Shouldn't the Bass be felt? Duh

Blueskies:
I know exactly what you're talking about.. in my experience the only way to get that sound is a Big ol 15" woofer job like a JBL L-200, L300, Altec 19, or similiar. And a very good amplifier..
My way of dealing with this is having a pairs of speakers to match whatever mood I'm in.

Bass isnt as important to me as a smooth, clean, extended treble. Combined with the fact that my listening room is only like 13x15, extended, bone rattling bass isn't missed. However, the bass I do have is tight and clean.

I understand that bass divides the men from the boys speaker-wise. Should it be felt? Well depends. If you mean should it be felt at all times, then the answer is no. On the other hand, if you mean that when necessary should it be felt, then I resoundingly say yes. You seem to favour amplified music and use rock concerts as your baseline. Doing this will, in my opinion, inevitably lead to too much bass of the boomy variety. Since many people augment the bass with a sub and, therefore, have to adjust the level of the bass (leaving aside the cutoff point and slope) I think that you can, no matter how unnatural, get the type of bass you want with a sub, decently sized main speakers and enough power, bearing in my mind that the fundamentals of the lowest note of an electric bass are not near the sub woofer region. Doing this will take a strain off the main speakers' woofer(s) and the amplifier driving it (them) and provide cleaner bass in the frequencies that matter bass-wise in music. So, I think your question probably has more to do with the volume of the bass heard and how clean it is than with how very low it will go.

I agree with you Blueskiespbd....however, some people do not have the skills, room, budget, desire, need....or any number of "other reasons" to consider those freq's important to their overall musical enjoyment.

Myself.....deep bass is a "must have" to truly enjoy some of my music. I'm very lucky to have a large dedicated room, and the components to provide this enjoyment. (was not always the case...bass was not very good in my old room).

Dave

In my experience, I also have come to the same conclusion as Blueskiepbd.

The reasons I place on not getting bass right are:
1) Incorrect loudspeaker placement. For the best explanation of this, see Romy The Cat's Article on "The Dead Points of Live Sound" http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=994 The speaker-room interface is the MOST important link in the audio chain, bar none. Any deviation from this, and I do not care what it is (formulas, computer models, the way 99.9999% of us including me have sited our speakers, WAF, etc.) renders most of the rest of the argument of one's system to me, moot - you simply are not getting anywhere near the most out of your system. And, while the conventional wisdom is to push the speakers towards walls for low frequency reinforcement, the opposite is true - most audiophiles have not pulled them out enough (try it).

2) Ignoring the Fletcher-Munson Curve. While I'm obviously far more of a subjectivist, unless we turn up the volume to levels beyond where oh so many audiophiles listen, there will be no bass felt or heard.

3) Improper amplifier-loudspeaker matching. While I don't use high power solid state amplification, most of us know the pendulum has swung the other way. And, for many running low power tubes, their respective loudspeakers are too demanding a load to produce the entire frequency spectrum.

Finally, "better" bass means quality AND quantity. Either without the other is most definitely not "better bass".