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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
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..
jeff_jones
418 posts
 
There are lots of stories like yours, when something happens that forces us to seperate what is real from what is percieved, the results don't often tend to be flattering. Thanks for the thread!
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