I'm finding that while bass management has progressed drasticly over the last 10 years, that even the best built in bass management solutions in pre/pro's and recievers isn't so great. I'm wondering what you all think, and what you have done to improve things.
Here are some area's where I take issue:
-My system's main speakers, while towers, are not big enough to be used full range, and so my subwoofers must take on the extra duty of system bass as well as LFE. With some material it seems that bass is appropriatly steered to the subwoofers, and all is good. With other material, it seems that there is no impact or bass to speak of. I have read that material is sometimes recorded with FR limited channels, and I wonder if its a poor interaction between the onboard bass management and the way the soundtrack was recorded? Any thoughts on that?
-While I know everyone loves their steep slopes, but bigger is not always better. It seems that the large majority of units have fixed 2nd order or 4th order slopes. I have a very hard time integrating my subwoofer smoothly with the main speakers using the built in setup features for my Boston Acoustics AVP-1. However, I've never had better luck with any other unit either. I recently played around with a borrowed Meridian unit, and found I had no better luck. However, with an external Ashley crossover, I can get things integrated for 2 channel just fine. I think the problem here is crossover symmetry. Symmetry is often not a good thing, and even when I'm designing speaker crossover networks, I rarely use the identical point for both the tweeter and midbass, or midrange and woofer. Thats because symmetrical crossover points can create either a hump or trough at the xo point. This is exactly the problem I have with my AVP, meaning I usually have a large excess of energy around 60-80hz.
-I'm wondering if the reason why a lot of people prefer full range front speakers is because of the problems with steering the bass to the sub. You would think this would be a basic and easy process, the bare minimum for a prepros bass management, but its an issue I think it struggles with. Again, I get such inconsistent results that I can't even track down the problem. If I measure using my ATB PC Pro or Speaker Workshop rig, I can get a reasonably flat response. I can take close measurements and see that each speaker is being fed what it should be fed (roughly). Then I listen to a cd and find, clearly something is wrong. Bass levels are clearly elevated, clearly missing, whatever. I put in a movie and durring an explosion seen where you would expect room shaking effects, nothing.
Actually on a tangent here, I find explosions, which should contain huge amounts of energy by there nature, seem to have the least amount of energy for a big sound effect, and I can't figure out why. I haven't taken the time to look at the spectrum of a movie explosion, but rarely do they shake the room the way I would expect. The shockwave created by an explosion should have considerably sub-sonic energy. I know my subwoofer can produce in excess of 100db's below 20hz, and measures practically flat down to 15hz. I know that some effects shake like they should, sound like they should, but explosions in every movie from the Star Wars series to war movies like saving private ryan just don't have the oomph I would expect. If anyone has further thoughts on the reason why I might feel this way, I'm all ears. I'm not sure if others feel that explosions don't give them what they expected, and someone maybe has looked at the energy spectrum of an explosion effect?
Here are some area's where I take issue:
-My system's main speakers, while towers, are not big enough to be used full range, and so my subwoofers must take on the extra duty of system bass as well as LFE. With some material it seems that bass is appropriatly steered to the subwoofers, and all is good. With other material, it seems that there is no impact or bass to speak of. I have read that material is sometimes recorded with FR limited channels, and I wonder if its a poor interaction between the onboard bass management and the way the soundtrack was recorded? Any thoughts on that?
-While I know everyone loves their steep slopes, but bigger is not always better. It seems that the large majority of units have fixed 2nd order or 4th order slopes. I have a very hard time integrating my subwoofer smoothly with the main speakers using the built in setup features for my Boston Acoustics AVP-1. However, I've never had better luck with any other unit either. I recently played around with a borrowed Meridian unit, and found I had no better luck. However, with an external Ashley crossover, I can get things integrated for 2 channel just fine. I think the problem here is crossover symmetry. Symmetry is often not a good thing, and even when I'm designing speaker crossover networks, I rarely use the identical point for both the tweeter and midbass, or midrange and woofer. Thats because symmetrical crossover points can create either a hump or trough at the xo point. This is exactly the problem I have with my AVP, meaning I usually have a large excess of energy around 60-80hz.
-I'm wondering if the reason why a lot of people prefer full range front speakers is because of the problems with steering the bass to the sub. You would think this would be a basic and easy process, the bare minimum for a prepros bass management, but its an issue I think it struggles with. Again, I get such inconsistent results that I can't even track down the problem. If I measure using my ATB PC Pro or Speaker Workshop rig, I can get a reasonably flat response. I can take close measurements and see that each speaker is being fed what it should be fed (roughly). Then I listen to a cd and find, clearly something is wrong. Bass levels are clearly elevated, clearly missing, whatever. I put in a movie and durring an explosion seen where you would expect room shaking effects, nothing.
Actually on a tangent here, I find explosions, which should contain huge amounts of energy by there nature, seem to have the least amount of energy for a big sound effect, and I can't figure out why. I haven't taken the time to look at the spectrum of a movie explosion, but rarely do they shake the room the way I would expect. The shockwave created by an explosion should have considerably sub-sonic energy. I know my subwoofer can produce in excess of 100db's below 20hz, and measures practically flat down to 15hz. I know that some effects shake like they should, sound like they should, but explosions in every movie from the Star Wars series to war movies like saving private ryan just don't have the oomph I would expect. If anyone has further thoughts on the reason why I might feel this way, I'm all ears. I'm not sure if others feel that explosions don't give them what they expected, and someone maybe has looked at the energy spectrum of an explosion effect?