How to increase bass on speaker?

[sr13579]

I have a 8ohm 30W speaker and lm386.
I don't know much about the internal structures of lm386. I want only bass sounds(frequencies) in that speaker. How can I do that?
And I also want to know how to smoothen the high frequency sounds?

 

[alec_t]

Google "bass boost lm386" and you'll find many circuits for this. However, because of the limited power output of the 386 you may be disappointed with the results.

 

[sr13579]

Google "bass boost lm386" and you'll find many circuits for this. However, because of the limited power output of the 386 you may be disappointed with the results.

Thanks for the reply. But I want specific operations. I trued google a lot of time but I can't find anything. Can you suggest me a better amplifier than LM386?

 

[audioguru]

Is your speaker a good one or a cheap one? A cheap speaker cannot produce bass sounds.
For good bass, a speaker should be mounted in an enclosure designed to match the detailed spec's of the speaker.

There are many amplifier ICs available that produce much more power than the puny 0.45W from an LM386 amplifier with a 9V supply.
When you use a bass boost circuit then it actually cuts high frequencies so that bass frequencies are louder than them. The circuit is called a "lowpass filter".

You did not say how sharp you want higher frequencies cut. Here is a circuit (use audio opamps and power them with a plus and minus 12V supply)
that cuts highs at 24dB per octave. If the middle opamp circuit is removed then 310Hz will be at -3dB and it will cut highs at 12dB per octave.

 

[sr13579]

Is your speaker a good one or a cheap one? A cheap speaker cannot produce bass sounds.
For good bass, a speaker should be mounted in an enclosure designed to match the detailed spec's of the speaker.

There are many amplifier ICs available that produce much more power than the puny 0.45W from an LM386 amplifier with a 9V supply.
When you use a bass boost circuit then it actually cuts high frequencies so that bass frequencies are louder than them. The circuit is called a "lowpass filter".

You did not say how sharp you want higher frequencies cut. Here is a circuit (use audio opamps and power them with a plus and minus 12V supply)
that cuts highs at 24dB per octave. If the middle opamp circuit is removed then 310Hz will be at -3dB and it will cut highs at 12dB per octave.

In that picture did you use LM386 as well? Can you suggest me a better amplifier IC?

 

[audioguru]

The lowpass filter circuit I posted uses opamps, not a power amplifier. The circuit passes low frequencies to a power amplifier but cuts high frequencies.
The opamps can be any audio opamp like a single TL071, dual TL072 or quad TL074.
There are hundreds of power amplifier ICs available that produce much more power than an LM386.

A woofer is a low frequency speaker. A high frequency speaker is called a tweeter. It needs a power amplifier driven from a highpass filter circuit. A good tweeter has a smooth frequency response. A cheap tweeter has a rough frequency response and sounds awful. An ordinary speaker has a peak in high frequencies that sounds awful, maybe that is what you want to smoothen? That is why a woofer is used for low frequencies with a lowpass filter to cut the high frequencies and cut the high frequency peak, and a tweeter is used for high frequencies with a highpass filter.

Here is a frequency response graph of a cheap speaker that sounds awful and a good speaker system that sounds good:

 

[Chris Edwards]

Bass is low-frequency sound we associate with thumping (boom boom). Bass frequencies start at 20-200Hz, while human ears perceive frequencies from 20-20,000Hz. I suggest you to attach your speaker to your computer and install a software who has inbuilt bass option. I hope this will surely help you to increase bass on speaker.

 

[camerart]

I have a 8ohm 30W speaker and lm386.
I don't know much about the internal structures of lm386. I want only bass sounds(frequencies) in that speaker. How can I do that?
And I also want to know how to smoothen the high frequency sounds?

Hi S,
You didn't mention if the speaker is on an enclosure or not. As mentioned before, the enclosure has a lot to do with the bass quality. Have a look at 'bass reflex enclosures, or just try the cone in a concrete pipe as a test.

Camerart

 

[audioguru]

A bass reflex enclosure that does not match the detailed spec's of the woofer usually makes a "boom box" that produces one note bass (all low frequencies make only one output frequency). A concrete pipe or a sealed enclosure that does not match the detailed spec's of the woofer usually also makes a "boom box".

 

[camerart]

A bass reflex enclosure that does not match the detailed spec's of the woofer usually makes a "boom box" that produces one note bass (all low frequencies make only one output frequency). A concrete pipe or a sealed enclosure that does not match the detailed spec's of the woofer usually also makes a "boom box".

Hi A,
It's been a long time since I played my Garrard Mk4 deck on my boom boxes, happy days. My speakers are a little different these days.
C.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi A,
It's been a long time since I played my Garrard Mk4 deck on my boom boxes, happy days. My speakers are a little different these days.
C.

Not to be pedantic, but you've missed out the model number of your deck

Presumably you mean SP25 Mk4 - as the SP25 was probably the only Garrard deck to have four variants?.

