In reply to:
You're not just going to get 3dB more bass, you're going to get 3dB more "everything"
I don't think that's the case.
In a typical stereo music mix, you have instruments typically spread out... one guitar left, another right , for example. Some signals, such as a lead vocal, is typically evenly mixed L and R to place it "center" in the soundfield. Vocals don't typically have any energy in the range that would matter to a sub, though. A Bass guitar is typically centered. The drums might be centered in the mix as well, meaning that as a drummer progresses through a range of drums/percussion from a trebly cymbal down to a bass drum or large Tom Tom, the bass would unnaturally increase. If the drums ARE indeed "centered", the bass energy from the left and the bass energy from the right combine equally. Now, the mixing engineer knows this and will EQ the lowest frequencies to take this into account. He or she is going to mix it so it sounds right to him or her. All's well and good in the real world.
But now along comes Mark. He wants to (in theory!!) EQ his system from 20Hz to 20KHz to be absolutely, perfectly flat. He does so for his right speaker and sub combined, and then does so for his left speaker and sub combined.
He puts on a recording of a bass-light flute and acoustic guitar, and it all sounds perfect. If he puts on a recording of the band outlined above, I
believe his bass will be heavy sounding. Because the vocals in the recording stay out of the bass regions and the guitars will be mixed to the left or right channels, which don't "couple" with each other in the mids or highs. The bass that shares both channels, though,
will "couple" and reinforce each other I believe.
So the recording was mixed to sound correct in the real world, and the speakers in Marks' living room were each EQ'd to be perfectly flat. Yet, I believe, the bass levels will be incorrectly loud when playing that recording.
Again, as this pertains to me, myself and I, I'll walk over and turn the sub down. But hypothetically, on paper, wouldn't the above scenerio show that it's incorrect to plot your Left speaker and your Right speaker
without using
both channels of bass... since that's the way almost all stereo recordings are mixed?
I know... this Bass Management stuff gets "heady" and is a pain in the A$$. I'm sure that's why it abbreviattes to B.M.!
