This was something we always strived for when playing live. We did our own PA work and gradually figured it out over the years. We had some sort of horn cabinets our bass player made from some plans he got where we were running two 18" Peavey Black Widows in each cabinet with about 1500 watts going to each cab. Whatever he did they were nice and clean.

The comparison of listening to music in the home and listening live in a bar is something I have yet to understand. Does the home system reproduce music accurately? Unless I'm running at very, very loud levels I can't make a fair comparison. I've never played a gig or been to a show where the levels were at where most people listen at on their home setup. Even at the symphony, the levels are fairly loud if your in the right spot. I used to take my gradfather to pipe organ concerts at Century II in Wichita for years and let me tell you that damn thing was loud. When they hit a low not the whole building shook--COOL! Many people talk about this speaker or that speaker having great bass or not enough low bass. Well, unless I turn my amp up to clipping levels with my Pi Towers I'm not even approaching the perceived effect of playing live. The kick drum was more a viceral than anything else. When my brother stood up and came down with both pedals on a double bass we had the people's attention, by making them feel like they were getting "thumped" in the belly. Same with smacking that low bass guitar string.

Don't get me wrong, as the Towers produce nice, low bass at moderate listening levels that I can begin to "feel". At low listening levels, say as background music, the bass is there but you have to really listen for it, it doesn't poke it's head out and announce itself. But I know no one that listens at the levels to produce "live music", except maybe at parties (which my wife says I'm too old for now--she's right as always )

I guess my problem is that I'm accustomed to feeling that low end and well as hearing it, and that's what I associate with low bass.