"Wylie Williams" wrote in message

I have heard many speakers that had peaky or ill controlled bass that
were considered more satisfying than similar size speakers with
tighter bass, even though tight bass is more technically correct.

"Tight bass" has no technical meaning. Most people call bass "tight" when its
overdamped and/or under-developed. At worst it's just another word no light or
no-bass.

If you want a specification as to what would be necessary to reproduce bass
content with every modern recording at full level with no compression, no
dynamic power compression and no bandwidth limitations I'd say that Holman's
recommendation of 122 dB SPL might cover all the bases.

So @ 2 meters that means 116 dB 12 to 62 Hz (the bandwidth takes in account the
bandwidth of modern programs (www.svsubwoofers.com)) means that you should be
able to replay most avaiable recordings at a fully realistic level.

Check out the June 1999 Sound & Vision for pictures of a system that meets this
criteria, I personally know (and have recorded performance) of 3 systems that
meet this criterion in the US.