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just enough is never too much.
Reader T. Bloom asks: "Do you tend towards bass frequency-response accuracy, or would you prefer either a little more or a little less bass than measures flat in your listening room?" In other words, how much bass is enough?
It all depends on the musc genre you like to listen to, the kind of speakers you have, and the size of your listening room. I once put on inertia creeps by massive attack and my 805 signatures started making strange noises. As to how I know that this strange noise was not part of the recording is because of a 10" "reference" subwoofer in my car (deep, tight and tuneful). However, with all other types of music, my speakers sound gorgeous and do go low enough for my taste. Besides a larger pair of speakers would not be appropriate in my listening room (excessive boominess).
Speed and tonal accuracy are the most important characteristics to me. I need to hear Berry Oakley's clean jams, Dean Peer's virtuoso compositions, Danger Mouse's well blended, dark production on Modern Guilt and the powerful organs of St. Eustache and Tonhalle. Bloat is the enemy of musical bass and extension should only be had within the limits of speed and purity. This concept informed my choices of the Audio Research VS115 coupled with the Wilson-Benesch Act Ones. They deliver very precisely.
Recording is art! Listening only partially, cut it somewhere or modify, you are creating your own art at home. Hi-fi is about accuracy and I vote for accuracy in the case of bass, too. My limitation/distortion is only my hi-fi system and acousticsand in the bass section, too.
From what perspective? I can think of at least two: auditory and SPL. People are generally less sensitive to bass frequencies than to mid-range freq. at similar SPL, and I doubt most people without a legitimate subwoofer have anything close to "flat" (SPL by freq.) bass. Speaking as a person that has owned many subwoofers, I alter my music listening depending on the capabilities of my system and am happy for the time being with only Paradigm Studio 100s as mains.
For most systems, there is always a trade-off, bass heavy systems tend to mask detail in the mid-range. A product of the radio/record industry is that most people don't realize how bass-heavy Baroque music was, similarly many people miss the bass underpinnings of many 19th century symphonic works. We need better bass, not more.