Terminologies

[Darth Maul]

Sorry, I'm a novice to AV. Can somoene please explain some points to me?

1. What do they mean when they say "bright sound" and "colorisation"? eg they say "the sound from this speaker is brighter than the sound from that one"?

2. What do they mean by "tight" bass? Or "this tightens the bass" ?

3. What's the difference betweent he job of the bass channel (port hole) and the bass bin? Whi do some speakers have the port hole at the back, and some have it at the front? Is there a situation when you'd opt for one or the other?

4. When you put foam plugs into the port hole of a speaker to reduce boominess, does it mean we're losing some of the bass we paid for? Will turning up the bass in the amp bring back the bass absorbed by the foam plug, and will it still be less boomy?

Sorry again for being such a novice, but I hope someone can clarify these points.

 

[Ian J]

Originally posted by Darth Maul
2. What do they mean by "tight" bass? Or "this tightens the bass" ?

I'll take the easy one

It's about the timing of the note being reproduced. A decent subwoofer is expensive to manufacture and a poor design coupled with cheap components could result in "loose" bass.

An extreme example is when the the subwoofer is still chugging out it's bass note when the other speakers have already moved onto the next one.

I recall some years ago in a magazine review of a subwoofer the phrase "This subwoofer has more overhang than the reviewer's belly" which sums it up quite well in my mind.

 

[SKA.face]

Listen to a B&W tweeter,that would be classed as bright to my ears,metal domes are classed as bright,giving a metallic sound to the top end freq range,but they can also be interprated as fast and lively also.

You'll probably get a tighter bass from a sealed box design I.E no port.

I wouldn't use foam ports if strictly nessercery,but would prefer to bring the speaker further away from rear wall,to help midrange and depth.

All IMHO.

 

[Darth Maul]

Thanx for the replies.

So if I put in the bungs, will I lose some of the bass/sound quality that I paid for?

I have a 6.1 setup. Due to room/furniture arrangements, my front-left and front-centre speakers are away from the walls so I don't use the bungs on those. But my front-right speaker is right up against the wall, so I may have to place a bung in it to reduce boominess. Will this cause a problem in tonal matching? Or if I put bungs in all three of my front apeakers to ensure tonal matching, will that reduce the overall richness in sound quality, so I don't get the best out of my speakers?

Sorry, I'm AV-virgin!

 

[Ian J]

There are no hard and fast rules and what works best in one room for one person's ears won't necessarily be appreciated by someone else in a different room.

The best thing to do is to play about with positioning and bungs until you find what works best for your own circumstances.