Do all audiophiles hate Mega Bass?

[a1leyez0nm3]

Anyways, back to the Megabass.... not very smart engineers design most modern pcdps..

 

[coolvij]

actually,the engineers are brilliant - they save money, make cheaper products - AND HAVE BIGGER profits......


it's the consumer's fault......i mean, at least in some way.....after all - as much we all hate the Mega Bass function's, well, crappiness - how many of us go out of our way to NOT buy a "mega bass" equipped CD player? Some would say that's not even possible - I kno. But the reason that nearly every PCDP these days has bass boost that sucks is because people bought into it when it was introduced, right?


At least you don't HAVE to have Mega Bass on......

 

[Joe Bloggs]

If you can upload an eq file created by the manufacturer of the headphones to your pcdp or home HiFi to correct for the frequency response of whatever headphone you're using, that'd be great

Hey a1leyez0nm3, want to check out my EQ for the EX70? (Scale: 7040Hz is at -8dB) (I dunno, I just don't find the need for such shaking low bass

)

 

[Gluegun]

But you would probably want to get it as close to Headphone.com's ideal EQ as possible, right??

 

[a1leyez0nm3]

Ya, those engineers are ripping us off.... My eq soorta looks like that....

 

[a1leyez0nm3]

Ya, those engineers are ripping us off.... My eq soorta looks like that.... But I have another eq or two going that evens the bass and everything out (it's not actually +20db on 20hz...) but somewhere around +15 or +12db on the 20hz I duno

 

[evanft]

Well,if the player naturally has bad bass w/o mega bass on,or the headphones aren't that good,then i think it works pretty good,as long as u don't crank up the volume too high.

 

[hemlyn]

well, speaking as a paid-up audiophile wonk (and I also make my own tech-house music) i can say that, for me, bass boost is hopeless!

it's a great way of swamping your music: you might think it's sounding better, but boy it ain't - just bigger. goodbye clarity, hello sludge

after years of listeningto my stuff on a big ghetto blaster, i couldn't believe just how bad it sounded on typical bass-boosted portable audio kit. just terrible

as someone above sort-of said, all EQ is bad EQ. the people putting your music togetherin the studio make 'n' mix it on the clearest of systems,and while they do indeed sometimes -sometimes - mix down on a boombox or similar to understand how the average consumer hears it, audio clarity always comes first

so don;'t then stick the music through a half-assed clumsy EQ system

i'd say stick with a minimum, or no, bass boost

 

[LamerDeluxe (tm)]

The Bass&Treble boost on the Denon DCP-150 is confusing, it seems like it works the other way around, turning it off seems to supress bass and treble and turning it on sounds like the audio is supposed to sound. It's almost like the normal setting has been made for cheap headphones that cannot handle bass and treble properly.

This is comparing to non-megabass audio on other players.

I leave the Bass&Treble boost of the DCP-150 on, it gives the right amount of bass without making it dominate other parts of the spectrum and makes details easily audible without the sound becoming too bright.

This is with an external batterypack, with a wallwart the boosts sound terribly distorted.

I think the analog bassboost of the D-99 is fun, it's strong and tight giving a cinematic sound made to impress, not accurate or neutral, but fun.

The bassboost of the Akai PD-X73/Optimus 3400 is aweful, bassboost too muddy, treble boost way too shrill.

I received my D-515 and the bassboost on that one works well, only properly boosting bass. The (I think analog) bassboost on the D-T66 also works well.

 

[RobertR]

the mid megabass position in my sony d-t401 is just about perfect for most classical cd's using the er4p.
However the boost postion seems to blend the left and right channels a little reducing the stereo effect which I don't mind; it makes it a little more like binuaral sound.

the d-t401 does not distort at loud volume even with mid bass on but my d-303 does or simply cuts out the low bass to prevent distortion. The d-t401 has 15mw/ch at 16ohm which accounts for its superb headphone output. My D-33 boosts the bass too much and also boosts the highs at the same time making it too bright.

As far as low bass boost the d-t401 does boost at very low frequency. The stereophile test record shows boost down to 40hz. the newer Sonys bass boost is crap and only boost mid bass giving that muddled sound that many dislike.

 

[soupy]

on my sony r55 MD i tend to crank up the bass boost for my eggos only cuz it's fun and most of the music I record on MD for portability require that extra oomph in the bass (hip hop, trance, etc.). For some reason I find it overly bright and dull with it completely off. At the medium setting it's just about right.

 

[averydonovan]

When I'm using earbuds in a noisier environment EQ is often necessary. With my Sennheiser MX500's the 1st MegaBass setting helps a lot with overcoming the noise on a bus. But in quieter environments or with other headphones I prefer not to touch the EQ at all.

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally posted by gloco I assume your MD player puts out slightly boomy bass, right? The one i have has 8 steps of bass and treble and sounds sweet. I wonder of other MD users with these kind of presets use their presets or still turn it off. George

Sorry that its taken me 14 months to reply to you Gloco

At the time of the original post of mine, all I had was an R55 MD with the two stage MegaBass...

Now, along with the R55 I have the E75 and the N707 with the 8 stage bass / treble boosts... and the E10 with the 6 band EQ with 10db +/- adjustments...

Whilst the E75 and the N707 are better than the R55, it has to be said that the E10 kicks some serious butt... I'm not sure though, if its the implementation of the new EQ, or if its the Digital Amp that is built in

Either way though, I'm quite happy to use EQ / bass boost on the E10... and it sounds damned good

 

[Joe Bloggs]

If you own the E10 can't you tell whether it sounds better than the others without the EQ?

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bloggs If you own the E10 can't you tell whether it sounds better than the others without the EQ?

lol Joe...

You're right, that appears to be a stupid thing I said there...

with no sound control at all, the E10 is very clear, with a nice toe tapping bass, and crisp treble... moreso than all the other players (which means the digital amp is doing its job by all accounts) BUT when you kick in the EQ... wow, it makes things sound extra good...

Now, you know me Joe, I'm not normally one to recommend EQ, but with the E10... it is very nicely implemented