Never Use Bass Boost! Misguided Advice and What to Do - a Car Audio Blog Selection

[BarrySchanz]

Never Use Bass Boost! Misguided Advice and What to Do​

A taste of what to expect in this article:

I believe we all need a good way to tune out distractions. Distractions keep us from focusing on things that really matter. I think it really matters to enjoy music and not be distracted by such questions as:

• Am I going to blow my speakers by using the bass knob?
• Is it shameful for me to like it loud?
• Did I buy good enough equipment to gain approval of my peers?

While I wrote this article within the framework of how to think of and use a sound system in a moving vehicle, there possibly is a wide misunderstanding of the importance of bass in terms of great sound quality for music. Is this a shoddy idea?

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Never Use Bass Boost! Misguided Advice and What to Do​

A taste of what to expect in this article:

I believe we all need a good way to tune out distractions. Distractions keep us from focusing on things that really matter. I think it really matters to enjoy music and not be distracted by such questions as:

• Am I going to blow my speakers by using the bass knob?
• Is it shameful for me to like it loud?
• Did I buy good enough equipment to gain approval of my peers?

While I wrote this article within the framework of how to think of and use a sound system in a moving vehicle, there possibly is a wide misunderstanding of the importance of bass in terms of great sound quality for music. Is this a shoddy idea?

Hey Barry thanks for sharing. I’m sure some of these ideas translate to Home theater and Home audio. Adjusting the bass level is pretty common, everyone likes their bass a little hot once in a while. Some like it very hot once in a while. I certainly turn the bass up and down all the time. I set the system up by measurements and made sure I knew where the “accurate” setting was. I then make adjustments with different material. I also created different dsp profiles for the same reason.

I have a music profile, a standard home theater profile, and a big bass home theater setting. The latter is a bit more complex than simple bass boost. I start by applying a 6db per octave shelf filter in all of these, but the frequency is changed to increase the amount of boost. The big bass is also 6db hot on top of that, but for a smooth blend the rest of the parameters including the crossover is modified. I then apply peq to knock down the peaks from modes. Finally I apply a dynamic eq to the bottom of the response that protects the woofer from distorting. It makes it so if I turn the volume up and there is a big loud effect, the speaker will keep getting louder but with an increasingly invasive negative eq band just below the port tuning frequency. The reason is that the woofer is excursion limited in my setup. I eq flat in my room, but it’s capable of way more output before its thermally limited. The speaker is thermally limited from about 30hz on up.

The right way to do this all would have been with actual full free field characterization of the subs dynamic capabilities but I haven’t done that yet. As such I just use WinISD or HornResp simulations to figure out the dynamic settings. I’ve tried using in room distortion limited spl measurement size but my system can exceed the limit of my mic so I don’t know if the distortion is subs, rattles, or mic distortion. It’s also very loud so I haven’t really worried too much.

 

[Sonnie]

Bass in a vehicle is grossly different than in a listening room/home theater. I rarely have to adjust my bass in my listening room because it is a dedicated room and most all things in it remain constant... and the equipment (especially the speakers) are able to produce better sound. Plus, I tend to listen to a different style of music in my listening room than I do my vehicle because I can enjoy the detail of that style of music. While it can get fairly respectable in a vehicle, it never gets to the same point of the excellent sound stage, superb imaging and especially the depth acuity that I get in my listening room. The vehicle simply cannot allow for the speaker placement and listening position to be as good as the listening room... it's physically impossible, and physically placement does have an effect. Sure you can make up for some of it with delay and equalization, but it just can't get anywhere close to a properly setup room. If it does, then I'd suggest your room needs a LOT of work. The music I listen to in my vehicle is typically all over the place, thus requires bass adjustment from time to time. It's not the fault of the vehicle as much as it is the fault of the music recording, particularly on classic rock music. In a vehicle... there are quite a few variables... the number one variable being exterior noise, be it road noise, wind noise, other vehicle noises, etc, etc. Some of that noise can be cured with damping... but ultimately, gotta have my bass knob due to the variations of music I listen to... and more so if I am swapping between my USB thumb drive and XM radio... it's like a box of chocolates.

 

[AudiocRaver]

Shameful to like music loud? I LOVE it loud. If it was not hearing-unhealthy, I would listen loud all the time.

Thanks for the article link. Car bass can sure be abused. Culturally, music is about different things to different people, though. For some, it is a statement. For those who are listening for the music experience itself, you have some good thoughts to share.

 

[Tonto]

I find a lot of people use excess bass (big time in cars) overpowering the rest of the music. But for HT, definitely like it HOT!

 

[Jeff S]

The biggest factor to me increasing the low frequency volume in my car is to overcome road noise and "drone". I don't like it overpowering, however I certainly like a higher bass level in my car vs. in my home. So many outside noise factors when listening in the car. Thanks for bridging some car audio information.