Hey guys,
"Punch" is a pretty subjective term, but it might help to think about what makes low freq in music and what it really sounds like in real life. Go hit the lowest key on a piano if you have one nearby or just think about what it sounds like. The fundamental note is 27.5 hz but it sounds radically different than a 27.5 sin wave. You are also hearing a whole bunch of harmonics. That fundamental low is there, if it was missing it would, well, be missing, but that is definitely not the whole picture. I play the bass guitar with my low string being B (31 hz). Believe me there is no punch when I thump that note. The string just moves too slow. The punch, if it is there, comes from timing with the kick drum such that it sounds like the kick drum hit my string. There is a ton of sound from the kick at around 45 hz. I think that is primarily what the bouncing low riders have boosted to the moon. But is the impact of the kick drum at 45 hz? What is the freq of the pedal thing actually hitting the drum head (initial attack)? I bet its quite a bit higher. It is the boom boom that is lower.
I don't think that a big driver in an enormous cabinet is going to ever reproduce the initial attack of the kick, the sound of my finger on the string or the hammer way down at one end of the piano string. Nor should it necessarily. You have other drivers much more suited to those sounds and when your sub is integrated well with the speakers you will not ever hear it directly. You will just think that those M80s are slamming. Can't you feel it? LFE is felt more than heard but should be directly connected to what we are hearing in a way that it is part of it, not separated.
Jeb
