For me, louder = better.
Annoying sounds from cars at stop light
What causes the stereo in the car next to you at the stop light so loud and annoying with over the top bass and how can the driver stand it?
100 responses Add your response
Its a status thing for a lot of younger, mostly guys. My sons friend , who knew I was an audio lover, brought his pick up over to show me how cool it was that his new subwoofers could cause a quarter on top of the dash board to bounce 3 inches straight up, and flip heads to tails when the woofers were pumping out heavy rap. That was several years ago. Maybe he grew up and wised up, or else is in the market for a hearing aid. I came of age during the lste 60's-70's. Attended tons of rock concerts. Led Zeppelin, Fog hat, J Geils, etc. While seeing and hearing them live was a thrill at the time. I have a constant ringing in both ears for years now, that never lets up. Not sure the it was the smartest thing to do now. |
geof You are correct about the sound waves. In your room they travel through the air, when they hit the sheetrock they are traveling through a different medium which has a different speed through which those waves travel, then air again 3.5" then the sheetrock again, then into the air again. Lots of moving parts. I was trying to discover the speed with which air travels through sheet rock but couldn't locate that info. I did find info that suggests that the resonance of sheet rock is about 70 hz which is probably why we hear louder bass on the other side of a wall and why that is so distorted. I would bet the MDF used in most speakers does much of the same. |
When one of those boom cars pulls up, it's like a giant sign blaring "Look at me! I'm an a##hole and dumb as sh#t!" (Sort of like Harley Riders, who don't give a damn that their bikes cause everyone's teeth to rattle within an entire block, 'cause, "I'm on a Harley!") Usually of course it's young men and as we know they don't have a reputation for wise decisions at that point in life. There's a lot of tinnitus and regret coming down the road for those guys. |
I don't think they hear it. They are listening to the speakers facing them, you are listening to the whole car resonating and turning into a huge speaker. Maybe we should have posit notes preprinted that say " Please turn that music down, I have a baby sleeping on the floor." Wonder if that would work. Probably not... |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_drag_racing They don't let people in the car during these "competitions", but if it is loud to you at the stop light in the next car over, it is incredibly intense inside the car with the loud stereo. |
ct0517 He is always pissed anyway........................ I have a bunch of lamp cord, about 40 feet. As much as I would love to tear that &(*)(()) out of there, being a very disillusioned parent, they told me how great it is to have children, I will never listen to them again, I hesitate to get the crowbar. |
soundsrealaudio I use in my room 2 - two Dynaudio BM12s subs. I have somewhere in the basement my sons old sub system I pulled out of his Ridgeline when it was sold. A long custom box housing that holds 2 JL Audio Subs under the back bench and JL Audio Amp. Would be interesting to hook it up in that room, which is large, and see what happens. |
Not if setup properly to play below the main speakers, and at the right db level. Also car Sub system designs trump home audio subs in that the amps are isolated, and not placed inside a rattling box. Cracks me up whenever I hear about XX brand Sub home owner, whose sub just went down because of a circuit board solder break from the vibrations and heat, and the manufacturer only recommends replace with new. This is another reason proper Sub/s location - placement - is so important in a home setup, so the sub/s are not overworked. |
The only thing my son has shown a "real" interest in is what "it" does, and resale value. The Conversation is always the same. He pays a visit when I am listening. Son - Hey Dad, what is this, and what's it for ? Dad - Son, that is a XXXX, and it does XXXX. Son - so what is it worth dad ? Dad - Son, it is worth XXXX on the market. . . . Dad - oh, and don't tell your mother the last part.... keep it between us. |
...something I've always wanted to try..... 'Vanilla' van...('P.of S.' variety...low/no $...).... Mod the sides....'looks like' sheet metal....'vehicle wrap' over perf. panels.... *Hmmm* ...as many 12~18" woofers that can be 'shoehorned' behind them....(...inside, of course...next to....*mmmmm*....)..... 15~30 Kw Class Ds' ought to do it....for a start.... Set up drivers' seat as to be as isolated as poss. ..... (.....BIG earplugs anyway....) Hero cams both sides, next to the mics..... INVERT the 'input waveforms'..... Suddenly.... Would it work? *L*shrug* Dunno....be 'interesting' to go for a Drive, though.... |
