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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 1 response by millercarbon

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millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Large flat reflective surface right in front of your face. More large flat reflective surfaces inches from your ears. Speakers down by your feet, some within inches others several feet away. With a great big obstacle in between. Honestly, it is hard to think of anything less ideal. Compared to a car your coat closet is a dedicated listening room.

The one thing about a car from a designers point of view, they do know the volume. Whatever the options, at least the volume stays the same.

So you have confused ideal with uniform. This happens all the time. May I suggest a dictionary? If all you did was start using words according to their actual meanings the improvement from that one thing alone would be, uh, outsatanding.
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