I don't really hear my bass!

[fenderguy]

hey all, I live in a small cell of a concrete room in a dormitory. In this small 12x8 room i have two floor speakers (each with 12 inch woofers) two bookshelf pioneers, and 4 klipsch satelites all running through two different recievers via a pre-amp. I also have a 12 inch cerwin vega sub, and a 15 inch DCM sub. With all of this equipment and subsequent power, you'd think i'd have killer bass... and i do; but only if you're sitting. If you sit on the couch (with one sub on each side) the thing will ratttle your spleen, but if you stand up and walk around the room, you don't hear very much bass at all. You can actually hear it better outside of my room in the stairwell. I realize that this sort of thing happens, where the sound of the bass is lost in the room it is being produced in, however, how do i overcome this?? A friend of mine has a much larger room and an 8 inch cerwin sub and I can hear his just fine... it sounds really good. It won't make you wet yourself, but at least you can hear it when you're standing up. I also realize that a smaller sub will generally be more musical and is more appropriate for hearing bass, but i would think that between the two 12's in the floors, the cerwin and the DCM i'd be hearing more than i am. I've had a number of people walk into my room and say "it doesn't have much bass..." That'll **** a guy off right there. I hate having to ask people to sit down to experience it properly.

I should add that this problem isn't as prevalent if i play something with extreme bass, such as rap, but i generally don't listen to that sort of genre of music.

Thanks for any of your comments,
Nick

[Blaser]

fenderguy wrote:

hey all, I live in a small cell of a concrete room in a dormitory. In this small 12x8 room i have two floor speakers (each with 12 inch woofers) two bookshelf pioneers, and 4 klipsch satelites all running through two different recievers via a pre-amp. I also have a 12 inch cerwin vega sub, and a 15 inch DCM sub. With all of this equipment and subsequent power, you'd think i'd have killer bass...

Definitely!

and i do; but only if you're sitting. If you sit on the couch (with one sub on each side) the thing will ratttle your spleen, but if you stand up and walk around the room, you don't hear very much bass at all.

Normal, 2 things here:

- Room modes (dips and peaks).
- Separated subs may cancel each other at higher (hearable) frequencies if not properly ajusted!

You can actually hear it better outside of my room in the stairwell. I realize that this sort of thing happens, where the sound of the bass is lost in the room it is being produced in, however, how do i overcome this??

Easy:
- play with the phase switch/knob or either sub, and see what you get, and/or
- Co-locate subs (stacked together, or within 3-4 ft of each other and equidistant from your listening position.
- try moving them in a front corner, or at least near the front wall.
- Run the REW and check you FR, and let us have an idea.

A friend of mine has a much larger room and an 8 inch cerwin sub and I can hear his just fine... it sounds really good. It won't make you wet yourself, but at least you can hear it when you're standing up.

- I wouldn't worry too much about this, the most imoportant thing is your listening position.

I also realize that a smaller sub will generally be more musical and is more appropriate for hearing bass,

Not true! Sorry,

but i would think that between the two 12's in the floors, the cerwin and the DCM i'd be hearing more than i am. I've had a number of people walk into my room and say "it doesn't have much bass..." That'll **** a guy off right there. I hate having to ask people to sit down to experience it properly.

I should add that this problem isn't as prevalent if i play something with extreme bass, such as rap, but i generally don't listen to that sort of genre of music.

Normal, you are certainly experiencing phase cancellation problems due to separation of your subs and/or not properly adjusting their phase.[/quote]

Thanks for any of your comments,

Welcome!

[cyberbri]

Also, another thing is, although I haven't heard your system, some people assume bass is only "good" if it's booming and much louder than the rest of the music. Plus, hip hop and rap tends to have bass in the higher mid-bass range, where it's more audible and boomy.

Just as an example, in my wife's Jetta's stock stereo, I have to turn the bass control (has bass, mid, and treble) down about 5~6 notches for the music we listen to. Which is mostly indie rock (mid and treble are around +2 ~ +3). If it's at 0, it's boomy and gives me a headache. But if the music is hip hop or pop, it doesn't sound nearly as bad with the bass turned up higher. Maybe because there's not as much bass in the 100s when the bass is artificial, so it doesn't sound boomy.


I agree that there could be cancellation in the room, especially with two subs. Try it with just one sub. And have you calibrated the levels of the speakers/subs at all?

[Blaser]

Good post my friend Cyberbri!!

[fenderguy]

It should be stated that i have done no real calibration of the system, other than messing with crossovers and such. The room is so small, and my options for moving things around so limited, that I never really felt it would help. I would like to try the room eq wizard to see what it says, however i don't have a mic of anykind.

I ran my system with only the cerwin for quite awhile, i personally like the sound better. however, whenever we have parties (in the halls and such) my system is the one that's always on, so i turn on the big DCM to get a little more punch.

As for the boomyness being good bass, i agree that boomyness is not what i'm going for. I was listening to the song "Sideways" by santana in a friend of mines room who just has an Altec Lansing 4 speaker + sub computer speaker setup, and i swear the bass sounds so much smoother on that thing compared to my monster. there really is no audible bass in my system. If you're sitting down it'll shake the bejesus out of you. However if you're standing up, or out in the hallway, you don't really hear much. I guess i'll mess around with the crossovers somemore, and maybe switch the locations of the subs. try running only the cerwin again. It's just very frustrating. I had my DCM down in our lounge, which is a pretty big room, hooked up with 4 MTX 3 way satelites and a Yamaha receiver and i swear i could have had a Rave going on down there. But once you stuff that sucker in my tiny room, you lose all sound.... .stupid little room.