Greetings from Basspig (Mark Weiss) from Connecticut

Mark (Basspig) Weiss

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2010
682
37
940
New Milford, CT
www.basspig.com
My friend Ethan Winer, who lives almost literally across the road from me (actually across the state route, on the opposite mountain) told me about WhatsBestForums and thought that I might be able to provide some useful expertise here, given my broad practical knowledge of things electronic, audio and video.

I spent some time lurking on these forums last night and found them fascinating, with a nice variety of topics and a good bunch of folks here. I spoke with Steve, one of the founders here, and decided to join.

I look forward to interesting and enjoyable banter with the folks here. Oh, BTW, my nickname was given to me by a new friend I met in 1989: he first heard my sound system and immediately referred to me as a "bass pig". It's sounds a bit derogatory, but it's his way of saying "over the top". I do like to feel the earth shake when I listen to certain types of music. :D


A little about my background:

Worked in and had a strong interest in audio since the 1960s. I've designed and built several valve amplifiers and my stereo system was valve-based until 1978, when I found the first 'decent' transistorized amplifier.

I have a career background in optical physics and I worked with various types of lasers in the 1970s at a company called Intec Corp. The applications were automatic inspection of web product, such as steel, magnetic tape, film, paper, even semiconductor substrates.

I worked in data communications for a while, and also worked as a Technical Writer for that same company, General DataComm.

Since the late 1970s, I was working on the design of AM & FM broadcast transmitters, stereo multiplexers and audio processing hardware that was effective, but relatively transparent, compared to the industry standards of that time. I picked up an extraordinary intimate knowledge of audio signals and what's happening in the electrical domain while searching for the "Holy Grail" of broadcast audio processing through design and engineering efforts.

In the late 1980s, I started my first business, as a typesetter. By 1990, I expanded to color prepress/graphic design and worked on several international video titles, designing the packaging and sell sheets for an importer/licensor of Japanese animation. (Did I mention that I am a huge fan of Japanese anime, particularly the works of Hayao Miyazaki?)

In the late 1980s, I bought my first color Newvicon video camera and eventually a second camera. I bought an effects switcher and, put off by the cost of gen-locked cameras, decided to modify my two cameras and clock them from a synchronous external timebase. That saved thousands of dollars and enabled me to do nice 2-camera live switching productions.

In the early 2000s, DV cameras became affordable and I dipped into more serious video production. Since 2005, I've been doing video production professionally. In 2007, I dabbled in HDV, was disappointed in its limitations and moved on to professional XDCam HD in 2008.

Audio has been my first love and filmmaking has been something that fascinated me since the 1960s. I was also interested in typesetting back then. Both were expensive and impractical for me so I pursued audio, which was more financially within reach. I had access to a vast collection of WWII electronics surplus parts, so my early projects were valve-based.

Today, my video productions feature top-notch audio. I recently completed a fireworks shoot (on invitation by Zambelli Fireworks to shoot their show from the launch zone) in which the dynamic range exceeded 85dB. I had to modify the power supply on my preamp, upgrade my cables and get a better Blu-ray player in order to take advantage of the dynamic range with acceptable levels of hum and hiss. I had to solve technical challenges of preserving the best of the audio while converting my 24-bit master tracks to 16-bit Dolby AC3 for the Blu-ray (the only multichannel format that Adobe Encore supports). I think I pulled it off well, as the folks that have experienced the screenings on my 60 sq ft screen with 16,500 watts of audio and industrial sound reinforcement drivers in custom built baffles were all impressed utterly.

Other projects I worked on were recording symphony orchestras. One such recording got a very favorable comment from Peter Aczel of THE AUDIO CRITIC.

I have a production studio, screening room (see www.basspig.com for a few more photos) and MIDI setup with Kurzweil samplers and ROMplers, some additional modules from Yamaha and Roland and an 88-key weighted keyboard. I love to listen and I love to arrange music.

I do video production and some 3D animation work too. I author DVDs and Blu-ray discs. I have to wear many hats, being I do all the functions of a full staff at a production house. Just takes me longer as I can only do 1-2 things at a time here. :)

I have a wife and daughter and a pet cat, and a cockatiel, who spends most of his time on my shoulder. He's watching me type this now.

Looking forward to chatting with y'all!
 

Ron Party

WBF Founding Member
Apr 30, 2010
2,457
13
0
Oakland, CA
Nice resume. Welcome to the WBF.

Hey Mark, Steve and I have a friend named Tony, who I thought was the king of bass, since he has 2 TRWs, the Wilson XS, and 2 Wilsondogs! Can you share with us more about your nickname?
 

Mark (Basspig) Weiss

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2010
682
37
940
New Milford, CT
www.basspig.com
Thanks, everyone. :)

I've read a lot about the TRWs and about Bruce Thigpen's design ideas. Truly a novel concept. I just wish he'd make a larger version. :D

Why I'm a Bass Pig? That's only for my psychiatrist to know. ;) I think it goes waaaay back in my history.. hi-fi became a filler for something else that was lacking in my personal fulfillment. After 30 or so years, it became entrenched to the point where I can't maintain sanity without a weekly dose of it.

Thing is, everyone thinks I'm nuts. I've lost friends INSTANTLY after one crank of the volume. There are people who won't go anywhere near this place now because they were subjected to SPLs which, in their world, are cruel and unhealthy. Some people complain of breathing difficulty, others get chest pains, and almost all literally RUN for the exit when the bass starts to hit moderately hard. And I'm at 130dB and just beginning to get warmed up (that's when 'Signal Present' LEDs on the QSC power amps start to flicker).

