[kloan]

Is there such a thing as an easy to make bass-boost, that doesn't require any power, or if it does, minimal like 1 AAA battery?

I use EX71s with my iPod and I actually find there isn't enough bass most of the time with them. I have to turn it up to get the bass, and I'm not comfortable with those listening levels. Using the bass booster in the EQ just causes distortion, as does every other EQ setting in the iPod.

 

[The Speaker Guy]

You would need to know the impedance of the headphones vs. frequency.

An inductor and resistor in parallel would boost the bass. Values TBD.

The inductor would need to be aircore (or very linear) to not add distortion.

 

[kloan]

well, this is according to Sony:

• Impedance: 16 ohms at 1 kHz
• Sensitivity: 100 dB/mW
• Power handling capacity: 100mW
• Frequency Response: 6 - 23,000 Hz

 

[tangent]

Quote:

An inductor and resistor in parallel would boost the bass.

It works in theory, but there are a number of drawbacks:

- To get ~6dB of boost below about 100 Hz, you need R equal to the headphones' impedance, and L equal to about 100mH. 100mH is a pretty big inductor!

- This being a passive filter, it will cut the volume by 6dB; it's more accurate to call it a "treble cut" than a "bass boost". This will be a fatal flaw on any source that doesn't have 6dB of volume headroom to play with.

- This filter's behavior will change when you change the headphones.

- The series R is going to change the sonic character of the headphones. Possibly for the better, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Kloan, personally I'd bite the bullet and add an amp. Not only is the amp likely to improve bass all by itself, but if it doesn't do enough, you can add the PPA's bass boost circuit to it. It could be as simple as a CMoy and do the job.

 

[kloan]

ahh, yeah.. i think you're right there.. im planning on building a cmoy and mint soon enough anyway, so i may as well just stick with what works... and with an amp all of the sound will improve too, not just the bass..

ok, thanks for the advice

 

[james902]

you don't think the ex71's have enough bass?

 

[kloan]

nope.. i mean, the bass will be pretty punchy at higher volumes.. but i had to start listening to lower volumes because my ears were starting to ring.. with in-ear phones, its just not safe to play at higher volumes.. and it seems that's the only way to get sufficient bass out of them.. the bass boost in the ipod's eq is just terrible.. when i plug them into my home stereo though, there is a lot more bass, even at lower volumes.. so there just isnt enough power in the ipod..