The present invention may be used to improve the quality of music output from audio systems by simulating the effect of low frequency signals in the human ear. This thus allows listeners to perceive the lower frequencies signals, even though the speakers may be incapable of providing such low frequency outputs. The present invention provides simple methods for processing enhancing bass effect in audio signals. The simple methods also result in the bass enhancement being computationally less intensive. The bass effect enhancement techniques described in a first and second embodiment are based on the response of sine and cosine transfer functions and on the directional independence of low frequency components. The human ear is unable to resolve directions from low frequency components. The bass effect enhancement technique described in a third embodiment is based on response of a exponential transfer function.