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Snake oil, subs and alcohol

I've been listening for the last week to a few CDs of albeit recorded "studio" music, but fairly live sounding CDs. Actually they are Jamie Cullum "Catching Tales" and Corrine Bailey Rae - self titled as far as I can see.

At certain points, depending upon volume, the bass stands out, and I have thought - "I know the sub is turned up a little too high, but I just like it that way!"

So during some "serious" listening this evening, I thought well that's enough of this slightly bloated bass, I knock the sub down 3 knotches. So I did, and dutifully the system did sound like it had the heart ripped out of it. Not bad, just different.

So I messed with the DSP seting I have on my Meridian - they are great - and set the Direct (2 channel as opposed to trifield 5.1) and even more sucked out sounding.

So having thought, this is lovely, but I prefer it my way, I'm turning the sub back up three notches, I don't care how accurate it is, I find when I turn it back up again......................

.................

The sub wasn't switched on...........

And hasn't been on for weeks...............

Makes me question what I think I have been hearing all along......
dmurfet
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
To me digestion of a music very often mixed with some pot consumption especially for progressive rock wich numbers more than half of my music collection.
dmurfet OP
101 posts
 
Tommy - "when I see 5 beers and five hours I don't see coincidence, I see providence"

Drubin - I'd been out on a very acoholic cookery course and decided to "bat on" :o)
mdhoover
695 posts
 
That's a very good example of SUB-liminal suggestion.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
LOL. I have had the same thing happen in reverse. I was testing the Direct Analog sound versus the A/D and back to D/A circuit in my DSP preamp. I wanted to check there was no degradation to the sound using the DSP built in ADC and DAC (an extra signal path).

Well I forgot to turn off the sub! Since the sub only receives a signal when using ADC and DAC ( no subwoofer output on analog direct) I was A to B comparing music with sub and without it => of course there was a difference!

This really surprised me at first because I was not expecting to hear any difference given the ADC and DAC circuits have distortion specs well below what I know I can detect audibly.

After this surprise and once I remembered to switch off the sub, I could no longer tell whether the extra ADC and DAC was in the circuit or not...but I had a laugh.
shoe
204 posts
 
I have my step son-in-law over who is 21.
I play some really heavy bass music.
It's full, punchy, and deep, the floorboards vibrate slightly. In my mind I say" Oh Yea "!
He turns to me and says, in all seriousness,
"Sounds good but where's the bass"??
So after that I think I need a pair of 15" subwoofers, and a car to put them in..
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