Roots Archives Forum

Ok I am trying to purchase a nice set of 12" speakers along with an amp so that I can fully appreciate the deep bass sound of my roots records, but the only speakers of such a size I can find are Jamo's...just wondering what you guys use to listen to your music on and what you reccomend...

get 2 woofers, 4 mids , and 2 hights so u can hear the tweats clear and put them around you like if its suround sound put them behind u mine is set up that way and my records and cd's sound glorious.

From my experience I can always recommend proper hifi equipment with speakers from a certain size. Deep bass needs cabinet size, larger drivers; a matter of physics. I can recommend you choosing a proper brand (e.g. B&W, Mission, Tannoy, that kind of stuff...)

Interesting: I have been playing reggae for a long time on Bowers & Wilkens speakers (DM330i almost 20 yeard old, sounds great, buying 2nd hand is an option, better than the cheap supermarket alternative). Deep bass, clear high end, nice for Version\dub sides.

On the other hand, I also have a high end set consisting of: Cyrus II AMP & PSX power source, Technics SL1200 mk 2 turntable (the best turn table especially for reggae 45's/often used by soundsystems) and Mission 753 bi-wired speakers. Although the bass is more lean (first impression is not overwhelming or tubby), the jamaican stuff still sounds very well on this type of systems too. Jamaican recordings are very atmospheric (studio 1, black ark,.. the seventies stuff) and benefit from very good equipment (often used for listening to jazz) that is able to give a clear mid band / more balanced sound. The real hifi freak is also aware of the fact that in case the speaker is larger, it is harder to manufacture it with enough stiffness (normally the larger speakers are made of paper cones), resulting in a bass that is less tight/rythmic and more slobby. Slobby arythmic bass is not the thing you would like to hear with players like robbie shakespeare or lloyd parks.


So my advice; listen to equipment carefully. Ask the shopowner for a listening room and take your records with you....

I set my computor up to run through my Philips Reciever. From there it plays through two Realistic speakers and two KLH speakers. Very choice.

I'm using JBL E60. They have a great bass (as for me)...
but there are lots of factors wich influence to good sound... One of them is your listning room, if it rather small, or has a cube form (L=W=H) you'll cant find a good bass, it would be dirty and moody...you know

50688

My speakers are Dynaudios, a 2-way-system. They have nice tweeters. There are two speakers to cover the mid- and bass-range. They do have double coils. The cones are made of polypropylene, so they combine a high grade of stiffness with a very low mass.
Even at very low volume they provide a warm, deep bass. For amplification I use a tuned Rotel pre-amp and a Rotel power amp. All connections are silver cables cause they have a dynamic range. The highs are fantastic, far away form that scratchy, sharp and hard razor blade sound.

I'm using a pair of Revel Ultima Studios - since I bought them it's like listening to a whole new record/cd collection. Seismic bass and very detailed mid range and highs.

The speakers I use each have a 12-inch for the bass, a 3- and a 4-inch for the mids, and a horn tweeter. Big power amp to push them all.

More important though is how a set of speakers sounds to you. I've heard "audiophiles" argue the fine points of this and that, but in the end all that really matters is what sounds good to you.

When I try out speakers/amps/etc. I always bring along my own music. That's key. You want to know what your stuff is going to sound like, not something that may have been picked to make the gear sound better than it might otherwise.

Lots of good advice there particularly about listening first.

Just one thing that no one seems to have mentioned is that it is so important to get the front end right. Your system is only as good as the source.

Amplifying a bad signal obviously isn't going to make the signal better!