What's the best bass you've ever heard?

[terryo]

This completely violates the rules set by Max:

Last year, I witnessed the firing of a 105mm Howitzer at Fort Bragg, NC.


I was about 60 feet away, with ear protection.

It was the most intense sonic experience of my life. It felt like my chest cavity depressed, and I almost fell over.


But from a speaker: The Walsh A. 18" inverted Walsh driver... It's intense.

NK

Cheater!

Ok, how about a 250 lb bomb dropped approximately 75-80 feet away, with only a concrete fountain between you and the building it was dropped onto.
I had trouble hearing for a week or two, as did the two other guys that were stuck there with me. It must have been 20 minutes before we could even tell we were OK.

Best Regards,
TerryO

[waynew]

Car Audio...toss up between a pair of JL Audio 10's in a Cutlas Calais Indy 500 Pace Car, a pair of 10" Diamond Audio Hex Mac Daddy's in a '05 Dodge Quad Cab, and a Quad of ADS 10's in a GMC Typhoon (probably my favorite).

In home...tough one to answer. For awhile, I had a 12" slot ported JL with a 250W amp along with a 10" running off a 150W amp, and a Pair of 8" Peerless sucking juice from a Keiga 250W. This seemed to provide ample bass. However, I have since ditched the 12, and 10 and gone with the pair of 8's (my wife absolutely hates low bass...makes her nauseous)...she is also not amused when I wake up the kids at 10pm while playing Call of Duty 4 because of an airstrike! Since putting the 8's in a nice enclosure and tweeking them, I am very happy with the performance. Very fast, deep enough to make me happy without freaking out the wife.

I also had to ditch the sub's in my vehicles to accomodate strollers, pack-n-plays, dogs, fishin poles, guns and work stuff. The only auto sub I really miss was the 12" JL I had in my '89 VW Cabriolet...that really sounded nice. I may have to try out some of those Tang Band 5" woofers and go with a really small box and see if I can get that past my wife! Hee hee heeeee

The absolute most amazing bass I have ever experienced was when I was an onstage bouncer for a 311 concert in Lincoln....of course, I was standing between Nick Hexum and a double stack of subs! It actually moved me!

[shawn_a]

The absolute most amazing bass I have ever experienced was when I was an onstage bouncer for a 311 concert in Lincoln....of course, I was standing between Nick Hexum and a double stack of subs! It actually moved me!

I'll second the sound of a 311 concert. Standing 60 feet away from the stage was making my pants legs flap like there was a good breeze. At least that's what I remember but with all the second-hand smoke (the really good kind) the night is a bit foggy in my memory. Seeing how Lincoln would have been a hometown show of sorts (sorta) for 311 I bet they put on a doozy of set that night for ya, Wayne.

The other concert set that is close to that night was seeing Tool at Lollapalooza on the second stage. Great show and great sound.

shawn

[Brian Steele]

Rush's "Tom Sawyer" being played by a local cover band called "Touchdown", many years ago in T'dad. I was about two feet or so away from the bass stack when the bass hit.

Two 1200Gtis in 1.75 cu.ft. vented enclosures (Fb~28 Hz) in-car and driven by 1kW did come close though (interestingly enough, the track in question was "Tom Sawyer" off of Rush's "Exit.. Stage Left" CD. I was enjoying the experience in the driveway once when my granma came running out to complain that all the glassware was vibrating in the kitchen. Ok, so it was a little loud ...

[jeffreynixon]

Well, OK, I know it wasn't the deepest or loudest bass I ever hear but the one that still sticks in my musical memory was a little over forty years ago at the "Youth Center" in my home town, back when the PA was for the vocals and the rest of the band came out of individual amps. Anyway, the traveling band that Saturday night had a bass player on a Gibson blowing out of something like three 3 x15 Kustoms. Sounded great and I'd swear standing a few feet in front of them your pants legs would flap in the breeze. I'm sure that modern mega watt amps and smarter speaker designs far surpass this old stuff, but this was a really memorable pot hole on my Memory Lane.

