I agree totally.
Don't really know why, but a lot of people seem to think that load bass improves the music when in reality it detracts from subtle sounds that makes up music.
Very little original music has strong, load bass with the possible exception of electronic music which can reproduce very load artificial bass notes.
This all started years ago (in the 70's) when disc jockeys started using a bass enhancement device made by dBx which artificially boosted the low frequencies of all music by 10 - 20 dB. The way it works is the lower the original bass, the more the boost. It also halved the low end so if the vinyl record / stylus could only produce 50 Hz as the lowest possible bass, the dBx unit would half that to 25 Hz plus boost the volume at the same time so you ended up with an artificial load low end.
The original intent was to recover the missing low end in vinyl phonographic records that would not mechanical reproduce the original bass of the music due to various limitations in the record & stylus. It worked very well for vinyl records but was a total overkill when CD's hit the scene as they already had all the original bass intact. But, the disc jockeys kept right on using the dBx bass boost device on all music regardless if it needed it or not.
It got totally carried away so today many people think that is how the music is supposed to sound whereas it is mostly artificial.
Now, many people associate load bass with load music. How many times have you heard some idiot driving down the road with all the windows wide open with 120 - 130 dB sound pressure streaming out the windows for all to hear (blocks away) & setting off car alarms thinking it is funny? They should be arrested, period... for disturbing the piece that we should all be able to enjoy. I don't know about you, but I do not want to hear someone else's idea of what music should sound like. Besides that, they are a safety hazard... an accident waiting to happen!
Real original music has more then load bass to offer.
Much music is so compressed for commercial reasons (narrow dynamic range) that it often sounds flat & the only thing saving it is the load bass which we fell as much as we hear.
One thing often totally missing is dynamic range... the difference between the loudest and softest parts of the music. All you have to do is go to a classical concert with a large orchestra to experience a true dynamic range of music. Classical often spans the range from 30 Db (very quite) to over 130 Db (very load indeed). Nowhere else can you experience such dynamic power of music without an artificial sound.
Some really good jazz also has a pretty good dynamic range but not as much as classical.
I suppose artificial bass boost has its place (somewhere) but I find that really great music does not need any help other then to have a great artist or orchestra playing it. But then again, maybe that's the problem... much music today is simply not that good & needs all the help it can get, ha, ha... there is the answer!
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Topic: Bass Booost (Read 4895 times)