Often, people ask a question like, where should I put my amp or receiver if I want to improve my sonics? What can I do to tighten up my bass? Now many place their amps somewhere higher up. This is wrong. You should place your amp at the very bottom. For those of you who run monoblocks and place each amp by the speaker on stands, well you're doing the wrong thing. Sell the stands and put your amps on the floor. There are several theories, all of which apply, which serve to explain the improvement in the bass. I think it's time to look at them all so that we, as audiophiles, may inform our friends of the sound, scientific reasons why amps belong on the floor.
It is well known from anyone who does any baking, that less time is required when baking at lower altitudes. This is simply due to air pressure. Scientifically, according to well-known Chemical colligative properties, the boiling point of a substance decreases with decreased air pressure. At lower altitudes, such as you'll find at the bottom shelf (better the floor) more electrons are available. At higher altitudes, like anyplace other than the ground, more electrons escape. Being very light, they escape very quickly and take with them very very important audio information that contributes to a tightened bass. The important thing to understand from all this, is that for those of you who live in Denver, you're doomed, no matter how much you spend, no matter what subwoofer you buy, to having worse bass than us, who live at lower altitudes. You think Hussein built those underground bunkers for personal protection? Think again me bucko, it was to improve his bass. Duhhhhhhhh!
Another reason has to do with rather simple gravitational effects. When you place your amp high, the electrons have to fall further. This is a very bad thing because what they do as they fall is to bump into the slower moving ones down the interconnects and speaker wires. For those who remember, potential energy (that's the energy something has by virtue of where it's located) can be converted to kinetic energy (that's the energy that's directly related to an object's movement). Hence, what occurs is that as these electrons get bumped, they increase the cable capacitance. This has the well-known effect of diminishing the bass and making it more muddy. Some think that what also is happening is that the audio information that the electrons are carrying gets transferred and spread out. Strand jumping and all that. I think there's some merit in this.
You can further help prevent the electrons from escaping by placing heavy objects on top of the amp. Keep in mind how small electrons are and don't for a minute think you can use sand bags. That's just plain foolish. Lead, or depleted urananium is much more effective in keeping your electrons from escaping. While you're at it, make sure there's a dictionary on top of the heavy weights to improve definition.
Speaker manufacturers, the good ones that is, have known this for many years which is why woofers are placed on the bottom. Oh, you don't have a speaker like that? Quickly sell it on Audigon while you can and buy one that does.
Now for you skeptics, lower your amp and see if you don't hear a tightening of the bass. Ask your wife or girlfriend. Even if they're out in the car, or visiting their mother, they'll know that something's different and not only different, but better. Try it
