Ocean deep
One of the valuable lessons in audio that I learned from the late Mang Johnny Cruz of Balikbayan Handicrafts is that to be rated “good,” an audio system must have the ability to recreate lifelike sound.
He told me that a system must be able to “soar high up in the sky and comb the depths of the ocean floor.” The analogy, of course, refers to how high and how low in frequency an audio system can go.
Getting the high frequency from a system is somewhat easy to achieve with vintage and even modern loudspeakers. The low, or the bottom octave, is the most troublesome and often the most complicated to achieve.
I often say that the presence of bass in an audio system is akin to the charisma of the color black in photography. Without it, a photograph looks dull and unappealing. Only a few speaker models, and with a heavy price tag at that, can reproduce sound frequencies in a broader spectrum.
Most of the speakers that are reasonably priced and are common in various audio showrooms are of the monitor type: those that are usually designed to roll off at 70 or even 50 hertz, which means that sound frequencies start to be less audible at those levels. Other cleverly designed speaker systems, however, can give you an illusion of a broader frequency even if they roll off at 60 hertz, but sound purists will have none of these tweaks. They dislike being shortchanged.
Why is bass necessary in audio? Your perception of an orchestra playing on a stage in front of you is significantly enhanced. With it, the sense of the chamber’s volume is more fully conveyed. Also, recreating the circulation of the vast amounts of air being displaced by a full orchestra adds magic to what you hear, so what full-range music brings is the perception of the real thing!
If you have monitor speakers and wish to add the bottom octave, you can try experimenting by hooking up subwoofers to your system. My system rolls off at 30 hertz and I tried in vain to solve the problem by placing my speakers at different locations in my music room. I finally found the answer when I added a pair of subs, which took the load out of my main woofers in reproducing the deepest low.
I have auditioned many subs in the market and settled for Vandersteen 2Wq sub. The problem with the others is that they cannot seamlessly integrate with my system the way Vandersteen does.
The Vandersteen sub uses three eight-inch drivers firing downward rather than a single large woofer. Its cone area is in effect equal to a 14-inch driver but has the speed (transient) to deliver the punch. Each voice coil is within a massive 40-ounce, high-gauss magnet structure for amplified control and effectiveness. Vitally damped, long fiber cones with environmentally stable butyl rubber surrounds are used for exceptional firmness and linearity.
My listening experience with the subs hooked up on my system is just like what Mang Johnny had perfectly described. This Vandersteen, a modest-sized cube sub, can rock and literally shake the room. The 1812 Overture sprang to life with its magnificent cannons, and I actually felt the bass rumble in Holst’s Suite Number 1 in E-flat.
Listening to Earl Klugh’s Late Night Guitar has never been more appealing. Earl’s superb plucking seem more commanding; the expression and lucidity of the bass are simply spectacular.
We equate the use of subs with home-theater systems, but these low-octave speakers can also do wonders in a pure audio environment. Feel and hear your system as it takes you into the deepest of oceans, as what Mang Johnny believed a good system should be capable of.
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For comments or questions, e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit www.wiredstate.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.
