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Ben Harper bass notes hard on my speakers.

Audiofreak71 said:
I just played both those Ben Harper tracks you’re having issues with obnoxiously loud and zero issues here . I’m running Vandersteen 3a Signatures with a factory upgraded Musical Fidelity NuVista M3 at 305wpc .

edit: I had my sub off as well.

Audiofreak71
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Vandersteen 3a Signatures go down to 26 Hz. Good stuff. Thanks for the report.
 
The DCMs are sort of a transmission line speaker. Maybe the don't react well going below their rated low frequency. No trouble at low to medium volumes.
 
Like others have stated I think maybe your amp is clipping, either way though whether it’s your amp or speakers I wouldn’t replicate the issue again with the system.

Audiofreak71
 
Just realized I have a slight boost for my bass on my preamp. I put it flat and trouble goes away but at the cost of my low end. I'll try to put it back in with my EQ to the point of no Farting. Thanks for all your support. I do love me some low end being a Bass player.
 
Just did an MP3 download from Amazon. Those are usually 256vbr with excellent results, but I've noticed a tendency for some producers to brick their digital versions. Here's what Audacity sees from the original downloaded version.

harper-bricked.jpg


As expected - highly compressed, which can result in some nasties here and there and could be the problem. A potential solution? Get Audacity (free!) and adjust the normalization till it's "right". That will adjust the album's overall volume without compromising any specific frequencies.

(You'd probably also want to do a REPAIR CLIPS in Audacity as I noticed a LOT of audio peaks were flattened at end of excursion, never a good thing. The repair clips function rounds out the flat spots. You'll still have some technical distortion, but not so's you'd notice.)

PS - that's where jRiver shines - it analyzes each new imported file and automagically adjusts the playback levels without changing the original file. This album in particular got cut back an average of 12-14db per track. I will say that Harper still pushes the bottom end as expected, but I get excellent results on your "problem cuts" driving it to my usual insane levels.
 
The earlier version of Porcupine Tree's Russia on Ice, the ultimate speaker destroyer, towards the end where PT goes full bore sine way down low. That was edited out of later versions - probably one too many heart attacks and blown woofers when it would sneak up on the unsuspecting ... the original mix from the SACD will set the whole room to hover mode here.
 
I just tried both tracks on two of my systems without any issue.

Main: Spotify via HTPC to Carver TFM-35 to Mission 760i

Office: PC to Schiit Modi to Carver M200t to ADS L780i

I suspect the woofers are suffering over excursion.

Speaker designers use smaller woofers that react faster than larger ones providing "tighter / faster" bass at the sacrifice of low frequency output. They compensate for this sacrifice by tuning the enclosure. Once you try and reproduce a signal below that tuning frequency you loose the speakers ability to control the woofer.

Try turning the bass down a notch or two.
 
wmgwizard said:
I just tried both tracks on two of my systems without any issue.

Main: Spotify via HTPC to Carver TFM-35 to Mission 760i

Office: PC to Schiit Modi to Carver M200t to ADS L780i

I suspect the woofers are suffering over excursion.

Speaker designers use smaller woofers that react faster than larger ones providing "tighter / faster" bass at the sacrifice of low frequency output. They compensate for this sacrifice by tuning the enclosure. Once you try and reproduce a signal below that tuning frequency you loose the speakers ability to control the woofer.

Try turning the bass down a notch or two.
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LHorn was spot on. Subsonic filter works wonders. Thanks
 
DavidZak said:
LHorn was spot on. Subsonic filter works wonders. Thanks
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Great..glad to help.

I keep my subsonic on just for the fact some music and in between tracks will pump my subwoofer like crazy..and I cant hear it anyway so why put the speakers through it.
 
DavidZak said:
I would have to take the sock off to see the movement. Their is a coax shield mounted in front of the woofer that a tweeter is mounted to. If my 33hz speakers are being sent a 25hz signal from a low B string on a Bass Guitar would it have an adverse farting sound affect on them? I listen to a ton of music Loud with no issues what so ever. Just these two songs have me baffled.
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Open B on a five or six string electric bass is 30.8Hz.

