[watchnerd]

   
Maybe. But I looked at early 70s albums by some other groups that I used to play loud - Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Golden Earring - and they look similar to later period LZ rather than the early LZ albums. That is, some shelving of the bass below 100 Hz but no significant drop-off. By the mid to late 80s I started to see CDs which were apparently no longer EQed with vinyl in mind. That is, in many cases the lowest notes were the loudest on the album. They were starting to go away from the cardboard 70s drum sound too.

 
It might not have just been vinyl, but speakers, too.
 
Remember "digital ready" speakers?

 

[keanex]

this is possibly the worst thread I've ever read, spearheaded by the worst idea I've ever seen.

 

[castleofargh]

don't say that, there are plenty of much worst ideas in some other topics ^_^. like saying that vinyl has better resolution than CD. or that the best DAC is a R2R without any filter. or the CD mat. or the need for ultrasounds for the music to sound real. or...

 
he did achieve his objective of boosting the sub bass like mad without much risk of clipping for most musics. that part was done pretty seriously(I also thought at first that is was foolish/dangerous and was wrong). the interest of doing it is much more debatable of course, and the main post about equal loudness contour is 100% fallacy.
maybe we should have like IMDB, a rating of topics to get an idea of what other people think in one number ^_^.

 

[Don Hills]

  this is possibly the worst thread I've ever read, spearheaded by the worst idea I've ever seen.

I bet you slow down to rubberneck at accidents on the freeway too...

 

[Don Hills]

... Remember "digital ready" speakers?

Waste of money. I did stick with vinyl for longer than most of my friends, though.
 
To get back closer to the topic, I was recently looking for headphones with good bass response for testing my bass EQ and sub-octave synthesis techniques without keeping the neighbourhood awake. The V-Modas came well recommended, but I'd rather not spend that much without the opportunity to audition (no-one stocks them here). Someone mentioned the Philips SHE3580 / SHE3590 IEMs. They've proved ideal - they cost less than US$10 and go down with authority to below 20 Hz. Midrange and treble isn't what I class as "high fidelity", but they're not fatiguing when listening for long periods.

 

[castleofargh]

got a pair too some time back after seeing Joe bloggs talking about how he liked them with his own EQ ^_^. they are indeed bass monsters that go real low for a hard to beat price. I'm really not a fan of the signature unEQed though.

 

[watchnerd]

Ok I tried these EQ settings on some old Rolling Stones tracks. 
 
WAAAUGHHH.
 
Did not like!  Muddy muddy nasty nasty.

 

[Don Hills]

  Ok I tried these EQ settings on some old Rolling Stones tracks. 
 
WAAAUGHHH.
 
Did not like!  Muddy muddy nasty nasty.

Which settings? What tracks?
If you name a track and the settings you used, we can judge the effect for ourselves.

 

[watchnerd]

Nothing radical was used:
 
"Satisfaction" and "Brown Sugar"
 
PEQ Band 1: Low Shelf, 25 Hz center, -16 dB, Q=.9 (basically a rumble / infrasonic filter)
PEQ Band 2: Low Shelf, 80 Hz center, +2 dB, Q = 1.0 (EBS)
Preamp: -6 dB
 
The combination of these 2 PEQs gives the following electrical summations:
 
20 Hz: -9 dB
30 Hz: -3 dB
37 Hz: 0 dB
40 Hz: +1 dB
50 Hz: +2 dB
60 Hz: +2 dB
70 Hz: +2 dB
80 Hz: +1 dB
90 Hz: +1 dB
100 Hz: +0 dB

 

[Don Hills]

I only have recent remasters handy (mashed to mush). I'll need to go get my LPs out.
Boosting the bass on the examples I have is a waste of time.
For both tracks, there's basically just "mud" below 80 Hz, except for some kick drum thud on "Brown Sugar".
For "Brown Sugar", the bass guitar is buried in the mud. For "Satisfaction" the bass does stand out from the noise. There are no low bass notes on either track anyway.
 
So I provisionally agree, at least on the versions I have handy it just brings out the muddiness. Looking at the spectrograms, there appeared to be some weird EQ decisions made. I'll need to check the originals.
The Rolling Stones are a good subject for this sort of analysis, there are many isolated tracks around. It can be quite instructive to hear what was tracked versus what was mixed.

 

[DiscoProJoe]

So I guess none of y'all old geezers on here ever had a big, loud, thumpin' system in your car when you were younger, as I did -- with fun dance-pop music cranked up, hittin' hard and throbbin' deep,...eh? 

 
One of the reasons I'm so enthusiastic about my portable headphone system today is that it sounds even better than the last huge car stereo I had years ago. (My old car stereo included a high-output alternator, a special battery, and a giant stiffening cap.)

 

[watchnerd]

I wasn't alive when the Stones or Led Zeppelin were performing, but I never got into car audio.
 
It always seemed like a desperate attempt at phallic symbolism in an attempt to get chicks....who actually didn't care.
 
My car spending went into chips, tires, and suspension.

 

[castleofargh]

the low freq I enjoy the most are between 50 and 80hz which are usually the most boosted part of a song already on "bassy" stuff. so I don't really feel the need for anything massive. I have like +2db @ 50hz on my hd650. what a bass head!!! ^_^.