[deLuxhifi]

Uzeb...

Scroll for their version of Miles Davis Blue 'n Green. Wow!

I saw them at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver in 1991 or so.

[troymadden]

Iv'e had a few bass experiance's that have left an impression. The first was at a CES show in Chicago in the '70's. From time to time I would feel the floor of the huge concrete and steel convention center shake. Finally asked what was going on, and someone told me it was Cerwin Vega's setup in the basement. So we went down. The sound pressure in the hallway was already outrageous, sounded like very loud live music. Stepped into the room and was almost knocked over. On a low stage they had all horn setup with several massive horn loaded subs, driven by racks of Crown DC300A's. The source was reel to reel tape running at 15 inches per second. (Still haven't heard a better source than RtR). The sound was felt as much as heard, went right thru my body, felt like my insides were moving! Still get goosebumps just thinking about it! Another time was at Disney World, MGM Studios I think. Fireworks show with music. Somehow they were flapping my pantlegs outdoors, in the middle of a crowd! Found out later they used ServoDrive subs, very impressive! Iv'e had a couple setups myself that would shake things up, 8 twelves in push-pull pairs in a small car, a couple people almost threw up from the shake. Clean too. Blurred your vision, loosened car parts. Another setup that worked well was 6 Dayton twelves in a 24 cu ft vented box built into the corner if my living room. Very clean, effortless, low and loud. The depth charges in U571 were IN the room! Localization was awesome too, I think due to 2 more 12's in the mains, and full range suround speakers.

[dennymack]

It wasn't massive bass, but the one I remember most is the Aerial Acoustics big floorstander. (20T maybe?)I think it had four or so 8 inch drivers. I've heard louder, but it was so accurate and natural it just blew me away. It was my first true hifi experience, and I'm still chasing that sound.
For sheer awe, Pink Floyd. In a stadium, 50 yards away, and still made my skin and bones vibrate.
For affordability, my used Infinity sm152's. Not a great speaker, but very efficient. Modest Mouse's "Float On" shakes my whole house even though its driven off a basic HT receiver.

[djg]

Since no one is following the OP's guidelines, "Earthquake" in "Sensurround" at the theater. Lots of Cerwin Vega boxes set up in the theater.

[williamrschneider]

The most impressive bass I've heard came from a friend's dual Velodyne 15" servo subs. No need for 'rump shakers' with these. This friend who is in charge of engineering at a large metro-city TV station, has always had nice high-end audio 'toys'.

The bass I'd LIKE to hear would be from this installation. What looks like a doorway is actually part a masonry "horn" under the floor.



The "build thread" can be found here... http://www.royaldevice.com/customita3.htm

[wg_ski]

Another time was at Disney World, MGM Studios I think. Fireworks show with music. Somehow they were flapping my pantlegs outdoors, in the middle of a crowd! Found out later they used ServoDrive subs, very impressive!

It was the Servodrives that did it for me, too. Those BT7's seem to leave a lasting impression on anyone with the Bass bug. Two things are made very clear - a proper horn setup is the only way to go, and 40 Hz PA bass is No Longer Good Enough.

[brianpowers27]

One of my bandmates used to play a 5 string G&L bass (active pickups)through an Ampeg 8x10" with an Ampeg head. The head was solid state with a tube pre and loads of tone controls.

We used to practice in a 17'x11'x8' shag carpeted room with irregular surfaces. The sound in that room was amazing. It is hard to describe the impact...

[the_egg]

The bass I'd LIKE to hear would be from this installation. What looks like a doorway is actually part a masonry "horn" under the floor.



The "build thread" can be found here... http://www.royaldevice.com/customita3.htm

I'm going to do this to my house... Fiance will love it

[waynew]

I'll second the sound of a 311 concert. Standing 60 feet away from the stage was making my pants legs flap like there was a good breeze. At least that's what I remember but with all the second-hand smoke (the really good kind) the night is a bit foggy in my memory. Seeing how Lincoln would have been a hometown show of sorts (sorta) for 311 I bet they put on a doozy of set that night for ya, Wayne.

