Detailed? Or just missing bass?

[Pim]

An interesting topic, thanks for posting Pim.

Is this not very easy to try for yourself, for anyone who has a Devialet Expert amp? No need to play with ribbon cables or seek out "bass light" systems, we are blessed with tone controls. In fact better than that, we are blessed with tone controls that are accessible via remote control.

So why not pick a favourite track, listen with +2dB of bass, then listen again with -2dB of bass. What happens to the perceived level of detail?

If you really wanted to, you could repeat with +1dB versus -1dB, or +5dB versus -5dB, or whatever takes your fancy.

This might be an interesting experiment.

As a counter argument. I have been to a number of Hifi shows in the UK where REL perform demonstrations of their subwoofers. The demos run to a typical format, play a track on stand mount speakers, then repeat the track with the REL sub in play. One thing that the REL demo guys like to highlight is how the subwoofer does more than simply add bass, but that also the midrange clarity of the system improves. Which subjectively, does seem to be the case at a couple of the demos that I have experienced. Although I am not sure if they are using high pass filters for the main speakers when using the subs at these demos?

So get those bass tone controls in play and let us know what you experience!.

Confused, you always have an interesting way of looking at things and you might be onto something with the REL story. I have to do some testing, but I don have an idea as to what's going on here. 

I have a feeling the 'detailed' gear pumps up the upper mid range and that the REL setup makes the lower mid range sound more rounded. That's what happened when I installed subs in my system (I have to change my setup in my signature)

More to come.