[LAU] Speakers gymnastics ?

[S. Massy]

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:19:01PM -0700, Kevin Cosgrove wrote:
> 
> On 10 May 2012 at 12:26, jonetsu <jonetsu at teksavvy.com>wrote:
> 
> > Recently I got some Ozric Tentacles more or less relatively recent CDs
> > which has at times extremely low and powerful bass sounds.  Caught me
> > off guard in the car as the car's speakers went booming.  And then it
> > happened a few other times.  Now, when I play 'regular' CDs that I used
> > to play before, I notice that I have to lower the bass by one notch,
> > compared to the usual setting, as it is more powerful than it used to
> > be.  Or is it just some problem with my perception/eras ?  Is it
> > possible at all that driving very low bass sounds at a fairly high
> > volume for small amounts of time 'flexes' some speaker membrane and
> > make them play bass sounds better afterwards ?
> 
> If they truly sound different, then they've been damaged, and are 
> likely to continue to be more damaged.
> 
> It could be that you're paying more attention to the low end tho.
Kevin's right. Never underestimate the subjectivity of your ear/brain
receiver, both the physical and psychological aspect. In the last six to
eight months, due to neighbour complaints, I've been listening to music
and monitoring at much lower levels. Surprisingly, I find my perception
of "loudness" is much more sensitive, and my "internal" dynamic range is
much increased. Another thing to consider is the environment: did you
change anything inside your car recently, which might have been
absorbing low frequencies? If in doubt/curious, you could always run a
sine sweep through your system and see if something odd comes up.
Finally, make sure you don't have bass boost turned on by mistake! :)
Seriously, though, you'd be amazed at how many listening systems have it
turned on by default. I have a pair of (otherwise decent) little
speakers which insist on toggling bass boost on whwnever switched off
and on again.

Cheers,
S.M.