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Why the obsession with the lowest octave

From what is written in these forums and elsewhere see the following for instance.

Scroll down to the chart showing the even lowest instruments in this example recording rolling off very steeply at 40 Hz.

http://www.homerecordingconnection.com/news.php?action=view_story&id=154

It would appear that there is really very little to be heard between 20 and 40 Hz. Yet having true "full range" speakers is often the test of a great speaker. Does anyone beside me think that there is little to be gained by stretching the speakers bass performance below 30-40 cycles?
My own speakers make no apologies for going down to only 28 Hz and they are big floor standers JM Lab Electra 936s.
mechans
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Onhwy61... Two signals, one at 30 Hz and the other at 20 Hz will yield a "beat" at 10 Hz.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Yeah, and a snare drum whack is maybe an even better example of the very complex sounds we listen to.

I think what sometimes happens is we read the definition where is says that the harmonics are "integer multiples" but we forget that there is a negative integer series that fills in below the fundamental and we get that bell curve shape around the fundamental. This is in the frequency domain.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Dan_ed... I don't believe that you can call modulation below the fundamental a "harmonic".

Consider a violin string. It is fixed at each end. and sounds a fundamental tone. But, by soft placement of a finger in the middle of the string you can immobilize that point of the string so that each section (end-to-middle and middle-to-other-end vibrate at a higher frequency because the length of sting is shorter. I don't see any way to make the string vibrate at a lower frequency (other than by loosening it up).
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
3,575 posts
 
Mixing two different tones is another story but the lowest frequency is called root and the rest are overtones that are higher. When you play instrument with complex harmonic structure (typical for percussion instruments) like piano - each key produces tone and overtones. There is no sub-overtones. The same is with guitar and many other instruments. Some things like bells produce subharmonics but for the rest of the instruments it is not common. You can obtain subharmonics with violins using special techniques (not very common) but you won't get it from the piano's individual keys.
dcrugby
96 posts
 
i relate to what ecruz said.

the first time i hooked up subs it totally baffled me how the soundstage expanded.

also the perception of low level detail.
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