[hi_jack]

How can I tell if I'm a basshead

I like to throw quite a bit of newish hiphop/downtempo in my playlists (defjux, anticon, ubiquity, quannum as lable examples). Not much for mainsteam hiphop.

If you're a basshead (self-proclaimed or otherwise) what are some of the albums that you keep returning to; and what sort of vocabulary do you use to describe do you use to differentiate the different uses of bass in modern prodcution and listening?

For instance, I'm listening to a pretty good track from a Ubiquity compliation called "Rewind!" which is a remix of "Sunshine of Your Love". Nice Remix. The bass sounds a bit unnatural for me. It has squared edges?

 

[averydonovan]

Whoah, I don't exactly associate being a basshead with being an audiophile. Maybe audio enthusiast, but not audiophile. No fancy terminology needed. Basically being a basshead is enjoying a lot of quality bass, with a lot of accompanying slam and impact. Sloppy bass handed out by the likes of most Sony DJ phones doesn't count. Your music will be made mostly of pop/rock type music (including electronica and hip-hop) with lots of percussive beats. If you are a basshead you want lots of fun from your music, more than anything.

If you stop analyzing the basslines in your music and just start enjoying the music you may become part of Team Basshead. And you are automatically inducted into Team Basshead if you own both the Sony MDR-V6 and the Beyerdynamic DT770 (Pro or non-Pro) whether you intended to be a basshead or not

 

[Hiker]

Id have to say that being an "audiophile basshead" would involve you enjoying good, quality bass on some slightly bass heavy headphones. And it would also involve enjoying that bass within the context of the rest of the music. Separating the bass lines out takes away from the music since in most cases, the bass lines are not the main core of the song, but rather a main supporting aspect. "Non-audiophile bassheads" would include those who enjoy the VCRAP series because they think they have good bass, those who enjoy rattling windows with their loose, sloppy, and overboosted car subs, and those find the mid-bass section of a track to be the most important.

 

[penvzila]

Amon Tobin and Luke Vibert create my favorite bass noises.

 

[stereth]

I consider myself a basshead. To me, the bass can make or break a song or a system. Before I came here (ironically, because of headphones with no treble), there was always a nagging discontent with not being able to hear the bass guitar. I feel it adds a lot to the music.

Then again, I prefer my Jung multiloop amp to my A47 on V6s. It's a more accurate bass, smoother, not as aggressive and foreground as the A47.

Bands with nice bass that come to mind:
Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The bass never sits still.
Silverchair. Deep, grinding, well-recorded guitars.
Falconer. Fast, pulsing bass drums. You need V6-type tight bass to hear the separate beats.
I'll add more to this list once I have my CD collection sitting in front of me.

I took an offer here and signed up for Crutchfield's Xtra Bass CD. Bad, bad bass. It's not so much music as rap about subwoofers with slow, loose 20-100 Hz tones sprinkled in.

 

[hi_jack]

Thanks folks! I appreciate the responses.

Thankfully, I'm a mere audio enthusiast, and not a card-carrying audiophile.

However, running the HD580's that I'm auditioning from GoodGuys, out of the back of this Dell, might also qualify my as an idiot. (After letting them open up for a couple of weeks, and getting FooBar2K into Kernel Streaming mode with a biophonic eq curve and crossfeed, I don't think I'll return them! Saving for an amp now..)

I'm certainly not looking for window rattling. Unless it's a fireworks display...

Thanks again...