The lowest note on a piano is 27.5Hz. Pipe organs go even deeper. Some go down to 8Hz.

Usually the frequency response of a speaker is stated within a 3dB window. That's why the specs may read, "20Hz to 20KHz +/- 3dB". In your case 33Hz is most likely the -3dB point of the low end on your speakers.
 
I know problem has been solved, but I just had to jump in.

Back in the early 00's I bought a used '87 Saab 900 turbo SPG from a friend who was a local shade tree Saab guru/flipper/restorer/tuner. It came with what would have been a killer sound system for the mid 90's installed including a Bazooka (remember those?) mounted in the hatch area. Only problem was the head unit was missing the removable faceplate. Drove that car around for a week without tunes until the replacement faceplate came in on a Friday. That night I headed up into the North Cascades to meet some friends in the Methow valley (5 hour drive). Solo road trip in my new dream car and I was grooving. As soon as I got out of radio range I went to pop in a CD only to realize there was still a disc in there from the previous owner. Guess what disc it was? Yep...Burn to Shine. Man that was my first serious listen to Ben Harper and I cranked it as I flung that rocket on rails through its paces across the North Cascades Highway, which is not for the faint of heart at just the speed limit, much less averaging 20-30 over. I'm a lot more cautious driver nowadays!

So anyway, I still have that disc in a blank Jewell case and had forgot about it. Sitting here now listening to it again... thanks!

BTW, playing it on a Denon DCD-910 feeding a Counterpoint DA-10 dac, into a MF A3cr pre, into a PSE Studio II amp, which are feeding a pair of Chapman T7's. No problem with those tracks. But my downstairs neighbors might beg to differ. Ooops.
 
dogwan said:
I know problem has been solved, but I just had to jump in.

Back in the early 00's I bought a used '87 Saab 900 turbo SPG from a friend who was a local shade tree Saab guru/flipper/restorer/tuner. It came with what would have been a killer sound system for the mid 90's installed including a Bazooka (remember those?) mounted in the hatch area. Only problem was the head unit was missing the removable faceplate. Drove that car around for a week without tunes until the replacement faceplate came in on a Friday. That night I headed up into the North Cascades to meet some friends in the Methow valley (5 hour drive). Solo road trip in my new dream car and I was grooving. As soon as I got out of radio range I went to pop in a CD only to realize there was still a disc in there from the previous owner. Guess what disc it was? Yep...Burn to Shine. Man that was my first serious listen to Ben Harper and I cranked it as I flung that rocket on rails through its paces across the North Cascades Highway, which is not for the faint of heart at just the speed limit, much less averaging 20-30 over. I'm a lot more cautious driver nowadays!

So anyway, I still have that disc in a blank Jewell case and had forgot about it. Sitting here now listening to it again... thanks!

BTW, playing it on a Denon DCD-910 feeding a Counterpoint DA-10 dac, into a MF A3cr pre, into a PSE Studio II amp, which are feeding a pair of Chapman T7's. No problem with those tracks. But my downstairs neighbors might beg to differ. Ooops.
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I use my Denon DCD-910 in my system. Wonderful sounding dual PCM 56p Dacs.
 
DavidZak said:
The DCMs are sort of a transmission line speaker. Maybe the don't react well going below their rated low frequency. No trouble at low to medium volumes.
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Your description of the noise aligns with overexcursion of the drivers.

If TL speakers act similarly to other ported speakers then playing frequencies below port tuning allow the drivers to unload. That makes it easier to push them into overexcursion.

FWIW, I played the two tracks you mentioned on my Thiel CS3.6 using a Phase Linear A15 amp. The amp rated 100wpc @ 4 ohms. With the clipping indicators occasionally flickering there were no noises like you described.
 
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