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35Hz - 25kHz -- A Partial 'Purist'?

It's amazing how much musical information can be found in the lowest bass regions say 30Hz down to below 20Hz, whether classical, folk, instrumental, pop, etc..

Yet, I'm purplexed to see some to many audiophile 'purists' refuse to even attempt to resolve the obvious deficiency in their systems which simply cannot reproduce any musical information in the lowest regions of the frequecy spectrum.

No matter how musical, how refined, and/or how infinite the configurations a good musical subwoofer can offer, the 'purist' simply will not consider adding a subwoofer to supplement their mains. There's too many good subs (you only need one) ranging from $1k to $30k that can be quite quite musical and allow for near-infinite configurations to adapt to most any system and listening preference. And, yes, I am aware there are many more bad subwoofers, but's that's another thread.

As a self-proclaimed 'fundamentalist', my quest is to ensure my 2-channel system is such that any musical information coming from the source stands an excellent chance of being faithfully reproduced for my listening pleasure.

And by adding a musical 18 inch subwoofer, I don't believe I've given up anything.

I would enjoy hearing what others think.
stehno
rlwainwright
1,901 posts
 
It seems a moot point to me - a 20Hz tone produces a wavelength of 56.5 feet (at sea level, 70 deg. fahrenheit). How many of you have rooms that big?
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
Rlwainwright. Since my room is 10x12 according to your suggestion I should not bother with any frequency below 90Hz ? Obviously not.
Driving frequencies below the lowest resonant frequency of the room is the whole point of most subwoofers. You should listen to a good sub sometime. It may not be to your taste, but I guarantee you'll hear frequencies much lower than your simple formula suggests.
gumbydammit
186 posts
 
Just a note here....
I found a good balance simply by backing the sub out of the mix a bit.
Big, old amp with level controls and a aged Canton sub...when turned down..added a nice foundation to the system, without taking over.
The less you push to it, the less it clouds things up.
When you have a 12X14 room, you have to get your base somehow...the Tabs certainly dont go low enough on thier own.
Good info in this thread!!! :)
rlwainwright
1,901 posts
 
>> ...but I guarantee you'll hear frequencies much lower than your simple formula suggests. <<

No, what you are "hearing" is 1/4 and 1/2 wavelengths reflected back upon themselves giving you peaks and valleys as you move thru the room. I didn't make up the laws of physics, I simply (must) abide by them. It is physically impossible for your room to support a full wavelength of very low frequency - some fraction of it will bounce off the back wall and then reflect back onto itself, causing amplitude doubling at some location and complete cancellation at another.

If you want true low freq. reproduction, ya gotta have a big room or hall - them's the facts.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
You're right that there are peaks and valleys in the bass response due to the standing wave pattern in the room, and that this means sub placement is critical relative to the walls and listening position in most rooms.

Within the peaks and valleys you are still hearing true low frequency notes ... just the standing wave pattern makes the relative volume of the sub and the main speakers vary thoughout the room. Hence the placement issue.
This aside you can have very satisfying, if not perfect, low frequency reproduction in a small room, and for me this substantially increases my enjoyment of the music. What you are presenting are facts, but they're not the full facts, and to imply that they are is misleading.
Have you ever heard a good sub setup ?
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