Just curious if there is anything in the construction (cone material, surrounds, etc.) added to mobile drivers specifically meant to deal with dust, temperature extremes, etc? Or will "home" drivers fare just as well?
Untreated paper cones could be a problem.
The car woofers could be better suited to deal with UV which can destroy some materials.
The car woofers could be better suited to deal with UV which can destroy some materials.
I'm not sure if it's true, but it is possible that car drivers have a larger air gap between the voice coil and magnet, so they can cope with being bounced around. Also car drivers are likely to be used in suboptimal enclosures, possibly very small, sometimes leaky.
Having worked in that for a long time, it depends. Anything for OEMs have stringent tests for dust, moisture/humidity, power handling, temperature. For a fun while, I was working noon-10pm four days a week running a 280 hour full power test for Ford 5x7s, OMG what a loud racket. I'd sleep until 10:30, dive into the shower in a panic, zoom to work, get home and watch the late show, repeat. Until Thursday when I'd go out and paaaaarrrrttttyyyy.
Aftermarket automotive stuff, depending on the brand, may or may not have much requirement at all. I can tell you firsthand Rockford Fosgate does incredibly tough testing, thousands of watts of noise into subwoofers etc. Smaller brands may just take whatever some Chinese factory sends them, especially swap meet stuff.
Home drivers may do fine for some time, depending where you live and where the stuff is placed in the car - wet door not good, exposed to sun not good.
Simple.
Car drivers can be used at home.
Home divers cannot be used in cars.
If you like the sound of car drivers at home, good.
Home drivers are generally 'delicate' in their build, won't stand a wash, or sun, or being bounced around.
Their sound may be different, too.
Car drivers can be used at home.
Home divers cannot be used in cars.
If you like the sound of car drivers at home, good.
Home drivers are generally 'delicate' in their build, won't stand a wash, or sun, or being bounced around.
Their sound may be different, too.
Car drivers are size-constrained, obviously, so to put out enough power they usually have large Xmax.
Small diameter and large Xmax often leads to more distortion than vice versa.
Jan
Small diameter and large Xmax often leads to more distortion than vice versa.
Jan
There are loads of people using home drivers successfully in their cars.
Indeed. I'm just wondering if a home driver will last more than a couple of years in the automotive environment.
On our roads, they would not last long.
Home drivers in mdf boxes are common here in lorries and buses, where the sound quality is not important.
So it boils down to expectation, cost, and life.
Your choice, our monsoon also is a factor, paper cones do not like extended periods of moisture, 100% humidity 40 day / 30 night temperature...normal for more than 6 weeks in Bombay.
Home drivers in mdf boxes are common here in lorries and buses, where the sound quality is not important.
So it boils down to expectation, cost, and life.
Your choice, our monsoon also is a factor, paper cones do not like extended periods of moisture, 100% humidity 40 day / 30 night temperature...normal for more than 6 weeks in Bombay.
The biggest constraint on success would be the climate that you live in and then how well your car is built.
The truth is that nothing enjoys going through wide temperature and humidity cycles. Nothing enjoys being exposed to salt so living by the sea, in a humid climate, isn't going to help things either. If your car leaks into the doors RIP speakers in doors.
Rubbers, plastics and foams will all degrade with heat and UV light doesn't help. If you choose your home drivers with care you'll probably be okay. In other words pick plastic, glass fibre, kevlar, etc type cones and go with rubber surrounds rather than foam. Although having said that lots of cheap car speakers use foam surrounds and paper cones and they keep going for decades in doors. If they are shielded from light this will obviously help.
If you've ever tried to dismantle a decently constructed fi-fi driver you'll know how insanely strong the adhesives they use in the motors are. You'd need to get unlucky for a bump to cause the driver to fall to bits but going with neo magnets will certainly help with vibration. Depends how you drive and what the roads are like where you live.
The truth is that nothing enjoys going through wide temperature and humidity cycles. Nothing enjoys being exposed to salt so living by the sea, in a humid climate, isn't going to help things either. If your car leaks into the doors RIP speakers in doors.
Rubbers, plastics and foams will all degrade with heat and UV light doesn't help. If you choose your home drivers with care you'll probably be okay. In other words pick plastic, glass fibre, kevlar, etc type cones and go with rubber surrounds rather than foam. Although having said that lots of cheap car speakers use foam surrounds and paper cones and they keep going for decades in doors. If they are shielded from light this will obviously help.
