Natural Bass
Sub bass in a car is one of the most contentious issues when speaking with those considering an audio upgrade.
Many have nightmare visions of boy racers with four 12” subs taking over all luggage space and pumping out bad rap music late at night in residential areas. However, low bass is responsible for a lot of emotion in music. Low dramatic sounds underpinning the melody can transform the mundane into the extraordinary.
For those suffering from “fourx12itis”, there is much good news. Subwoofer technology has moved on. You would have to have something other than music in mind even to consider cramming four subwoofers into your daily driver. More than one is gratuitous.
Subwoofers have improved beyond recognition, and the amplifiers that drive them also have. Introducing new super-efficient and distortion-free D-Class amplifiers means you can achieve better results without trying anywhere near as hard.
Subwoofer technology and selecting better-performing components and materials have allowed for some miniaturisation. There are now some excellent super-slim subwoofers which will fit into surprisingly small enclosures. Ready-boxed subwoofers that fit neatly under a seat or in your luggage compartment offer far more choice than in the past.
An actively powered subwoofer in an enclosure can give you fantastic low bass while taking up a surprisingly small space. We would always advise upgrading the full-range speakers, of course, as practically every pair of standard speakers we have auditioned sounds distinctly lacking in vital performance attributes such as frequency response, dynamics and accuracy.
But what does a subwoofer give you? Regardless of your musical taste, all frequencies are there for a reason. In the case of sub-bass (frequencies below 80Hz), they give you a proper reproduction of a pipe organ recital – Try J.S. Bach, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. How about the drama of the timpani in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Jazz often features the stand-up double bass. Players such as Ron Carter deserve to be front and centre. The instrument can be hard to record as it is relatively quiet. However, the tones it provides are essential to the overall performance.
In rock music, the bass guitar is often supplemented by low keyboards; in electronic music, much of the excitement remains in the bass. In nature, significant events cause us to shudder or shake with fear and excitement. For instance, a massive clap of explosive thunder, an earthquake, a large tree falling or an avalanche.
Sub-bass does need to balance carefully with other sounds in a recording. Otherwise, it can swamp the detail in other areas of the audio spectrum.
Sub-bass requires a lot of power to reproduce. Sometimes a dedicated amplifier will be employed to drive a subwoofer. Active subwoofers are an elegant solution where the subwoofer enclosure has an amplifier mounted inside it. These matched-up solutions tend to be more compact than custom-made boxes, and although there is always a compromise, some of the ones we have heard are very good indeed.
When used correctly, it could be argued that sub-bass is as essential as other parts of the audio spectrum and deserves the effort that goes into building it into a car audio upgrade.
Find out what our partner, The FOUR MASTER Network, can do to bring Hi-Fi quality to your car. Simply put some brief details into the form below.
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