Aloha,
I'm thinking today that maybe the hardest part of the sonic spectrum for a speaker to get right is the bass.
I say that because I can think of many examples of excellent/superlative midrange and treble reproduction that I've heard, but far fewer experiences with honest to gosh "correct" bass.
Bass has always been the hardest aspect of the sound for me to get dialed in when I play with system placement, too.
Bass is also "faster" than people give it credit for, and has many leading edge attributes that require such good driver integration that it actually matters what the higher frequency drivers are doing.
I think the other drivers affect bass performance more than bass performance affects treble or midrange sound, with the notable exception of bass deficiency emasculating midrange reproduction where the two ranges meet.
So, anyway, perhaps my best "public" bass experience was at a CES or THE Show where Avant Garde was demoing their top of the line system, and they used two giant curvy metal horns in a rather large demo hall. They seemed six feet tall and ten or more feet wide!
The system didn't really integrate unless you were about 25 feet back from the speakers, but once in the zone, the bass was exceedingly (like lightning) fast, articulate, and detailed.
Ray Kimber's Isomike demos stand out in my mind, as well. Either with the B&W's or the Soundlabs that he's used. Perhaps his recording technique captures the essence of good bass reproduction better than other methods?
Both the Avant Garde and the Isomike demos also really point out the importance of good bass in capturing the "air" in the original performance space. It's more than just frequency response, there's lots of low level spatial info involved with good bass reproduction. This may be overly "subjective," but I do believe that good bass "imaging" really does need to be reproduced by more than one summed subwoofer. I've never heard a one sub system that did the job right.
Maybe as we go, I can think of some other prime experiences.
Anyone else have some favorites?
Aloha,
I'm thinking today that maybe the hardest part of the sonic spectrum for a speaker to get right is the bass.
I say that because I can think of many examples of excellent/superlative midrange and treble reproduction that I've heard, but far fewer experiences with honest to gosh "correct" bass.
Bass has always been the hardest aspect of the sound for me to get dialed in when I play with system placement, too.
Bass is also "faster" than people give it credit for, and has many leading edge attributes that require such good driver integration that it actually matters what the higher frequency drivers are doing.
I think the other drivers affect bass performance more than bass performance affects treble or midrange sound, with the notable exception of bass deficiency emasculating midrange reproduction where the two ranges meet.
So, anyway, perhaps my best "public" bass experience was at a CES or THE Show where Avant Garde was demoing their top of the line system, and they used two giant curvy metal horns in a rather large demo hall. They seemed six feet tall and ten or more feet wide!
The system didn't really integrate unless you were about 25 feet back from the speakers, but once in the zone, the bass was exceedingly (like lightning) fast, articulate, and detailed.
Ray Kimber's Isomike demos stand out in my mind, as well. Either with the B&W's or the Soundlabs that he's used. Perhaps his recording technique captures the essence of good bass reproduction better than other methods?
Both the Avant Garde and the Isomike demos also really point out the importance of good bass in capturing the "air" in the original performance space. It's more than just frequency response, there's lots of low level spatial info involved with good bass reproduction. This may be overly "subjective," but I do believe that good bass "imaging" really does need to be reproduced by more than one summed subwoofer. I've never heard a one sub system that did the job right.
Maybe as we go, I can think of some other prime experiences.
Anyone else have some favorites?