it? posted by tubesforever on September 11, 2006 at 20:13:33:
at my listening position, though of course when you get into the low bass region, the frequency response can vary considerably from place to place in typical rooms. I listen almost entirely to classical music, and my experience is that the bottom octave (20-40Hz) rarely is important in most orchestral music. My previous speakers had a -3 dB point at 38 Hz, and I added Hsu subwoofers to cover the 20-40 Hz region. It was instructive to see how little difference it made whether they were on or off in lots of music. Of course for organ music and deep drum beats the bottom can be extremely inportant, and I'm sure it plays somewhat of a role with a few other instruments. The next octave is extremely important, though. Also, the quality of the bass reproduction is critical for realistic timber. Excessive doubling or other distortion can have a very negative effect. In short, for nearly all classical music in my experience, clean undistorted bass to 40 Hz is very important, and the bottom octave is a welcome addition at times, but not mandatory.Just my opinion, of course.
Follow Ups:
and what room supports that?What speakers and in what size listening room? You actually measured them down to 20Hz?
And are down some percent at that level....REL subsonic reinforcement units will dive down to 12hz cleanly and they sound awesome.
I like REL's approach better than standard subwoofers that just add boom and whoosh
http://www.vandersteen.com/pages/Model5ALit.htmI have the 5, not the 5A, and my measurements were in-room.
I believe some of the bigger Tannoy full-range horns (e.g. Autographs and Westminster Royals) could hit 18Hz. Of course, they're the size of kitchen stoves.
great speakers wven if they only go down to 40Hz or so. They just sound lower because of the quality of the bass reproduction. That's what I'm talking about.
At least so they claim! I haven't done the measurements myself, I don't have the gear - or their latest model. REL reckon on 6db down by 9Hz.
The Vandersteen 5 and 5A speakers go down to 20 Hz. When you purchase them, the dealer comes to your house with a test CD and an SPL. There are multilple frequency adjustments for the bottom end, and the speakers are adjusted to be flat to within a few dB in your general listening area. Each speaker is adjusted separately and then measured together as well. It can take a while.My room is 32x16x9 feet, but one wall only goes halfway across the room, exposing other rooms. The longest unobstructed dimension is about 75 feet., though part of it is through a wide hallway. Using a calibrated meter, I measured +/- 2.5 dB from 20 to 20 KHz sampling at 1/3 octaves. I do not necessarily put strong weight on the frequency response being that flat, as I know I don't have to go far in the room or change the window coverings or furniture etc. to alter it, but I though it was impressive for that one position anyway. It isn't too bad elsewhere, for that matter.
The Vandersteen 2 does not go down to 20 Hz, but in its various versions it ranks among the highest selling speakers in hi-fi ever made. Longevity helps. I don't know about the 5 and 5A, but speakers that sell for $10-20K usually don't sell like hotcakes; I bought mine used.
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the beginning of this subthread, that bottom octave is some ways optional or of lower weight compared to the next one. Years ago, if I had come across the 3A Sigs, I would have bought them instead of the Spendor SP100s, and i would probably still would be using them. I maybe would have added some 2Wq subs, but I likely wouldn't have upgraded to the 5s (I'm in a minority, but I'm not a big fan of the 5As.)
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