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Next to theaters, cars are the ideal speaker environment

We live in a world where lots of car brands are bragging about bespoke stereo systems from big names. From JBL to MBL.


As a hobbyist who makes speakers, and can at least sympathize with the pros I’ve been thinking that cars are probably the best single environment for speaker designers. Of course, it’s not without it’s own challenges related to noise and room acoustics, but think about it this way:


With a car audio system you are never guessing about the room acoustics.  You know exactly where the user is going to sit and how the room is going to behave.


When you design a speaker system you always have to keep in mind the end user’s most likely environment, or you pick an environment. Roy Allison with his speakers, and to some extent Snell, tried to eliminate as much as possible by making speakers that went along the wall. Not 100% room control, but certainly better than nothing.
erik_squires
avanti1960
1,505 posts
 
A car interior is probably the absolute worst acoustic environment for an audio system.
Consider the issues-
Road noise and vibration and bass cancellations.
Road noise, wind noise, powertrain noise vs. amplifier head room / power requirements. 
Charging circuit and voltage vs. amplification requirements.
Door cavities make poor speaker enclosures.
Greenhouse glass is a highly acoustic reflective surface and will alter the polar response from upper speakers requiring extensive EQ to tame.   
Every OEM mobile audio system has embedded EQ curves to compensate for the above.  Some do a good job, some do not. 


erik_squires OP
16,383 posts
 
I guess we are skipping over this part:

best single environment for speaker designers.

soix
9,783 posts
 
cars are probably the best single environment for speaker designers
Uh, seems like a nightmare to me.  A mix of reflective and absorptive surfaces close to the speakers, and the listener is sitting right in front of the speakers on one side.  I can’t imagine designing a speaker for the home where the listener is gonna sit right next to one of them, equalization or no.  But that’s just me. 
oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
Not me.. I like um, better than ear phones. I turn them up to loud and I can't hear what's going on outside.. I drive first, not listen to music..

You swear it was the other way around with cellphones and stereos in cars though. Everything BUT driving.. more like herding.. Stop lights on the freeway on ramps.. IF they accelerate instead of fu@k with the phone or radio, they might make it on the freeway, without a stop light..

You know what that cost? BILLIONS... oh oh.. sound... ok.. I'm back..

OK E, it's not that bad of environment, but it sure is a challenge.
Underwater is tough  :-)

Regards
jdane
183 posts
 
It's not a stable environment at all--fans, windows partially rolled up, dogs panting, plus other people sitting there.    But one thing is for sure:  it is ALWAYS loud enough.   And that is likely what convinces us  the sound there is better than ... well ... I was going to say 'better than it is', but then ... what is sound?
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