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| Re: Bloated Car Bass [message #70393 is a reply to message #70392] |
Mon, 05 December 2011 20:43   |
Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009
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Illuminati (3rd Degree) |
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Most factory car audio sounds like crap, period!
Most people who think car audio with uber bass sounds like crap have only heard them from the outside of the car.
I've listened to pro car systems that cost as much or more than a lot of the high-end home systems. I've never heard a home system that sounds anything remotely like what I have heard at rock concerts or any live concert that has someone actually playing a kick-drum or hitting a low B on a 5 string bass. I don't mean those little coffee house bands either or orchestra stuff.
Yes, some of them do have ill-defined bass and as such do sound like crap. But the good ones, the really good ones, are sheer pleasure to listen to. When I'm standing in the 3rd row of a concert or up on stage in front of the kick drum I can FEEL the bass damn near move me. Most of the home systems I have heard that have so called "natural" bass have no bass at all. Just blends right in and disappears. Fine if you're listening to acoustic guitar or orchestra, but electrically amplified instruments are designed to be able to be visceral IMO.
One of the best stereo systems I ever heard, car or home, was in a pro audio rig in a car. He had 4ea 6.5" subs with 100W amp going to each one. The bass was phenomenally tight and deep with no boom whatsoever, with the rest of the car essentially controlled with a DEQX type system to balance everything out.
Sorry, but I get very tired of the hi-fi crowd saying that car audio always sounds like crap. When done right they are very, very good, regardless of what the measurements say.
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| Re: Bloated Car Bass [message #70412 is a reply to message #70406] |
Wed, 07 December 2011 00:43 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18782
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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There is one very good thing that happens in cars: The absense of room modes in the bass. The pressure region goes way up high - cabin gain actually works all the way up to about 60Hz. It just isn't hard at all to pressurize a couple cubic meters and without modes, it's strong and smooth. Even if it's a little lossy, you still get cabin gain because the pressure is dynamic, sort of like how piston rings can hold pressure long enough to provide usable force even though there is some amount of blow-by. But what you pay for in the trade for getting all this great bass is high reflectivity in the midrange and treble, and no really good places to put speakers in that environment that can provide any sort of imaging. I think that's the hardest part.
In spite of all that, I think you can make it sound pretty good in a car, with the right gear and setup. Just have to accept its limitations and not expect it to sound like "you are there" or anything like that. Best you can do it to bring the band in the car, the "they are here" thing. Kinda cramped for an orchestra, but just great for a four piece rock and roll band. 
Good memories: I used to run a Concorde head unit with Alpine amps. Best tape/tuner system I've ever heard, incredible sound for that era (late 1970s to early 1980s). If you never heard one, don't think JVC or Pioneer "Supertuner", don't even think Alpine or Nakamichi. The Concorde was beter than most people's home stereos and the tape deck rivals the best gear available even today. For speakers, I ran one π speakers with JBL 2115 midwoofers for car audio. Sadly, those drivers aren't available anymore, but Fostex F200 are very much like them.
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It speaks to the market place. They build what will sell. Anyhow for what it is worth, I don't usually listen to anything in the auto. Peace and quiet is hard to find and when I drive alone it is one of the few places that you can get that. 