If you've ever tried to dismantle a decently constructed fi-fi driver you'll know how insanely strong the adhesives they use in the motors are. You'd need to get unlucky for a bump to cause the driver to fall to bits but going with neo magnets will certainly help with vibration. Depends how you drive and what the roads are like where you live.
Jedi,
I think the quality of the drivers and materials used is the primary factor in what you can use in an auto application.
In the 80's I installed 4-Dynaudio 17w75s and D28's in my $500 Toyota Corona. They lasted 5 years no problem.
Pulled them out when I sold the car and built a set of D'Appolito T-Line Monitors out of them.
I have recently purchased 8 / 3-way Morel car audio systems for super cheap on Ebay $99pr. Using for an open baffle slim line array for front Surround speakers. Quality is really good as well as sonic character. No way you could source 6 drivers of that quality for $100.
Good luck with your car audio.
No after a long time in automotive I can say you are correct. I'll also add that I think using very low impedance to allegedly suck every watt out of an amp is perhaps foolish. With actual complex loads under dynamic conditions I think the additional headroom is very small or none, though I only ever gathered very sketchy data about this. For sure the losses and therefore heat in the amplifier and current drawn from the battery go way up, not a good thing.
I have used the same drivers for a long time in over the road equipment and home stereo. I use Dayton's 10-44 HO series for a lot of different applications. I don't use low impedance wiring to push my amps either. I've seen some serious fires behind hotrod stereo guys at bass competitions. They were usually running on MQ gen sets. 1/2 ohm to 1 ohm is not uncommon.
Horrible sound reproduction usually. Grande Daddy Bass has a clean set up for a roller, until he flips the BASS drivers on.
I've set up a few events for kids through the years. Earplugs and muffs required. I have good hearing it's staying that way.
4X4s well good luck with keeping anything working in a working 4X4. Highway stuff easy peasy.
Horrible sound reproduction usually. Grande Daddy Bass has a clean set up for a roller, until he flips the BASS drivers on.
I've set up a few events for kids through the years. Earplugs and muffs required. I have good hearing it's staying that way.
4X4s well good luck with keeping anything working in a working 4X4. Highway stuff easy peasy.
Not to mention driver Qt, Le heat rise unless $$ built to offset it $$, which equates to < none.
In car audio you have a couple different types of installs and depending on what your goals are the drivers you would choose are vastly different. If you are going for what is termed an SPL build, something I personally don't understand, but regardless the drivers used in those builds hold little resemblance to anything you would use in a home system. They are huge and weigh hundreds of pounds and typically have impedance loads down below an ohm and require thousands of watts to drive. They have super stiff compliance and have x-mas's that can push over 3 inch's. These drivers are for car audio SPL installs only because they are not musical. They are for making extreme levels of sound pressure and that's about it and that is nothing you would want in a home system. or a vehicle as far as I am concerned. But I digress. To each their own.
The other type of system is for sound quality or a SQ install. Here you can use drivers that are commonly used in home HiFi systems but they may or may not be the best choice. Typically drivers that are used in car audio are made of materials that can withstand the abusive environment of the typical automobile. So you find a lot of polypropylene and metal cones in car audio drivers. There are paper drivers as well but they are usually treated paper or infused with other materials like carbon. You will also find a lot of woven glass and Kevlar cones in higher end drivers. Another thing that car audio drivers have in common is they are typically rated for higher wattages then home HiFi drivers. The home stuff is usually rated much lower. For instance a typical 5 1/4 midwoofer for home use will average around 30 watts RMS but a 5 1/4 car audio driver will average 100 watts or more. Of course there are exceptions. There always are but in general that is the case. But there is nothing stopping anyone from using home drivers in the car, I know I have and to great success but sometimes not it just depends.
The other type of system is for sound quality or a SQ install. Here you can use drivers that are commonly used in home HiFi systems but they may or may not be the best choice. Typically drivers that are used in car audio are made of materials that can withstand the abusive environment of the typical automobile. So you find a lot of polypropylene and metal cones in car audio drivers. There are paper drivers as well but they are usually treated paper or infused with other materials like carbon. You will also find a lot of woven glass and Kevlar cones in higher end drivers. Another thing that car audio drivers have in common is they are typically rated for higher wattages then home HiFi drivers. The home stuff is usually rated much lower. For instance a typical 5 1/4 midwoofer for home use will average around 30 watts RMS but a 5 1/4 car audio driver will average 100 watts or more. Of course there are exceptions. There always are but in general that is the case. But there is nothing stopping anyone from using home drivers in the car, I know I have and to great success but sometimes not it just depends.