What do you call bass? I've heard so many toalk about how much bass their bbx has and everything and then I see videos that supposedly demonstrate it and the music they're playing is 80's disco music like "The Double Dutch Bus" and stuff. To me that's not my definition of good bass. I call deep bass anything below 60 hertz. And even then that's just the beginning.
I want to know how well a bbx pushes out air. How well can it fill a room with the pedal lows of a grand pipeorgan.
When it comes to rap music (hate the lyrics, love the bass), how well does your bbx produce the low airry bass found in songs like "I'm i Luv with a stripper."
Or the jazz song "Dis Is Da DRum", by Herbie Hancock.
The bbx that I've heard that have the most bass is the Kaboom and the DT-680, and in my opinion, the Dt0680 topped it! It hit deeper and freer than the Kaboom did.
So I'm curious, how do you define bass? Do you only consider the hard kicks of a midbass note? Or do you also listen for the deep subtleties of the growling airy tones as well?

Great question, Panabox. I'll have to think about that and get back with you.

Panabox I would be suprised if any true boomboxes produced any appreciable bass below 60hz. Physics and design make true deep bass out of a boombox nearly impossible. The deepest I have ever been able to produce while still being usefull was about 40hz out of a Bose Wave, the big one. I used a frequency test disc for the test and below about 50hz it started dropping off quickly and was just about useless below 40hz. I doubt any true boombox goes lower than that.

bass is the long decay on a detuned tr808 kick drum.
bass is a moog filter set to self resonate that just melted your woofer even tho you didnt know it was there.
to be honest i dont think any boombox is really going to represent the 60 hertz range with any great deal of accuracy. i mean you need big big power for really big big bass. you are going to get some of the colour of it but not all of it.
trust me.
when i listen to the best boomboxes i have,then turn on the best home stereo i have
there is no comparing the two.
while you get some representation of 60 hz on a boombox most of it is not going to be there.
i think that a kaboom ok job of deep bass on a boombox.
i dont think anything 60 hertz and below is truly represented by any boombox made past present or future.

honestly while i think some boomboxes sound fantastic.
i do not think any boombox represents the full range of a high quality recording.

if you want really intense subsonic bass
you need the wattage to move air and the area mass to move it.
you just are not going to get it from eight inch woofers.
they can be good but not good enough.
imho

i think the time spent standing in front of a eight ten cab with a over zealous bass player jaded me a little.



that is the definition of scary assed bass
i have actually seen these turned up so loud you could see the air move.

quote:

Originally posted by MasterBlaster84:
Panabox I would be suprised if any true boomboxes produced any appreciable bass below 60hz. Physics and design make true deep bass out of a boombox nearly impossible. The deepest I have ever been able to produce while still being usefull was about 40hz out of a Bose Wave, the big one. I used a frequency test disc for the test and below about 50hz it started dropping off quickly and was just about useless below 40hz. I doubt any true boombox goes lower than that.

absolutely agree

Any boombox would sound like a pocket am radio after listening to that stack bill.

Personally I love bass around the 30-40 hz region, especially on my Pioneer home speakers which will conmfortably extend down to 30hz.
(And up to 50 khz!).

Talking of Pioneer, I think my Pioneer boxes are some of the best for bass extension, there is certainly a fair bit of energy down to 50hz on my SK-353, which is still a very nice frequency for rich deep bass.

I guess it depends on the music, some music sounds great with punchy or boxier sounding upper bass and other (Reggae for example) sounds awesome with the lower freq's predominating.

i think the only ghettoblasters that can actually give any sort of deepish bass is as mentioned in the fh video thread the sony fh series,panasonic dt680,ct990,pc5,pc55 and kaboom..
i`ve never had any boxes that give any decent amount of bass apart from those..

now thats what i call bass potential.

quote:

Originally posted by gettoman:
i think the only ghettoblasters that can actually give any sort of deepish bass is as mentioned in the fh video thread the sony fh series,panasonic dt680,ct990,pc5,pc55 and kaboom..
i`ve never had any boxes that give any decent amount of bass apart from those..

i think that the big fishers and the conion and m90 absolutely have nice bass.
its different from the three piece sound. i mean it has to be just out of the way they are designed.
no ghettoblaster tho is going to hit in the 60 hertz range.

This is bass......... Bass!

skippy that is organs being liquified and turned to jello.
i think that guy should charge money and let people with kidney and gallstones stand in front of that thing.

You cant judge the bass sound only from the speaker. A speaker sounds different in different rooms and the position of the speaker is very important. Next to a wall you have another effect than in the middle of the room. Especially deep bass sounds build up long waves, which cant work in a small room. I think everything bigger than a 10inch speaker is useless in a home environment.

So which blaster got the deepest bass sound? I guess kaboom but I never heared a dt-680 or m90 or hifi-studio1 - unfortunately

quote:

So which blaster got the deepest bass sound?

I dunno, my Wheely's big 10"ers push a "Deeper Bass Sound" than my C100,GF919,20/20 AND PH492s. And these are big boys to contend with.

The vast majority of boomboxes are artificially rolled off in the bass section so they can do what they were designed to do, which is play loudly off batteries, each octave you go down demands around twice as much power for the same volume (something like that anyway)100hz is the best most of them will even attempt, that said 100hz is quite low, there are very few naturally occurring musical notes below this.

I love deep bass myself, and can back DRMZ up completely on the room and other things affecting it, if you listen to your box on a table right in front of you, you will never hear its full potential, stick it on the floor on the other side of the room, and its completely different, take it outside and different again, even my floorstanding speakers sound a bit weedy outside ( yes I'm sad enough to try these things!)

My Phillips D8614 has one of the deepest bass of my collection, as the case has a lot of air behind the speakers, which are 6.5 inch anyway. Its nothing like a kaboom, but it sounds natural and unforced, which to me is preferable to the one note thud, that some boxes give out.

[qoute]My Phillips D8614 has one of the deepest bass of my collection, as the case has a lot of air behind the speakers, which are 6.5 inch anyway. Its nothing like a kaboom, but it sounds natural and unforced, which to me is preferable to the one note thud, that some boxes give out.[/quote]


Yes i agree with you about that .

quote:

Originally posted by skippy1969:
This is bass......... Bass!

I have that music on a cd from Telarc, it is strictly a pure DDD disc, all digital and I can confirm it definitely has bass!!, playing it on my car system with 2 -12's it makes the subs sound like they are going to come apart, the low frequency rumble is insane!

quote:

Originally posted by meljak:
I love deep bass myself, and can back DRMZ up completely on the room and other things affecting it, if you listen to your box on a table right in front of you, you will never hear its full potential, stick it on the floor on the other side of the room, and its completely different, take it outside and different again, even my floorstanding speakers sound a bit weedy outside ( yes I'm sad enough to try these things!)

I agree with you completely. And you're not the only one who tests the sound of bbx's in other rooms. I do this all the time with my DT680, and I am blown away everytime with how deep this box goes and how well it carries throught the house. For example, I was listening to Herbie Hancock's "Dis is Da Drum", and beginning around 2:28 on this track lower notes start to be played, and this box carries these strickingly well for a bbx throuhout the house. Even if you put your ear to the airport, the lowest of the frequecies (below 50hz, I assume) are their being produced by this unit. Of course physics dosen't allow these lowest notes to be produced with the power and size of a home setup, but it performs strickingly well for what it is. When it comes to deep frequencies, the dt680 is the best I've heard.