Quarantine Quality Quandary

[willland]

QQQ, with or without subs?

 

After rediscovering how well my RB-75's sound without a subwoofer, I decided to revisit my RF-63's with and without subwoofers.  My family room rig(see gear profile below) is used mostly for movies with both subs corner loaded for more pressurized impact for those smash'em up action flicks, and boy do I feel it.  Now for music, that corner placement leaves something to be desired.  Too boomy, and a bit exaggerated. 

 

So, I moved both subs inside the RF-63's pointing straight out toward the room.  Threw my Eagles "Farewell I Tour(Live From Melbourne)" BD in and planted my fanny in my recliner, set the NAD to stereo with Audyssey "NAD Curve" engaged(I know I should re-run Audyssey with new sub placement) and listened intently.  The boominess was gone and the over emphasized slow midbass now had a grip and punch that danced elegantly with the very well recorded disc.  Imaging was clearly better than before.  I really like how this rig has evolved for music by just changing one thing, okay two things.

 

Now to what my quality quandary is all about, with or without subs?  After playing a few songs on the BD with subs, I decided to go set the NAD to "Analog Bypass"(no subs, no DSP, no Audyssey) and replay the same songs at same volume level at -28.   I figured the song "I Can't Tell You Why" would be a true test with Tim Schmit's solid bass lines and Don's subtle kick drums.  What I now had was a pretty raw, neutral presentation that sounded a bit flat but still detailed enough for background music but not enough for critical listening.  What to do?  I then pumped up the volume to -20 and had a listen.  Now things got a bit louder but also fuller with some added depth but still lacked that something.  What was it?  Could it be that I just needed to inject the subs back into the mix?  Or, just pump the bass tone controls up a few notches(+3)?  That was it, what a huge difference.  I use bass tone controls very sparingly but this time that was the missing ingredient.  I always knew the 63's had it in them but this experiment solidified that fact.  Spot on imaging was back full force with a 3D presentation that most music lovers would kill to achieve.  Those six 6.5" woofers can sure thump.

 

QQQ, with or without subs?

Just flip a coin.

 

Bill

[MC39693]

I use a music server. As I’ve written before, why can’t the music server store per track setup information and send to the AVR / pre / amp before the track begins so we can have the bass etc tuned the way we like for each track?  I use twin subs too and need to change their attenuation too often, from my recliner! 

[MechEngVic]

Is all good when we make a change and it makes things sound worse, we can just put things back how they were. But when we make changes and they sound good too? Yes, quandry indeed. I was surprised to find out just how much a subwoofer can affect the sound of your mains. They don't just add low bass, they can clash with your mains to cause nulls at higher bass frequencies, and they can affect how high frequencies sound. You have the sub's gain, it's crossover frequency, it's phase, and it's position; all things that can add to, or take away from, that imaging you're loving right now. Sounds like a good "corona project". 

[glens]

Be sure to take copious notes!

[DirtyErnie]

I'm a big fan of subs if they're properly blended with the mains.  no frequency overlap, no level difference.  Also my preference is to cross to the mains a bit above their lowest frequency, I'm not really a fan of 'port' bass if the sub sounds better/quicker in that frequency range.

 

I should add to this, there's often little energy in most music below 35-40Hz, most people are surprised to learn that the 'thump' of a kick drum is at about 80Hz, where the average human chest cavity resonates.  About the only recording I know of that can get below that is 'Dare' by Gorillaz.  There's a sub-harmonic in the ~20Hz range that you'll miss once you've heard it. (and I have 4 12's that need to get built into a floor joist infinite baffle....)