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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

Showing 2 responses by mahgister

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,474 posts
 
Good example, acoustically room or car are the same problem that can be solved....


mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,474 posts
 
i am not fond of listening in my car save for long trip....

Car is midway between an headphone box around your ears and a small room....

The imbalance between reflective surface and other absorbent and diffusive surface is extreme not unlike a nude room...No uniformity here except the uniformity of reflective surface all around......

In a car source is most of the times problematic, external and internal noises, listening position is unbalanced in regard to speakers and speakers have generally drastic limitations of their own.......

I can understand that a speaker designer want to begins with precise measurement from one specific room or car tough and can create a work of acoustic art for sure...


BUT,


A thing i know is ALL speakers need room controls, a pair of speaker cannot replace the room settings by a miracle in the design....They can be designed to accomadate particular room or position for sure...

The speakers are often a box and the room is a box.....These 2 boxes interact one with another but not only and always in a destructive way, the room impeding the speakers.... By the way that explain why some people falsely claims that near listening free us from room controls...This is not true at all in any small room...

These 2 boxes interact also constructively and the room may add and must add something essential to the speakers....This is the reason why acoustical setting of the room is so fundamental in ALL case....

My main point is that the room or the car are not mainly a source of passive obstacle to be taken care but active player with advantages of their own that may work their part with the speakers..... Acoustical art is the art of balancing this passive deficit with the potential active credit of ANY room...

Controls and treatment are not there to nullify the room and make it like an anechoic chamber, in the opposite, they are there to make the room glorifying the speakers and the speakers glorifying the room... Producing then a unique synergetical room/speakers sound phenomenon...


I suppose then that we can apply the same recipe in a car and create an acoustical marvel in a car like in a specific room....

Room/speakers interaction is UNIQUE phenomenon each time...The same goes with car/speakers.....

Nothing is more powerful in my experience and experiments in audio....


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