Audiophile Bass?

I suspect that bass has different meanings to different people.  There is the bass of the kettle drum in a symphony that has both tone and impact (this may be the tight clean bass that is referenced?).  There is the bass at a club that goes boom, boom, boom and mostly just has impact. There is the bass of the kick drum and bass guitar at a live show in a club that has both impact and tone when played back through a good PA system.  And there is everything in between.

For bass at home to reproduce these different types of bass, the recording matters, the room really matters, the listening position matters and the speakers matter.  Without quality subwoofers, properly placed it is pretty hard if not impossible to get bass that remotely approaches any of the described situations, let alone clean, tight, tonally accurate bass...but at the end of the day, you have to "tune" to the type of bass you prefer...the boom of a club which may require a couple of 18" subs that really are good in the 50-100 hz range....or the symphony quality bass which will probably need a different home set up.

Much if not all of the obsession over bass and subwoofers has to do with the problem I spoke of a couple posts ago. If you could get all the bass information off the disc, the information that is actually there undiscovered, audiophiles would not feel so robbed of bass response. If you could hear what I’ve heard with your ears. 

Geoffkait.
Is the lack of bass just a CD problem or is it a digital music in general problem? I don’t notice better bass when streaming vs listening to a CD.

Excellent question. It all depends on how the files that are streamed are obtained. I do not know the sequence of events for how tracks or albums are streamed. What is their source? But I don’t hear people say, “Wow, the bass is much better streaming than on CD” so I suspect the same problem must extend to streaming. In fact, it appears many people prefer CD to streaming. Obviously it’s complicated because there are many ways to stream. When the CD is stiffened properly and the scattered light is eliminated it’s a whole new ballgame. And it’s not only the bass, it’s top to bottom. The signal to noise ratio goes through the roof. Which is what it should have done from the beginning. I’m not hot doggin ya. 🌭

Come to think of it, I like WAV files better than CD, although I haven't put my finger on it. I will listen closer and try to hear if there might be a cleaner bass when compared.I know that this could go on and on, but the source is the source, and if you thunked there, it won't get better downriver.