Hi, A lot of the Sony Walkmans have the Mega bass feature which I assume is some kind of equalization with focus on the lower frequencies that is applied to all music played. Some players have a NORM-MID-MAX selector: does NORM mean that it is bypassed or even in that case Mega bass is applied? I personally don't like over-emphasized bass, I don't know how you feel about it and whether there is a way to disable it? thanks
MegaBass was designed to compensate for deficiencies in the frequency response of headphones used at that time. Especially on the ones that don't seal well the low frequencies can be attenuated significantly. It doesn't amplify just the bass, but also the treble. All bass boost systems do this, not just the SONY one. On the normal setting, the signal still passes through the bass boost circuit, but no EQ is applied. So it's essentially bypassed in the normal setting. You can take a look at this thread where I measured the frequency response of a WM-DD33 walkman and you can see it is flat with setting on normal: https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/wm-dd33-amorphous-head-mod.8933/#post-70534 With modern headphones, the normal setting is the only usable one, especially if the headphones already have a bass boost (most consumer ones do). But even with reference neutral headphones, I find the mid setting to be too much.
PeterKKB, Valentin, has explained it well, all I can add to that is the best use for Sony MegaBass is to leave it off . One company that did it well on portables was Aiwa, if you can get a good Aiwa with DSL & BBE, you will be impressed at how good bass can be done if done correctly. DSL Dynamic Super Loudness is Aiwa's MegaBass. BBE came from the professional world and it does a good job of improving clarity. So BBE & DSL is a winning combination.
I have neutral headphones and can’t stand it, but then I don’t like over-emphasized bass. Thanks a lot for the explanation it’s really informative.
Generally I agree about turning MegaBass off, it very seldom adds anything positive to the sound on Walkman’s such as DD30 or DD9. I found however that MegaBass on my WM-701C in medium setting sounds really nice for many recordings.
I haven’t checked the circuit diagram but maybe someone knows if there are some resistor that could be replaced to remove or minimize the bass boost? Some increase in the high end is usable on dull recordings but the bass is really killing the sound. I thinking of DD30/33 models.
Is this basically what a loudness button does on stereos (I remember it on an old car stereo and boomboxes) or is loudness a completely different thing? I did think loudness boosted low and high freq, maybe it was more a mid freq boost … I thought it made my old car deck sound better.
that is my response to mega bass question loudness can respond differently depending on what system you have and normally for low levels of listening normally it cancel's itself out at half volume on a good system, some loudness can boost bass and treble others just bass to me music without a good warm bass is just plain boring thinking of m70 here
I attached the NJM2106 datasheet. Please check pages 7-8 of the datasheet for specific details. Both cutoff frequencies and the gains can be changed by external capacitors and resistors. But there are limitations on how much these parameters can be changed. Note it's only the DD33 which uses this IC. The DD30 uses the SONY properietary CXA1249AM for which no datasheet is available.
Thanks for this. Just to clarify when the switch is on "NORM" is any bass enhancing equalization applied on the DD30? thanks again!
The Japanese really loved big words like "MEGA." For purist's having any added boost or switches is a big no, but us kids with crappy tapes (from albums) probably taped off a crappy all-in-one, any sound enhancement was fully embraced. Most of us were at the bottom of the audio chain with Walkmans and boomboxes but at the same time we didn't want it to sound like a bag over our head or an old transistor radio and any bass boast was a welcome addition.
you DONT wan't to come to mine then mr x.....you're teeth may fall out because of bass lol yet i have seen car audio that makes my system seem 10 x worse than mickey mouse if there is such a word lol ohh there is a word crap....there i said it lol
I think there's a difference Radio, pure music is one way to listen but these days with all of the effects machines music is crafted different and people don't mind enhancements. If I'm listening to an old Stones or blues album I want it to sound pristine, with something like Daft Punk, you could crank extra bass all day long and it would still sound good. Like I've said before, in my little rooms I haven't been able to find a product I like for sound enhancement for my component stereos and I've got boxes of stuff going back to the old reverb units with the funky lights.
it;s stramge i have said many times before i have never heard an amp on its own that sounds good with any music take the pioneer sa9800 sounds way better with the eq....and i listen to mainly old music as most of us are the same age but i draw the line at 70's don't like much older stuff than that a huge reggae fan here
I think the older amps sound just fine with pre 80's music that didn't have a lot of bass to begin with, my small handful of newer recievers/amps seem to have more "built-in" bass. I'm hoping to paint my media room this weekend and get setting up some stuff, I'm dying to experiment, I haven't done it in years.
