Is this what tight bass is supposed to sound like

kidglove13

I do not know if this is the right place to post this so here it goes.

A few months back I pickup my first pair of SDA's and changed some other things in my 2 channel system.

The SDA's have been dynamatted and that is the only mods done to them.

I also pick up a modified Adcom 545II to replace my other Adcom 545I.

I will get into the modified Adcom 545II in another post.

But up until now my system has been marginal at best with ported speakers and such and the bass was how do I say this muddy or kind of boomy with the old setup

So I have never really experienced really tight bass from my 2 channel system until now.

It is taking me a bit of time to get used to it, I am amazed at what it is really supposed to sound like.

Joe08867

Welcome to the world of great speakers. Love to hear about that modded Adcom. They are awesome amps and I recommend them to people all the time.

heiney9

Just an FYI, a passive radiator speaker is a port, but a different kind of port and while you don't name what other speakers you had, SDA's have incredibly accurate, natural and tactile bass. There is no substitute for volume and surface area. You also don't name what SDA's you own.

H9

kidglove13

I do understand that a passive radiator is another form of speaker port and that it behaves entirely different than a tube ported speaker. Even though it is a port it is still considered a sealed unit which is the big difference.

My last speakers were modified Mirage FRX 7 towers, which I dont believe are even in the same league
They were primarily designed for HT use and are ported front and back.

It is just amazing at what music sounds like when you move up the food chain with equipment and such.

heiney9

I am not going to argue, but it isn't a sealed unit and it really acts in the same manner as a port. The mechanism is different but the concept is exactly the same. The execution is certainly more pleasing.

Anyway, enjoy them which ever SDA's you have. They do many things very well. If you don't have the new silk domw tweeters and modern fresh capacitors and resistors you can take them to an entirely different level by doing those simple things.

H9

kidglove13

Not arguing, you clearly have way more knowledge than I do about this stuff.

They are SDA 1B's

The others mods are soon to come as well.

sda2mike

nice going, kidglove...i find ports sound to much like the box they're porting, if that makes sense..mostly all the tube-ported speakers i've heard have a certain amount of slop...

Joe08867

You need to get into Transmission line speakers to really get away from that box like port sound. And I don't even mean the single driver style I mean the IMF multi driver TL speakers. Those are some amazing speakers to hear.

Like Brock I prefer Passive Radiator to Ported for my speakers. Just seems more controlled IMHO.

1B's are nice speakers, Hopefully you mod them up and really hear what they can do.....

heiney9

kidglove13 wrote: »

Not arguing, you clearly have way more knowledge than I do about this stuff.

They are SDA 1B's

The others mods are soon to come as well.

You will love them even more when the mod's are complete. Congrats

H9

kidglove13

Thanks

I have been listening all day to music from Yo Yo Ma to Steve Vai and with the new modified Adcom 545 II, the tube preamp and my DIY speaker cable it has just been awesome

Even more so when I first bought them a few months back

And to think I am only into this system for $750 all in speakers, Adcom amp, Maverick Audio D1 tube pre with upgraded tube, Onkyo CDP and DIY cables such a simple system.

Who ever thought music could sound so good.

Now on to the speaker mods, time to start selling off other items I no longer use.

gdb

now, for extreme tight bass.....put on some Jaco Pastorius.

sda2mike

yeah, but is jaco even bass! as in low-end? you are correct, gdb..as a matter of fact, i'm gonna play the Birthday Concert..(jaco's 30thirtieth b'day star studded jam)

thanks!
mike

gdb

:cheesygrin:

Mr. Bubbles

As H9 mentioned earlier; these (SDA's) will be more tactile and accurate than many other speakers. Ported and passive radiator systems are both types of bass reflex cabinets and neither lends their self to the tightest of bass. As another mentioned earlier; transmission line designs can also be excellent for accurate deep bass, but won't give you the tuned gain of the bass reflex designs, so to some, they sound a little weak on bass. with nothing else considered, if you want to hear the tightest bass, a well designed acoustic suspension (sealed cabinet) system is worth listening to. For accuracy, choose something with relatively small active bass drivers ( this isn't set in stone, but a good rule of thumb).

On another note, your amp and wiring along with room acoustics can play a big role on the "tightness" of your bass from almost any speaker configuration. The Adcom is a good amp to start with for this reason. Play around with your speaker placement in relation to room boundaries. try spikes and or wall braces. Place a very heavy object on top of your speaker cabinets, especially after adding the spikes. There are tons of things you can do to effect bass tightness.

Have fun and enjoy.

vstarkwell

gdb wrote: »

now, for extreme tight bass.....put on some Jaco Pastorius.

Good call!!!, might I add Stanley Clarke's "School Days"? and or some Phil Lesh circa 72-77

http://alembic.com/club/messages/411/1926.html?1283131832

cnh

Careful, if your bass is too tight it might not be able to take its pants off!

All kidding aside, there is, and I've heard it, bass that can be too tight, too clean, in which case it no longer sounds musical but "clinical"!

cnh

heiney9

cnh wrote: »

there is, and I've heard it, bass that can be too tight, too clean, in which case it no longer sounds musical but "clinical"!

cnh

I call it "robo-bass" and an over dampened amplifier can exhibit this. A damping factor of more than about 200 is pretty much unnecessary. When you start to approach 500+ an amplifier might exhibit what I call robo-bass. I heard it with a chip amp that I bought, it sound very disconnected, dry and robotic. In other words not organic and mostly not real.

H9

TennMan

Boy did I misread this one. I thought you guys were talking about what a tight **** should sound like. What a disappointment when I took the time to read what was actually being said.:redface:

bigaltx24

You can control the amount of bass by moving closer to or away from the back wall. Before I spiked my 1Bs, I had them 6" from the back wall, after I spiked them, I had to move them out to 10" to balance out the bass.