Room resonance excess masks loudspeaker bass deficiency to listeners
Evidence
Hearing bass is advantageous, so exaggerated room resonances can benefit a loudspeaker with deficient bass output, even if the combined bass is colored. Some contemporary music styles, studio recordings, demand substantial bass output. Inadequate bass will be criticized and excessive bass rewarded. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 549
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the phantom-bass and room-gain phenomena from earlier chapters; also the ‘bass is rewarded’ finding connects to why boosted low end sells consumer speakers. — connects to: Room low-frequency resonances make expensive audio systems sound muddy or boomy — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1266; Real loudspeakers show flat magnitude response only below 800 Hz with a midrange dip — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 505; Recorded room ambience may distract listeners from evaluating raw loudspeaker quality (+7 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 549
Broader Connections
- Notching a room mode reduces woofer distortion and lets louder playback
#expands(0.78) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1631 - Turning down volume suppresses perceived bass and treble relative to midrange
#qualifies(0.75) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 626 - Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt
#complicates(0.72) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547