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Tone controls to get bass from small speakers?

Have you ever thought you'd like to have tone controls at your disposal to do a good job of extending the bass of small speakers? (aw, c'mon, admit it).

Anyway, it seems that whenever a product (usually a budget product) actually does have tone controls, it is set to boost bass around the 100 hz level, and this seems fairly useless. In the past, however, I had an astounding little system consisting of Spica TC-50's, a Marantz CD63, and an AMC 3030 integrated.

The Spicas weren't exactly Jurassic Park dinosaur stompers, but the really cool thing about the AMC was that it boosted bass around 50 hz, not 100 hz. This gave the apparent effect of giving the Spicas real, extended bass.

Do you know of any combination of small speakers and amplification-with-tone-controls that can pull a thirty foot organ pipe out of a hat?

Thanks guys.
stevegolf1
sean
6,229 posts
 
Hotrod, DBX was the first on the market with that type of device. It was called a "Sub-Harmonic Synthesizer". It halved the frequency and then boosted output of that signal. While this can help out bass shy recordings or speakers, it can also EASILY overload small vented speakers if played too loudly. The end result would be massive "doubling" ( mega-distortion ) and possible driver damage. As such, care with any type of tone control should be excercised.

If you're going to attempt such a thing, sealed speakers respond best since they have the shallowest bass roll-off after resonance. Phil Marchand makes such a device for this very purpose called the "Basis". Only thing is that sealed speakers are also power suckers, so you could run into too much draw from a small amp. Sean
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ljgj
955 posts
 
A very "fun" piece of equipment is the Peavey Kozmos. Go to the peavey.com site for more info. Once you put one in your system it will be hard to take it out.
streetdaddy
349 posts
 
Lgjl,
please tell me more about the kozmos. Thanks.
ljgj
955 posts
 
Go to the miscellaneous thread snake oil and fun- I tell it all there - the site also gives you the lowdown (no pun intended).
danvetc
527 posts
 
1. Anyone who still thinks tone controls degrade the sound has not heard the Z-Systems digital equalization units. (Unfortunately, the one I use cost $5K new.)

2. A "small" speaker can only do so much, no matter what you do with a "tone controller." Man, in this situation you have to have a subwoofer if you want the organ pedals. If you let the subs larger driver do the bass work, your monitors/small speakers will do a better job on the mids. (Don't ask a boy to do a man's job!)

Good luck, Charlie.
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