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Enhanced bass button?


HIFI4EVER

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I have some Speakerlab K's now and they are not getting the bass I'd like.

 

I tried the BOSE 901 series 1 eq on them and it really woke them up, but I only want that enhanced bass.  There used to be a loudness button on stereos, and later  on was "super bass" .

 

I use 2 QSC bridged 1400 amps and a QSC preamp that is pretty universal, but I'd really like to get that extra punch.

 

Any ideas on how to do it?

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An EQ would do it, as would a different preamp. The Adcom GTP-500 I use has defeatable tone controls as well as a contour/loudness button. Personally, I'd be more likely to use a preamp with tone controls than a separate EQ unit. In my mind (and hopefully someone can tell me if I'm wrong,) a well-designed preamp will have more neutral sounding tone controls than a graphic EQ, which might degrade the sound noticeably depending on the one you find.

 

Patching in the tone control on my preamp is supposed to defeat the direct-coupling that is one of its main features, but the difference in sound is so minute that it could actually be placebo. It does reduce ground loop noise, which is an unexpected but welcome feature!

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Back in the day, Harman/Kardon put what is called a "contour" switch on their SS receivers.  This differed from the "loudness" control in that as the amplifier section worked harder as the volume control was increased, the contour effect became less. If I remember correctly, as less efficient speakers came along, H/K filled a need with its contour switch to supply more oompf to the speakers in specific frequency range bands which tended to need more power to compensate for sonic accuracy at lower volume settings.  As the volume was turned up, the contour effect lessened to a point where it was doing pretty much nothing once the volume control got to a certain point. There are other tech guys on this forum who may be better able to explain the difference between the contour and loudness controls, so go to it brothers and sisters!

 

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Thanks for pointing that out about the "contour" switch HDBR, I have always felt that it operated differently, and that there was a good reason for it not being labeled "loudness" as every other manufacturer does. It would be interesting to know what the technical differences are.

 

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" the difference between the contour and loudness controls, so go to it brothers and sisters! "

 

The HK were no different than the others. The HK430 with the contour (loudness) on would clip on FM before the volume control hit the 10 o'clock position (I still own a 430, and bought my father a 730, which my brother absconded with).

 

Yamaha and McIntosh had variable loudness controls, those two were different.

 

The APT preamp had a bass control with a turn-over switch designed for loudness use, it sounded quite good in that function.

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