Comment by Cruncharoo
18 hours ago
Disagree slightly with audio quality for cars. I recently got a car with "good" speakers and the difference from regular car speakers is striking. Although I'm sure that the curve quickly flattens on spending more to get more quality, going above the base car speaker level has been awesome for me.
I think the point is that when you're driving (at least in a combustion engine car), the 60-70dB noise floor is so high that it almost doesn't matter how good the speakers are in an ideal silent, soundproof chamber.
Is it that high? I know that in my Audis, there's actually a system that (in sport mode) pumps engine noise -into- the cabin because the sound damping was that good. And my partner's A4 is at the point where you hear only tire noise, not engine noise.
And I used to own a Jaguar XJ that (while the car itself I had to get rid of after the entire cooling system shit the bed for the second time) was the quietest car I've ever owned and not even close, despite being a 5L V8. (The Jaguar also had probably the best sound system I've heard in a vehicle - 1200W B&W 7.1 channel, 20 transducers).
I believe the disconnect is that the goal isn't to be as good quality as a controlled indoor environment; it's that there are car setups that sound dramatically better than other car setups. There is merit to your interlocutors stances, even though cars are a challenging audio environment as you point out.
I recommend ripping your car apart and putting sound insulation panels everywhere you can! Also replacing your sound system...
There's only so much you can do. A car is filled with funny angles, plastics, and a lot of glass. It's never going to be a particularly good acoustic environment even if you manage to shield 100% of the road noise.
5 replies →
> I recommend ripping your car apart and putting sound insulation panels everywhere you can! Also replacing your sound system...
Ripping the car apart to install sound insulation might void your warranty.
I have a Bose sound system in my car with 11 or 13 speakers (they're everywhere), but the car is so poorly insulated that I have to turn up the volume quite a lot at highway speeds, or even after about ~ 35-40MPH.
1 reply →
What other effects does that have? Weight, heat, etc.
Or you can just embrace the 128kbps lifestyle. :D
That's the point, isn't it? You'd have to spend a lot of money on related stuff before audio upgrades, otherwise those audio upgrades are just money wasted.
You also need microphones to pick up ambient sound and play it back at 180 phase shift ..
There is a reason premium audio car packages cost over 2000$
Car's have it really tough in the audio department. SO many things work against it
In cars it’s also important how good it isolates you from the engine and external noise like wind and wheels on the road. Some cars even have noise cancellation for that.
Some cars have gone so far on the isolation and sound damping front that they pipe back in a little bit of engine noise (but only the part that sounds sporty) via the speakers.