Can You Buy Speakers That Match Your Bass Knob?

If you own electronics with a bass knob, has anyone considered buying speakers that have a bass roll off that matches the boost from their bass knob?

Conversely, has anyone shopped for electronics having bass control that matches the roll off of their current speakers. The goal being extended flat frequency response.

 

Use a 31 band graphic equalizer or better yet, a parametric eq

 

Opted to go down the active speakers route, which gives me - in my case - the means to trim my low frequencies up or down as needed. Sorted!

 

I'm pretty sure I don't understand this question.

 

Any speaker that matches my bass knob is likely to roll around the room...

 

Darn, I don't have a bass knob.

If I did it would sure look funny if it matched my speakers.

 

Seems uncool. And 2 'likes' to boot?

If a speaker's specs are -6 db at 40 hz, and the specs on a preamp bass controller are +/- 10 db at 40 hz? I'm guessing the bass knob is not a step change, but a ramp, like the low frequency roll off of the speaker.

 

I'm sure no one meant to offend. If you want "extended flat frequency response" then you need a parametric equalizer as @telemike said. You also need to measure the performance of your speakers in your room with a calibrated mic. The typical "bass knob" is not going to cut it.

 

Yes, and when I was getting started in this hobby, I almost always boosted the bass and treble a bit, mainly in an effort to compensate for what I felt was deficiencies in my speakers. As the system improved I started using less and less processing till I got to the point where I have none at all in my main system.

I still do use eq on the low and high end when I listen to 'lesser' speakers, or in the car when I'm trying to overcome road noise. Nothing wrong with that.

As far as having the center point of your bass eq circuit matched to the natural roll off of your speakers, that's a tough one. Most shelving equalizers found on receivers or integrated amps, don't go down low enough to really do that. Most are centered around 100 Hz and though a bump there can make things sound better at times, it's not really going to do much to augment frequencies which your speakers won't reproduce, though they can seem to help with that. It's all a matter of perception.

Also realize that a shelving eq circuit is fairly broad, so even though you're goosing 100Hz, you are also boosting frequencies much lower than that. That's generally the way shelving equalizers work. A graphic has a sharper bandpass but can create all kinds of problems, often worse than the problem you were trying to solve. As mentioned upthread, a parametric equalizer can be the most useful for this type of thing, but they're not so easy to use.

Any equalization in a home playback system should usually be minimal. Adding 6 db at a certain narrow frequency range with a parametric eq is totally different than doing the same with a broad shelving equalizer. Also, it should be obvious, but if you boost your low end by 6db, you will lose 6db of headroom. If you have a low powered amplifier you may not be able to boost that much without turning down the overall volume or you could easily overload something in your system.

Now if you have a recording with very little bass, you can get away with adding a lot with a shelving equalizer. Using tone controls to adjust the tonality for a specific record is quite different than trying an overall compensation for poor speaker response. In my early days there were some records I used to turn the bass all the way up for, while for most records that would have been way too much bass.

 

If the specs on a preamp says +/- 10 db at 40 hz, is that a step change? Or is it a slope like a speaker response curve? If it is a slope, at what frequency does the ramp up start?

 

Well, you might vaguely compensate for some of the speaker's rolloff. But the whole issue is just not that simple, because every speaker has a different rolloff, that probably does not match the curve of some bass circuit. Plus, the speaker response is heavily modified by the room.

And then, typical equalizers like a parametric can only help certain problems. To really do correction you need some kind of time based system.

 

It is a slope and you don't know where it starts unless the manufacturer tells you or you measure it. Here is an example:

 

I used to be a "bass knob ", now I'm a midrange freak.

 

Been so long since I had a Bass Knob I forgot what to do with it.

 

Yes. This is the kind of thing I was looking for. So, in this case, if you turn the bass knob up, instead of getting more flat extension by only boosting really low frequencies, you get a huge hump from 50 - 150hz, where the speakers' response may have previously been flat.

Are these sets of curves fairly common? I'm surprised to see significant boost at 300.

 

That is sooooooooo cool.......

 

There is a brand of audio equipment with the unfortunate name of Knobsound.
Maybe they'll know.

 

@jtw , the good news is that you are showing an interest in the quality of sound reproduction and are looking for answers on how to make corrections. The bad news is that there is no easy answer. Your stereo system is truly a system. As a system, a change from the font end (source) to the back end (speakers and room), will be audible.
The biggest improvements will be had with the speakers and room, maybe followed to a lesser extent, the source. Room and speaker improvements will be in phase (time) and frequency. There is no deficit in the room or speaker that can be "fixed" with a bass adjustment. They can be edited or masked upstream but not fixed.

You probably want to start researching better sound reproduction. The book, Get Better Sound is often touted as a good reference. You might want to start there. Note, I've not read it.

As for hardware, a calibrated mic, a laptop, and REW will take you far in your search.

 

Yes, these curves are common to the tone controls found on most pre-amps, amps and receivers. If you want more precise control, you need to use a parametric equalizer: