Creating Punchy bass from the Sub Woofer

Sub Woofer tuning for clean & fast bass

In this post I share some techniques I use when optimising speakers with sub woofers in situations when the bass seems too muddy. 

Its like everything is hammering the bass but there is no distinct beat & all you hear is a thunderous vibration.

Many Home theatre & audio enthusiasts have faced problems with bass cleanup at some stage of their setup, & hopefully some of these tips will help investigate & fix your particular issues.

When I say punch & mid bass, one would assume I want things to sound like a car boom box, but thats not the case.

There is no shame in expecting better or more amounts of bass, but in some audiophile forums if you bring up the subject of more bass, they assume your're an idiot who has no appreciation of natural flat music.

I will state a few steps to try out to get more out of your HT setup.

The Scenario to demonstrate techniques with:

Ill use a scenario that I found most challenging to get right, & thats when you use a floor stander that can go almost as low the bloody sub in the first place, though not the same amount of db in those low frequencies.

The process works with any speaker, its just harder with floor standers that have a deep bottom end.

Im not a fan of automatic stuff, its never perfect. But these days, its a good start.

Audyssey, MCACC, YPAO etc all get you started because they give you a 'real' frequency indication of what has been done from the perspective to get things flat. This is needed so that you can then only make the enhancements you need rather than have to fix too many issues at once.

The Factors

CrossOver frequency:

No factor has more impact on your overall bass than cross over frequency.

You want to set the crossover to a point where the main speakers & your sub have a slight overlay in certain frequency.

Conventionally, you would check the frequency response & match them such that the sub takes over what the front cant handle. But the problem can often be that the whole setup creates flat bass that can be measured by a machine as being audible across the entire spectrum, but not necessarily punchy bass that has a presence with an attack, rather than just vibration you can feel in your heart.

Eq setting in your receiver:

If your receiver has an auto calibration system, start with that. It will even out the fronts so at least they are set to a reasonably 'flat' starting point, so you know what parameters to increment.

Woofer Volume:

I would recommend setting the woofer volume to 30% before firing up your auto calibration system.