Best Speakers for Upright String Bass that You've Heard?

From C1 to C5, clean, tight, precise and accurate to the recording.

 

Klipschorns sound pretty lifelike. Full size and snappy.

 

I agree on the Klipschorns, but I’d give the nod to my Pendragons.

 

Acoustat Model 3s with a subwoofer do tremendous justice to the mid-bass and subtle intonations of the double bass.

 

VMPS towers, big ones. I don't recall the model number, but I could actually close my eyes and visualize the bass string array and the player's hands vertically as well as horizontally. On THIS ONE'S FOR BLANTON, I could hear Brown's wedding ring scrape the strings.

 

About 8 years ago in dealer's treated room. Supposed to go down to 20 Hz. It was like listening to it played live in front of me....

 

I’m listening to Christian McBride playing the double bass in the Chick Corea Trio right now on a set of ATC SMC11v2’s , sound damn clean with these little sealed boxes.

 

I listen to acoustic jazz all the time. My Confidence C2 Platinum with a pair of REL R-328 do the trick very nicely. Stanley Clarke on "Return to Forever," or Ray Brown on the AP "We Get Requests" – among other things – sound amazing. Upgrading my Naim amp to DR spec also brought more focus and grip to the bass.

 

Various Tannoy 12 or 15 inch based, JBL 6332, JBL L200/L300/4333. big speakers with big woofers

bass notes needs air and displacement. Real sounding bass needs woofers

 

My Audio Note AN-J's do bass quite well I would think a pair of AN-E's would do it even better.

 

My preference for any type of bass is the way Vandersteen handles it on his models 5-7. The bottom 2/3 or so of the speaker is an active subwoofer that can be EQ’d to tune out room modes and boominess. The driver itself is actually two 12” drivers face to face so they tend to compliment each other. The result in my experience is strong, flat and well defined in room response without the need for bass traps or obsessive changes in positioning.

 

LOVE that painting!

 

I guess OP is talking about this kind of bass instead of classical bass?

 

Tri-amped Bozak Concert Grands!

 

Klipsch Cornwalls

 

Absolutely!!! No 6 inch woofer is going to sound the same.

 

Exactly what I was going to say!

You need a large woofer and you need a cabinet that has a large volume and one that breaths.

If, you want relaxed, natural sounding bass. The 828 cabinet in the A7 will play down to around 50-Hz. (give or take a couple of dB.) and then the passive, horn loaded sub, will take over from 40-Hz. on down. The sub is powered by a 1,600 Watt amp and can play at s SPL of 133 dB.



Keep in mind, even though a double bass can play down real low, most of the time, it is not.

Secondly, there are a lot of natural harmonic's that you are dealing with when playing a double bass. It is not just the fundamental frequency that you have to faithfully reproduce.

A four string bass can play down to 41-Hz., while a five string bass can play 10-Hz. lower. But both can play up to 400-Hz. and have harmonics up to 4000-Hz.

Because of this, it is important not to only consider the lower bass frequencies. The harmonics must be figured in!

 

I once read an article somewhere, it was an interview with Ron Carter himself. And it mentioned his hi-end audio system, and his description of how he chose and put it together precisely because of its realistic delivery of... his own music/playing. I don't remember if it specifically mentioned the speakers, but it would be interesting to see if the article can be found again, or better yet - to find out what speakers Ron Carter uses in his home.

Edit: Found the article, with the picture of his system and speakers.

Musicians as Audiophiles: Ron Carter

 

Here you go!

Musicians as Audiophiles: Ron Carter

 

My favorite (vintage) AR3A is clear and well defined - down a few db at C1 (33Hz through 42Hz) - rising nicely and quickly well before C5. It has a weight (or heft, or presence - to many ill-defined adjectives in this frequency range). My own AR3A pair were re-foamed two years ago and the crossovers were refurbished to factory specs. Plucked open string decay (including an open C1) is surprisingly good with only a hint of wooliness. One of the speakers anchors my mono setup (Technics SL1200G, Soundsmith Aida mono, Trichord Diablo phono preamp, Yamaha A-S2100 integrated amp). It’s a ‘50-‘60s mono recording, acoustic jazz monster system AFAIC. Hard to stop listening.

The stellar Harbeth SHL5+ is solidly founded from C1 through C5, with slightly better clarity, notably faster transient response, and greater timbral accuracy. I can easily hear string resonance and string slap on the fingerboard from strongly plucked open strings. No wooliness at all. None. Decay is clearer than the AR3A too, and the timbre is truer to the bass that was played on the recording.

Most impressive are the Audio Physic Avantera III. These things are genuine killer speakers. To my ears they out-muscle the PMC and ATC competitors at the (relatively high) price point, and push the Harbeth 40.2 to the side on some material as well. The timbral accuracy is astonishing. The presence, to my ears, is vastly more appealing than several different A7, Klipsch Cornwall and Tannoy classics (current manufacture) that I’ve heard over the past two years. On acoustic jazz recordings, the Avantera III put me in the room with the double bass apparently about ten feet away. From fully accurate lower organ pedals below C1, then where you’re concerned with bass from C1 through C5 and beyond, the Audio Physic Virgo III and Avantera III make magic to my ears. String slap on the fingerboard is even more realistic than the wonderful PMC MB2SE, and the fundamental note sounds like you’re present at the recording session (live of studio). I think Audio Physic is ahead of the curve on quite a few things, and has been for a number of years. The two models I mentioned are very well worth an audition.

