“Real” bass vs. “Boom” — how do you know which?

As you might know the same speakers driven by a different amp can affect the bass like you wouldn't believe. Oh, and lets not forget the source because it also impacts (pun intended)the bass and or quality,thereof.

Consider purchasing "The Sheffield Drum and Track Disc,"

Good suggestion - you can also get this on XRCD from Japan (they used the original master tapes which were made at the same time as they made the Direct-to-disc masters). The nice thing is that the first two tracks offer different examples of tuned drums. This way you can have a feel for where you system sits dynamically and how "tight" your bass is. Of course it would help to hear these tracks on a SOTA system to train yourself how it sounds.

Other tracks are, as suggested above, Chesky's Rebecca Pigeon "Spanish Harlem" with its nicely spaced bass lines - listen to see that all bass notes are of equally loudness (very useful for checking the critical 50 to 80 Hz range).

Other great drum tracks are: George Benson "Weekend in LA" Live "On Broadway" with Harvey Mason on drums. Also Keb'Mo's albums seem to have well recorded drums (unusually they have preserved the drum kit dynamic range on many of his tracks whereas typical rock/pop will crush drums with compresion/limiters). Another (but slightly bass heavy) great sounding CD is Dave Grusin "Hommage to Duke" - listen for balance in the bass riffs.

I'd also recommend funk music due to the heavy importance of drums and bass in this type music. Nils Landgren Funk Unit playing "Da Fonk" is a great one for the bass - very articulate. On the pop music side Peter Gabriels "Sledgehammer" has great bass which can be overpowering if you get it wrong but can sound "goldilocks just right" if you get your bass acoustics adjusted well.

If you get the bass right you will also find there is more depth to the soundstage - perhaps because you hear the lower midrange better and the "ambience" on the recording comes through.

When you listen to music and something sticks out ( say a particular bass note) then you have to ask yourself if it was intended or is a result of an incorrect setup. Usually recording engineers are msuicians and they try to keep everything in balance...

Nevertheless it takes a while to adjust to get used to "real" bass which can be subtle and understated. I

"As you might know the same speakers driven by a different amp can affect the bass like you wouldn't believe."

Yes indeed. for the larger OHMs in particular, that increasingly means a higher current, higher efficiency amp that mostly doubles rated power output from 8 to 4 and even 2 ohms.

So in summary, here is the recipe for the larger OHMs in order of importance IMHO:

1) speaks fit/tuned to room
2) high current amp
3) good quality source and pre-amp

Wow,

Great stash of suggestions, folks. I'm on it. Actually I'm out sick today with a stomach flu (blech) so maybe I'll have a little time to mess with this today (if I can stand up, that is....)
Thanks!

Two possibilities -- listen or measure.

Listen; you must already have recordings with reasonable bass information (<200 Hz). Select a few with what you believe to be the cleanest bass (electric or acoustic bass, low end piano or organ, synthesizer, etc.) and listen at a high/average level. Pay attention to how well different instruments are defined and whether or not there is a dominant tone, regardless of instrument. The "boom" that some have mentioned will often occur around 60 Hz and jump out at you. I'm not a fan of using drum recordings since the bass drum will have one note pitch so will not offer the differentiation I look for.

Measure; while the RS meter may not be a precision instrument, you are looking for differences, not absolute values, so it should work fine. Mount the meter on a tri-pod at your listening position and make notes of the values shown for a test disc such as the bass response segment from one of the Stereophile discs. First set loudness to your normal listening level, then note the dB for the 1K tone. Next write down the dB level for each frequency from 40 to 200 Hz. Any peak tones will be obvious. The goal is to achieve the smoothest bass response possible - the least total dB variation from the 1K baseline when adding up all base frequency measurements. I've used this method to fine tune speaker position with good success.