Building Our First Dub Sound System - DUB Focus

Is the aim to hear the frequency separation as in bass (up to no more than 90-100 hz) then mid then chippers (tops)? Or is it to have frequency separation via control to achieve a completely full frequency response where you cannot hear the different elements on their own within the sound.

To clarify. I started listening to systems in the mid 80s. The preamps used were mostly 3way. Barracuda had 4 way where the bass was split to have hi bass and then sub. The mid and tops were still very separate. As things evolved through the years, the 'holes' in the sound were filled in by adding different frequency bands and in my opinion the the unique sound of a reggae soundsystem was beginning to get lost and systems began to sound similar to eachother and much more like generic pa systems. Its the gaps in the frequency response that defined a reggae system. Much as pa guys would shake their heads.

What is it you are trying to achieve? You definitely want sub. You seem to want separation. If you add hi bass, this overlaps with the bass part of vocals, organs, low piano etc. Played loud this, to me, becomes aggressive and fatiguing especially when standing next to the stack. Traditionally the mid would just about reproduce these frequencies and be stacked in a way that was above people's heads. So you could still hear this low part of the mid but never feel it. 

To get hi bass but leave out the low frequency part of the mid ( the low part of the voice, organ, piano etc) the cutoff slope needs to be really steep, high (100-200hz) and very narrow. 

Just to reiterate, I'm talking about reggae soundsystem alone which as mentioned is an artwork in its own right and does not obey the same rules public address systems run by.

A good 3 way pre can still sound very good. If you want control of every frequency band to make the system play with no gaps in the frequency response, then you will achieve a pa sound. 

To me, the idea of a reggae sound is to be able to stand by the stack and be shaken by sub, but not punished by fatiguing frequencies and be able to stand there all night long. 

The elders might, I hope, understand what I'm getting at. The younguns haven't really had a chance to experience what a good original sound used to be like.

The beauty of life and artforms are its diversity. 

Thankyou for recognising this.

Id suggest playing with an equaliser and moving one band at a time to hear what the frequencies sound like. That way you get a feel of the more aggressive bands and how you might deal with them in a soundsystem setting. 

Our hearing response actually changes as sound pressure levels go up.

The aggressive mid to top frequencies are around 8k