What is the difference between CAR & Home HiFi speaker

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There are a number of differences. Most car speakers have a 4 ohm impedance, whereas a number of hifi speakers are 8. Many car speakers are designed for "free air" use, or without an enclosure so that they can be used in an open trunk space, etc. Generally, car speakers are of much lesser quality, with the exception of a few units which are quite pricey (Focal comes to mind.) Also, many car speakers do not have the frequency response that hifi speakers do. They are designed to take advantage of "cabin gain", which is a db boost that occurs naturally in the small car environment.
 
As Super says...

Higher Fs usually therefore harder to get to go "low" in the home environment.

Also generally smaller Xmax (?)

In any case model the driver you're planning to use. Just check the excursion plots to make sure you won't end up "rectifying" it if you drop below Fb (in a vented box) or simply driven hard in a closed box

Dave.
 
My experience with car speakers only extends to Subwoofers but most of them are not really suited for Hifi use. Many (not all) have very high Qts and Fs and almost all Xmax parameters are WAY overrated or substituted with the maximal excursion the driver is physically capable of. I have also found that most drivers differ T/S wise with deviations of 25% and more for Fs and Qts not uncommon. (What would one do without Speaker Workshop and my trusty jig ;-)

Some of the single driver afficiandos use FR (not co- or tri- axial)car speakers and modify them extensively with good effect on a precious few models only.
 
Super said:
... Many car speakers are designed for "free air" use, or without an enclosure so that they can be used in an open trunk space, etc.

Thanxalot, Super,

for the hint, then car audio speakers are suitable for open baffle use.
Finding the right paper-cone fullrange driver could make a nice, a very nice cheapocheapo open baffle project!

Any driver you could recommend for that?
 
pcsl999 said:
What is the difference between CAR & Home HiFi speaker?

WARNING: I'm not an expert...

One big thing(as far as I'm concerned) is that for a given dollar value, auto speakers seem to trade off durability for performance. Speakers that are in your car are pretty much "outdoor" speakers. They have to be able to withstand large temperature swings, dustyness and moisture. Because your living room is probably not dusty, wet, -20 degrees in the winter or +40 degrees in the summer, they do not need to be as tough. A lot of car speakers use synthetics and such for the cone while a home speaker would use paper or some other more delicate material.

That being said, a home speaker in your car would probably not last very long. In your home, an auto speaker may not perform as well, but in some cases would look cooler. But asthetics are subjective, and I'd rather go for performance.

p.s. I live in Canada.
-20 degrees C = -5 degrees F
+40 degrees C = 104 degrees F
 
one-way full range car speakers are regarded in the car audio world as the cheapest, worst sounding hunks of junk (which I also think they are). You can easily try a pair for yourself for under $25 I'm sure =). Go to a car ausio shop and I'm sure they would be glad to give you a set of factory Ford or other OEM brand for free or close to nothing -- these usually end up in the trash anyways.

If anyone wants to try a two-way in a home project I would recommend Diamond Audio Hex drivers. These are the best sounding car speakers I have ever heard.

dice45 said:


Thanxalot, Super,

for the hint, then car audio speakers are suitable for open baffle use.
Finding the right paper-cone fullrange driver could make a nice, a very nice cheapocheapo open baffle project!

Any driver you could recommend for that?
 
Note some caveats.

1. a select few drivers come close to beeing suitable. I read something about a Pioneer TS-G1615 in a TQWT a while back.

2. These drivers are then modified, usually with some "mythical" puzzle coat (never seen any of it here in South Africa) and other tweaks like damping material between the whizzer and the main cone, etc..... (things Lowther owners might want to try but because of the cost are too afraid to)

3. Car FRs are inherently (to to their mounting) listened to off-axis and such drivers usually have a small sweet spot (or not so sweet, depending on the driver) due to the beaming at higher frequencies.


BTW, my first speakers were 4" FRs out of a friends car (in a cardboard box no less and suffering from foam rot) and as humbling as it may seem, back then the difference I got out of them connected to my soundcard (SB Pro) compared to the utterly pathetic multimedia speakers of the time gave me more enjoyment than any other audio project to date (note enjoyment, not fidelity ;-). Memories such as "These things have BASS" and thoughts of a hi-fi come to mind.


