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I'm trying to dial in the bass on my new speakers, ML 13a's. I'm having trouble deciding where they're portraying what the original recording should sound like.Wouldn't comparing the bass mix through my headphones be the best standard as to what my speakers should be set to?
Edits: 11/28/21Follow Ups:
When you listen via headphones you are removing your listening room from the experience. However that does not mean that what you hear through the headphones is necessarily "correct" in any way. Headphones differ enormously in how they present music. Further the response of headphones is often deliberately manipulated these days to conform to the Harman curve target which takes account of the fact that there is a difference listening to a source placed at the entry to the ear canal against one at a distance like a loudspeaker. The target curve includes a change to the bass away from a nominally flat response. BTW the Harman curve produces a response that is preferred by test subjects - it is an average preference not a correction in an absolute sense..
So, if you set your speakers to natch the bass response of your headphones you will not necessarily produce an accurate result that is comparable to a measured response. It may be one that you like or not. As the whole procedure that is proposed is subjective you may as well just listen to your speakers and move them around or eq them until you get a bass characteristic that you prefer. If you want accurate then you need to measure.
"We need less, but better" - Dieter Rams
That answers my question.
I talking about the bass adjustment(-5 - +5 db) on the speakers. They are full range, so I don't use a subwoofer with them. I've used the installed ABM software to adjust for the room as much as possible.
.., I would suggest that you listen to some bass lines with a pair of headphones that measure flat throughout the entire bass frequency range, then adjust your speakers to mimic that same level of bass power when listening to those same bass lines.It will be a subjective judgement on your part but I think that this might be the best you can do. You cannot know exactly how any recording is "supposed" to sound unless you made the recording yourself.
We simply have to use our own subjective judgement about things like this, most of the time.
Edits: 11/29/21
Specifically, the tones from 200 hz on down to 20 hz will tell you if you are getting flat bass response.Listening to this CD (or another recording like it, with either speakers or headphones) you can find out, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, how low your speakers or headphones go before they start rolling off in the bass range. You will also hear any frequency response dips or peaks within that range.
You can try to compare the bass response of your headphones with those of your speakers but headphone bass sometimes sounds a bit different than speaker bass because speakers produce room interactions that headphones do not produce. But go ahead and make a comparison between the two, for all it is worth.
Of course, an SPL meter will give you a more accurate idea of the kind of bass response you're getting in your room. But a frequency sweep recording is a good place to start.
If you have flat bass response in your room from 20 hz - 200 hz, you can be sure that any bass on a recording will be made audible - if indeed it is on the recording to begin with.
Edits: 11/29/21 11/29/21
Maybe not--the old Radio Shack meter was notoriously inaccurate in measuring bass tones. I have an old test disc from Rives Audio that actually contains a set of tones corrected for the RS meter's inaccuracies.
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I have several recordings of a string bass going up and down the scale. I use these recordings to adjust the volume level of my subwoofers to blend seamlessly with my main speakers.
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