It can be hard to understand that different people like to do different things, especially if you personally can't see any value in it. From personal experience I can say it is fun to see how loud you can make any given sound system - but I've never spent money on spl just for the sake of spl, never competed and never will.
Look a bit farther into different hobbies and you will quickly see how normal spl competition is compared to some of the other ******* crazy hobbies people have, like very expensive and fiercely competitive and borderline abusive beauty pageants for toddlers - showcased on the learning channel of all places.
Toddlers & Tiaras - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_beauty_pageant
The spl guys aren't hurting anyone but themselves (as long as they aren't doing it in traffic or residential neighbourhoods) so I say leave them alone even if you don't understand why anyone would ever want to do such a crazy thing to their car. There's a lot worse things they could be doing with their time.
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I don't know how it is the case in Canada, at least in Germany they do, which gives me not much room to like their hobby.
Sorry, if the last post was a little acidic.
just a guy,
That's all fine and dandy but let's put aside our thoughts on the value of the hobby for a minute, I was really just wondering what is the attraction.
If the point is strictly SPL, why employ such an inefficient means of creating it? Surely something like pneumatics would get you there sooner, no?
That's all fine and dandy but let's put aside our thoughts on the value of the hobby for a minute, I was really just wondering what is the attraction.
If the point is strictly SPL, why employ such an inefficient means of creating it? Surely something like pneumatics would get you there sooner, no?
I don't know exactly what the rules are but I've wondered the same thing. When I was younger my uncle thought it would be really funny to wake me up with a shotgun blast (he removed all the lead to avoid the consequences of shooting a gun in his own basement, like holes in the wall and possible death). That was the loudest sound I've ever heard and I've often wondered why car audio guys didn't do the same thing (with a lot of guns or similar noisemakers going off at the same time). After all, if the only point is extreme spl there have to be better ways than moving coil drivers, right?
I found this little clip on the internet:
So it appears that it doesn't matter what frequency you burp, 117 hz is fair game, even though a system that peaks at 117 hz is completely useless to listen to. (The rules of this game is to find the resonant frequency of the vehicle and tune your subs to that frequency or higher.)
To be honest I don't get the point of competitions where spl is the primary goal either but to each their own.
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Just like auto drag racing, there are various classes to compete in for SPL.
Obviously, rocket engines are not allowed in the street stock drag race classes, and pneumatics or explosives are not allowed in SPL drags that use loudspeakers.
The "fun" is the chance of beating someone else who has to play by the same rules, and setting records.
Unlike building for sound quality, when the goal has a single metric (or a small defined frequency range) of SPL, there can be a clear win.
If it's all about SPL from dynamic speakers, add another power source/amp/chassis and gain several (10s of) dB instead of 0.0x dB by lowering the sunshades or painting your woofer inside with lubricant for a more intense feeling. Oops.
Some SPL drag competition classes allow multiple amps, some don't.
The OP has not really stated any specific goals, so hard to say what the best way to achieve them is.
3 db gain from doubling power (assuming the car's electrical system can handle it). 3 db from doubling the speakers (assuming there's enough room for more speakers).
But these days people are breaking 180 db, with concrete vehicle lining and thick reinforced glass the vehicle might be able to handle it but I'm not sure things are atmospherically linear at 180+ db so doubling the amps and speakers might not bring the gains you expect even if the vehicle can physically handle it.
Anyway, wrt your last statement, port compression is a very real enemy and there are very real ways to combat it. Understanding the Reynolds number is one tool in that battle. (It's not the most effective way to handle port compression but it is a factor, especially in systems with long ports.)
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IMO it's only fun if the system is also good for listening to music (which it isn't if it peaks at a high frequency like 117 hz). Otherwise the goal is too far removed from the original purpose of the equipment - kind of like a contest to see whose fingernail file is best at cutting down trees. There may be a clear and definite winner but that doesn't mean it's the best tool for the job.
