September 30, 2004

Compressed, then rarefied, George. Let's talk bass. Subwoofers. You need them.

Take this guy for instance. OK, so it weighs 700 lbs, but if that's too much then it has a little brother so what's not to like? You see, you're getting it now. Subwoofers; yeeaah. Factory tour here. Of course, variety in our subwoofers is a good thing, so maybe you would prefer something like this. Ah. Too big? How about something like this. Not forgetting DIY, of course. Of course, there's lots more to choose from. Insane? Moi? Hyperbole should be used with caution; after all, if these are insane then events have overtaken vocabulary, wouldn't you say? A few others here.

posted by polychrome 20 years ago
  • I have pity on all the apartment dwellers and suburban folks that have to put up all this bass tunnelling through every wall within half a mile.
  • put up with
  • With all this bass up I will not put! ;-) Nice pic Jerry.
  • I also have pity on people (like myself) who live in apartments and have to decide whether or not they want to keep their apartment or have piles of watts of bass rumbling the couch when wathing movies.
  • all your bass are belong to us
  • I'm with you, shawnj. The apartment I lived in before this one had management that wouldn't do anything but ask the people who were doing that to stop, and suggest that we move to a different apartment when they refused (which would have renewed our lease). In this new complex, people still do it, but it never lasts for long. And this time, we're not the only ones who hate it; the other night a neighbor was starting up his usual (after 2 weeks of quietness, he was testing the waters again), and I thought my downstairs neighbor was going to pound right through the wall.
  • Personally I hate the awful, tuneless, rhythmless flatulent midrange huffing which passes for bass out of a lot of off the shelf soundsystems. 100 Hz lump, with nothing much happening below IS NOT BASS: this isn't difficult to understand, and yet people do it. My current subwoofer is modest in the extreme, but suits me nicely, even if it isn't the most nimble unit around.
  • Heh... yes, I know that noise.. kind of a plasticky thud.
  • I just escaped the wrath of neighbors who do not know how to shut the fuck up last spring. No matter how many times we told them to turn their shit down, they never got it. Considerate of them, when you think about it, to want to share their music with all of us. At three in the damn morning.
  • I once swore that I would never ever own ported speakers, for just that plasticky thud reason rolypolyman. Mind you, that was before I heard a pair of EPOS ES12s.
  • Polychrome, interesting that you link the Wilson gear. What seems like a lifetime ago, I lived with a guy who owned Wilson speakers and eventually got a job there. I went to the company Christmas party at the Wilsons' home and got to hear the man's own system. It's an amazing room for sound.
  • The Wilson stuff rates high on my shiny-thing-o-meter. Not as high as Sonus Faber mind, but up there.
  • actually, my latest shiny thing obsession would have to be the Pentax *istDS. I mean, look at it.