Oh, don´t worry about that, because they are already lost.
People wed on headphones and amps fed from a 3.7V battery have no taste for "real" Audio, in great part because they never heard it.
And "home theater" systems, with multichannel satellites, plus a subwoofer which in theory "could" play good music, are only used to play helicopters machine gunning down "bad guys", hi speed chase cars, lots of shooting sounds, fast and furious cars speeding away leaving burnt rubber tyre marks on the ground, etc.
"Special effects", very different from actual Music.
And if "music" is Rap, Hip Hop, etc., exaggerated response between 30Hz and 100Hz is all you need.
People wed on headphones and amps fed from a 3.7V battery have no taste for "real" Audio, in great part because they never heard it.
And "home theater" systems, with multichannel satellites, plus a subwoofer which in theory "could" play good music, are only used to play helicopters machine gunning down "bad guys", hi speed chase cars, lots of shooting sounds, fast and furious cars speeding away leaving burnt rubber tyre marks on the ground, etc.
"Special effects", very different from actual Music.
And if "music" is Rap, Hip Hop, etc., exaggerated response between 30Hz and 100Hz is all you need.
This made me laugh, it's a rare day where a car doesn't drive by the house with rattling trunk lid, buzzing door skins, and various odd unmusical rattles. More rarely one rumbles by with SPLs so high I can hear it in the man cave with the stereo playing. (Maybe a couple of times a year)
It doesn't sound good, never sounded good, and it goes all the way back to a time shortly after my teens. Power has gotten much cheaper, but woofers have gotten bigger and less efficient - the cars they are installed in are generally structural unsound or not quite up to snuff in a lot of other ways. I've even seen a few that jerked a bit as they rolled along as the load on their alternator momentarily overwhelmed engine output.
I had some passing familiarity with 8 track but never had one in the car - always cassette, and then CD, and finally SD card.
It doesn't sound good, never sounded good, and it goes all the way back to a time shortly after my teens. Power has gotten much cheaper, but woofers have gotten bigger and less efficient - the cars they are installed in are generally structural unsound or not quite up to snuff in a lot of other ways. I've even seen a few that jerked a bit as they rolled along as the load on their alternator momentarily overwhelmed engine output.
I had some passing familiarity with 8 track but never had one in the car - always cassette, and then CD, and finally SD card.
Bass in cars today is easy to get with multiple alternators & batteries and switch-mode power. Hundreds of watts from pairs of MOSFETs and little transformers running at near megahertz. An now we have GaNFET. 1000 watt pack of cigarettes! Sorry. We're stuck with it. I like music, but I listen realizing that one man's music is another man's noise.
I can flip it around and ask why so many audiophiles are afraid of bass. Having attended many audio shows both public and private it seems that "High End" types shy away from real bass. "Wow, that's some clean bass!" Yes, so clean as to be non-existent. 
Maybe it's because they would lose Hi-Fi cred if their systems sound anything like the boom-boom crowd? Is big bass the sign of a cheap system?
Maybe it's because they would lose Hi-Fi cred if their systems sound anything like the boom-boom crowd? Is big bass the sign of a cheap system?
Pano, "big bass" is the sign of poor decisions in perferences, as far as I'm concerned.
True, everyone has their own, free will to please themselves with.
I'm not against bass...... when it's properly used, hell, I used to DJ back in the Disco 1970's/'80s, and so can identify with that "beat" that gets you dancing.
But the reasonable balance of any music, without the overpowering bass, is I believe what most people tend to gravitate to.
There are videos online that are utterly rediculous.
One of a girl, sitting in a car, her hair actually flying in the air, like she's standing in a tornado - by the bass from speakers behind her.
Come on, that's just dumb.
I wanna see her when she's older, and deaf, and tell her how dumb she is.
And others, bragging about the thousands of watts they own.... oh please!
They need to get a life.
True, everyone has their own, free will to please themselves with.
I'm not against bass...... when it's properly used, hell, I used to DJ back in the Disco 1970's/'80s, and so can identify with that "beat" that gets you dancing.
But the reasonable balance of any music, without the overpowering bass, is I believe what most people tend to gravitate to.
There are videos online that are utterly rediculous.