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Most folks here are trying to achieve good sound over wide frequencies with a smooth musical response.
If your goal is to achieve a one note wonder that reinforces a resonant frequency in a car then I'm sure that the good people around here would be up to the challenge.
Why do you need the enclosure to be a ported cabinet? Could a horn be used instead? It would be easy to tune a horn to create something nasty!
If the cabinet does need to be ported, the port can be tuned carefully for the required frequency, and the size and shape can be optimized to allow good efficiency at competition levels.
I assume that lining the cabinet with reflective material reinforces resonant frequencies within the box. The box dimensions could also be modified to tune the internal resonances.
For more specific help more info is required like -
frequency of interest-
speaker driver parameters -
physical size constraints of the cabinet -
Maybe a reference to any competition rules would be useful!
So I am guessing these vehicles are no longer street legal so you not only used up some perfectly good electronics and woofers, you now have a car you can't take on the road?
Hmmm... I'm going to have to think about this one for a minute.
I feel the same way about golf.
Whoa, I have to get out more. I just watched these comps on you tube. Girls hair flying everywhere. Guys holding the glass in place in their cars. Entire vehicles vibrating around. Men hiding in booths administering the punishment and flat screens that show SPL's.
Dammit Jim, I'm just a country Doctor!
Dammit Jim, I'm just a country Doctor!
If your goal is to achieve a one note wonder that reinforces a resonant frequency in a car then I'm sure that the good people around here would be up to the challenge.
Why do you need the enclosure to be a ported cabinet? Could a horn be used instead? It would be easy to tune a horn to create something nasty!
Actually the car audio guys already have one note ported boxes down to a science. By using a high q driver with a high tuned port you can get massive gains where the driver and port output overlap, and over a narrow band the output of a small ported box can rival that of a large horn.
Check out the manufacturer's recommended box sizes of car audio subs and the predicted response shape to see massive peaking at around 45 hz. Kicker is good at this.
Most people don't want massive peaking over a narrow bandwidth but for those that do it's very easy to achieve with very small ported boxes and high q drivers.
And I'll mention this for the people that feel compelled to mock the linked thread. The rest of the spl game is reducing losses and playing tricks that the mic will like. The former is doing things like making boxes out of heavy reinforced steel and welding the box to the car - this will minimize losses. The latter includes little gimmicks like armorall on the dash, sunvisor position, and other stupid little things that don't seems like they should matter (because they really don't except to a mic in a very specific spot). Seat position is a grey area because it is a big wad of stuffing right in the middle of the car so it is conceivable that it might make a difference. The linked thread seems mostly interested in gimmicks that the mic (in a very specific location) will like and not very interested in reducing losses which will actually make the system louder.
So I am guessing these vehicles are no longer street legal so you not only used up some perfectly good electronics and woofers, you now have a car you can't take on the road?
Hmmm... I'm going to have to think about this one for a minute.
Why would they not be street legal?
Here's 2 of my favs, the first cuz it's SO funny, the second for reasons that should be immediately obvious.
My favorite Hair Trick reaction - YouTube
trippis hummer at nspl show - YouTube
But these are only ~ 150 db systems that are tuned low enough to actually listen to, not true spl competition vehicles.
There's also a bunch of vids of people breaking their windsheilds and levitating pop cans and stuff.
EDIT - one more with trippi's hummer and the blonde if you like that kind of thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGrU1URex_U
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I am thinking that by the time you line a vehicle with concrete, it's mass has been increased to a point where the brakes, fenders, fuel cells, crumple zones, air bags and those minor sorts of things no longer meet the safety standards of the governing bodies. Oh, and there's pesky little thing about flying concrete should the vehicle suffer impact, as I'm not sure the little cosmetic panels used to cover what used to be just metal, would stay in place during a serious deceleration. How do you line a vehicle anyway? Maybe I am missing something. That sounds rather involved.
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