cunobelinus;688085 Wrote: > On 2 Feb 2012, at 13:50, Jeff Flowerday wrote: > > > Down to what hz can you actually hear at 8ft? > > Hearing is the least of it at these pitches. It's not the only sense > involved. Profound bass is primarily felt. However, the answer to the > question is about 12-14Hz. > > > > How much music actually has much content below say 35hz? The low E > > string on the electric bass is about 40hz correct? > > A lot. You can't get a convincing impression of much church/classical > organ, low percussion, low strings and low brass (I'm talking about > acoustic music here) - so most orchestral music of the last 200 years - > without subsonic reproduction, despite the nominal 41Hz low on a double > bass/ electric bass. That's actually not that low, as instruments go. > > Wagner specified C1 low for parts of the Ring - that's 31Hz. Lowest > note on a tuba, the Royal Festival Hall Organ (refurbished) and a > Bosendorfer Grand is 16Hz. A 64 ft organ pipe (Royal Albert Hall) goes > to 8Hz at which it is inaudible, but sets the seats - and chests - > vibrating. The routine bass drum is probably about the same, and as a > former orchestral percussionist, (and rock drummer, for that matter), I > want to feel the shock wave when I'm listening to the audio as I did > when I hit one. > > Some synthesised music is at least as low, which must indicate an > intention of being felt as well as heard. I now can't recall the lowest > I measured sound on "Mirrorball" (Sarah McLachlan) when I was using a > sub, but it was certainly way below 25Hz, and a lot louder to an SPL at > that range than my ears heard it - although the chest was buzzing away > nicely in sympathy. It's nothing like the same listening to it without > the sub. I really must get it out and set it up with the Quads.
I would just like to add to this that although strings do not naturally produce undertones in the same way that they do overtones, undertones are apparently produced by the resonance of the body of instruments. That would explain why having a sub seems to make acoustic instruments like cellos and pianos seem more convincing. I'm sorry to keep banging on about this but I simply can't understand why anyone who cares about hifi would want to miss out on the bottom octave. It's not foo it's absolutely basic uncontroversial fact that you can hear down to 20Hz. AFAIK the bottom range does not decline with age (or if it does is doesn't do so dramatically) unlike to upper limit. Just think of the amount of time people spend arguing on this forum that the operating system of your server or whatever just might possibly affect the sound coming out of their speakers: I bet at least half of them have speakers that only go down to 40-50hZ! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. -- adamdea ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamdea's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=37603 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93382 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
