The sunn Forum
Sunn Musical Equipment => Q & A => Topic started by: DoomSunn on August 15, 2020, 08:19:34 pm
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I have noticed that when I am turning up the master volume on the amp that it sounds like
the signal is getting eq’d at different volume settings. For example at 10 it sounds bassier and at 1 or two it almost sounds high passed.
I am new to Sunn amps and tube amps in general, just wondering if this kind of behavior is normal?
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If your amp has a master volume, it's been modified. The response may not be "normal", depending on what's been done.
My stock Sunns extend deeper into the low end when I turn them up. The bass boost switches on my 200Ss and 2000Ss sound great at low volume, but make the amps saturate into useless mud at normal gig volumes. I don't get to "10" though, tonally there's really nothing up there I'm interested in.
I've dimed a few of them just to see what happens, but primarily I'm looking for tight and clean, with a little bit of snarl when I dig in.
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By master volume I was meaning volume. I only
have the one knob on the left.
What your describing sounds on par with mine. The bass definitely can go it oblivion when pushed.
What do you mean by dimmed?
? ?I've dimed a few of them just to see what happens??
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Not sure where on the planet you live, so...
In US currency, a "dime" is 1/10 of a dollar.
In most guitars cultures the term "dimed" is slang for volume knob on 10, and often used for having ALL the knobs set to 10. Wide open, no attenuation.
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Got it thanks!!
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It is also possible that Messers Fletcher and Munson may have some useful input on this.
Human hearing is not linear. Usually, that means that something with twice the acoustic power is perceived as only a little louder, while something with ten times the acoustic power is perceived as only twice as loud. In this case, it's a different kind of non-linearity I'm going for. We don't hear all frequencies the same. Specifically, when all are at the same acoustic power, we hear midrange best, treble less well, and bass not nearly as well. To complicate matters further, those relationships change with volume. At low levels, we don't hear bass well at all, but, as levels increase, the bass increases faster. Fletcher and Munson demonstrated this back in the 1930s. So, if we adjust our tone controls to get a good sound at low volume, then turn it up, we are necessarily changing the perceived EQ. Essentialy, we're turning up the bass more than anything else. This can be the reason a setup can sound anemic at low volume, then really bloom when turned up.
I don't know if that's what's happening here, but it's likely part of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour