I think it would take a lot of subwoofers to break a car window. I mean, try striking the window of a new car with your hand. I'm pretty sure your hand would give up before the glass would.
Breaking house-windows should be possible, but will also need a lot of subwoofers because the room is larger than a car but the glass is not as strong.
Breaking house-windows should be possible, but will also need a lot of subwoofers because the room is larger than a car but the glass is not as strong.
Good article. I think it would be more interesting if you could find some of these guys that claim it's true, you can blow out your windows and some of the people that are on the other side of the fence saying it can't be done with the amount of power that can be generated in a cars electrical system. I personally can say I couldn't do it with my show car in the mid 90's to early 2000 as I was maxing my electrical system out, ( I had to replace my alternator and my marine battery numerous times), with my PPI Art Series amps (about 1500w at 12vdc), PPI PAR, 4 12" Kickers, 2 Fosgate Punch 1" Tweets, 2 Fosgate 4x6s, and 2 Fosgate 6x9s.
I was once informed that the windshield in a car is designed to allow an object to almost freely pass through it fromthe inside out so as to cause minimal damage if a person was to hit it during an accident. This was explained to me after almost putting my uncovered rear end through the one in my friends dads truck when we hit a bump in the road whilst I was mooning the car infront of us (young and stupid time of life). Also, i did seemingly crack the corner of the windshield in my 84 cutlass with no more than a pair of cheap ($30cdn each) 10" jensens and a "300w" jensen amp from walmart in a 3.5ft^2 sealed box.
I think it may simply break down to age of glass, music being played, and the ability to get a good seal inside the vehicle.
Oh, also had a civic hatch back that we could blow bubbles through the windshield seal with a single 15" cerwin vega (non stroker).
All this happened back in the late 90s
I think it may simply break down to age of glass, music being played, and the ability to get a good seal inside the vehicle.
Oh, also had a civic hatch back that we could blow bubbles through the windshield seal with a single 15" cerwin vega (non stroker).
All this happened back in the late 90s
breaking glass has to do with surface tension. this is whay many times, you can beat a window with large objects having blumt, wide dispersed surface, and relatively low natural resonance multiple times, and most of the impact is absorbed and dispersed as window flex, and movement in the seal. i.e. craow-bar, or large rock (fist, if you will). then, you take a real small peice, like a tiny rock, or ceramic, and fall the window with a little haste behind the force, not grunt. the crack in your window was most likely a result of either a metal burr contact (most common in fords) or previous chip/fracture that spread from flex. had a near perfect window in my little yota, which i lightly tapped with a 1/4" rachet pulling the dash for some crushed velvet touch-up. a miniscule near invisible rock micro-ding spread to a 6" crack instantly. later, the windshield went on to flex nearly 2" with no further damage. (2xL7-15's on a ss1000sx in 12cu under 30hz. dual alts, batts, etc, etc, yatta-yatta) most likely that a seal will give out, or damage found, before glass will break. if you are really wondering "why replace/upgrade?" then the answer would be the flex. the simplest way to look at it- more flex= louder outside (the flexing part becomes an external speaker transfering, or cancelling/relieving the pressure inside) the less flex= spl inside (pressure/energy contained). by the way, the windshield is designed to not break into slabs and gillitene your azz when it breaks. what you are thinking of is that a windshield is designed to move more freely outward as a unit, than inward, and yes, it is counted as a structural peice of the car. breakage from uncalculated/coincidental weakness that allows breakage in different forms is an effect, but not a part of the design they rely on. "in theory" you should be able to force the windshield outward in one piece, though it is a very rare occurrence.
You guys might want to look up the different glasses used in cars. There are usually two types:
Laminated for the windshield and tempered for the sides. The back window is usually tempered also.
Different animals altogether.
I think it has more to do with the vehicle itself. We did higher numbers in his honda civic hatchback and it was fine. The rodeo flexes like crazy which some would say would absorb a lot of the energy but when the whole roof is bending the windshield back and forth it just eventually starts cracking at the edges.
This was average score with music on a term-lab over 30 seconds.
This was average score with music on a term-lab over 30 seconds.
Back in 1969, I worked for a auto wrecking company, and my job was to move cars with a crane and stack it on a pile, about 30ft high. The crane had a big heavy hook that I had to hook right under the roof by the drivers side door.
I would take the hook on the end of that cable and just whip it against the glass, and many times the hook would just hit the glass and bounce back.
The tempered glass that is used for all the glass in your car except the front windsheild is very hard to break unless it gets pinched or thrusting a small sharp object against it .The glass is glued in with industrail grade urethane window adhesive, which also provides a good cushion for anything sharp.
Back in the early 1970's, when crome trim was still used,it was not uncommon to see a few rear windows just break, into small little peices, and that was caused by expansion of the glass into the steel clips used to snap the crome trim in place.
So I really doubt that a sub woofer can break that glass.
I would take the hook on the end of that cable and just whip it against the glass, and many times the hook would just hit the glass and bounce back.
The tempered glass that is used for all the glass in your car except the front windsheild is very hard to break unless it gets pinched or thrusting a small sharp object against it .The glass is glued in with industrail grade urethane window adhesive, which also provides a good cushion for anything sharp.
Back in the early 1970's, when crome trim was still used,it was not uncommon to see a few rear windows just break, into small little peices, and that was caused by expansion of the glass into the steel clips used to snap the crome trim in place.
So I really doubt that a sub woofer can break that glass.
It's easier to break a car window from the inside than the outside due to the convex shape....if you can keep the cab completely air tight it would but, with the metal panels flexing so much under the pressure it's almost not possible. I have seen windshields severely cracked from db drags but, never the windows shatter..... just my 
Use drivers with high Bl and strong cones. A tapped pipe with say 25 B&C 12TBX100 pointed directly toward the window should crack and break the window with ease.
Add another 15 dB due to cabingain.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Add another 15 dB due to cabingain.
I know, but still it shows that it is not easy.
I would imagine that in order to break a windshield you would need to to hit the natural frequency of the windshield and lots of sound pressure.
And like Input2 said, in most cars with the windshield cushioned by the glue and rubber it think it will be very very difficult to break it with sound.
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