A bit off the DIY theme, but the best bass I ever heard was...

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The earthquake of February 28, 2001 at about 11 in the morning. I was out on my front porch enjoying the scenery when it struck. It was 6.8 on the scale and centred near Olympia Washington, about 3 hours south of here. Now I know there are a lot of people on this forum who were closer than me but I got to watch the water in my pond slop back and forth as well as the trees swing on a calm day. It was my first real earthquake.

By far the thing that sticks out more than anything other (because there was no damage to my place) was the RUMBLE. I mean gut wrenching, leg weakening, equilibrium destroying bass! Something no audio system would be capable of.

Other than earthquakes, ('cause I've used that one) what are other examples of high SPL, low frequency experiences?

Anyone?
 
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Cal Weldon said:
The earthquake of February 28, 2001 at about 11 in the morning. I was out on my front porch enjoying the scenery when it struck. It was 6.8 on the scale and centred near Olympia Washington, about 3 hours south of here. Now I know there are a lot of people on this forum who were closer than me but I got to watch the water in my pond slop back and forth as well as the trees swing on a calm day. It was my first real earthquake.

By far the thing that sticks out more than anything other (because there was no damage to my place) was the RUMBLE. I mean gut wrenching, leg weakening, equilibrium destroying bass! Something no audio system would be capable of.

Other than earthquakes, ('cause I've used that one) what are other examples of high SPL, low frequency experiences?

Anyone?

What about sitting inside one of those stupid vehicles made for SPL competitions, during the demo... 173.3 dB SPL would probably cause permenant brain damage, which is probably why people continue to do those competitions.'

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3430/54248180Amps-Big.jpg
"A total of 36 amplifiers stacked over a bed of 72 Turbo Start batteries produce approximately 115,200 Watts of power."

=
--
Brian
 
I lived through dozens of earthquakes, the worst of which lasted an ENTIRE 60 seconds. Don't remember what it rated on the scale, but that was a scary 60 seconds of my life!
And yes, it produced some mean rumble.

Aside from that, thunder produces some crazy rumble, especially when it sort of tapers off, then everything shakes.

The other thing, and I'm sure not too many have experienced this one, is explosions. Several that stick out in my mind (lived in a warzone for several years). A 500kg bomb dropped from a plane, heard from fairly far. Shook the house (we thought it was an earthquake).
Two moderate cannon shells exploding close to where I was at. One exploded about 500 or so feet away, threw me on the ground (i was running at the time). The other, i was sitting down, was probably the loudest and lowest to high frequency i've heard, and that one was less than 300 feet away. EVERYTHING shook, my insides turned upside down. I was young at the time, so no hi-fi, but i'm sure if i heard it at this time i would think about the crazy un-distorted, ear piercing, clear as day bass :)
 
10 second thunder thump?

I once heard thunder early in the mornign and i woke up from it. The sond lasted extremely long, like mabey 10 seconds. I have never heard it like that before. Im still puzzled how all that sound energy managed to last that long. It was a extremely phasy sound that was moving away (like the dopler effect when a car passes you and first the sounds are pitched up and when it passes you its pitched down.) The sound lost more higer harmonics the longer is lasted. There are no mountains where i live so thats not it.
Ive heard plenty of lightning and thunder but never like this
There were several of these longer eruptions.
Ive heard of temp. and humidity effecting these things. Its posible that sound passes over some housing or whatever and to land behind it. Could it be the sound was launched almost verticaly and came down almost verticaly ? Thus creating an time delay phenomenon?

Coolin
 
subwoofer vs earthquake

I have experienced the 1980's Fullerton 6.1 earthquake and I can say that it feels quite similar to what a good subwoofer can simulate except that a real earthquake feels like 10 to 100 times scarier.

I have used (2) Cylindrical shape HSU subwoofer and if it's turn up loud, it can shake the building structure on the other side of the house. I'm not trying to promote HSU sub but that's what I have experienced.
 
