Greg, I know you are well acquainted with mixing live sound and recorded music, and have enough style and taste to Eq your system correctly. And I also know that you understand that BASS isn't made up of just low frequencies, but a blend of complementary harmonics. I'm just pointing out that you (and Mike) do know enough to correct the pups that don't know any better, so please add your knowledge.:p
Pumping up the bass to distortion level and then backing it off is like over-torqing head bolts. It doesn't make sense (at least to me), and can possibly break something. Too much bass is muddy, undefined, and distorted, creating a warped image of the original program material. There's maximum bass, and there's proper bass for accurate sound reproduction. But then, I usually listen to music with my ears, not with my butt...
I also know that there are marked differences in hearing between younger and older people as well as men and women. It's common for young males to be more sensitive to high frequencies than older males. For instance, my seven-year-old son can't stand the high frequencies emitted by pest repellers That's why the "thumpbf thumpbf" sound systems are popular until you reach 30 or so. To me, it's distorted, over driven, and obscenely inaccurate sound reproduction. But boys crave excessive bass like toddlers crave candy. And they crave it because they can't hear it as well as they will when they get older and their hearing curve changes. Interestingly enough, I very seldom see young women driving around with these sound systems blaring away in their cars.
Try setting your bass and treble at the halfway mark (5), adding enough volume, and then adjusting the bass and treble up or down to accomodate your individual taste. As Greg pointed out, it takes more power to drive the low end than the high end, so you will get more power out of your system by driving them as close to equal as possible. If you overdrive your amplification system, you will only get harmonic distortion, and low power.