Boom Boom

I came across a great article on bass management which has good information not only for home recordists but for people interested in understanding how to get the best performance out of their multi-channel system in a home theatre environment. You can find the article here.

Floyd Toole, an engineer with Harman International Industries, authored the material. Here is the abstract:

We all dream of having deep, powerful, tight, articulate bass, but amazingly few ever achieve it. Some audiophiles gave up trying, and reverted to small speakers, thus avoiding annoying bass boom, but also abandoning the low fundamental notes of the music. There are several problems, and most of them have nothing to do with the loudspeaker. The room, and the arrangement of loudspeakers and listeners within it, dominate what we hear. It is a problem that cannot be completely solved by good loudspeaker design, or by electronic equalization, although both of these can help. A complete solution requires the input of somebody who understands the fundamentals of room acoustics. Many people are intimidated by room acoustics, considering it one of life’s great mysteries. However, it really is not all that complicated, and we now have some computer aids and acoustical measurement devices to help us. So, with a spirit of optimism, let us venture forth and see how much of it we can understand. We don’t yet have all the answers, but you may be surprised how much is utterly and easily predictable.