One of a girl, sitting in a car, her hair actually flying in the air, like she's standing in a tornado - by the bass from speakers behind her.
Come on, that's just dumb.
I wanna see her when she's older, and deaf, and tell her how dumb she is.
And others, bragging about the thousands of watts they own.... oh please!
They need to get a life.
Good bass in a HIFI context is difficult and expensive to achieve, in a world where room acoustics is not understood and there is a strong bias against doing anything scientific about the physical environment the system operates in it's just simpler to ignore the problem.
Simple signal paths are sacrosanct, and at the expense of everything else that might matter more.
It took me 4 decades to figure out that simplicity does not necessarily lead to the desired outcome. (As a consequence my system become much more complex and harder to maintain, but sounds better as a result when something isn't broken.. )
Simple signal paths are sacrosanct, and at the expense of everything else that might matter more.
It took me 4 decades to figure out that simplicity does not necessarily lead to the desired outcome. (As a consequence my system become much more complex and harder to maintain, but sounds better as a result when something isn't broken..
)
We obviously don't live in a Perfect World.
And my living room isn't perfect either.
Yet, my Advent Maestro's put out quite the satisfying sound, and bass, when needed.
I can feel it through the sofa and floor.
It's there... controlled, but solid, not at all fatiquing.
And if I need to, there's the tone controls at my command.
The old RCA Victor console out in the dining room belches out deep bass from a pair of 12" long-throw woofers, even at low volume - smooth, yet has that "console sound".
However, I don't need to entertain my neighbors, even if they like my music.
And my living room isn't perfect either.
Yet, my Advent Maestro's put out quite the satisfying sound, and bass, when needed.
I can feel it through the sofa and floor.
It's there... controlled, but solid, not at all fatiquing.
And if I need to, there's the tone controls at my command.
The old RCA Victor console out in the dining room belches out deep bass from a pair of 12" long-throw woofers, even at low volume - smooth, yet has that "console sound".
However, I don't need to entertain my neighbors, even if they like my music.
I'm happily coming into my grumpy old man stage. My father relishes his.
No you kids turn that down and get off my lawn!
Those same people may have gone to a whole lot of effort bracing the sub box to the max, completely ignoring the flappy, flexy car body.
Well, when you get to the place where judging car systems is routinely done using microphones (because it's not possible for a human being to even be in the cabin space at "competition" performance levels) you get an idea that this is all about, and only about, testosterone fueled comparative muscle - expressed in db SPL. And as we know, flexing muscle is all about display, for the purpose of attraction. This just happens to be in the context of car stereo.
I had a VW scirocco just after graduation. I put two RS 12" in the back deck; this carpeted cardboard shelf that lifted when you raised the hatch. With my 10 WPC Concord in dash cassette - sporting separate bass and treble controls - I could blur the image in the rear view mirror. Santana's "Moonflower" just sounded so good - and it was good enough for me for a satisfying sound while driving. No door / dash speakers, no bandpass cabinets, no imaging extending beyond the windshield, no giagantic 1F capacitors / 1 WG cabling...
I'm pretty sure I had a pair of piezo tweeters just sitting on the deck carpet surface, held in place by only their connecting wires.
I had a VW scirocco just after graduation. I put two RS 12" in the back deck; this carpeted cardboard shelf that lifted when you raised the hatch. With my 10 WPC Concord in dash cassette - sporting separate bass and treble controls - I could blur the image in the rear view mirror. Santana's "Moonflower" just sounded so good - and it was good enough for me for a satisfying sound while driving. No door / dash speakers, no bandpass cabinets, no imaging extending beyond the windshield, no giagantic 1F capacitors / 1 WG cabling...
I'm pretty sure I had a pair of piezo tweeters just sitting on the deck carpet surface, held in place by only their connecting wires.
I can remember a few times when a customer came to pick up their car after an install, and the first thing they did was turn it up, get out of the car and walk around to be sure it was rattling. At that time, subs were fairly rare and an expensive addition, so the rattling trunk/tag was a status symbol.
Joe, do you ever miss that Scirocco?
Joe, do you ever miss that Scirocco?
Thanks for that.
I have long suspected as much, that the rattle is proof of how powerful the system is. You've helped confirm it.- Status
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