problem
Wide low end can feel impressive in headphones and disappear when playback sums, shifts, or fights the room.
A kick and bass feel huge in headphones, then shrink in the car or smear on a club system. Often the problem is not only EQ; it is stereo low-end energy moving out of phase.
Sub frequencies are hard for small speakers and rooms already. Making them unstable in stereo adds another translation risk.
Stereo widening, chorus, unaligned layers, and stereo samples can put low frequencies in the sides. When summed or played through imperfect systems, that energy can cancel or wander.
Keeping the deepest lows centered usually gives the mix a stronger foundation while leaving width for upper bass, mids, and effects.
Use mid-side metering and mono checks to see whether the low end is living where you expect. Fix the source, layer alignment, or processing before the master bus.
Meter Core helps show stereo behavior and correlation while you make low-end decisions that need to travel.