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http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/a-guide-to-better-bass-tas-1...
Accurately reproducing musics low frequencies is the single biggest challenge facing the audiophile. The laws 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 some types of music, and in others bass is the source of musics rhythmic drive, propulsion, and energy. The visceral, whole-body experience of a great drummer and bass guitarist locking into a groovethe kick drums transient and the attack of the bass guitar strings combining synergisticallyis one of musics supreme pleasures (at least for me). In this Guide to Better Bass, well look at how you can improve the bottom end of your existing audio system, explore different options if youre just starting out or upgrading, and consider some general principles for getting great bass. Lets start with some fundamentals about bass reproduction. Despite what I just wrote about the importance of bass, its possible to put together an extremely involving music system based on smaller speakers that dont reproduce bass below about 50Hz. This is particularly true for listeners whose tastes lean toward chamber and smaller-scale works in classical music, singer/songwriters in pop, and acoustic jazz. Listeners with those musical inclinations are better off with smaller speakers with limited bass response than with full-range speakers of a similar price that may be compromised 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 isnt well reproduced, wed rather not hear it at all. The poor bass performance becomes a constant annoyance and a reminder that were 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 expensive bass becomes. Note the word accurate in both sentences; you can buy a $500 loudspeaker that has output below 40Hz, but its unlikely that the bass it produces will be accurate. Realistic reproduction of the bottom octave (16Hz32Hz) 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 musics dynamic structure. The solution is to build heroic enclosures that dont vibrate, but such enclosures are extremely dense, heavy, and expensive. Fourth, a systems bass presentation affects such seemingly unrelated aspects of the sound as midrange clarity and soundstaging. Thickness in the midbass reduces the midranges transparency. A cleaner midbass not only makes the midrange sound more open, it also lets you hear more clearly into the extremely low frequencies. Moreover, extending a systems 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. Ive heard an unaccompanied voice in a large hall reproduced by a pair of mini-monitors with and without a subwoofer. Adding the subwoofer revealed the full extent of the halls size, as well as presented the vocalist as a more tangible image within the acoustic. With those concepts in mind, lets see how we improve a systems bass performance.
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Loudspeaker Placement
Correctly positioning your loudspeakers is the single most important thing you can do to achieve better bass. The topic 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 Harleys System Set-Up Secrets at avguide.com/hifibooks. The booklet is an excerpt from The Complete Guide to High-End Audio (Third Edition).
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and just want more bass extension, power, and impact. The second is if want a full-range sound but dont want the intrusion of large, floorstanding speakers in your living room. Both cases sound simple in theory, but in practice, getting a subwoofer to blend with your main speakers is quite a challenge. Although youll undoubtedly get more bass, you might not achieve a sound that is seamless and coherent from bottom to top. That is, you might be aware that theres this big cone chugging away, seemingly disconnected from the rest of the music. Its possible, however, to avoid this nightmare scenario with a little knowledge. First, choose a subwoofer designed for musical accuracy, not home-theater fireworks. Some subwoofers exist to produce the highest possible sound-pressure-level at the lowest possible frequency for playing back explosions in film soundtracks. Others are crafted by musically sensitive designers with high-end sensibilities. Be sure which kind youre buying. Second, choose an appropriate subwoofer for your main speakers and your room. If you have a 5.5" two-way mini-monitor in a small room, a sub with an 8" driver is more likely to blend with your mini-monitors than a model with a 12" cone. Moreover, the smaller subwoofer is less likely to overload your small room. The smaller the room and the greater the subwoofers output, the greater the odds against achieving a musical result. Third, use proper loudspeaker placement techniques (referenced earlier) so that the sub produces a smooth response. One of the huge advantages enjoyed by a subwoofer/satellite system is the ability to position the satellites for best imaging without worrying about the bass response, and then to put the