Does Every Track Sound Great on Your System?

12many OP

221 posts

05-03-2024 at 02:42am 

Thanks all.  Good info.  My issue is not so much about a poor quality recording, just that some good recordings are coming across with a bit too much bass energy, while other sound good, even when they have bass content.  It may be the room or speaker positions or me - maybe I am not accepting enough of the artists/mixers choice to have more bass in some parts of the song.  I don't have subs in my system, but did have this issue before when using subs.

@12many did you read that article? It is exactly about your query, as I’d mentioned. @yoyoyaya also gave you a sound (pun!) explanation.

All the EQ stuff / kit discussion would be useful, maybe, if you opt to use more power and software.

Laptop in the listening chair as a remote got a chuckle from me 😉

By way of example with a focus on bass, for some songs I like the amount of bass, then another song I feel like it needs more bass to hit harder, and then another song I feel like there is too much bass and it is boomy. Does that ever happen to you? I feel like I am getting the treble sorted out, but going back and forth on the bass. Can anyone listen to the first 20 second of the song Temptation by Diana Krall from the

If you are sitting on top of a modal peak or two, any track that has significant content at that frequency could boom you all the way to China town (Boom Shacka laka). Plot your room modes, position yourself out of such modes or use a pair of subs at the ’correct locations’ to ’cancel’ those modes out.

Some crappy recordings from the 80s and so on will be bass flaccid. If that’s the case, turn the tone controls knob clockwise. If the listener is a "pure" individual and refrains from usage of gear with EQ, tone controls, etc, well, such is his predicament (One lays in the bed he makes). The number of recordings he may really enjoy could drop from 5000 to 5.

Every recording you have ever heard in life has already gotten EQ’d all the way to high heaven before it got put on a CD or vinyl for you (it ain’t pure). There is nothing wrong with EQ’ing it to your taste if the mastering guy (who got way too high the night before) screwed it up while he EQ’d away.

Amen!

No:  not every track sounds good on my system.

A revealing system makes a crap source sound even crappier.

12many OP

Some bass great, other bass bad: It’s your space then, certain bass frequencies (or their overtones), not all, are causing problems, becoming stronger/weaker/mud by the mix of reflections of those/some specific frequencies.

I would try different positions and different toe-in, I just posted this about that:

Toe-In Alternates

"Thanks all. Good info. My issue is not so much about a poor quality recording, just that some good recordings are coming across with a bit too much bass energy, while other sound good, even when they have bass content. It may be the room or speaker positions or me - maybe I am not accepting enough of the artists/mixers choice to have more bass in some parts of the song. I don’t have subs in my system, but did have this issue before when using subs."