Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT - Car audio vs home

well, besides the whole "my car bounces because the 40 subwoofers in it actually wheigh more than the car itself" reasoning behind car audio I was wondering why these two areas seem to be so different. I used to be a large car audio junkie -- untill all my equipment was stolen. The main difference I've seen is that A) most car audio people do not seem to know what they are talking about, and B) everyone was worried about what size/type of box to use for their subwoofers. Everyone thought that the box had more to do with the sound that the speaker itself -- sealed boxes give you more accurated and punchy bass, ported boxes give more bass... you could end up spending more money on a box than you did on the woofer... now in home audio I've never really seen this debate. In fact, I think I've even seen people say that the box doesn't really matter and that bigger is better -- I saw one gentleman who used his attic as a box for his 15" woofer and several people, including the boards "resident expert" said that this setup sounded better than the setup that they have spent years perfecting. Any comments?

I think its a pretty broad brush used to paint all car stereo as the 40 woofers tyoe of setup. The vast majority of the bass mobiles would be from younger type of ppl. Way I figure their car is really the only thing they own and so you won't see many of those ppl creating a massive bass machine in a house.

Car stereo competition is actually pretty focused on sound quality, granted there are db drag races as well but its two separate things.

I realise that it certainly is a very broad brush, however I was talking about the majority of car audio enthusiasts that I have encountered (mostly on message boards). Sure there are competitions that focus on quality but the average joe nobody (who does happen to be 16-25) who has upgraded his car stereo is more concerned with bass. But what I was really trying to create input on was the difference in focus on subwoofer boxes -- do they really make that big of a difference? and if so, why do you not see more home theater guys talking about/experimenting with this?

I think it does matter, and I believe home theater ppl do discuss boxes, more on a a brandX vs brandY basis. I would conceed the majority of talk is on the main speakers.

yeah, it's strange -- you don't really see anybody saying "I'm going to get this sub and this monobloc class D amp and make my box exactly to these specs with this big of a port..." I guess car audio really is one of the last types of electronics that are marked WAY up and so you can really barter down the price -- therefore companies are trying to market boxes as a miracle cure which is all snake oil like the whole "high quality cables" debate. I mean you can buy sub boxes from JL audio for their W7 subs that cost $500 (Canadian). Granted they look very cool and are maazingly well built but if I had a table saw and some MDF I could build the same box for a tenth the price...

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mean you can buy sub boxes from JL audio for their W7 subs that cost $500 (Canadian). Granted they look very cool and are maazingly well built but if I had a table saw and some MDF I could build the same box for a tenth the price...

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..incase you hadnt noticed, alot of the things we buy are this way. Its called making money! Same could be said for axiom speakers, or a desk or whatever. Its like going out to dinner. You *could* cook the food. you just dont want to. or dont have the skills


And as far as the original post, when we buy home speakers theyre already prebuilt and designed. Unless your building it yourself you dont have to worry about these things. Car audio is usually about buying the speaker driver and the box seperate where it can make a difference because each driver has its own specs that make it work in different boxes etc. Some drivers come with the info that tells you you need x amount of internal volume or whatever.

I think that was what you were talking about anyway.

Yeah, but just try making thousands of the same speaker, and marketing it, and paying employees to help you. Soon you realize that you're not being ripped off.

"I'm going to get this sub and this monobloc class D amp and make my box exactly to these specs with this big of a port..."
Well this is what I did...

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