subwoofer where it best integrates with your room. Fourth, spend some time tweaking the subwoofers controls so that it blends seamlessly with your main speakers. On the one hand, getting two different products (the main speakers and sub), designed by two different designers, to work together in harmony is asking a lot. On the other hand, you have much more control over a subwoofer than you do over the bass output in a full-range system. Take advantage of the subwoofers volume, phase, crossover frequency, and other adjustments to perfectly dial it into your system. Generally, the lower the crossover frequency between the sub and main speakers the better; the main loudspeakers bass is probably of higher quality than the subwoofers, and a low crossover frequency moves any crossover discontinuity lower in frequency, where it will be less audible. In addition, a low crossover frequency ensures that you wont be able to locate the sound source of the low bass. A subwoofer reproducing frequencies above 100Hz can be localizedi.e., the location of the source of the bass can be detectedwhich is musically distracting. Too low a crossover frequency will, however, burden small loudspeakers with excessive bass and reduce the systems power handling and maximum listening level. Another variable in subwoofer crossovers is the slope. Most use second-order (12dB/octave) or higher filters. Ideally, the crossover frequency and slope would be tailored to the particular loudspeaker used with the subwoofer. But because the subwoofer manufacturer doesnt know which loudspeakers will be used with the subwoofer, these parameters are compromised for good performance with a variety of loudspeakers. Some advanced subwoofers have an automatic equalization system built into them that removes the worst room-induced peaks and dips. For example, the superb JL Audio line incorporates the companys Automatic Room Optimization (ARO) technology. You simply connect the supplied microphone to the subwoofer, press a button, and ARO measures the subwoofers response in the room and custom-tailors an equalizer to fill in the dips and attenuate the peaks. A subwoofers phase control allows you to time-align the subwoofers wavefront with that of the main speakers. Heres a simple trick for perfectly setting this adjustment. (This technique assumes that the phase control is a continuously variable knob, not just a simple 0/180 switch.) Drive the system with a pure tone at exactly the crossover frequency between the woofer and main speakers. (Many test CDs include a full range of test tones.) Driving the system with a pure tone at the crossover frequency causes the main loudspeakers and the subwoofer to reproduce the same signal. Now invert the polarity of the main loudspeakers relative to the subwoofer by reversing the red and black leads going to both loudspeakers. Sit in the listening chair and have an assistant slowly vary the phase control until you hear the least bass. Return the loudspeaker leads to their former (correct) polarity. The phase control is now set optimally. Heres why: When the main loudspeakers and subwoofers wavefronts are 180 out of phase with each other, the greatest cancellation (the least sound heard) will occur. Thats because as the subwoofers cone moves outward, the main speakers cones are moving in, canceling each other. When the loudspeaker leads are returned to the correct position (removing the 180 phase shift), the subwoofer and loudspeaker outputs are maximally in-phase. Any time lag between the main speakers and subwoofer has been eliminated. This technique works because its much easier to hear the point of maximum cancellation than the point of maximum reinforcement.
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roll-off provide a more satisfying feeling of bass fullness than the reflex systems lower cut-off frequency and steeper roll-off. Very low bass, such as organ pedal tones, tends to produce a feeling of pressurization of the air in the room when reproduced by sealed systems that have truly deep extension. Reflex systems, by contrast, have more weight, warmth, and fullness. They can subjectively sound like they have more bass and deeper extension when youre listening to instruments with energy in the midbass rather than the extremely low bass. Kick drum tends to be weightier, but less crisp and dynamic. These impressions are by no means definitive; poorly designed sealed systems can sound thick, colored, and lacking in articulation and dynamic agility. Moreover, they are gross generalizations that are less applicable at the upper end of the price spectrum. The best bass Ive ever heard in every aspect of performanceextension, dynamics, precision, articulation, and tonalitywas from a ported system (Wilson Alexandria X-2 Series 2). But it takes extraordinary design talent to deliver the benefits of a particular woofer loading while eliminating the shortcomings. In most entry-level and mid-priced loudspeakers, the characteristics of sealed and reflex-loaded designs Ive described are applicable.
