4 speakers vs 8 speakers

[PatrickJohnson]

I should point out that even though you are only going to get 3db, +3db is actually doubling volume. having said that, unless youare going to run more power to the extra speakers, you won't even notice THAT much volume...

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by PatrickJohnson

I should point out that even though you are only going to get 3db, +3db is actually doubling volume. having said that, unless youare going to run more power to the extra speakers, you won't even notice THAT much volume...

thats theoretical...
+3dB if you double cone area
+ 6 dB if you double cone area & rms

Human brain/ears perceive 6-10dB (different for each person) as a doubling in sound, not 3dB.

What I've left out so far tho is that for tones above 200hz you start to have issues with cancellation of the sound waves when you run more than 1 speaker. The more speakers you put in the car, the more convoluted the situation becomes.

So... if you need a way to throw some money away... yeah... you will get some gain, just not the gain you'd want.

[WolfWings]

Originally Posted by talnlnky

thats theoretical...
+3dB if you double cone area
+ 6 dB if you double cone area & rms

Human brain/ears perceive 6-10dB (different for each person) as a doubling in sound, not 3dB.

What I've left out so far tho is that for tones above 200hz you start to have issues with cancellation of the sound waves when you run more than 1 speaker. The more speakers you put in the car, the more convoluted the situation becomes..

You get sound wave interference at all frequencies, actually. There's a reason the current world's loudest car is a single speaker driven by four amps in parallel to provide the power. Not even a pair, or a quad, just a single massive subwoofer.

6db is roughly twice the physical sound pressure change, but it's 10db for an apparent sound volume doubling for our ears, that's what the scale is actually calculated against: Every 10db = double the loudness to our ears, which ends up being about 3.16x the physical pressure at each doubling of apparently loudness.

And you get a lot more than 2% of the sound from the rear speakers, the problem you have to bear in mind is that sound is not a single fixed entity: You have various frequencies to deal with, and the most easilly damped frequencies are the highs. Those get muffled severely by your front seats when played through the rear speakers, though you can adjust for that. You are still (in effect) playing the speakers through a pillow, so it's vastly less efficient than using a good set of front speakers.

A single pair of front speakers is the most efficient setup for stereo listening.

I'll say that by itself so it's clear I'm not trying to say otherwise. But it is possible to set up a pair of rear speakers to sound very good too, if you have a reason to invest the added expense and time to do so. It's far more expensive either in time or seperate equalizer components for the rear and front than just slapping a good pair of speakers in the front and calling it a day.

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by WolfWings

You get sound wave interference at all frequencies, actually. There's a reason the current world's loudest car is a single speaker driven by four amps in parallel to provide the power. Not even a pair, or a quad, just a single massive subwoofer.

yeah... but its a lot more noticable in the lower octaves than in the mid to upper octaves.... I reccomend against people doubling up on most speakers.... subs to a lesser extent due to the frequencies they are playing are harder to cancel out due to the longer than cabin size of the wave lengths.

Originally Posted by WolfWings

6db is roughly twice the physical sound pressure change, but it's 10db for an apparent sound volume doubling for our ears, that's what the scale is actually calculated against: Every 10db = double the loudness to our ears, which ends up being about 3.16x the physical pressure at each doubling of apparently loudness.

ECHO Echo echo.....

Originally Posted by WolfWings

I'll say that by itself so it's clear I'm not trying to say otherwise. But it is possible to set up a pair of rear speakers to sound very good too, if you have a reason to invest the added expense and time to do so. It's far more expensive either in time or seperate equalizer components for the rear and front than just slapping a good pair of speakers in the front and calling it a day.

Exactly.... MORE WORK to make them sound as good. 90% of people pay to have a shop just lazily throw 4 speakers & a deck in their car.... 8% will do the lazy install themselves, and about 1-2% of people will pay for a well thought out install, or actually do it themselves properly. Obviously most people don't put in the time for a proper 2 speaker install, so why would they want to put in even more work for a 4 speaker install?

4 speaker setups have a lower SQ potential than 2 speakers, UNTIL you start getting into DVD setups.


Also.... I went to the Official DB Drags website.... and here's what they show for the loudest vehicle ever..
http://www.termpro.com/asp/worldreco...on_Select=2009
Its in the 3+ subs category.... the single woofer category wasn't nearly as loud.

[goku87]

Originally Posted by talnlnky

Exactly.... MORE WORK to make them sound as good. 90% of people pay to have a shop just lazily throw 4 speakers & a deck in their car.... 8% will do the lazy install themselves, and about 1-2% of people will pay for a well thought out install, or actually do it themselves properly. Obviously most people don't put in the time for a proper 2 speaker install, so why would they want to put in even more work for a 4 speaker install?

I feel like you are grouping me with the "most people" group. That hurts.

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by goku87

I feel like you are grouping me with the "most people" group. That hurts.

probably.... tho in my defense, in your glow gauge post you were unwilling to work in the rain.... sounds like most people to me.

[goku87]

well in my defense, im made of sugar. i would have melted. :P