Small speakers can't reproduce bass. A TV's internal drivers, a Bluetooth speaker, a laptop — none of them move enough air to generate meaningful energy below 100 Hz. But bass is fundamental to how music and film sound. Products without it feel incomplete.

V-Bass creates the perception of bass without requiring the speaker to reproduce low frequencies at all. It exploits a well-documented psychoacoustic phenomenon: the human auditory system perceives a fundamental frequency when only its harmonics are present. V-Bass generates those harmonics from the sub-100 Hz content in the source signal and places them in the range the speaker can actually reproduce.

How it works

V-Bass operates in four stages:

1. Extract the low-frequency content below the speaker's cutoff frequency (typically around 100 Hz) from the original signal
2. Generate harmonics from that extracted bass content — these harmonics fall in the range above the cutoff where the speaker can reproduce them
3. Filter and level the generated harmonics to control tonal character and prevent artifacts
4. Blend the harmonics back into the original signal, with the sub-cutoff content removed since the speaker can't reproduce it anyway

The result is a signal that contains no energy below the speaker's physical capability, but sounds like it has bass. The perceptual effect is robust and immediate.

Why previous approaches failed

Psychoacoustic bass enhancement isn't a new concept, but earlier implementations earned a poor reputation. Legacy "virtual bass" processes typically suffered from crude harmonic generation that introduced audible artifacts in the lower midrange, and level-dependent behavior that caused the bass effect to disappear at lower volumes.

V-Bass avoids both problems. The harmonic generation is controlled and filtered to minimize tonal coloring, and the effect level is automatically adjusted to remain audible across the full volume range — a compressor prevents excess harmonics at high levels while maintaining the psychoacoustic effect at quiet listening volumes.

Tuning per product

The cutoff frequency where V-Bass begins operating is not fixed at 100 Hz — it's matched to each speaker system's actual low-frequency rolloff during tuning. V-Bass also offers a Sub-Bass option that retains a controlled amount of the original sub-cutoff signal. In some speaker systems, including a small amount of the fundamentals — even though they're below the driver's rated response — improves the overall perceived quality.

Where V-Bass fits

V-Bass is designed for any product where physical speaker size limits bass reproduction. It pairs naturally with Auto-Bass for a complete low-frequency solution: V-Bass handles the psychoacoustic bass generation, while Auto-Bass compensates for the perceptual loss of bass at reduced listening volumes.

For best results, V-Bass should be used with a system that has been equalized using PRISM, ensuring a flat acoustic power frequency response as the baseline for bass processing.