Ooops - managed to pop a speaker grill off this morning

Can't hear to well, either

Let us know when you manage to blow your windshield out -- then I'll be impressed. (I've actually seen that happen!) The really serious SPL competitors actually install a chain with a turnbuckle between their roof and their floorboards in order to keep their glass in place.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

The really serious SPL competitors actually install a chain with a turnbuckle between their roof and their floorboards in order to keep their glass in place.

Now, I've never been to one of these competitions, and although I can understand the "more is better" attitude...

WHY?

What possible reason would one have for making a car sound system that is so loud that it could physically injure you if you're in the car with it?

I understand that if a sound system can play loud without distortion or coloration, then it has that much more headroom to play cleanly at normal volumes. And I understand that one might want to open the back hatch and play a little music at a picnic or whatever. But you're talking about the kind of sound pressure levels that come out of the PA at a rock concert. This scares me, and I've been to some loud rock concerts in my time.

Not to mention that such a car would be a really huge theft target...

Hey, now THAT's a good reason... You could wire the burglar alarm so that it fires up Nine Inch Nails at maximum volume if someone breaks in. If the thief manages to steal the stereo anyway, he wouldn't be able to listen to it because his eardrums would be vaporized.

Course, woe is the owner who accidentally sets off his own alarm while he's in the car...

Tony, you have to understand the mentality of these people. They are in no way shape or form audiophiles. They are strictly competitors, and the only grounds for competition is "Mine is bigger than yours."

In some of these vehicles you cannot even identify the song that is being played, regardless of volume level. One that comes to mind is a big Chevrolet Dualie truck owned by the operator of a local stereo shop. The only speakers in the truck are twelve 15" subwoofers. The speakers are all wired parallel mono (or something like that, I don't really get into the technical aspects that much) and the amplifiers are so over-driven (through six one-farad capacitors) that he is momentarily outputting 18,000 watts using six large truck batteries for a power source. He uses a 100 watt amplifier as a pre-amp to feed the inputs to his main amplifiers. He has generated in sanctioned competition 164 decibels, and unofficially over 169 decibels. (The world record is, or was the last time I checked, 172 decibels). These volume levels are measured near the base of the windshield, not with the microphone stuck into a speaker port or something. All the glass has been replaced with 1/2" Lexan.

I have been told that if you were to actually be inside the vehicle when it was cranked up to something like full volume, it would kill you -- something about cavitation in the chest cavity or something. This is probably just one of those urban legends, but I, for one, am not interested in finding out for sure. I have seen people don ear protection and sit in the truck at considerably less than maximum volume, and come out of the truck disoriented and exhibiting difficulty in walking. At the last competition where I saw this truck, stores in the adjacent shopping mall, over 100 yards away, had problems with merchandise vibrating off the shelves.

SPL competitors are a different species from you and me, I think. I guess there is some status in having the loudest car around, but it's not a distinction that I covet. By way of comparison, in my power class most cars are generating about 130 decibels. My car maxes out at a mighty 112 dB. But very few cars, regardless of power class, outscore me in sound quality. [pats himself vigorously on the back]

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

This might sound weird, but do you have more stories about these competitions? Extravagance intrigues me, and crazy ass people like these you speak of are certainly extravagant.

Tell me a story, tanstaafl!