Bass rant

Too much bass sucks BIG TIME. I hate car subs.. I would never be in a car with a big sub. (I have NO STEREO in my car.. I listen to the car, the tires, the wind..)
As for theater experiences.. I NEVER go to a public thearter anymore. The sound is about 30 dB to f@#king loud to tolerate. Even earplugs are not enough anymore.
As for anything besides classical, or jazz group (none amplified) no thanks.. I want to keep what hearing I have left.
(even today, I roared at the head cashier at the co-op because the "PING" from the #4 aisle check-out scanner was at maximum.. I swear it had to peak at over 110 dB at my ear. It was like a gun being fired every scan. I told them OSHA would fine them!!)(actually I would go to jail if I was the one who had to sit there all day.. I would murder the boss and claim temporary insanity if they refused to lower the volume.)

Ethanh - You won't have to pony up much because older designs that feature the design characteristics you outline are not much in demand. I used an old pair of JBL L-200 speakers as my woofer section. These can be found for $1000 to $1200 per pair and are the basis for a great system. If you do your homework and find some good horns with compression drivers for the top, you will be most of the way there. Look into it.

Elizabeth, I mostly agree with you. I do listen to news and sports on the car radio though.

I think it is important to draw a distinction between three different categories of people who "decry their system's lack of bass," and to resist the temptation to lump them together.

One would be the kind of person who has a high quality system, who typically listens to high quality recordings, and who might be an Audiogon member. In that case, typically the complaint is well justified -- having a system that can reproduce deep bass accurately, especially at high volume levels (when called for by the recording) usually comes at a considerable cost, in terms of money, size, practicality, saf (spouse acceptance factor), and sometimes accuracy in other parts of the spectrum.

A second category would be home theatre enthusiasts, who want to duplicate movie sound effects as closely as possible to what they hear in a movie theatre.

The third (and I think the most common) category would be those who listen to music on low-fi or mid-fi systems, or in automobiles with absurd subwoofer arrangements. In my experience and that of several friends who have very high quality audio systems, that type of person, upon hearing a high quality system that can cleanly reproduce bass which is both deeper and louder than anything they have ever previously heard, will invariably immediately ask "where's the bass?"

The reason being, of course, that what they are accustomed to hearing is over-emphasized mid-bass (with non-existent deep bass, or deep bass with very highly levels of harmonic distortion), and their knowledge of the sound of live music, especially unamplified music, is limited or non-existent.

Regards,
-- Al

My tolerance levels are "very low" for poorly reproduced bass...it's right up there with my tolerance level for sibilance.

And they all think I'm the nut.

Dave