2. speakers
  3. 155552-117859

Bass at your ears? (Bass imaging)

This song 'James Blake - Limit to your love' has this weird bass that kicks in at about 1:00 into it. Now I have heard this song on a few speakers and it sounded great but when I heard it on the magico m2 I could literally hear the bass right at my ears as if I was wearing heapdhones. It was such a strange sensation. Is this indicative of the m2s incredible imaging capability or is this something else? This was in an irregularly shaped room with a big hallway to one side and hardly any treatment.
smodtactical
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
jetter, thank you for the thoughtful post. My observation was terse, so apologies for offense as though I was disdaining budget audiophiles. 

I played the song referenced by OP. Strange song; at first I was thinking, "What bass?" When it finally showed up, the pulsating character was evident. Seems there is also manipulation of the frequency spectrum, the lower midrange downward is introduced, then removed along with the pulsing. Sounds very phasey.  
larry5729's avatar
larry5729
1,008 posts
 
I like the way REL designed their high level connection.  They really act as an additional woofer and they are not detectable if you set them up right.  It is also important to play two instead of one for room balance and for staging.  All you want to do is to be able all that is there in a recording.  Nothing worse than boom boxes.  Like the guy I purchased my ARCAM from, he refers to them as trunk slammers.  
larry5729's avatar
larry5729
1,008 posts
 
Meant to ask.  What do you mean by bass at your ears?  I thought you want to create distance and sound stage in order to visualize the artist playing between the speakers.  If you want bass at your ears buy a good pair of headphones and then good luck with hearing staging.
smodtactical OP
967 posts
 
What I mean is, the imaging of the bass is so good that you feel it right at your ears even though you are sitting 12 feet away from the speakers. And this is an electronic bass... not bass from a musician in the song. That kind of bass is of course well reproduced as you would expect.
Listen to the song on high end speakers and you might get the same effect.
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
3,159 posts
 
Ok, played that song on my system and have to say it’s ridiculous to even try to discuss something so inherently electronic and studio manufactured.  Completely unnatural sounding...the word techno scrap comes to mind. I’ve heard some super low frequencies on Kpop songs that at least have some acoustical merit in support of the song and are better recorded.  Low frequency electronic oscillations are great for woofer break in but not for music...certainly not as a system check of any sort!
More to discover