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[David Morison]

You can't get deeper bass from a speaker that can't reproduce deeper bass in the first place.
Your average off shelf decent single 18 is only going down to a useful 40hz give or take a little,
if your bass enhancer box tells it to do 20hz while rocking out things are going to break after a while.

Or, for modern active speakers, the sub's own driver protection HPF will cut enough of it that there's little point using it anyway.

[Mike Caldwell]

Or, for modern active speakers, the sub's own driver protection HPF will cut enough of it that there's little point using it anyway.

Good point.
Regardless how powered every speaker needs a proper HPF in place.

Though with enough crazy stupid EQ ect. the effects of a HPF can be negated to some degree.

[Tim McCulloch]

The original dbx "Professional Disco Boom Box" was the 500.  This one work similar to an octave divider (proprietary system, I think there was a patent on part of it) with additional processing.  The 120 series were digital processors and I'm not sure how dbx achieved their result with those.

I used a 500 (still own it, somewhere in my pile of gear at the shop) as a subgroup insert for bass drum and toms (saved a bunch of badly tuned kick drums and "fake bass guitar" when a bassist's instrument was left at another venue).  On a whole mix or applied to an entire pass band?  NO.  This will end up being far too much for program material that has "contemporary" amounts of <80Hz info already.  For vinyl LPs of 1970s and 1980s it's a nearly universal solution, but for mixed origin media it's likely to be unsatisfactory as "global" processing.

[MikeHarris]

the best bass enhancer was the Power TF9100.  it had a cool 2.1 output
They also made the best DJ mixers 30 years or so ago.  .Comel from France.  Always wondered what happened to them.
still have a spiral bound catalog of their line
i recall selling a TF9100 to Tom Lord Alge for use in studio

[Ed Taylor]

I am not seeking to add more bass on my system or get deeper bass, got lots of it. Was just curious about enhancers and what they do. Actually it was speaker cabinet builder who had told me short while back that the BBE and Aural Exciters adds better tonal tonal quality to bass.

Personally I think the old school way to put an Eq separately on the bass is as good as anything but question is, does it really make any difference than from having an Eq between the Mixer and Crossover?

first off...plus 1 on what Mike Caldwell just posted...those old doublers..were usually going to either exceed a lot of cheap dj rigs capability, or just add mud to the signal...that said, and to your original question... I had enjoyed having an aural exciter in my rack back when my own small club band was playing...made the vocals better, was actually noticable all around..but I'm sure it comes down to what we're ultimately sending signal too...years back (and many mobile djs today still) still just run cheap analog mixers..$120 blue yamaha mixers..so they are coming at their powered mackie or qsc etc with a 3 band eq..."mo bass!!"
then they cry cause their little powered sub just doesn't seem to punch like the big club boys say...but put an eq in front...find the sweet spots where your sub can work..and you'd think you have a new rig!  I love showing my daughter and couple other djs and band guys even the simple interface on my ipad against the behringer xair..cause it's easy for them to see.drag their finger to hear the massive change when they move freqs below what a box can do, or take gain so high that they are overdriving the signal, etc..but slide that dot to , say, 70 for a small compact sub..and all of a sudden...bass!!!  where it might have been fading at 55 ...when you get closer to 65-70..the rig comes alive..and that's what matters.

[Tracy Garner]

Any of you DJ's here ever tried any Bass Enhancers and can give your feedback on them please?

Many years ago I had owned a couple of the dbx 120 Subharmonics units. I can;t remember which of the models [120a, 120x, 120xp or the 120x-ds] i had owned. I am now seeing there is a 510 model too. I have also been told that units like the BBE models help give the bass a nice tone.

Big reggae systems, Go Go Bands, house and dance music - vinyl, CDs, and now MP3 experience.

Use this scale of 1 to 10 for worst to best

Bass enhancer will make a 1 system sound like a 5 at best.
Bass enhancer will make a 6 system sound like a 5 at best.
Bass enhancer will make a 10 system sound like a 5 at best.

[Suddenko]

Building a nightclub sound system around heavy Subharmonic Synthesis is interesting, if done with the right genre of music.  Steve Dash did this with his installs at Twilo/Crobar NYC.  The sound wasn’t at all accurate to the source, but it left quite the impression on many people who’ve attended, me included.  The brand new subharmonic content resulted in a very unique vibe.  It’s been 15 years since the clubs closed and I still run into people who will say “There’s nothing like a Phazon Sound system!”

[Mac Kerr]

Building a nightclub sound system around heavy Subharmonic Synthesis is interesting

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[Tracy Garner]

Any of you DJ's here ever tried any Bass Enhancers and can give your feedback on them please?

Many years ago I had owned a couple of the dbx 120 Subharmonics units. I can;t remember which of the models [120a, 120x, 120xp or the 120x-ds] i had owned. I am now seeing there is a 510 model too. I have also been told that units like the BBE models help give the bass a nice tone.

Scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best:
If your system is a 1, bass enhancer will improve your bass to a 2
If your system is a 5, the bass enhancer will not enhance it.
If your system is a 7, the bass enhancer will make your system sound like a 5 (or less).

If I have a guest DJ, I go straight from their DJ mixer to the BBE to a channel on the board. The reason is because it gives the DJ that 'nice tone' that kind of sounds like the mixer in the red. Then when the DJ really cranks their mixer, the BBE acts as the best limiter ever and prevents the system from overdriving the console input.

Hope this helps,
tracy

[Randy Pence]

Building a nightclub sound system around heavy Subharmonic Synthesis is interesting, if done with the right genre of music.  Steve Dash did this with his installs at Twilo/Crobar NYC.  The sound wasn’t at all accurate to the source, but it left quite the impression on many people who’ve attended, me included.  The brand new subharmonic content resulted in a very unique vibe.  It’s been 15 years since the clubs closed and I still run into people who will say “There’s nothing like a Phazon Sound system!”

I worked with Dash from 2000 to 2003 and we never used subharmonic synthesizers during that time. That included Twilo, Arc, Shelter, Crobar Miami. RLA style analog dj crossovers, bss, rane, or klark technik processing for typical delay, eq, xover, limiters were used, but no enhancement effects.

[ProSoundWeb Community]