Gut punching bass

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Finnish language detected :nerd_face: so I must listen to that piece of music when I get back home,thanks :slightly_smiling_face:

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Listen to the opening bass line of “The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers”. Also a good one for tuning your system.

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Try this one song Arborist by Terence Ryan

This one too, Howling Wind by Oliver Daldry

Last one, What Will by Jose Gonzalez

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The SACD version of “Chant” on the Best Of compilation is amazing.

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There’s one note on a somewhat odd album by a group called Jazzanove (album is called In Between). The track is called Takes You back (Unexpected Dub) and there’s a very low note at about 1m 45secs.

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Great song. Though the bass drum has a slight punch, it has a deep, long decay that I’d class this under deep bass.

Kodo. Second track (Big Drum). If your subwoofer holds out, you’re in for a treat.

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Many submissions exhibit deep or smooth bass lines.

Takes You back (Unexpected Dub) is close… the bass hit is lacking the leading edge, but each strike packs energy.

The opening measures of Improvisation by Ron Tutt off Sheffield’s D2D recording has the gut punch.

That was definitely a treat. Nice.

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Here’s another one from Clearaudio that packs a nice wallop.

LCLEARDG3058

Related and interesting.

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But keep in mind music professionals do not care about sound quality, only audiophiles do.

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:roll_eyes: :wink:……

I bought the Marcus Miller CD mentioned above and gave it a play last night. As I mentioned earlier, the Dafos recording is at a much lower average level than most other recordings (in order to capture the dynamics on analog tape). I set the volume on my PS Audio SGCD at 34 to play the Marcus Miller CD for a pleasant level. Using my dB meter app, that 34 volume setting gave me approximately a 75 dB average reading at the sitting position. I then played the Gates of Dafos. What volume setting also gave me an average 75 dB reading? Was it 34? Absolutely not. Perhaps 44? Not a chance. How about 54? Sorry, no. Surely 64 would do it? Getting warmer, but no. It took a volume level of 67 on my SGCD to replicate an approximate equivalent average listening level of 75 on the dB app. Perhaps that’s not the most accurate approach to use, but demonstrates that “the same volume” setting will not give you accurate comparisons. I may try the same thing for Tricycle tonight.

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@SudS it’s a good observation. When I do critical comparisons, I use a Reed SPL meter to set the volume to about 80dB. Normal listening happens at 72-75.

I bought the RR CD and its dynamic range seems similar to the Qobuz version.

On Gates of Dafos, there’s one point that @senna1a pointed out to me… at around 2:16 that I would consider gut punch worthy. It sounds like a heavy wrench striking something and bears no resemblance to the rabid drums throughout the song. The strike is visceral with weight and impact that makes the other drums sound small. That’s what I mean by gut punching bass.

I tried Tricycle using the same method. It wasn’t so easy. Tricycle has so much low dB content, it screws with the “average” such that I get a very wide range between minimum, average, and max dB. Trying to match levels became challenging. My observations…both of these recordings (Tricycle and Gates of Dafos) offer quite a bit of dynamic action. For both of them, the sounds are actually not bass, but primarily the thwack of the drum strike. Both possess that and both are dynamic attention getting pieces. Where I differ is the deep bass. I believe Tricycle, while dynamic, is more upper frequency thwack than deep bass. It’s is really interesting you mention the wrench, and that may be telling about what we are hearing. You see, my speakers are biamplified. A little over a year ago I came back to two channel audio after many years of doing other things. I started my new journey by buying the PS Audio BHK 250. The 250’s powered my upper end (above 150Hz). I listen to a wide range of music, but Dafos is my go to when it comes to demo. Well, Gates of Dafos had a tendency to cause the 250’s into protection mode. PS Audio techs convinced me to upgrade to the BHK 300’s. Did it solve the protection mode issue? To some degree. I can definitely turn it a littler higher now without going into protection mode, but there is one moment when I have had it shut down, multiple times, same spot…it’s when that wrench gets to doing its thing. It’s the upper end thwack that contains most of what we perceive as low bass, and maybe that’s the difference between our perceptions of the two pieces?

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