KeithTX....;)....A late uncle owned one of those....traded his days btwn LA and the Colorado River, AZ/CA border....had a house, a 'garage' that would better be called a small warehouse....near the top of one of the bluffs facing the river ...and the Horn. Every 'now and then', when the weekend warriors would get....*thoroughly lubricated*....riverside....'bout, when they could be heard Plainly 1/4mi. away.... (...15 seconds of that would trigger dead silence....some laughing....always seemed nervous.....the closest 'real' track was....15~20 miles away, But....) |
Ok I did my experiment. I put the subwoofer out on the yard and cranked it up............I mean 1000 watts of heart thumping power....well it was pretty loud but not over the top and still pretty clean and not irritating. Well I put it back in the trunk and cranked it up again and in about a10 minutes the police showed up..... |
I agree with the person with the buzzing trunk lid. Anyone that would turn up the bass loud enough to buzz the back trunk lid like a passive radiator has a mental issue. (Compensating for something?) These situations can be heard almost a block away. Pretty soon they will have a hearing issue. The SPL level is so high with some of these morons that I feel it in the floor boards of my car and my chest getting pounded and it is actually uncomfortable physically. Soon the person will be bleeding from there ears not able to hear. I have some old re-coned 12" Powered Boston Towers that put out thunderous lows while watching movies. (No sub needed) in the small town home. I built a pair of 8" Towers I use downstairs for the Stereo that have low resonating bass. I am respectful about what time of day I turn these up to respect my neighbors. (Not too early and not after 9:30pm.) I do not need to blast the music to enjoy it. |
I used to complain at Best Buy about the car stereo guys cranking up the bass, So it was unbearable to even be in the store at all. Now they have no car stereo bass blasting at all. (I guess they figured it out) Yes the boom IS louder outside the car than inside. The interior of the car is too small to allow the bass wave to fully work. A bus sized cavity would be IDEAL for big bass in an enclosed vehicle... So if you are rich and love gut massage bass while driving .Get a bus. As for walls and bass. I have always lived in apartment buildings, so bass management/attenuation is a big deal to me. Now, in a 'over age 55 only' building, being quiet is even ore critical. and making a lot of noise anytime is cause for eviction. (hooray!) One of the greatest apt dweller speakers around is Magnepan. For some reason the bass just does not have the hard explosive wavefront needed to go through walls. So I can have way more bass and no leak to other folks apartments with Magnepan. Better 'stopping inside the wall' than with any other speakers I know of. |
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soundsrealaudio wrote, "So here is a point I would like to make. >>>>>>>Uh, that's how sound waves propagate through ANY medium, air, water or walls, or whatever. The acoustic waves excite the molecules of the medium. Also, if the walls amplified the sound, the voices you hear from the next room, on the other side of the wall, would be louder, not softer. |
Alternative explanation: the poor guy upstairs or in the next apartment only hears the bass frequencies but not the rest of the frequencies. That’s why the sound is irritating, it’s just the thump, thump of the bass, not because the bass is amplified. The wall absorbs higher frequencies better than low frequencies. If it was true walls amplified bass frequencies you could get better bass by constructing a wall in front of your speakers. Hel- loo! |
I rented a house in a quiet neighborhood in Honolulu during most of the 70s, and my band built a rehearsing room in the basement by covering the walls with plywood, sheetrock, and mattresses (!). Worked great, and one day some guy from a block or so away comes by after he had trouble napping due to a strange (his words) low frequency sound, and he was relieved to find it was us making that sound. The bass just somehow wormed its way to him, and this was the only time any neighbor had said anything to us about hearing us play...over 7 or so years... |