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smearing its dynamic structure. The bottom end becomes an unintelligible roar underneath the music. Moreover, this bass and upper-bass coloration tends to obscure and thicken the sound of the midrange. Its astonishing how cleaning up the bass confers a huge increase in midrange transparency, openness, and timbral purity. Although proper loudspeaker placement goes a long way toward achieving smooth bass response, placement alone cant completely eliminate room-induced bass colorations. The next step is to add commercially available bass absorbers. When low frequencies strike bass absorbers, some of the bass energy is converted into a minute amount of heat rather than being reflected back into the room. A classic use of a bass absorber is a pair of 16" Full-Round Tube Traps from Acoustic Sciences Corporation in the corners behind the loudspeakers. This placement is ideal, preventing bass from being reflected from the rear wall back into the room where it would have combined with the loudspeakers direct sound. Other types of bass traps are available, but dont be swayed by the promise of bass absorption in a tiny, inconspicuous package; long wavelengths are simply unaffected by small structures. If youve got bass problems that cant be solved by loudspeaker placement or any of the other techniques described, its time to bring out the Big Guns of acoustic treatments. __________
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Although a 20Hz sinewave and a 20kHz sinewave traveling in air are essentially the same phenomenon (compressions and rarefactions above and below normal atmospheric pressure), the two frequencies behave very differently. Simply put, bass is essentially omnidirectional and high frequencies tend to beam. The higher the frequency, the more directional the sound. Thats because low frequencies have very long wavelengths that bend around objects that are a small fraction of their wavelength. In fact, objects of the size found in a living room, including loudspeaker enclosures, are essentially invisible to the long wavelengths of low frequencies. To give you an idea of just how great the disparity in wavelengths is within the range of human hearing, a 20Hz sinewave in air has a wavelength of 56.5 feet and a 20kHz sinewave has a wavelength of about half an inch. (Wavelength equals velocity [the speed of sound] divided by the frequency, or =v/f.) If you had an aerial view of your loudspeaker and could see the speakers dispersion pattern, youd see very low frequencies bending around the enclosure and reflecting off the rear and sidewall, midrange frequencies dispersed in a hemisphere in front of the speaker, and very high treble acting almost like a beam of light emanating from the tweeter. This is why speaker toe-in has such a huge effect on the treble balance you hear at the listening position but no effect on the bass response. Conversely, its why loudspeaker placement in relation to the room boundaries affects bass balance but not treble balance. Bass from the loudspeaker, radiating omnidirectionally, is reflected from the rooms rear wall and sidewalls. This reflected energy combines with the direct wave from the woofer essentially in-phase, combining constructively to increase the bass amplitude. This is the common phenomenon known as room gaina bass boost added by the room. The direct and reflected waves arent precisely phasealigned, which causes some frequencies to be boosted more than others. In the upper bass, the direct and reflected waves can be out of phase, combining destructively to create a dip in the frequency response. This phenomenon colors the bass, adding an unnatural emphasis or de-emphasis to certain registers of certain instruments, particularly basses. Because the frequency at which this reinforcement or cancellation occurs is dependent on the distance between the speaker and the room boundaries, we can use good loudspeaker placement techniques to mitigate the deleterious effects of this phenomenon. You can see the effects of room gain in Fig. 3, a loudspeakers anechoic frequency response (its response in a reflection-free room) and its response in a normal room. Not only is the low bass boosted because of room gain, but we now have peaks and dips in the response caused by the constructive and destructive combination of direct and reflected energy, along with room-resonance modes. Figure 4 is the same speaker in the same room, but at different distances from the rear and sidewalls. In this poor placement, caused by the speaker being the same distance from the rear wall as from the sidewall, the side-wall and rear-wall cancellations and reinforcements occur at the same frequency. If we move this speaker in the room so that the distances to the rear and side walls are staggered (by about a third), the response is much smoother (Fig. 5). Take a look at the vertical scale of Figs. 35; were talking about colorations of a whopping 15dB. This is why a loudspeaker designer once told me I have 100% control over the sound of my speaker above 300Hz, 50% control from 150Hz to 300Hz, and 20% control below 150Hz. Proper loudspeaker placementpositioning the speakers different distances from the rear and side wallscan greatly reduce these colorations. __________
Bass Tweaks
