Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Simple question about subs and accuracy of sound..

This is a simple question and i've searched around a few boards and never really gotten a straight answer. I've asked a few friends and they tell me different things. I'm putting together a small car stereo setup for my 'tour and this will be the first with a sub.
My real question is sometimes when i'm in a friend's car and there's alot of bass in the song that is playing the bass sounds like it lingers or plays for too long. listen to that same track on my home theater setup and the problem isn't there.
do different subs or different sub sizes make more accurate bass than others? and if they do how can i make sure that i avoid getting a setup that will aggrivate the piss out of me because the subs can't "keep up" with the bass line.
i listen to alot of trance, drum n bass and metal if that helps at all.
link me if i'm a n()()B and this question has been posted and answered before. i'm at work and can't spend much time on line. thx...

Size has no correllation to the relative "speed" of the bass. An 18" plays every bit as fast as an 8" driver of equivalent quality. Many speaker mfgs will site cone weights or smaller cones as producing "faster" bass. In reality, in most cases, it turns out to be a lack of deep bass. Deep bass freq can be accentuated tremendously by a cars interior transfer function. You can gain 24-30 dB in a small hatchback. Whereas, in your HT, you are not accentuating anything but the very lowest freq. Now, to pile on top of that, many people who use ported boxes in a car, use a box building program that doesn't take this bass boost into account. When you have very deep bass without a gradual rolloff, you end with a tremendous unnatural bass boost. Lastly, you have UBLS (uncontrollable bass level syndrome) which prevents people from being able to control the bass levels.

To answer your question, proper understanding of teh effects of transfer function can help you design an enclosure for the vehicle that matches up well with the acoustic properties of the car. Over and above that, a nice parametric EQ for the sub can work wonders to tailoring the sound. The most natural sounding systems in cars I have heard normally have a 6 dB/octave rise in the bass response from 150 hz on down. Seems to get the bass level high enought to counter road noise and not sound too boomy.

Basicaly, knowledge, design, hardware, and most importantly implementation are key to getting the sound you want.

Your home has a bit more area to fill so the level of bass is amplified by the car acoustics compared to your home. A good sealed enclosure or a very low tuned ported box would probably suit you The latter being louder and chances are if not custom built/tuned will sound like your friends sub.

thanks much guys for the insite. those posts were both excellent. this helps me with my decision.

as far as types of boxes go sealed boxes are produce much tighter bass but it takes a little more power to create the same volume as a ported or bandpass box. my experences with my stique are that sealed boxes work better and are cleaner, not as muddy-boomy sounding.

"Size has no correllation to the relative "speed" of the bass. An 18" plays every bit as fast as an 8" driver of equivalent quality"

yes but the intrusion into the mid band will be more distructive with the 18 inch than the 8 inch

FM distortion is a real b..h!

I don't think I follow...aren't we talking about subwoofers? If so, I wouldn't expect them to be playing midbass under ideal circumstances.

I listen to mostly metal/hard rock. I picked up an old 1999 series RF 15" 8�© in probly a 1 cu.ft. sealed box. The sub handles 150W RMS, and I am powering it with an MTX 282 (can be had for a little over $100 new) which at 8�© I calculated out around 140-somthing watts RMS (I forget, did this over 1.5 yrs ago).

Everyone is suprised to see a 15" in my trunk since it beats with rock really well. Being low power it just enhances the sound I'm hearing w/o being too much (think of what a high end factory system sounds like), but it can still rattle the crap out of my licence plate (and rear seat passengers) while playing techno or rap. Another good thing is I can have it cranked up as high as it can go (w/o distortion), and the highs in my doors are louder than the bass on the outside which means no attention brought to myself.

I realize this is the 1st sub I've ever had, but it sure sounds a lot better than other people's cars I've been in, for example:

A friend of mine has a 92 Corvette with 2 JL (I think) 12" with around 800W RMS to each in a dual sealed box. True they put out an ungodly amount of bass, but it sounds like crap becuase they can't beat quickly enough. I dunno what amps he's running, but I do know they're some smaller company.

Something else I've noticed in this SVT... The exhaust resonates at the right frequencies to cause distructive interference and cancel out some of the sound coming from the sub, so when I'm under a load (going up a hill), the sub sounds like it's distorting. Just something I gotta live with, though.

Really Dumb Question

I have had subs forever now and they are ok.

My brothers Xplod 10's hit crazy hard but my Xplod 12's are just kinda drumming most of the time with a few hits. I have a Jensen 600 amp and he has an Xplod 776 amp.

Anyways...do the cones need to be facing out or in.
I have a sub bandpass box with a plexi window My deck is the xplod CDX-m630 with RF RCAs

I think cones are < those things.

Drivers seat------Back Seat----< Subs cone inward

Or

Drivers seat------Back Seat----> Subs cone outward

The sub hits harder now but I cant feel anything else...