bass content in music and importance of subwoofer

Quite often, people misunderstand the importance of sub-bass content in music
I define sub-bass at 10 Hz – 45 Hz whilst some sites suggest 20 Hz – 40 Hz or 50 Hz.
The chart below suggests 20 Hz – 40 Hz.

Most full-size speakers can give 45 Hz and higher fairly easily, while most tweeters won't have any issues up to 15 kHz. Life is good.

Everybody knows that a small bookshelf speaker will sacrifice some bass. and often provides great sound stage. The average bookshelf speaker can reach 60 Hz - 70 Hz without issue, and covering much of the required range.

The problem is that real frequency spectrum content in music is broader than instrument charts would suggest.

Above is "Fur Elise" from Beethoven.

The software records the peak of the music and displays the loudest note recorded at every frequency. This is exceptionally good software… if you can afford it.

You can clearly see the energy is concentrated between 200 Hz and 3 kHz (like the chart above suggest)

I consider this a quite easy track to reproduce.

In fact, a pair of crossoverless 5" full range drivers would shine here.

Most HiFi shows displaying Lowther or similar full-range systems, tend to play piano or guitar music. See the link/ Those full-range units can do piano very easily...

But most music isn’t just a piano solo.

Below is Frim Fram Sauce by Diana Krall

A fairly popular singer and representative of most jazz.

A lot more information being passed here

The bass is present until around 50 Hz but virtually nonexistent below that.

The treble from the drum set is going strong up to perhaps 17 kHz

This track is harder to play, but nowhere difficult

The small typical two-way bookshelf speakers could do it without too much problem, as no real deep bass is present.

However, it gets harder:

Below is "Jean Pierre" from Marcus Miller

The frequency content is quite broader

Not only does it go down to 20 Hz, but there’s still some energy lower .

I admit that the energy level is falling fairly quickly below 20 Hz, but it’s still present and part of the recording.

True HiFi systems should reproduce this content from 10 Hz – 20 Hz, or it's not HiFi reproduction.

Electronic music is the hardest to get right.

Below is "Fffetish" from an electronica artist called CoH

The bass content is strong to 10 Hz (flat) and I can assure you that it goes down to about 7 Hz.

The treble is limited by the CD quality play back. It hit the famous "red book brick wall" at 22 kHz!!!!

Tracks like this, I can't stand on incapable speakers. It goes from music to noise… very quickly.

Not only do you miss all the "weight" of the track, but a lesser speaker will distort like crazy and all the bass you hear is bass reflex port turbulence noise.

10 Hz - 20 Hz range is barely heard. It is felt! This feeling is indescribable but if you have it, you know what I mean.

OK, so CoH is an acquired musical taste, and most won't appreciate his work, or for that fact…electronic music in general.

Below is Get Lucky from Daft Punk, who a lot of people like, and it was a big hit when released.

It’s not as complex as CoH, but still pretty complex.

You can see some strong energy down to 20 Hz. Yes, 20Hz matters.

I could have used pipe organ music and show 14 Hz which is an essential part of some classical music as well.

Bottom line is:

Proper subwoofers reaching 20 Hz are mandated.

The ABC’s of bass reproduction…the hard reality:

A-high efficiency
B-small size
C-deep extension

---Pick any two, as you can't have all three.

"B-small size", The Laws of Physics always prevails…

Trying to squeeze bass from a small enclosure always results with higher compression and usually higher distortion, and should be the one to give up first.

I owned two 12" Servo subwoofers. They were supposed to maintain distortion and compression to a minimum, due to the use of real time electrical feedback (the servo), and then cheated their way to a small size.

Promises were great, and it worked… but only a little.

A bigger enclosure without the "servo technology" worked better. The smaller 12" Servo subwoofer is sold now.

There is no replacement for displacement