Bass: How low will your speakers go?
DonnerUndBlitzen
Posts: 908
in Speakers
I ran across an album by "Bass Mekanik" at Spotify. It is called "Power" and is from 2015. What is interesting are the graduated tracks for testing audible speaker bass response starting at 19 hertz and extending to 99 hertz. I turned off my sub to see how low my towers will go. My new, and finally broken in, Polk Audio RTI A5s produced audible bass starting at 31 hertz- not bad, and they did pretty good, especially starting at 40 hertz. My Polk PSW 10 went lower and was stronger. The A5s do real well with mid and upper bass.
Sometimes I verify what the sub adds to music and one of my Favorites tests are the first 3 tracks of Eric Clapton's pilgrim cd. I test by turning on and then off the sub. The only bass management on the A5s is speaker roll off - they run full spectrum. I can hear the lower sounds of a 5 string electric bass on the A5s, but they are diminished. But with the some turned on, all is peachy.
If you are unfamiliar with Spotify, it has a free service that streams MP3 at 160 kps (there are about six 15 to 30 second adds per hour and there are restrictions on how frequently you can jump around) and a $9.99 per month 320 KPS service with no adds and other benefits. There are supposedly over 30 million tracks available! It is much better than when I had Rhapsody 10 years ago. The mp3 sounds very good, even at 160 kps. I have an $80 USB DAC that I got thru Amazon - the Sabre 9018 by HiFiMe and it is great - signal to noise ratio is over 120 db and it is very dynamic. It bumped the power in my Yamaha R-S500 receiver so that loud is now -37.5 db instead of -25 db.
So, how low can you go?
Sometimes I verify what the sub adds to music and one of my Favorites tests are the first 3 tracks of Eric Clapton's pilgrim cd. I test by turning on and then off the sub. The only bass management on the A5s is speaker roll off - they run full spectrum. I can hear the lower sounds of a 5 string electric bass on the A5s, but they are diminished. But with the some turned on, all is peachy.
If you are unfamiliar with Spotify, it has a free service that streams MP3 at 160 kps (there are about six 15 to 30 second adds per hour and there are restrictions on how frequently you can jump around) and a $9.99 per month 320 KPS service with no adds and other benefits. There are supposedly over 30 million tracks available! It is much better than when I had Rhapsody 10 years ago. The mp3 sounds very good, even at 160 kps. I have an $80 USB DAC that I got thru Amazon - the Sabre 9018 by HiFiMe and it is great - signal to noise ratio is over 120 db and it is very dynamic. It bumped the power in my Yamaha R-S500 receiver so that loud is now -37.5 db instead of -25 db.
So, how low can you go?
Comments
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Check this thread for a lot of really good selections....
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/175657/your-favorite-test-cd-and-trac-for-bass/p1“Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn -
Your USB DAC didn't give your Yamaha more power.
My SDA's are rated down to 10Hz with -3db at 27Hzafterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
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The reason is your new DAC has a lower noise floor, hence you don't have to turn the volume up as high as before.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
DonnerUndBlitzen wrote: »Can you detect 10 hertz, or is that beyond human hearing?
I'm not sure, I've not tried playing sine waves through my stereo and honestly I wouldn't want to run 10Hz sine wave clips through my speakers.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
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DonnerUndBlitzen wrote: »Can you detect 10 hertz, or is that beyond human hearing?
Short answer: It is beyond human hearing. But you may be able to detect it.
Slightly-longer answer: if strong enough, you can feel it. You can also hear its effect on the music, through additive tones. Depending on the design of the musical apparatus producing such tones (e.g. pipe organ), you may hear its overtones. Depending on the quality of the reproducing equipment (e.g. large and impressive subwoofer), you may hear distortion, whether harmonic or nonharmonic.
If you have ever heard a live demonstration of a pipe organ with 32 (or, even more impressive, 64) foot pipes, you can have a visceral demonstration of this. -
DonnerUndBlitzen wrote: »... It bumped the power in my Yamaha R-S500 receiver so that loud is now -37.5 db instead of -25 db...
The phenomenon you are experiencing could also be easily explained as one of source output voltage. Your old source may have had an output voltage of say 1.75v, and your new one might be 2v. .25v through the gain stages of an amplifier can result in significant differences.
“Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn -
Bass Mekanik Still around? I used them back in the early 90's to make sure my old soundstream spl mule subs and tarantula amps were up to snuff.... that and custome leseville alternator... any of these companies still around? I have been out of the car audio market for yearsKlipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
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Just make me think of another one we used back in the day. DJ magic Mike make the car go boomKlipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
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My speaker says 17hz at -3db but I have not testedMagico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R
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My speaker says 17hz at -3db but I have not tested
....and you shouldn't either. Unless you want to repeat what Fox went through with his.
HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
DonnerUndBlitzen wrote: »F1nut, would you please explain what you mean by "Noise Floor?" I understand signal to noise ratio but when I saw that term, I had a smart Alec thought, "My floors have carpet on them and are not noisy." I sometimes put wav files into my wave editor program and can then graphically see how high the recorded levels are. One reason for turning up the music is that the recording levels were set too low when recorded. My George Solti/CSO Bruckner 4th Symphony (vinyl lp) has too low recorded levels. This is part of the reason why TV commercials often are much louder than the movie audio. The commercials have very high, attention grabbing audio levels.
What he's referring to is the noise generated in the signal as being less with your dac. This gives you a cleaner sound and the illusion of louder. Your also able to turn up the volume a bit more without it hurting your ears. That noise present before is not amplified because....it's not there anymore, least not in the capacity it was before.
The other comment about line voltage between sources is also a valid point.
Personally, I would not be testing the limits of lower hz's with a receiver in the mix. You still have plenty of noise if your using that volume control or your computers. Actually, I wouldn't test the limits of lower frequencies with anything in the mix. Why ?
Because that's when you actually find your limits by blowing drivers if your not listening very carefully for when to turn it down. When the sound starts sounding congested, a bit fatiguing , turn it down, that's your limit. If you keep pushing the volume dial to hear more boom on the lower end, your next call will be to customer service.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
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2 channel:
Bryston 4B3, Bryston BDA3, Cary SLP05, Shanling CDT1000SE with parts conneXion level 2 mods, Nottingham analogue ace space 294, soundsmith Carmen MKii, Zu DL103 MKii, Ortofon MC 20 MKii, Dynavector XX2 MKii, Rogue Audio Ares, Core power technologies balanced power conditioner, Akiko Corelli power conditioner with Akiko Audio HQ power cable, Nordost heimdall 2, Frey 2, interconnects, speaker and power cables, Focal Electra 1028 BE 2, Auralic Aries Femto, Black diamond racing cones, ingress audio level 1 roller blocks, JL Audio E110 with Auralic subdude, Primacoustics room treatments.
Theater:
Focal Aria 926,905,CC900, SVS PB ultra x2. Pioneer Elite SC85, Oppo BDP93, Panamax M5400PM, Minix neox6, Nordost Blue heaven LS power cables.
