Learsfool: I appreciate your extended response and covering all bases.
If I had to choose, I would actually pick your prima donna analysis, but there's really no need to go there.
I too abhor the overamplified bass in rock concerts, the problem not being so much that it's too loud, but that it's just not accurate, ie it doesn't sound like actual bass.
To try to be more clear, I would characterize what I am getting at as bass "content," as opposed to loudness. Ie, the sound need not be loud, but it still needs to have a certain "weight" that I think corresponds to what I believe to be the relatively large amounts of air that bass instruments move. (Please correct me if I am wrong in thinking this.) Sitting in an audience, a drum played softly seems to have a very different weight or forcefulness or "ominousness" from a softly played violin. Bass parts can be very complex and very delicate, but at the same time the signature weight IMO is always there. It is this that I found lacking in the dealer's system.
Perhaps there is a better term than "weight." It is the best I have come up with. To me it is an important part of what I call "tonal balance" (perhaps there is a better word for this too).
From various threads I have read, I get the sense that a number of otherwise very demanding audiogoners don't have extended low bass in their systems, whether due to the WF (size of subwoofers) or other factors.
To me it's very important to the music. Among the commercially available speakers I have listened to, I find that the bass in the Legacy Focus is closest both to what I have at home and most accurate in representing real bass sound, though I also know that views regarding these speakers tend to be quite divergent, and they don't have particularly vocal champions on audiogon.
I have separate stereo subwoofers that were designed to work with the satellites and built as part of the system. The first thing every audiophile who has listened to the system has said is how well the bass sound is coordinated within the system. I think in part that's because the tonal balance is pretty good.
If I had to choose, I would actually pick your prima donna analysis, but there's really no need to go there.
I too abhor the overamplified bass in rock concerts, the problem not being so much that it's too loud, but that it's just not accurate, ie it doesn't sound like actual bass.
To try to be more clear, I would characterize what I am getting at as bass "content," as opposed to loudness. Ie, the sound need not be loud, but it still needs to have a certain "weight" that I think corresponds to what I believe to be the relatively large amounts of air that bass instruments move. (Please correct me if I am wrong in thinking this.) Sitting in an audience, a drum played softly seems to have a very different weight or forcefulness or "ominousness" from a softly played violin. Bass parts can be very complex and very delicate, but at the same time the signature weight IMO is always there. It is this that I found lacking in the dealer's system.
Perhaps there is a better term than "weight." It is the best I have come up with. To me it is an important part of what I call "tonal balance" (perhaps there is a better word for this too).
From various threads I have read, I get the sense that a number of otherwise very demanding audiogoners don't have extended low bass in their systems, whether due to the WF (size of subwoofers) or other factors.
To me it's very important to the music. Among the commercially available speakers I have listened to, I find that the bass in the Legacy Focus is closest both to what I have at home and most accurate in representing real bass sound, though I also know that views regarding these speakers tend to be quite divergent, and they don't have particularly vocal champions on audiogon.
I have separate stereo subwoofers that were designed to work with the satellites and built as part of the system. The first thing every audiophile who has listened to the system has said is how well the bass sound is coordinated within the system. I think in part that's because the tonal balance is pretty good.