Growing up in "The Motor City" (Detroit) Engines come to mind. Outside of nature's bass "movements", I'd have to say that there were/are several that have always impressed Me.

The first was the sound of an unlimited hydroplane (running a supercharged Rolls-Allison v12 out of 4" open pipes!) going "Full Tilt" (100mph+) from about 25' , was awe inspiring!

Almost the same engine ^^^ in a P51D on a low pass.

Two 5000+hp "Funny cars launching 8'-10' away.....WOW! :bigeyes:

A F15 going from 0mph (on the runway infront of Me) to 40,000' in under 90seconds. Then doing a >mach high speed pass! (Gave me a huge lump in My throat.) :cannotbe:

The Blue Angels "Doing Their Thing".

Tall Shadow
 
Several pounds of dynamite detonated underground! I was (too) near a quarry when they were dynamiting the walls. With the explosion completely encased in rock there was hardly any higher frequency sound at first but the low end had a visceral impact unlike anything else I've experienced. I could literally feel my guts vibrate.

The higher end sounds created when the wall section hit the bottom of the quarry were interesting also. Surprisingly like glass breaking, and we're talking about rocks weighing thousands of pounds.
 
Re: Re: A bit off the DIY theme, but the best bass I ever heard was...

BrianGT said:


What about sitting inside one of those stupid vehicles made for SPL competitions, during the demo... 173.3 dB SPL would probably cause permenant brain damage, which is probably why people continue to do those competitions.'

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3430/54248180Amps-Big.jpg
"A total of 36 amplifiers stacked over a bed of 72 Turbo Start batteries produce approximately 115,200 Watts of power."

=
--
Brian



Dude, were you traumatized by an SPL comp car as a child? What's your big hang up with them? You like subs, we like subs. Some of us are more extreme than others. Perhaps you don't understand all of the work that actually goes into making such a vechicle. Or all the planning that takes place.

Yeah, it's a little insane, but for you to call it stupid just proves your ignorance.
 
I think I was in Lake Placid, not sure, but anyhow, F16s flying overhead and hitting their afterburners....hitting the speed of sound! My Shiva! yehaw!


I think SPL comps are stupid too:xeye: Honestly though, if a dude wins a competition using Pioneer subs, suddenly Pioneer is the greatest and when I tell them about Adire Shiva, Tempest, etc. they say, "I want a real brand." That ****es me off. :hot: Watch out I'm steaming and at the controls of my 53L Shiva.
 
I think SPL comps are stupid too Honestly though, if a dude wins a competition using Pioneer subs, suddenly Pioneer is the greatest and when I tell them about Adire Shiva, Tempest, etc. they say, "I want a real brand." That ****es me off. Watch out I'm steaming and at the controls of my 53L Shiva.
..

Exactly. But since we want to excel in something , and SPL is an easily quantifiable thing,why not :D who knows,perhaps SOME techonology will filter down to regular subs for improvements. Its like saying F1 racing is no use to everyones cars,when F1 racing has the most highest safety tech around...

people need a tower of babel to see how good they are and acheive something...

I love thunder personally, but here in south New Zealand our weather is too mild :-(

but its awesome!
Hey next time some one has an earthquake or lightning can u make a 196khz 24bit recording wave file please and send it to me,i want to see the spectral analysis lol :D

Joking,but i want to know what spectral information is present..
theres this old retro song called 'riders on the storm' i think it has nice rain and thunder through it... my dad likes it :rolleyes:

But seriously,the power of nature has such potential yet we ignore it til it lets a little loose :) Im sure some mathematician could say how much energy is released during these events...
 

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wharfrat said:
for pure, earpopping spl - I once sat 50 feet from two Harriers at full thrust...

Bigger jets make bigger rumbles - try 20 feet from an F-14 in afterburner waiting to be launched with another behind you at full basic engine thrust. When working the flight deck I wore earplugs inside my "mouse ears" and it was still uncomfortably loud. At least my hearing still measures as well as before joining the Navy.

