Annoying sounds from cars at stop light

The real answer is both. Sound waves travel through the walls AND make the walls vibrate. 

So here is a point I would like  to make.

I don't think those low frequency really travel through those walls in your home. 

I would offer this, the waves from the driver hit the wall, they cause the wall to vibrate/resonate and because the wall is much larger then the driver it amplifies the sound. 

aboogaard said:
"And if it takes 28 feet for the sound to "develop", why can I here that 22Hz note in my 19x15 livingroom so well?" 

Actually I said "fully develop". Very satisfying results can be had with 1/2 or 1/4 wave. For example 12ft. for a 40Hz note will sound fine, I doubt one could really tell the difference, however if one reduces it to a 1/4 wave 7ft., it might not be as authentic sounding. Your 22Hz tone (if authentic), in your room, would be somewhere between 1/4 & 1/2 wave. You would need plenty of power to get 22Hz for full wave.
There is not much musical content below 26Hz unless artificially generated.

http://www.guitarbuilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Instrument-Sound-EQ-Chart.pdf

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?

If it's Friday or Saturday night, follow him, and maybe he will lead you to a tailgate party. One objective of these vehicle setups (my experience comes from my now 23 year old son) is to turn the "whole" vehicle into a speaker system, with the listeners standing together.......outside the vehicle.........  listening and doing ....... (fill in the blank)  

@tostadosunidos 😂

Well, I have a small sub in my car that sound great inside, but can't even be heard outside. How about the fact that the owners of those big, loud kickers also have their windows down. This must make it sound better. Also, have you ever noticed that a car behind you sounds louder and gets quieter as it passes you, even if it's stopped. Something about the sound propagation. And if it takes 28 feet for the sound to "develop", why can I here that 22Hz note in my 19x15 livingroom so well? Can barely hear it outside the house.

Q:  What's the difference between a symphony orchestra and a water buffalo?

A:  The buffalo has the horns in the front and the a**hole in the back.

bdp24, after years of standing in front of loud guitar amps I found that the greatest sound pressure was found right behind the horn section (for my orchestration class) during school orchestra rehearsals.  Most disconcerting.  And it reminds me of an old joke about water buffaloes and conductors...

...one Could retaliate ('scuse me...Assist...) by playing Schubert EXTREMELY LOUD....

...I've assumed at times that the driver (and any passengers) are engaged in some form of G.I. tract 'purge'....

Pity such young people are suffering from these maladies....must be some sort of 'urban plague' that's so embarrassing that they resort to such high db levels to mask their pain....

I was once at a stop light and the car in front of me was producing such thumping one note bass the bandana he had hanging from the rear view mirror was fluttering.  Couldn't stop laughing for about 15 mins

Here is a thought: If the area of the exterior of the car is 100 times larger then the area of the drivers then if it moves with only 100th of the energy of the drivers the volume will be equal to that of the driver. 

I wonder if that same physics would apply to your loud speakers at home. 

.01% of the rear energy to equal the volume of the drivers. Scary thought. At least to me. Apparently not to speaker makers.

@OP  
I went to Cornell, so Strunk and White were mandatory...


Sad to admit, I own a '16 TTS and the B&O soundsystem is one of the most pathetic creations ever built. To think, for a fraction of the cost, I could have a stereo that can reproduce bass notes properly. I am on the cusp of having my auto stereo guy put in something to help it along.
B

Good one! 🤪

"How do you get low bass with zero volume? 
You don't, you need gain.

Yes,  I know it’s a good question. I only ask good questions. How do you get low bass with zero volume? You don’t have to have any experience with headphones to see what I mean.

" You are correct about very low bass notes having very long waves. Not sure those 6" speakers in the door or even a 12" sub in the trunk are pumping out 30Hz bass loud enough that I can hear it from my car in open air."

Chances are you are not hearing the speakers in the door as much as the subs located somewhere else in the vehicle. Since low bass is non-directional, placement is not crucial. The sub or subs might have dedicated high power amps too. Some systems I have seen have their own battery & capacitor circuit, separate from the vehicles. 

I’ve been inside one of those cars, actually a full size Cadillac SUV that one of my much wealthier than me friends owns. He has a mega dollar audio system at home and spent serious money to upgrade the system in the SUV and I must admit the sound quality - with all the windows rolled up, is really excellent. The bass is clean and layered and very warm and pleasant even at moderately high decibels. No shaking or vibrations whatsoever. Never heard it from the outside though. I guess it all depends on the quality of the car and the system inside. 

Good question geoff, I have no experience with headphones.

I get very low bass from my headphones and Walkman CD player. What’s up with that? 

dill 

You are correct about very low bass notes having very long waves. Not sure those 6" speakers in the door or even a 12" sub in the trunk are pumping out 30Hz bass loud enough that I can hear it from my car in open air.

kalali asked: " dill, are you saying you need to be 28 feet away in order to “fully” hear a 40Hz tone?"

