[BinaryBummer]

Yeah, you are called out LOL
Just not my bag. Ive tried high $$ ported subs and they thump and move air but the tonality is lost. Thats my biggest problem with ported. That and the annoyance on the road. I like being able to actually hear bass riffs note for note and being able to tell what drum kit is being used by the sound of the bass drums. Im into tonality and separation and being able to hear every little nuance of a track be in cinema or just an audio track. I could go without subs if I wanted to. My towers cover it plenty well enough but I prefer the separation and have the cross overs set up as such.

It comes down to having a balanced outfit. Might be why so many search for that sound.
Subs can be a rash. Got to match things up to the speakers and yet you cannot push the sub/s to hard either or like you said you loose that detail. We want that smooth encompassing bass that is immersive yet we want those mids and highs to be very defined without drowning them.
First off to boot is the recording. I mean I have some music that just towers over most other recordings. They are just well done allowing you to hear so much more, very punchy yet subtle at the same time.
Then you want a 2 channel or a 2.1 at best for just music. Most AVR receivers are not well suited for music but rather surround. AVR is like doing a blow up doll, it just isn't the real thing... Back to hifi components when yet you needed that large 12" speaker for your low end.
Maybe a set of JBL's for a bit of classic sound..

 

[JustinThyme]

It comes down to having a balanced outfit. Might be why so many search for that sound.
Subs can be a rash. Got to match things up to the speakers and yet you cannot push the sub/s to hard either or like you said you loose that detail. We want that smooth encompassing bass that is immersive yet we want those mids and highs to be very defined without drowning them.
First off to boot is the recording. I mean I have some music that just towers over most other recordings. They are just well done allowing you to hear so much more, very punchy yet subtle at the same time.
Then you want a 2 channel or a 2.1 at best for just music. Most AVR receivers are not well suited for music but rather surround. AVR is like doing a blow up doll, it just isn't the real thing... Back to hifi components when yet you needed that large 12" speaker for your low end.
Maybe a set of JBL's for a bit of classic sound..

My Denon with input from an Oppo SACD source is awesome. What kills using AVRs for music is when you dont use external amps. It does stereo just fine as well into 2.2. using preamp out into external amps. Im with you that I dont to the "All channel Stereo) from an AVR. Just not how it was recorded. Biggest fail in the music category is like you said the source. If you are doing MP3s then just stick with playing it through your phone as its just not the same or even close. I have ripped some CDs but used lossless conversion which results in 40-60MB/track. I have a few then decided it just takes up too much drive space and its not that difficult to load up the CD. Good old vinyl us awesome too if you can find decent titles recorded correctly. Once Upon a time I have a nice turntable and quite the collection of LPs then along came children and forget scratches, they used them for frisbees!!...Damnd kids....cant have anything LOL They are grown now but Im satisfied with my SACDs and CDs.

 

[darthspartan]

Yeah, you are called out LOL
Just not my bag. Ive tried high $$ ported subs and they thump and move air but the tonality is lost. Thats my biggest problem with ported. That and the annoyance on the road. I like being able to actually hear bass riffs note for note and being able to tell what drum kit is being used by the sound of the bass drums. Im into tonality and separation and being able to hear every little nuance of a track be in cinema or just an audio track. I could go without subs if I wanted to. My towers cover it plenty well enough but I prefer the separation and have the cross overs set up as such.

Nailed it on ported, You get a good amount more SPL with a port but the back wave is still always a cycle behind the front and makes the low end sloppy, loud but sloppy. I had for the longest time a pair of front loaded powered 18s hooked up and they sound fine still have them and a pair of front loaded doubles for other stuff. But In my studio room Ive switched to a pair of folded bathtub style 18s with no ports from the late 80s. They were not very impressive when they came out the original ferite eminence drivers where pretty meh specs wise. Found a pair of 2258HPL production sample drivers on ebay and loaded those in them with a Macrotech 5000VZ to drive em. They absolutely smash now with very little dsp they will gladly play down to around 10hz and even lower but the roll off gets a bit steep in the sub 10 range and the response is impressively flat only a few parametric bands where needed to really get it totally flat from 10-110. They actualy sound a lot better than say the Meyer 700HP 1100/900lfc cabs and those cost orders of magnitude more. Its really too bad I can't get a bunch of non-ported stuff from live people would be really impressed I think.

 

[JustinThyme]

Nailed it on ported, You get a good amount more SPL with a port but the back wave is still always a cycle behind the front and makes the low end sloppy, loud but sloppy. I had for the longest time a pair of front loaded powered 18s hooked up and they sound fine still have them and a pair of front loaded doubles for other stuff. But In my studio room Ive switched to a pair of folded bathtub style 18s with no ports from the late 80s. They were not very impressive when they came out the original ferite eminence drivers where pretty meh specs wise. Found a pair of 2258HPL production sample drivers on ebay and loaded those in them with a Macrotech 5000VZ to drive em. They absolutely smash now with very little dsp they will gladly play down to around 10hz and even lower but the roll off gets a bit steep in the sub 10 range and the response is impressively flat only a few parametric bands where needed to really get it totally flat from 10-110. They actualy sound a lot better than say the Meyer 700HP 1100/900lfc cabs and those cost orders of magnitude more. Its really too bad I can't get a bunch of non-ported stuff from live people would be really impressed I think.

I run a pair of SVS SB-3000s sealed 13 inch with 800 watts continuous and 2500watts peak each. No drop off. Of course I dont run them at their peak power or the subs would kill everything else. If I did they would drop off down in the 10 Hz range also to around 100W. I cranked them ONCE. I think the neighbors windows were rattling! I didn't buy them for the chest thumping power. I bought them for tonality which they are very good at. wasnt too bad when Ibought them at $1800 for the pair. They are a little more now but not by much. I run them with the level at about 30%. Could get away with none of even just one but again even bass riffs have separation and my AVR has left and right LFE connections. My older Onkyo TX-SR875 only has one LFE out. It has the power to drive all the chnnels but nothing is as crisp and clean as using the pre out and and decent amps rated accordingly with your speakers capabilities. You dont have to buy top of the line, just decent. Top of the line two channel amps can run $5K and up. I run a 5 channel and 2 monoblocks for my two L800s and the height channels are the only thing that I use my AVR to drive. Both Emotivas top of the line but not bad enough to break the bank unless you are financially challenged. The difference is very noticeable unless you are tone deaf or just dont have the audiophile ear and dont care like my wife and her amazon echo. Hell the stereo on my Fatboy sounds better when you have to crank it to get over the Vance & Hines big shots pipes. Winter project, Im actually going to install what they call quiet baffles that are still far from quiet but tones it down a bit and gives in more of a rich Harley rumble instead of the straight pipe sound they have now. There are baffles in there if you want to call it that. just inserts with some fins on them but mostly just like straight pipes. 1800CCs of Vtwin gets quite loud when you roll on the throttle. If I actually want to listen to music while cruising I use BT set instead of the 6x9s mounted in the fairing.