Enjoying your gear

Now that you have your home theater all set up, it’s time to watch and listen to some great content. I recommend going with the highest quality possible, like Blu-ray or 4k over conventional DVD. I’ll update this list as I discover good content, and will do individual reviews for exceptional content.

Clicking on these links can put a little change in my pocket. It’s not my reason for doing all of this, it just helps make the whole obsession worthwhile.

Video Content:

Cosmos: Incredibly good show! The rumble in this show is outstanding, an effect I never felt prior to high quality subwoofers. We have a metal wall hanging that only rattles with extremely deep content. This always rattles at some point in these shows. Beyond the bass factor, the show itself is fascinating and well put together. The visual is outstanding. Can’t recommend enough!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: It’s nice to see such a mainstream movie with chops when it comes to bass. It wasn’t overdone, nor was it lacking. The scene when the big weapon is first used is fun, the initial impact is impressive. I feel there were some missed opportunities for copious amounts of low-end, but all in all a great job with the sound. I didn’t need to constantly adjust the volume to hear the quieter dialog. I’m looking forward to the 3D release.

The Haunting 1999: The bedroom scene with the moving bed is outstanding. Gobs of low end, and a “go-to” for demos.

Star Trek Into Darkness (3D): Space ships and explosions, great stuff.

Transformers Age of Extinction: I meant to just run through some scenes and ended up watching the whole thing. I couldn’t help thinking of the movie Ted for some reason. =)

Avatar (3D): Obviously a film worth seeing with a decent setup, the visuals alone make it worthwhile. The LFE could have been emphasized a little more in some scenes, but overall very good.

Man of Steel (3D): Decent stuff.

Hobbit series (3D): A great example of when it’s OK to hear voices through your sub when Smuag speaks.

Jurassic Park: The original is awesome, especially the cup of water scene. Another “go-to” for demos, especially now that it’s in 3D!

Jurassic World (3D): Basically a rehash, but with more modern 3D. Surprise, a real dinosaur theme park still isn’t a good idea.

Marvel Avengers: Age of Ultron (3D): Hulk bunker busting, all kinds of good stuff in the lower range, well done, but you may want to turn your sub trim up a little on the AVR.

Ragnarok: Lots and lots of low end bass. Will expose weak subwoofers, probably the heaviest bass on the list, almost overdone. Subtitled. If you are looking to be overwhelmed by serious bass, this is the film you want.


Music

Music that has decent subwoofer signal (under 80 hertz), but not all of it will challenge your subs. This is just my own Spotify account, which changes on a regular basis, and is not properly categorized at all. Even if you don’t have Spotify you can scroll through for music ideas, but keep in mind content can vary a lot from one platform to the next. Spotify tends to be better on sound quality than Youtube, and of course it’s always good to support artists by purchasing their music.

Classic Rock:

Rap NSFW:

Metal:

Mellow stuff:

Blues-ish

To test your subwoofers, these tracks deliver under 30 hertz. If you play these tracks on most typical subwoofers, you may not be able to hear the lower tones. Be careful, they can pop a subwoofer not built to deliver true full range bass performance:

More to come, stay tuned!

9 thoughts on “Enjoying your gear”

  1. Hi,

    I would also add Master and Commander to the list of films to watch, the opening attack is just fantastic.

  2. hi none of the spotify links work tried all the rap bass ones. also do you have alot of problems with spotify every time i open it on my tablet witch is primary use it always need to be repeatedly reopen other than that it is a good sounding source of music also wanted to know if you use premium or the free version i got a special trial price 3 months for 99cent but after that 9.99month and no way to me is it worth that. Thanks subwoofer 101

  3. I’d like to suggest J. Cole’s “The Cut Off” featuring his alter ego kiLL edward

    Link:
    https://open.spotify.com/track/3rFF7kSm5qBOOPs6ljFgPp

    There is some seriously deep bass in there I was completely unaware of until I upgraded to an SVS subwoofer! I now have a second identical SVS sub on the way as I type this thanks in part to your wealth of YouTube videos, and audio resources.
    Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!

  4. Right on, I always appreciate new music! Try Future’s “Low Life”, Ice Cube’s “Gangster Rap Made Me Do It”, and Eminem’s “Killshot”. Go easy, those are extra hard hitting! Thanks for watching and the feedback!

  5. I was just wondering if you have tried Hans Zimmer Live in Prague. Its mixed in Atmos. It’s the most impressive live concert atmos mix that I have heard yet. Very well done.

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Bass defines your home theater