Yes and no, you can divide those wavelengths into halves, quarters, etc. for excellent results in designing a listening space. A 40Hz tone would sound very good in a 14ft. long room, but the best in a larger room. A 20Hz tone is 58ft. long so one could get very good results with a 24ft. room. All this is really not a big deal for home use, I just wanted to use this as an example on why we hear more bass from the car near us, than they do inside the car. A vehicle is the worst place to to have a sound system, sound quality wise.

My guess is that it is the vehicle that is vibrating due the large about of air being displaced by the subs. I have seen closed doors pulsating in and out with the beat of the music. It pretty much, eventually, turns ones car into a rattle bucket over time. Maybe they play it loud to cover up all the rattles, squeaks and other noises.

What is with the subs driven to total overload such that they are buzzing and vibrating? Perhaps the thicker skulls of their owners require a higher volume. Glad I don't have to put up with that racket.

" So now we have speaker the size of a car door pumping out bad bass. "
There are more than likely, good size sub woofers in the trunk.

$1K cars with $3-4K stereos around here. All I hear is bunch of rattles and buzzy bass. Definitely annoying.

So these stupid drivers are only 6". I would postulate that the waves coming off the back directly towards the metal sheeting on the door get that resonating and perhaps at a much lower frequency then the driver is producing, remembering that larger more massive objects at a lower frequency. 

So now we have speaker the size of a car door pumping out bad bass. 

gdnrbob

Well you have hit a nerve. I majored in English.  English Lit. 

Thanks for the correction. Would you mind editing my posts, the pay sucks but we offer health care and a pension plan. 

My daily living is saturated with cars playing music loudly and certainly no jazz.
 Hip Hop and reggeton.
Bronx NY for you. I put headphones and continue with life.
I hate it still but I had learned how to tolerate it.

then it seems

I think is should be ’than it seems’, sorry I have a thing with English...


Otherwise, I share your observations. I had to listen to a mobile boombox today and it made me think that the occupant must have gone deef. ;)
GB

I was driving with the stereo on, put my hand out the window, ( the left hand not the right hand ) and felt the door panel. It was resonating like crazy and the volume was not turned up. So that got me thinking which for me is a lot more difficult then it seems. 
We all know that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. As it regards speakers this means that the sound off the back of the drive is equal to the sound coming off the front. 

dill, are you saying you need to be 28 feet away in order to “fully” hear a 40Hz tone? I get the math but trying to understand how’s then we could hear the “whole” music when hearing all the frequencies from the same fixed listening position. Need to fresh up on my physics...

You know what musicians suffer some of the worst hearing damage? The horn players in Symphony Orchestras. Over 100dB at their chairs on climaxes.

dweller

In Texas you can be shot.......

Too right dweller, doc friend of mine says rock has made ear doctors rich, very rich .

" The noise that we hear is not from the front of the driver."
It doesn't matter, low bass is low & slow and radiates 360 degrees., needs time to fully develop. Try an experiment, turn your home rig up loud with good bass material. Leave the room and go to an adjoining room, close all doors and listen for the bass. 40Hz (low open E string on a Fender bass) wavelength is about 28ft.
Check out this converter:  http://www.mcsquared.com/wavelength.htm

dill

The noise that we hear is not from the front of the driver. 

viridian you better watch what you say, that is probably my kids you are talking about.............

The bass must sound louder outside the owners car then in it or they would get sick at their stomach. 

I wonder if they put a little dampening behind the drivers if that would help.

@oddiofyl (great name, btw) that chart is a great share, thanks! It's interesting reading about the extremely high decibel levels. Crazy stuff!

Low bass has long wavelengths and can move thru walls or car doors. If an audiophile wants deep bass, a large room is required to let the wave develop and keep in the same room. The interior of a car is tiny and most bass is lost to the outside. You hear the bass louder than the occupants of the car, that is why they turn it up even more..

Sounds like you've had too many experiences of that description (I don't hear it that much down here in a much less urban area, but it still happens)!  The answer to your first (rhetorical) question is simple--the driver causes his stereo to be like that.  The second is harder to answer of course, but if you look at the success of the Beats headphones you might think young people like to feel the bass in their music (think of the scene in Ruthless People where Judge Reinhold is selling the kid on the Dominator speakers), and like their music played loud  I remember hearing my first high-end speakers and wondering where the bass was, when in fact I was hearing a lack of mid-bass bloat for the first time.  A lot of pop music seems to be geared to sound better with bloated bass as well, but maybe that's just me?

WHAT???     I know, it is ridiculous.......permanent hearing damage im sure

Interesting chart:

http://www.decibelcar.com/menugeneric/87.html