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Comment by maybewhenthesun | Hacker News Reader

100% agreed.

This fashion of cranking the base and the high end and removing the middle (simulating a subwoofer with some tiny speakers, basically) can't die fast enough.

I mean, fair play for the writer. If he wants it to sound that way he's of course free to do so. But this style is used a lot in concerts and open air amplification and I hate it.

My theory is that this style is popular with people playing their music too loud. If your ear feels 'blocked' after a while, your music is too loud.

One thing with this style is that, because it leaves the middle (speech) frequencies relatively empty, it feels less blocking. And the high base makes that it doesn't really sound tinny or harsh. But they high base cane easily damage your hearing still.

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OSHA uses A-weighted sound pressure to estimate hearing risk, which roughly follows the ear's sensitivity and gives low frequencies much less weight, much like Fletcher Munson curves. Check section 10 here: https://www.osha.gov/otm/section-3-health-hazards/chapter-5. So bass having more volume/power doesn't by itself mean it's equally damaging to the ears.

I also wonder about the opposite situation: someone turning the whole volume up because the bass doesn't sound loud enough, raising the other parts with it. Having the bass adjustable could help there. Some songs already have plenty of bass, so it makes sense to turn it down for those, and perhaps have a dynamic limiter when it gets excessive.

By "blocked" I meant the impression of music sounding too close to my ears, rather than my hearing feeling blocked after listening. Of course, feeling softer doesn't completely establish that it's safe either.

Interesting about that OSHA curve. I also read some (dutch) research once where they had a slightly different conclusion (though I now can't find it anywhere): People tended to underestimate the volume/sound pressure of bass , and coupled with the fact that bass is much harder to block with earplugs the loud bass at concerts was a major contributing factor to hearing damage for concert goers.

Now this does not contradict what you say, of course. It's very well possible that the human ear is less sensitive to bass and that people are underestimating the volume of bass.

It's not a new fashion. In the 70s/80s hifi often had a "loudness" button which boosted highs and lows, although not as much as they're boosted by EQ settings today.

The more recent variant is "smiley curve" EQ - high at the extremes, drooping in the middle.

EQ can mess with transients, especially in the bass. You get more volume, but at the expense of some time smearing.

Yup. As driver size goes down this hollows out the middle of most music. All my songs have a punchy kick and the midrange around 150-300 is just as important as bass and treble. A small driver can't do midrange.

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