 

[ci139]

try the cone in a concrete pipe

i set my around 200W peak ones in a panels from altrenatly 90˜° rotated layers´ stack of corrugated cardboard
that i mounted vertically (the speaker's deflection grad.) on top of the styrofoam boxes (with 1 to 4 in² openings at the bottom) on polyurethane sponge suspension pads . . . (muhahaa - clear as soapy water)

. . . basically i just needed to fit them somewhere for testing (so they wouldn't jump around the couch or the floor)

as in fact it sounded better than the wooden casing commercial ones i had ?? (i don't have concrete tubes - for whatsoever reason - lying around my appartment )

whatever the case
the LM386 likely won't have enough power for reasonably loud full spectrum audio

however the bigger size (W,L,H physically) your speakers are the more better they'll likely are to sound

why the std. bass treble filter network at the input of the power amp won't do ? https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=loudspeakers+passive+bass+treble+circuit

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

We've not heard from the OP recently, perhaps he's been scared off

However, for good bass you need to move lot's of air - so you need a fair amount of power - an LM386 isn't going to do very well.

 

[ci139]

• the speaker case and size do matter
• also the audio source such as low bitrate mp3 aac ... . . . ... the setup at recording studio or digital mixer
• anything at decoder ... AUX OUT line

at my old computer i use double equalizers - the WMP (2-ch) + SB Live (virtual expansion to 4-ch + digital bass boost) + external stereos' (front+rear) selected presets . . . however the preception of the audio also depends on your health and stress level (or (env.-l)lightness,temperature,(biotic./health.)bloodpressure-mood level) also the ear/hearing inertia . . .

with small(/PC) speakers you shouldn't attempt to get too much out of them but aim to tune your output be as much harmonic and "gapless/whole/equal-but-differentiable(for voices/instruments(component sources))" (in a sense of preceived spectrum) as you can get
so you hear it all not only accented "ss-es" or "thump-thump" - and you hear it normally not that something sounds "out of scene"

the effect is more or less achievable and with whatsoever treble-bass-volume power amp

 

[camerart]

Not to be pedantic, but you've missed out the model number of your deck

Presumably you mean SP25 Mk4 - as the SP25 was probably the only Garrard deck to have four variants?.

Hi P
You're correct, but it was a long time ago, and I'm surprised I even remember the Mk4 bit. My first record was "This is a journey into sound"

I'm not really a fan of Bose, I don't know why, but they seem to get big sound out of little speakers.
C.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I'm not really a fan of Bose, I don't know why, but they seem to get big sound out of little speakers.

You might have noticed that Bose don't advertise in HiFi mags, nor do they provide equipment for reviewing, this is because their actual specifications are pretty poor - and they would get really poor reviews. Basically Bose are a 'designer label' for the uniformed, more a fashion statement than anything else.

They get their 'big sound' by using a sub-woofer for the bass and using pretty high powers - by using high powers you can extend the bass end somewhat by providing bass boost and treble cut, essentially using much higher power for the lower frequencies (to artificially increase the bass) and lower powers elsewhere. This is why a 200W per channel Bose sounds about as loud as a 20W per channel system.

 

[camerart]

You might have noticed that Bose don't advertise in HiFi mags, nor do they provide equipment for reviewing, this is because their actual specifications are pretty poor - and they would get really poor reviews. Basically Bose are a 'designer label' for the uniformed, more a fashion statement than anything else.

They get their 'big sound' by using a sub-woofer for the bass and using pretty high powers - by using high powers you can extend the bass end somewhat by providing bass boost and treble cut, essentially using much higher power for the lower frequencies (to artificially increase the bass) and lower powers elsewhere. This is why a 200W per channel Bose sounds about as loud as a 20W per channel system.

Hi N,
I wondered what their technique was. The kind of sound good, but for me they have a falseness that I can't explain.
C.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The kind of sound good, but for me they have a falseness that I can't explain.

That's the problem with Bose, it's an artificial 'unreal' sound, but their target market seems to like it that way

 

[audioguru]

I have always laughed at the upper bass frequencies peak of Bose little stereos and the "Pro" sound system they installed in the hockey arena.
Then I went to a demo of their latest home sound system that showed two large speakers playing very wideband sounds loudly. Two pretty girls went to the speakers and removed their fake covers that showed little speakers producing the good sound. I got goosebumps and my hair stood up when I did not see a subwoofer anywhere.

My local shopping mall has Bose speakers in all the halls and in some large stores. They sound pretty good.
I recently saw a tiny but very expensive Bose speaker at Costco. It sounded fantastic for its very small size. How doo dey doo dat??

 

[ci139]

How

i mistakenly brought random headphones some years ago after reading the specs on those that had specs printed
and selected the ones that had 3x higher sensitivity (power to sound ratio) ??? amazingly they were at the time one of the cheapest
wow - i never imagined such clean sound can come from the headphones
it's not how but what - i guess in that case they used strong magnets and (so far) a durable construction
((there is a night and day difference listening portable audio player with it's orig. or those earphones as in loudness as in "purity"))