I'll step out on a limb even further and give you my theory why it cost money to make bass go low and sound natural. Now daddy may be taking his belt off! Obviously there is the money in the actual driver, driver materials, as well as the crossover (materials). More so, perhaps, I would guess that a very dense and rigid housing is paramount for bass drivers. If you think about a large driver bolted to the outside of a wood cabinet producing significant energy within an enclosed wooden box, you start to realize that the more that mounting point and or cabinet walls flexes and resonates, the more of the energy is wasted in that movement, and the more potential for distortion of that energy (read: loose, inaccurate bass). I'd hazard to guess that is where the lighweight floorstanders tend to loose the race in the low end. Though they may produce sound down there, it may not be accurate or lifelike. I can say from my own recommendation of vintage Cornwalls, that you could do much to improve those speakers by adding additional bracing to the inside of the large plywood cabinet, as well as in adding some better sealant (caulking) around the seams of the back and drivers. There are several other tweaks you can do there, but I digress. The best low-end performers I have heard have evident attention paid to a rigid, heavy enclosure. I've not heard any that can perform as well which choose very lightweight materials as an option. The possible exception that comes to mind is a speaker I heard recently that uses an open baffle woofer (no cabinet at all), the Gradient Helsinki, which certainly surprised me. Oh man, I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to sit tomorrow.
A question of bass... Several actually.
I recently auditioned Dynaudio 72's and Rega R3's.
I enjoyed them, the Regas mostly. I found the Dynaudios didn't live up to their hype.
When I asked about bass (speakers having full bass response) the salesman (who owns the shop) said "If you want bass you have to shell out the big bucks."
Is that it?
Is it necessary to spend $1000 per speaker or over to have audible, palpable, appropriate bass reproduction?
To be clear I am not talking about disco dancing bass, but bass frequencies are a necessary part of the audio spectrum.
The salesman also mentioned that for high end audio a separate subwoofer is not appropriate as it "doesn't track."
To cover this fully, doesn't putting the amp output into a sub's crossover to be split to satellites compromise imaging etc?
I enjoyed them, the Regas mostly. I found the Dynaudios didn't live up to their hype.
When I asked about bass (speakers having full bass response) the salesman (who owns the shop) said "If you want bass you have to shell out the big bucks."
Is that it?
Is it necessary to spend $1000 per speaker or over to have audible, palpable, appropriate bass reproduction?
To be clear I am not talking about disco dancing bass, but bass frequencies are a necessary part of the audio spectrum.
The salesman also mentioned that for high end audio a separate subwoofer is not appropriate as it "doesn't track."
To cover this fully, doesn't putting the amp output into a sub's crossover to be split to satellites compromise imaging etc?
- ...
- 35 posts total
- 35 posts total