So far, weve 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 theres another, more subtle, approach to getting better bass that works on the micro-level, relatively speaking. This 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 dips, but they are significant nonetheless. A fundamental tenet of high-end audio holds that theres not a linear relationship between the magnitude of a difference and the musical effect of that differencethat 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 face of room-induced peaks and dips of 15dB. Particularly effective accessories that can tighten up the bass are feet, cones, and isolation devices, particularly under tubed equipment. Ive heard isolation feet that make the bass sound tighter, weightier, and more articulate tonally and dynamically. A good equipment rack can have a similar effect. The
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and more articulate tonally and dynamically. A good equipment rack can have a similar effect. The combination of more weight and power with greater precision is particularly rewarding. 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 can seemingly add low-end extension, authority, and a more realistic rendering of bass textures. __________
SIDEBAR: SYSTEM Q
Just as a struck bell produces a certain pitch, a woofer in an enclosure will naturally resonate at some frequency. The nature of that resonance is an important characteristic of the loudspeaker, and one that greatly influences its sound. The term Q, for quality factor, is a unit-less number that expresses how a woofer resonates in an enclosure. Specifically, a loudspeakers Q equals the resonant peaks center frequency divided by the peaks bandwidth. A woofer that rings (resonates) over a very narrow frequency band is said to have a higher Q than a woofer that resonates less severely over a wider band of frequencies. The steeper the resonance, the higher the Q. The woofer has its own resonant Q, which is modified by the enclosures Q. These resonances combine and interact to reach the system Q, which usually falls between 0.7 and 1.5, as shown in Fig. 6. A Q of less than 1 is considered overdamped, while a Q of more than 1 is underdamped. Youll sometimes hear a loudspeaker described as having subjectively underdamped bass, which means the bass is full and warm but lacks tightness. Technically, these terms refer to the systems anechoic response (the speakers response in a reflection-free room), specifically whether the response is up or down at the resonant frequency. A critically damped system having a Q of 0.5 provides perfect transient response, with no detectable overhang. That is, the woofer stops moving the instant the drive signal stops. The higher the Q, the more the woofer rings. Subjectively, an underdamped alignment has lots of bass but lacks tightness, has poor pitch definition, and tends to produce one-note bass. An overdamped alignment produces a very tight, clean, but decidedly lean bass response. An overdamped loudspeaker has less bass, but that bass is of higher quality than the bass from an underdamped system. Overdamped speakers tend to satisfy intellectually by resolving more detail in the bass, but often lack the bass weight and power that viscerally involves your whole body in the music. Most loudspeaker designers aim for a Q of about 0.7 to reach a compromise between extended bass response (down only 3dB at resonance) and good transient response (very slight overhang). Some designers maintain that a Q of 0.5 is ideal, and that a higher Q produces bass of poorer quality. Mass-market loudspeakers are virtually always underdamped (high Q) so that the unwary will be impressed by the loudspeakers big bottom end. An example of absurdly high Q is the boom truck that produces a big bass impact but fails to resolve pitch, dynamic nuances, or any semblance of musical detail. That boom you hear is the woofer resonating in its enclosure at a specific frequencythe antithesis of what we want in a high-end loudspeaker. __________
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for you, converting the output of a phonostage to digital might seem anathema. In addition, many DSP room-correction devices have built-in digital-to-analog converters which dont allow you to use your DAC of choice. Its important to note that DSP room correction isnt a magic bullet that will perfectly fix even the most severe problems. If you elect to add DSP correction to your system, the better you can make the system perform without correction, the better. Keep in mind that if you have a suckout of 15dB at 80Hz, the DSP correction system will modify the signal driving your loudspeakers by adding 15dB boost at 80Hz, greatly taxing your woofers. Nonetheless, DSP room correction undoubtedly results in dramatically cleaner bass. The bloat, thickness, and weight are replaced by a much leaner, faster, and more agile sound. Interestingly, removing the midbass bloat makes the very lowest frequencies much more audible, probably because the lowest frequencies are no longer masked by excessive midbass energy. In addition, cleaning up the midbass allows the midrange to sound more open, clean, and transparent. DSP room correction also results in a more sharply defined and focused soundstage. Thats because it makes the response from the left and right speakers at the listening position identical. When the left and right speakers have slightly different frequency responses at the listening position, instrumental images can shift slightly as a function of the register in which they are playing. __________
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