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Is Sub Gain Set&Forget Across Music Genres a Fallacy?

I have a single subwoofer in each of my 3 installations.  Two Rels (S/5 and R-328), and a Sunfire (SDS8).  L/R's are Spendor D7, D1, and SA1, respectively.

Try as I might, I cannot ever seem to arrive at one sub gain setting (to say nothing of crossover setting, but let's leave that alone for now) that works ideally or even sufficiently for all of the music that I listen to (blues, jazz, rock, classic rock, southern rock, country, some pop).

Maybe I'm naive and the answer is simple - of course dummy, why would you think there'd be a single setting that would work for everything?  

It'll sound perfect for certain songs/genres (majority), but then I today listen to Jimmy "Duck" Holmes new blues album "Cypress Grove" (really good), which has a TON of bass (and really good recurring bass on certain tracks - probably a pretty good album for sub setup) and I find I need to dial everything way back.

So if I say, okay, this Cypress Grove album is my baseline for setting up my sub, then it'll probably come up wanting on other stuff, ugh.  I am going to get some GIK room treatment monster bass traps to go on the front wall, so I know that will help.

As I said, maybe the simple answer is, YES, there is no such thing as set and forget for subwoofers across music genres.

PIA to keep changing the gain during a listening session but appears that is way it has to be if I don't want to just ignore the non-ideal-ness of the bass with single setting (not my style).....    If that's wrong, LMK what the magic secret is!  

I anticipate some will say multiple subs is the only way to cure this.  Perhaps, but not an option at present time for me.  Looking to keep this discussion to single sub if possible, as I know it could easily morph to a swarm discussion quickly. 

If sub swarm is the only answer, however, I suppose I could accept that.  But if room treatment and careful setup can get there, that's preferable.  Maybe set/forget not even possible with swarm - kinda seems like this could be an issue that more subs don't necessarily fix? 
kren0006
derekw_hawaii
95 posts
 
noble100 +1
Don't underestimate feeling, especially regarding bass, in music. I thought there was a finding that we felt quicker than we heard. Eg. That our hairs stood up BEFORE we heard (thru our brains) a loud explosion.
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
Hello derekw_hwaii,

     I haven't heard that but it seems right to me.  I've always thought and felt that the most obvious telltale characteristic that you're listening to reproduced music on a home system, rather than the real thing being played live, is the power, impact, weight and dynamics of the lowest 2 octaves of deep bass, about 16-32 Hz, that is felt as well as heard.  
     This all makes sense to me since the bass is the hardest thing to get sounding and feeling right in almost any domestic sized room using typical mass market stereo components and conventional system configurations. 
     Of course, there are other telltale signs that distinguish recorded music playback from the real live thing, such as the seemingly unlimited dynamic range of instruments and the human voice at higher frequencies, but these are easier to get sounding and feeling right in a domestic sized room using good quality stereo components and conventional system configurations.
     However, I believe high quality bass reproduction requires a minimum of 2 good quality subs in the room that are properly positioned and configured.  I also still believe that 3-4 subs, properly positioned and configured, are required to optimize the bass performance in virtually any room.

Tim 
derekw_hawaii
95 posts
 
Hi Tim. PMed you since I'm tardy in my repy and we may be getting off topic. 
Derek
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 

     
Hi Derek,

     I read your PM, thank you.  I PMed you my response.

Tim
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