Another good rumble was watching our sister squadron fly in after a deployment. 12 Tomcats at 200' - I sort of wish I'd been on deck to hear the airwing 24 Tomcat flyby, but I was in it - yes it was loud inside the airplane.

When our A-6 squadrons dropped 168 500 pound bombs simultaneously just under a half mile away it made a pretty big boom, but since we were 100 miles offshore we didn't get an echo, it didn't feel as loud as standing between the catapults with Tomcats ready to go.

You want loud, join the military. :cool:
 
Re: Re: Re: A bit off the DIY theme, but the best bass I ever heard was...

HiggityHank said:
Dude, were you traumatized by an SPL comp car as a child? What's your big hang up with them? You like subs, we like subs. Some of us are more extreme than others. Perhaps you don't understand all of the work that actually goes into making such a vechicle. Or all the planning that takes place.

Yeah, it's a little insane, but for you to call it stupid just proves your ignorance.


I believe it's a fundamental difference in what we attempt to achieve with our audio equipment. A lot of (most?) people strive to reproduce music in a way that sounds enjoyable and is resonably close to the original performance. However, at significantly greater than 120dB, it is difficult to enjoy any music because it will cause intense discomfort. At very low frequencies in the extreme SPL range, this could even cause unpleasant compression of the abdominal and thoracic cavities. While I would not personally consider creating 170+ dB in a small volume of air to be difficult with enough money and knowledge of basic electronics and acoustics, at the extreme pressures exerted with this sound output, the greater concern would be redesigning a vehicle cabin to survive it, and of course an electrical system to power it.

I think why Brian said this was stupid is the fact that it is not really a good reason to create such a sound system. What good is a sound system you can't listen to, after all? Also, what is ridiculous is simply how loud 173+ dB really is. It's hard to make a relative comparison, but it is somewhere between being less than 50 ft of a couple of F15's taking off at full afterburner or the launch of a large rocket. Asside from the fact that it would instantly make you go deaf, the force would quite litterally rattle your brain. You would have extreme difficultly breathing, numerous undesirable gastrointestitinal effects, and it could possibly even be fatal as the impact of the sound waves on your chest could potentially stop your heart. Naturally, since these vehicles aren't meant to have listeners inside them, those points are somewhat irrelevant, but I think I would rather focus my efforts and money on something other than a sound system that could probably kill someone.
 
different aims, car audio 170db dirty vs home audio 110db clean..

2 opposite lifestyles can exist side by side without war cant they? (israel (or is it palestine) doesnt inspire confidence)

Its good to make something which is actualy useful however....

I heard that jet engines have whitenoise sorts of outputs,which is interesting,what sort of chemical actions are going on with the hot air thrusting out and mixing with the cold air, what exactly causes the whitenoise output ? what freq response does it have? does it go into the ultrasonics? does it go down to 0hz?

Trumpets supposedly do 40khz or something,that guys read online was interesting...

Cheers!
 
Re: 10 second thunder thump?

Coolin said:
I once heard thunder early in the mornign and i woke up from it. The sond lasted extremely long, like mabey 10 seconds. I have never heard it like that before. Im still puzzled how all that sound energy managed to last that long. It was a extremely phasy sound that was moving away (like the dopler effect when a car passes you and first the sounds are pitched up and when it passes you its pitched down.) The sound lost more higer harmonics the longer is lasted. There are no mountains where i live so thats not it.
Ive heard plenty of lightning and thunder but never like this
There were several of these longer eruptions.
Ive heard of temp. and humidity effecting these things. Its posible that sound passes over some housing or whatever and to land behind it. Could it be the sound was launched almost verticaly and came down almost verticaly ? Thus creating an time delay phenomenon?

Coolin

I heard this same type of thunder early one morning when I was still a student. Most amazing thunder I ever heard, you could hear this pitch changing. I wished I had a tape recorder that day.
 
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