The Harbeth SHL5+ and the Audio Physic Avantera III don’t need to be played as loud as many of the other speakers when performing their magic with double bass.

 

I re-read the article and wonder why it didn't mention the phono stage - that would also be very interesting.

 

Note, that the Avantera III is a $23k pair of speaker's (for comparison purposes). Where as the Harbeth's are $15k speaker's, making the Avantera III's half again expensive as the 40.2's. Against the Harbeth SHL5+'s being $7k speaker's, half of what the 4.02's are. Just to put things into perspective.

This is a case of what is "best" at their particular price point's.

Someone mentioned K-Horn's earlier in this thread. For the deep base part, I think you would be hard pressed to beat the deep bass that the folded horn cabinet on the K-Horn is capable of producing.

In mentioning the Tannoy, "classics", you would have to move up to their Westminster SE, to find a cabinet that would best the K-Horn's bass (at 3x the price of the K-Horn).

Something that would concern me about the 4.2's (Noting that I have not heard any of these speakers that Agitater mentions), is their 86 dB sensitivity.

The Audio Physic Avantera III's are more of a standard 89 dB in sensitivity. I note that they are rated from 27-Hz - 40-kHz. With four 7" woofer's, I can see where this is possible and at > $20k, it should be probable. But, when I see speakers advertised as digging into the 20-Hz. range, I feel a bit more comfortable, when the manufacture states the parameter's of the published measurements.

This is something that is missing from the manufacturer's web site and several reviews. I just feel better, when knowing seeing these specs. expressed as 27-Hz - 40-kHz., -3 db. A perspective purchaser should not have to "assume" anything.

I comment here, because I feel that really reproducing a "live" sound experience, starts with highly sensitive speaker's, which are somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 dB.

Complementing that, when you have highly sensitive speaker's, then more options open up, mostly in the realm of class "A" SET tube amplification.

Both of these, together can accomplish more of a live experience, than say a 100-Watt class A/B tube amplifier, with 90 dB efficient speaker's.

Commenting on the Klipsch Cornwall, I think that the Cornwall is a nice all around, sensitive, tube amp friendly, home speaker. I do not think that it is an exceptional "audiophile" speaker, in any way. How most people have them hooked up, they most certainly are not. But, because they are sensitive at 102 dB, you can play them loud (hopefully with a tube amp!), because they can play to a continuous SPL of 119 dB or you can play them with tiny little class "A" SET tube amps. And that is where they can really shine. Maybe they may not be "audiophile" worthy, but they can sound dynamic and they can sound "real".

This is something that I don't know that you can reproduce with any other currently commercially available at their $2,200 price point, which is several thousand dollars less than the Harbeth SHL5+'s.

There is something that I want to comment on. That being, and using the A7's as an example. As large as the A7's are with their large 828 bass cabinet and a 15" woofer, physics dictates that they will only play down to about 50-Hz, and that would be plus or minus about 2-Hz.

There are a lot of very nice speakers, like Harbeth's, Splendor's, ANK's, etc..., that due to physical limitations of their size are going to have issues, trying to play down to 31-Hz. at -3 dB. They were just not designed to do this.

Sub's are...

In practical and economic terms, it might be better to consider, what ever speaker you favor, plus a sub.

Let a speaker do what it is designed to do and let the sub get you the rest of they way.

The best combination of my A7's was with a 3.9 Watt class "A" Decware amp. Rather than use it with the large commercial sub, I was using it with a very modest Polk Audio $650 sub, that is rated to 25-Hz. at its -3 dB point.

A decent sub, only needs to augment the main speaker. It only needs to fill in a small part of the overall sound. To do this, a sub does not have to be either powerful or expensive.

This is a totally different application than a sub that you would use for your home disco or your HT "earthquake" experience.

BTW... you just have not heard the right A7's.

 

Works for me, every single day. I assume that is why they are used globally for mastering

 

Charlie Haden preferred Naim's Ariva speakers for their reproduction abilities. These are speakers that were frowned upon by many including fans of Naim gear. People like what they like, but Mr. Haden certainly understood how the upright acoustic bass should sound. Personally I felt that the ability to reproduce the character of the acoustic bass was one of the strengths of any Harbeth speakers that I've had a chance to listen to including those that I owned, but you guys are talking about speakers way above this price level.

I've enjoyed the work of all of the bassists mentioned thus far in this thread. Sorry for the segue, but if you haven't heard Brian Bromberg's recording "Wood" you might want to check it out. The recording is basically a celebration of Bromberg's own 18th century Italian-made Guersam bass. The song choices might not exactly be every jazz fans cup of tea, but I still found them to be enjoyable and this particular recording provides ample amounts of the type of sonic details that are rarely captured when it comes to the acoustic bass. It's obvious that the recording engineer mic'd his bass very closely.

 

Well thought out reply, thanks.
Your mention of the Yamaha integrated has opened the question about the importance of the amplifier's capability in addition to the speaker's. Obviously there needs to be a basic compatibility between speaker, room and amplifier but I wonder about amplifier topology vs. sustained bass note reproduction.
Maybe my tube based amp isn't the best, that it's just a little too blurry and that a good MOSFET based solid state amp would be better for this specific task?