The other concert set that is close to that night was seeing Tool at Lollapalooza on the second stage. Great show and great sound.

shawn

I can second the second hand smoke part! When the boys pulled up in their tour bus, we met them at the back door and it was like a scene from Cheech and Chong when that door opened. The smoke just rolled out of the bus! Hahaha. They asked us if we wanted to hang with them for awhile and we all laughed and said that we wouldn't be very good bouncers if we were all baked.

[curt_c]

Best bass I ever heard was a quartet of Wright R-3350's on a B-29 Superfortress in full song. This would be about 3 MegaWatts of power...

C

[biff]

Several movies at the Virginia air and Space Imax have impressed me - very accurate, no compression to note. The feeling of lots of headroom was welcome at those volumes.

At concerts? ELO in a theatre was more like a hi-fi than most venues I have heard. YES in the round was amazing, racks of DC300s with barely a flicker on the VUs and rows of Ampeg and Custom cabinets. The Ampegs ripped and the Customs had near sub feel, and Chris varied them to get just the combo at any passage needed.

In the showroom we once had some Technics pro series that were mock KEF 105.2 setups, IIRC they were sb-7070s. Similar to Van Der Steens today, but when you played ELPs Lucky Man on a good belt table with a Sonus D5 cart and adequate cojones from amp they not only were the best Japanese speakers I had heard, but the legs on your bells would flap like an MG top. On the MFSL Waiting for Columbus lead-in for Time loves a Hero the drums popped and the bass GROWLS! The room was small, non symmetric, and covered with shag carpet on every surface. When that sax went stratospheric the hair on your arms waved at the moon and everyone grinned like they just had a lobotomy. And the employees were not high on the job (cough, cough).

[ajinfla]

Was is the bass at a rock concert/club/etc. supposed to sound like? What does one reference against?

cheers,

AJ

[shawn_a]

Was is the bass at a rock concert/club/etc. supposed to sound like? What does one reference against?

cheers,

AJ

Quite simply I don't think about such things when I'm at a concert. Sit back and enjoy is the order of the day. Not everything in life need be referenced, refuted, folded, spindled or mutilated. Just let the music take you along for the ride.

shawn

[shawn_a]

I can second the second hand smoke part! When the boys pulled up in their tour bus, we met them at the back door and it was like a scene from Cheech and Chong when that door opened. The smoke just rolled out of the bus! Hahaha. They asked us if we wanted to hang with them for awhile and we all laughed and said that we wouldn't be very good bouncers if we were all baked.

Oh and I must reassure that it was only second hand smoke . I thought the reefer madness was hilarious when I saw Boston (watch the doobie go from one end of a row to the other is a fun game) but for 311, holy smoke! Really! The cops knew everyone there was baked but it wasn't like they could stop 30,000 people. We just hung out for awhile after the show to let the buzz wear off and get the glassiness out of our eyes. Still smelled like we had rolled in a field of burning leaves but wow, it was a great time.

shawn

[shawn_a]

Cheater!

Ok, how about a 250 lb bomb dropped approximately 75-80 feet away, with only a concrete fountain between you and the building it was dropped onto.
I had trouble hearing for a week or two, as did the two other guys that were stuck there with me. It must have been 20 minutes before we could even tell we were OK.

Best Regards,
TerryO

To continue with the artillery motif, every year during the Fourth of July the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has their concert of patriotic music (Sousa out the ying-yang) at Conner Prairie. Big open-air venue that overlooks a beautiful pasture behind and below the orchestra shell. Well, when the darkness has started to really creep in they get ready for the fireworks which is accompanied by the orchestra belting out the 1812 Overture. Complete with cannon. I try to get as close to the big ole boomstick the guys in green jammies bring out for the occasion. Absolutely magical and it is some of the most vicious slam-in-the-chest I've ever felt. Overall it's a great show to go to. I've gone to many different shows for the Symphony On The Prairie series and it's always a good time.

shawn