Is there really such a thing as “fast bass” or is it just another hifi myth?
Fast bass is a subjective term which might be better replaced with the word “accurate.” It’s unfortunate that when someone uses the term, discussion often digresses and it becomes a bit of a red herring, leading the discussion into heated debate. Part of the problem is that it is a misleading term. Objectively speaking, all subwoofer drivers are slow. Consider a high excursion subwoofer driver moving a inch to reproduce a 20 Hz signal. Its actual speed will be 1 m/s or 3.6 km/h! If you think that is slow then consider a woofer reproducing 40 Hz at the same amplitude. It will be 0.5 m/s or 1.8 km/h. Now this is less than walking speed! It should be clear that subjective “speed” has nothing to do with actual speed. In fact, achieving subjective speed may not in fact follow along similar lines to your intuition, so ignore statements like “small drivers are faster” and “lighter cones are faster.
