Mac Sound Issue Help

[Morfiend]

Ok guys, I have an interesting problem, maybe someone here can help.

I am trying to figure out a software solution to turn down the bass on a OS X 10.6 system. I have a roommate recently started playing a lot of World of Warcraft, and stays up late doing it. He has a logitech 2.1 system, and the bass is really loud. It came with a hardware dongle that has bass adjustments on it, but even with the bass turned all the way down, its still super loud. At night it rattles through the whole house, even with his sound turned pretty low, just a rumble through the walls. I am sure our neighbors are hating it as well as we live in an apartment and there is a bedroom right above his room. Also, he is between jobs, so right now he is playing WoW most of the day. During the day he plays with the sound pretty high, and I'm sure that has to grate on the neighbors also, with the constant bass rumbling.

I don't want to constantly have to tell him to turn down his sound as its only the bass thats a problem.

OS X seems to have no built in system wide equalizer. I googled the issue, and found that people said to use a program called Audio Hijack Pro, which he already owns, but we couldnt seem to make it effect WoW. Also, Logitech is really bad about making Mac drivers for any of their hardware, so I couldnt find anything on that end.

What I really need is just some piece of software that will let me turn the bass down, or off in WoW for him.

Please help.

[SurfD]

Not sue if there is a mixer tool on Osx that would work for that kind of thing.

I would suggest maybe getting him to buy a 20$ pair of headphones?

[Morfiend]

Hes got a nice pair of headphones. But I don't really want to tell him he has to use them all day long. I mean, he is in his room with the door closed, and I can't hear any of the other sound from his speakers, its only the bass thats the problem.

He has been using the headphones at night when I go to bed, but he often forgets, also I don't go to bed early, so its probably still annoying the neighbors who do.

[Morfiend]

Looks like we might have found something. A program called "Hear". It costs $50, but thats a small price to pay for sanity.

[Chimpy]

It sounds more like it is an issue with how his sub is positioned/setup than an OS audio thing.

I had similar issues with a set of Dell/Harmon Kardon speakers when I was staying at my mom's. It did not matter how low the bass was turned down (I played with the EQ on sound files through itunes to test and it did not help, any sound frequency that hit the sub caused the rumble).

Is his sub on a hard surface and tight in a corner?

[Trippy]

Looks like we might have found something. A program called "Hear". It costs $50, but thats a small price to pay for sanity.

Why not just get some 2.0 speakers then?

[Sky]

Yeah, unplugging the sub might be the easiest solution. I also had this problem when I was in an apartment, the sound waves for the bass travel so far so easily.

[Morfiend]

Is his sub on a hard surface and tight in a corner?

Its on carpet, but it is in a corner. Ill see if moving it around will help.

Yeah, unplugging the sub might be the easiest solution. I also had this problem when I was in an apartment, the sound waves for the bass travel so far so easily.

The sub powers the other speakers, so thats a no go.

[Chimpy]

One thing with those 2.1 (or really anything .1 which use the sub to send the signals out to the other speakers) is that they almost always have a passive crossover chip inside which if it stops working properly, can send higher frequency sounds to the sub which tries to produce the high frequency sounds but does not efficiently so you hear more "bass".

I am pretty sure that was also part of my issues with the setup I mentioned earlier.

Try putting a pillow around the back side of the sub so that the sound waves are muffled before hitting the wall and see if that helps. The big problem if it truly is bass propogating is that you really can't muffle bass with usual sound deadening foam etc, putting the sub on one of those small 2" thick cinderblock paving stones would do more to isolate it than anything.

You could open it up and clip the leads to the speaker inside. I guarantee that will solve your problem :p

[Samwise]

Is his sub on a hard surface and tight in a corner?

[Chimpy]

Ahhh....thank you for making me laugh at my own unintended creepiness.

[Morfiend]

Rule 34.

[Sky]

You could open it up and clip the leads to the speaker inside. I guarantee that will solve your problem :p

That's where I was going next. If you want to be nice, you can drill a switch in the side of the enclosure so he can bypass it at will.

[Sheepherder]

If the speaker system has a single cable coming from the PC, it only has two sound channels, and they're right and left speaker and the bass is redirected low frequency sound from your right and left channels.  If so, adjusting any setting labeled bass on your sound card is utterly meaningless: there is no bass channel.  You need to use an equalizer to eliminate all low frequency sound created by your computer below the threshold of the sub.

[Chimpy]

If the speaker system has a single cable coming from the PC, it only has two sound channels, and they're right and left speaker and the bass is redirected low frequency sound from your right and left channels.  If so, adjusting any setting labeled bass on your sound card is utterly meaningless: there is no bass channel.  You need to use an equalizer to eliminate all low frequency sound created by your computer below the threshold of the sub.

That's not entirely true. Most of those 2.1 systems (like I said before) have a crossover in them, and also have a "bass" dial on them which adjusts the level post-crossover into the sub.

[Tarami]

It doesn't matter in either case, the bass software slider IS an equalizer. If the sub is filtered to 50-200 Hz or so, lowering the bass output will obviously also lower the volume of the subwoofer. Lowering the bass in software is pretty much analogous to turning down a dial on the subwoofer itself.

[Sheepherder]

Not necessarily.  Whatever software he's using could be anticipating a dedicated bass channel (or configured incorrectly) and only attempting to modify that nonexistent channel (TRRS connector?  Two jacks?), and so leaving the low frequency on the stereo pair untouched, which is where the crossover will occur in a single jack (TRS connecter) 2.1 system.

[Sweeper]

Yes, there can be many issues with a system. I could probably make up a few on my own... :)

Damn autocomplete...

[Morfiend]

Update. That equalizer software Hear, worked like a charm. Its actually really neat software. For anyone running a Mac, I would recommend downloading the trial and checking it out.