The Dark Side of Being a Bassaholic

My name is AJ James and im a bassaholic.

You could have mentioned Youthman and would have been accurate. 🤣 I prefer my system to be 6dB hot. And I like it! 😀

I’m beginning to agree with this concept. I think it’s similar to how people can be initially turned off by accurate PQ as opposed to the vivid mode they’re used to. I was one of those people wayyyy back in the day.

Stop saying SHOULD like there is some universal law that you and other pretentious people "above us" created. There is no SHOULD there is simply preference

I used to be a Bassaholic with a +6dB house curve. Once I got a better sub the first thing I noticed was that it was less boomy and it took me a while to get used to. But even with a better sub, I belatedly realised that in my room I have to turn the bass down (when using BEQ) so that the bass & LFE stays within my listening area. Otherwise it reverberates throughout the room and I'm guessing out to the neighbours too. Now I'm a Bassaholic, but I get my fix by using a sub with a transducer (TR) to get the same (actually better) impact than I would have had with the sub by itself. I can't speak for people with multiple subs, but this works well for me.

Everything I ever wanted to say about bass boost desires of majority :medal-yellow-first-red:

I appreciate everything in this video, this is exactly my philosophy and I have 4 very capable subs in each corner. Lots of headroom and dialed in as the creator intended!! To each their own, but the balance is perfect for me. Thank you Matt!

I liked this analogy. I've worked as a Server in mostly upscale restaurants through my adult life. Your comparison to salt strikes a chord with me. I strongly dislike having salt and pepper on the table. A competent chef will prepare a dish with the proper amount. I'd of course never deny anyones request for anything they'd like to add, but my hope is that at the very least they'd taste it first. I find a surprising number of people will ask for s&p before even trying it and honestly I've come to wonder if it's maybe an indication of irrationality in someone, lol? I guess I've spent too much time thinking on that one, lol.

Finally the voice of reason. I listen to a lot of audio/video pods and lately all people want to talk about is bass and subs.I live in a condo and my theater has two 10 inch RSL Speedwoofers which provides wonderful tactile bass.I cant shake the walls and floor being in a condo but I dont want to. I was told years ago that when setting volume on subs you just raise volume until you just start to hear bass in your speakers and then stop.Always works for me.

When I got the right woofage amount for my room the texture is amazing and head room is always available.

Great video as always! However, I'd like to challenge your argument in this video with a question that I think deserves a video on its own. What if people are not listening at reference level? Does not the perceived loudness of different frequencies then change so that a greater boost in bass (and treble) is actually needed to maintain accuracy? To my understanding that is what research has shown, and that is why we have an international standard that specifies how to correct for that (ISO 226:2023). To my understanding, mixing engineers take equal-loudness-level contours into account when mixing so that the mix sounds balanced at reference level. But again, most of us don't listen at reference level, many in the community have attested to that. Audyssey's dynamic EQ is designed to correct for that using equal-loudness-level contours, i.e. boosting the bass and treble as you lower the volume below reference level. Audyssey themselves also claim to have done research where they have found that perceived loudness drops off faster behind us than in front of us (ISO 226:2023 only deals with sounds coming from straight ahead), wherefore Dynamic EQ also boosts the level of the surround channels.  Despite the fact that we have an international standard (which certainly does not come to fruition by chance), I often hear people in the home cinema community reject features like Dynamic EQ because they believe that it is a gimmick that should not be used if you want accuracy and creator's intent. At the same time, they admit that they never listen at reference level, but rather at -10 to -25 db below reference. Personally, I have calibrated my system using OCA's AudysseyOne script which does a fantastic job and sounds amazing at reference level, but when I listen at -40 dB with my family, Dynamic EQ is an absolute must for me as it does a fantastic job at restoring the the bass (and treble) that you get at higher listening levels. So Matt, please explain to me (and the rest of the community), should we use loudness compensation features like Dynamic EQ if we listen below reference? If not, can you give us an educated answer as to why, because no one who bashes on Dynamic EQ seems to know what they are talking about. Ps. For reference, here's a video where Jeff Clark (former Director of Software Engineering at Audyssey) explains Dynamic EQ and the reasoning behind it (at 11 min 30 seconds in): https://youtu.be/XdBSDSASUnk?si=6Yq-q5XFUfeTdwBf&t=690  Thank you!

Love how you addressed this topic and the preset method is exactly the way I do it. Demo bass, boosted, and natural.

Setting the bass level is challenging because older movies/music have less bass content than the newer material. I use the bass tone control to tweak as needed.

same with listening loud. turn volume down 30db for 10 min than rise it little by little, you get your fix and protect your hearing.

I just want another pair of 18s to balance out the pair I already have...

.................starting tomorrow 1db a week for 12 weeks till I'm back down to +9db.......yes I can.....!!....

Frantically scrolls to see if Scott Newby has entered the chat

I have 4 different Harman curves saved in my HTP-1. +4db, +6db, +8db, & +10db curves. I prefer +8db for most content, but sometimes I will drop it down to the +6db or +4db curve, if the +8db curve is too much. +10db is hardly ever used in my system. It’s important to note that not all content is created equal. I like what I like.🤷‍♂️

I totally agree with this. I don't like the feeling of when bass vibrates your ears and body however if you are going to do it make sure it's at the really low frequencies i.e. sub 40hz just to get that visceral impact if you like that.

I would argue there are more flavors of the problem than just turning up the bass too much. I think 2 points missed or glossed over are that many are looking for a level of bass intensity, which you mentioned referring to tactile feel. There are also significant differences in listening levels of many based on preference, acoustics, and speaker/system dynamic capability. In many cases the bass is at reference level and they are listening at -20 to -10 dB below reference as that is where their speakers and acoustics sound comfortable, and they are adjusting for both loudness effects from listening at lower levels, and trying to make up for the bass they aren't feeling as much as they want. I would argue that many of the bassaholics need to turn up or upgrade their main speakers to provide the level of detail to support the bass levels they are after. Just as many have limitations with acoustics where typical reference levels become too noisy and loud. As I recall Floyd Toole mentioning in some interviews, their research for the Synthesis systems found that differing LF room acoustics such as size and rigidity would result in as much as a 10dB variation in level to get the similar perceived bass level. The caveat being that they likely had mixed conditions of floor construction and makeup.