I had my epiphany on June 30 2006 when, armed with a sound level meter, I walked about 1/5 mile down the road and measured 97dB whenever the 24Hz bass note in this Korean pop tune I was playing at the time, was played. I didn't realize the LF carried that far.

The other 'evidence' to my nuttieness is in this video:

What else can I say?
 

Ethan Winer

Banned
Jul 8, 2010
1,231
3
0
75
New Milford, CT
There are people who won't go anywhere near this place now because they were subjected to SPLs which, in their world, are cruel and unhealthy. Some people complain of breathing difficulty, others get chest pains, and almost all literally RUN for the exit when the bass starts to hit moderately hard.

LOL, I love your LF demos! That one time when you played 10 Hz or whatever at super high levels, it was like a big fan set to high blowing at me from a foot away! And your recent fireworks video on Blu-ray was literally like being right there. Amazing and amazingly cool.

--Ethan
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
Is it just me? it appears the rug blows in the shape of a sound wave.
 

Kal Rubinson

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2010
2,360
697
1,700
NYC
www.stereophile.com
Mark

No wonder Ethan lives on the other side of the mountain from you :)

That is amazing
And I am across the river. New Milford is becoming an audio hot-bed! (BTW, it was the original site of Peter Pritchard's Audio Dynamics Corporation and a small company that marketed the first turntable isolation platform. Anyone want to guess who that was?)
 

cjfrbw

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
3,325
1,315
1,730
Pleasanton, CA
I think Basspig is a great moniker. You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much bass.
 

Mark (Basspig) Weiss

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2010
682
37
940
New Milford, CT
www.basspig.com
And I am across the river. New Milford is becoming an audio hot-bed! (BTW, it was the original site of Peter Pritchard's Audio Dynamics Corporation and a small company that marketed the first turntable isolation platform. Anyone want to guess who that was?)

Kal, you should stop by again some time and see my conversion to theater! Numerous acoustic treatments were applied since your last visit and the addition of projection and AT screen have transformed the place into a totally new experience.

I don't know why some of the Youtube videos don't play embedded. But I'm using IE8 here and have not observed any problem playing them myself.

If bass is 'quality bass', it seems possible to get away with 'too much' bass more readily, because it sounds and feels so darned good. I have been told "too much" by a number of people though, as they were about the throw up, or became sea sick from the low frequency sounds during my organ tests. One fellow from California went into what I call "fight or flight mode", as he'd lived through the Northridge earthquake and when the building began to shake, he didn't think that could possibly be coming from any sound equipment and began to panic until I stopped the playback and convinced him it was not an earthquake by Mother Nature.

I care about accuracy, but a system MUST be capable of reproducing pyrotechnics at close range with any audible strain. It's interesting to be blasted by fireworks concussions and then five minutes later, be listening to the Bridgeport Symphony and feeling as if you were at 5th row center, enjoying all the nuances and fine details of the performance with not a hint of too much bass emphasis. Then after that, to switch to some Korean pop music that has heavy bass notes around 20-25Hz and have your guts shaken loose.

One of my favorite toys is the dbx 4bx Expander with Impact Restoration. It was intended to restore some of the lost dynamic range due to compression on vinyl and tape. When CD came along, things got interesting, because now there was little to no compression on the better recordings and the 4bx would really make snare drums 'crack' like a shotgun.

Two months ago, I picked up a dbx 500 Subharmonic Synthesizer. This is a toy that can make those wimpy Four Jacks and a Jill albums really get street tough in the lower register. Or put on a recording with fat, hollow sounding bass guitar and the dbx will 'build' the fundamental back into the mix and shake the house. A fun toy for certain kinds of listening and certain pop/rock music from the '60s & '70s.

I do wish we had an audiophile society here in New Milford. It's such a boring town, so full of audio-ignorant masses on the whole, given that in 44 years at this same address, I have only managed to find two other audiophiles in town! One would think that with all the millionaires living around me, there would be many audiophiles. There are $2.5M mansions down the road from me, on the lake where the occupants don't even own hi-fi equipment. Unbelievable! It's easy to find computer afficionados, or car buffs, but find more than two audiophiles in this town? Impossible!

Just for fun, here's my new theater in action:


There's an InFocus IN82 driving my new Seymour AV transparent screen.
 

Mark (Basspig) Weiss

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2010
682
37
940
New Milford, CT
www.basspig.com

I've read that test paper about a year ago. Those tests were conducted outdoors.
I was measuring unintended leakage, through concrete basement walls, into the surrounding neighborhood.

I do have some anecdotal data for the Bassmaxx ZR18s that I own, as their previous owner, Bassmaxx Corp was testing them in the California desert with a pair of 9,000-watt QSC power amplifiers driving a pair of these at a "rave" concert. An employee living 14 miles away from the speaker location reported being able to hear the low frequencies clearly.

The firm in Pennsylvania that tests the T/S parameters for drivers that Bassmaxx employs, were rather stunned by some test results, so I am told, and an engineer called David Lee at Bassmaxx to tell him the driver calculations indicate that at Xmax, the driver would produce 154dB @ 20Hz. It's no surprise that David's partner could hear them playing from 14 miles away.

Fortunately for me and my neighbors, my house is very soundproof and I'm also circuit breaker-limited.
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
I was thinking BASS HOG! You know like Boss Hog in the Dukes of Hazzard.;)
 

Mark (Basspig) Weiss

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2010
682
37
940
New Milford, CT
www.basspig.com
Somehow "hog" is too polite. My friend used the term "pig" to emphasis piggish excess.

Too much bass is no good if it's not accurate bass though. I went through that phase 25 years ago with my horn-loaded phase. But as they say, "there's no replacement for displacement." :D
 

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