erik_squires: "I am against religious advocacy of any particular methodology. EQs, room treatment and multiple subs are all useful choices. "
Hello Erik,
I'm getting closer to 100% agreement with you on the effectiveness of all 3 methodologies contributing to the quality of bass in one's system and room: EQ, bass room treatments and multiple subs. As I've stated and based on personal experience, I was already convinced that multiple subs is an excellent solution in my system even without the EQ and room treatments methods utilized at all.
In a fortunate and timely occurrence relevant to this topic, I just received and installed some GIK room treatments. My complete order consisted of 10 cartons of room treatments intended to improve my room for all frequencies in the audible spectrum but I decided to initially just install the bass room treatments to better isolate and access their effectiveness on the bass performance in my room. These installed bass room treatments consist of stacked triangular bass traps (GIK named them TRI Traps) in all 4 corners and some 5.25" thick rectangular bass trap panels(GIK named them 244 panels) along the front and rear walls of my room.
As you may recall, I was a bit concerned that adding bass room treatments might negatively effect the already extremely good bass performance I had already attained without the use of any bass room treatments or EQ at all. But I was convinced by the consistent advice from Duke Lejeune, you and GIK Acoustics that bass room treatments, mainly bass traps, would do no harm and only prove to further improve the bass performance perception in my room. It was hard for me to imagine how the bass performance in my room and system could get even better in any bass quality but I decided to give the bass traps a try, anyways.
So, I positioned the stacked pairs of GIK bass traps in all 4 corners and played some familiar acoustic music with good bass (CD versions of the Some Devil album by Dave Mathews and theBrushtail Fairytales by Jack Johnson). I think it's important to state that these are only my initial impressions after installing the bass traps yesterday and listening for a relatively short period of time, my impressions may change after more extensive listening time. The results were somewhat surprising to me.
Your advise was correct, I can discern no negative effects from the addition of the corner bass traps. The bass remained just as smooth, fast detailed, powerful, dynamic and natural with the bass traps deployed as went not utilized. But I didn't discern any improvements in any bass quality, with the possible exceptions of bass detail and depth, either.
Unexpectedly, however, I did notice an improvement in my system's midrange clarity and the level of detail within the soundstage illusion, too. This was a pleasant surprise that I enjoy but currently find difficult to explain. I do expect further improvements in my system's midrange and treble performance quality once I install the numerous GIK absorption and diffusion panels I ordered and have received but the midrange improvements of adding bass traps was completely unexpected.
So, I currently believe that multiple subs and bass room treatments are both valid methods of improving an individual's overall system bass performance. That's 2 of the 3 methods, that you suggested as good methods of improving bass performance, that I can confirm as effective based on my personal experiences and I strongly suspect EQ is also an effective method.
I'm currently hesitant to add EQ to my system since my system currently just requires adjusting the cutoff frequency and the volume on my 4-sub DBA bass system's sub amp/control unit, I don't believe it's necessary for bass improvement in my system/room and I believe simplicity is a benefit.
One of my main intentions of this post is to let you know that I agree with you that EQ, room treatments and multiple subs are all effective methods of improving bass performance.
My other main intention is to let you know that I'm not sure or overly concerned with whether or not you are including me as a religious advocate of the multiple sub DBA method, since I've found this method to be the most effective method based on my experience and the only one of the 3 methods you mentioned that represents a very good solution all by itself.
In matters of supreme beings and supreme home audio bass performance, I naturally but also philosophically, consciously and deliberately attempt to remain agnostic. I prefer to base my decisions on matters of personal choice on more scientific, pragmatic, personally experienced and logical factors when possible.
However, I believe a belief in a supreme being requires a bit of a leap of faith but a belief in the effectiveness of room treatments, multiple subs and likely even EQs only requires an audition.
Thanks for your wise advice,
Tim