I assume you were referring to 25 Aus$. On the topic of cheap drivers, I got a box of halfway decent 6,5" drivers (not car) (8 ohms 88,5 dB/2.83V/1m ,really nice looks with woven yellow fibreglass cone, 75W RMS, good magnet and sufficient Xmax and good measurements up to 4,5 kHz and fairly benign rolloff after that) for just about 9 US$ apiece, can anyone say linear array (ala Bottlehead Straight 8, just active (LR 24 dB/oct) to go with my planned SET). I know this if off topic, but any thoughts and experiences with arrays are welcome.

Martin Goedeke
 
Randy and all

R. McAnally said:
one-way full range car speakers are regarded in the car audio world as the cheapest, worst sounding hunks of junk (which I also think they are). You can easily try a pair for yourself for under $25 I'm sure =). Go to a car ausio shop and I'm sure they would be glad to give you a set of factory Ford or other OEM brand for free or close to nothing -- these usually end up in the trash anyways.

... and i have exactly such speakers sitting here on my shelf. Tried them out. And am glad to report that not all OEM car speakers are junk.

Once i got a pair of 2way speakers from a professional speaker designer, the thing was a test sample from a row of slighly different modifications and it was sounding unspectacular but utterly musical, unsellable in this price segment according to the designer's opinion. I needed a decent sounding speaker for my father but the cheapocheapo housing looked like ****. So i built a new housing and a new XO using better components. I asked the designer which woofer he used and he replied, a shielded TV set speaker, cheap but good, and the same speaker is used w/o magnetic shielding for car audio, BMW OEM, to be specific.

\A year later at the local surplus shop i found a stack of those car audio woofers and bought a pair of those to try them out in an open baffle. A sonic beauty. Paper cone, rubber surround (no, no foam).

If anyone wants to try a two-way in a home project I would recommend Diamond Audio Hex drivers. These are the best sounding car speakers I have ever heard.

thanxalot!
 
Re: Re: What is the difference between CAR & Home HiFi speaker

seangoesbonk said:
p.s. I live in Canada.
-20 degrees C = -5 degrees F
+40 degrees C = 104 degrees F
In warmer climates like here in Oz (it is summertime right now) we get many mid 30's and the occasional low 40's deg C. Central Australia is often 45 deg C or so. That translates to a temperature in a closed car of ~70 deg C +. Lame-brained people have sometimes left their young children or pets in the car while they go into the shops and wonder why they are dead or nearly so when they return! For speakers in the back parcel shelf in the direct sun I wouldn't be surprised if it hit 80 deg C under those conditions. I'm not exaggerating.
 
Car Audio manufacturers usually put a large emphasis on cosmetics over anything. You have to purchase more expensive units to get anyting that has quality.

Some brands that come to mind are Focal, CDT, Image Dynamics, and Adire Audio.

They all have really good products, for a good price however. I would much rather put home drivers in my car than many of the car speakers available.
 
Re: Re: Re: What is the difference between CAR & Home HiFi speaker

Circlotron said:

In warmer climates like here in Oz (it is summertime right now) we get many mid 30's and the occasional low 40's deg C. Central Australia is often 45 deg C or so. That translates to a temperature in a closed car of ~70 deg C +. Lame-brained people have sometimes left their young children or pets in the car while they go into the shops and wonder why they are dead or nearly so when they return! For speakers in the back parcel shelf in the direct sun I wouldn't be surprised if it hit 80 deg C under those conditions. I'm not exaggerating.

It will be 37 degrees in sunny melbourne today, its good living near the beach though, so i think ill live.

Its too often that we see on the news a story of a parent leaving there young child in the car while they play the pokies....

As for car audio, there is alot of crap out there, but there are some quality components out there. Are they suitable for home use? Well a good way to find out is to hit your local car audio dealer, because they will have all of there speakers in a wall in their showroom, not in car.
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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R. McAnally said:
one-way full range car speakers are regarded in the car audio world as the cheapest, worst sounding hunks of junk (which I also think they are).

Not so...

If you ever run across a pair of Delco 4 ohm (the 10 ohm aren't too bad either) tan colored 6x9" with whizzer cone, these are a wonderful full range.

The last pair i got for $2 at a garage sale, and i was walking to the car thinking, this guy probably spent a couple hundred bucks to replace them with not-as-good triaxials :)

dave
 
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