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No the bass wasn't dampened on vinyl... it was somewhat compressed and focused within a more narrow bandwidth than what's delivered today on CD's.
Back in the day the full spectrum on vinyl was optimized to sound best within the frequency range of stereo amps and speakers prevelant at the time. There were limitations in the analog technology and the width of a record groove to reproduce sound in an audible range for the average human ear.
CD's expanded that range both on the low and significantly in the high end of the sound frequency. Older analog recordings for vinyl actually had the high end frequencies boosted to allow for less distortion for the way a needle handled the low end frequencies.
This is why older conversions of analog masters to early CD's sounded thin and tinny. Mastering techniques had to change with digital recording to compensate for the range of CD's.
One reason you see speaker systems with 2,3 or 5 tiny little speakers and a single subwoofer today is digital recordings still are heavy on the higher frequency ranges.
My opinion is these new systems sound ok... but you'll get much more full sound from a system with a decent crossover in the amps. A solid subwoofer, 12 inch woofers, 5-6 inches mids and high quality ceramic tweeters. Today's home theater systems just don't produce clean sound that the old 12 & 5-6 inch low and mid range speakers deliver. It's mostly high highs and low lows with huge gap in the mid-range.
Back in the day the full spectrum on vinyl was optimized to sound best within the frequency range of stereo amps and speakers prevelant at the time. There were limitations in the analog technology and the width of a record groove to reproduce sound in an audible range for the average human ear.
CD's expanded that range both on the low and significantly in the high end of the sound frequency. Older analog recordings for vinyl actually had the high end frequencies boosted to allow for less distortion for the way a needle handled the low end frequencies.
This is why older conversions of analog masters to early CD's sounded thin and tinny. Mastering techniques had to change with digital recording to compensate for the range of CD's.
One reason you see speaker systems with 2,3 or 5 tiny little speakers and a single subwoofer today is digital recordings still are heavy on the higher frequency ranges.
My opinion is these new systems sound ok... but you'll get much more full sound from a system with a decent crossover in the amps. A solid subwoofer, 12 inch woofers, 5-6 inches mids and high quality ceramic tweeters. Today's home theater systems just don't produce clean sound that the old 12 & 5-6 inch low and mid range speakers deliver. It's mostly high highs and low lows with huge gap in the mid-range.
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