How much gain below 20hz

[TankTop5]

I have heard some people recommend up to 20db of gain below 20hz. I watch movies around 75db and I have dual HSU VTF-TN1’s. Thinking about giving it a shot with gain starting around 25hz and rising quickly to 20db gain at 20hz and below. Room is 800 ft.².

anyone have any thoughts on doing this?

 

[shadyJ]

That seems pretty nuts. If you want some more low-end oomph, I can see goosing up the range below 30Hz by a few dB. That should do the trick. 20dB of boost in infrasonic ranges is crazy. I guess you could try it. The problem is, you probably listen at a louder level than 75dB, and, while your subs do have a nice amount of headroom in deep bass, they don't have infinite headroom, and a 20dB boost below 20Hz is asking a lot of any sub system.

 

[m. zillch]

Content below 20Hz is called infrasonic for a reason.
- if reproduced at the accurate, true level experienced in even the most expensive/deluxe commercial theaters you won't hear/experience a thing
- no commercial subwoofers sold to theaters can reproduce it either
- the professional sound mixers who made the move did not hear/experience it nor intend you to.

What's next? Will people try to get ultraviolet light out of their video screens? It's like that.

 

[TLS Guy]

Content below 20Hz is called infrasonic for a reason.
- if reproduced at the accurate, true level experienced in even the most expensive/deluxe commercial theaters you won't hear/experience a thing
- no commercial subwoofers sold to theaters can reproduce it either
- the professional sound mixers who made the move did not hear/experience it nor intend you to.

What's next? Will people try to get ultraviolet light out of their video screens? It's like that.

I would be careful doing that. With room gain most subs with 15" or larger drivers will play to 16 Hz. Now the bigger issue is that most ported subs will be decoupling from the tuning by 16 Hz, so upping the power in that range is calculated to cause damage. For sealed subs the power has to increase enormously as there is a 12 db per octave boost below F3, which even for a large driver sealed sub will be north of 30 Hz. So I would say don't do it, or you may well be looking for a new sub.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

In addition to what’s been said, in my experience artificially boosting the lows to a sub (i.e. via EQ) doesn’t sound nearly as good as having a sub that just gets that low naturally.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Matt34]

With my TN1, +6db house curve starting at 120hz is the most I run and only on occasion, for music it’s at +3.5db with the 14hz tune setting.
20db boost that low is going to sound like a bloated mess and crush dynamic range with sub limiters kicking in.