Hi Al,
My comment above about your sub being audible to me is in the present tense. Yes, I have commented about the good integration in the past, but lately, I have been more aware of its presence. Perhaps we just have a slightly different view on what sub level sounds most integrated. That is fine.
Over time, my listening skills have changed. I don't know if they have improved or worsened, but I do know that I now listen for different things then I did just a year or two ago. I learn more, my tastes change, I notice different things, so what I now think may well be different from what I used to think. I agree with you that I have remarked on the good integration in the past. You have also made many changes to your system over the past year including new speakers, DAC, Pass B1 buffer/volume control, cables. You have also adjusted your carpet, rotated your tube traps, moved around large absorption panels, all in an effort to shape the sound more to your liking. All of these changes have meant that the sound of your system has not been constant or static over the past year and as I now think about it, my impressions of the degree of your sub integration have changed as well. I'm not trying to revise history, just placing my comments into some kind of context.
Thanks for the clarification, Peter. Tastes are individual. Four other audiophiles who have come over more recently had no objections to my sub settings. Only the last time, when I auditioned the Octave R320 amp, one of them had objections. Perhaps at that time I was too enamored with the phenomenal capabilities of the amp, which was also new to me, for my judgment about fitting bass levels not to be clouded.
It does seem to be a very individual hobby where one's personal preferences are what should matter most.
Indeed. Obviously, individual perceptions vary about what is the 'right' amount of bass. While I like a 'good bass' once in a while I have heard a system where even I felt the need to ask the owner more than once to turn down the sub because I found the bass way overdone on a few particular recordings.
That is also the problem with rigidly fixed sub settings: while they may be fine with a lot of material, sometimes they are not -- not at all. Or if you want to set the sub so low that even outliers don't disturb, then your average recording may not be as well represented as it would be if you were to choose your fixed setting higher and tone it down for the 'fat' outliers.
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