How loud are car audio bass boosters likely to get?

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A couple of times recently I've heard cars go past where the bass frequencies have been so loud and so low that I've felt the ground actually shaking. Aside from questions of general idiocy and entitlement w/r/t people using these, could they actually cause structural damage to the car w/long term use? Vaguely curious on the usual quiet Saturday afternoon...

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:02 (twenty years ago)

Haha I hope so! I would love to see some dork doofing his way up a street and then all the panels and bumperbars fall off his car.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

Depends if they are playing any rare Genesis or not :)

Addy below, heaven is just an email away.

― mzui (mzui), Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:07 (twenty years ago)

Yeah it is kind of an amusing thought, isn't it? I guess there must be some kind of upper limit w/r/t a/extreme spl causing damage to the car electrics and b/just how much spl can the human body withstand? will it actually cause health problems, beyond the obvious hearing damage?

I've been in cars a couple of times where people have these fitted, and it just sounds like shit!

(x-post argh, damn, mzui! I've been so rude! I'm so sorry! Will email immediately!)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:11 (twenty years ago)

Rude? Ach not-at-all.

For what it's worth, my house backs onto a petrol station and when the Ali G's drive up into the forecourt blasting some sub bass I'm sure the metal/concrete chambers below the forecourt amplify the bass, because our living room shakes like crazy.

― mzui (mzui), Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:15 (twenty years ago)

a car that I saw last year had really large speakers installed on the parcel shelf under the rear window, and the window was noticeably flexing and vibrating with the amount of bass being knocked out! that cannot be good.

plus you can imagine how many systems are badly-installed, or put in cars that have already led a hard life.

― there are twelve people in the world the rest are haitch (haitch), Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

http://www.lowertheboom.org/trice/infrasound.htm

There was a piece in one of the papers ages ago about this that I'm struggling to find. I think there have been cases of people doing themselves damage so far - and the long-term exposure must be pretty severe.

To put the link in context, mega car stereos will probably be able to pump out 40Hz and just below, but the problem with car stereos is that the car absorbs a lot of the bass and the low-frequency of the engine will mix with any frequencies down there creating more combination tones than original signal. It's still fucking daft. The same principle applies as with regular clubbing in rooms with horrendous amounts of bass - it's addictive. Your body will pump out endorphins in environments like that. Smacksound.

― On one hand I've got myself to blame (Lynskey), Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

The lower the frequencies the longer the signal path is the further away from the speaker you have to be to actually hear the full amplitude of the signal, so maybe being right by the speakers is relatively quieter than me sitting in my living room watching the coffee table jiggling across the room.

― mzui (mzui), Saturday, 9 July 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

I've read of people whose hearts stopped because the volume in their cars were so loud or because their ribcages were crushed by the sound waves. Part of me thinks it's Grade A bologna, but who knows?

― Ian Riese-Moraine: that obscure object of desire. (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 9 July 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

I do recall reading abt someone aho had a collapsed lung due to overamplified bass in their car, but again, I suspect it's probably a myth. Poetic "justice" if true, though!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 9 July 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

Or, you know "darwin award winner", or something like that, anyway.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 9 July 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

is this a recent thing in the UK? cars in california have been doing this since the mid-80's (hence Tigra and Bunny and they're liking of the boom).

anyway yes apparently you can do damage to your dash and stuff over time.

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 9 July 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

"car audio bass boosters" sounds like something my mom would say.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 10 July 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

too much low frequencies = explosive diarrhea

― A Nairn (moretap), Sunday, 10 July 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

Yeah I was thinking that too, Nairn =) And that would be schweet justice to get some flyboy shittin' his pants while cruisin' for da laydeez.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 10 July 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

"Ya smell me, dawg?"

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 10 July 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

I read a news report recently about a chap who is under threat of getting an ASBO for having a car stereo with a bit much bass. From the picture, the whole of his boot* was given over to the stereo, and the speakers were mounted in the air above it. In decibel terms, his setup was louder than a pneumatic drill, and approaching landing-747 territory. If I could remember where the hell I saw it, I'd post the link.

(* ie, trunk, for transatlanticans)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:39 (twenty years ago)

These things are cool, don't be haytazzz. ;)

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:41 (twenty years ago)

No really, I'd love to have a car set-up like this and go round playing Merzbow or Branca or Stockhausen or Bing Crosby or Shirley Collins or jeez so many possibilities.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:43 (twenty years ago)

yeah is this a recent phenomenon in the uk? having "bass boosters" in one's car aka subs and amps was pretty common when i was in high school 10 years ago.

xpost i have an amp powering a box w/2 12" subs and it *is* great. you don't have to play shit at deafening levels in order to make good use out of it.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:45 (twenty years ago)

That would be good, actually, just to see all the heads turning with WTF??? looks on their faces.

(xpost)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:46 (twenty years ago)

ARGH WHAT IS AN ASBO? I keep seeing that acronym everywhere and I've no idea what it means.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:46 (twenty years ago)

BARRY WHITE!!!! Oh God, imagine that GRRRRRRRRROWWWWWL!!

x post Anti Social Behaviour Order - a kind of court injunction that restricts somebody's movement without having to go through all that boring legal stuff like a proper trial.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:48 (twenty years ago)

Anti-Social Behaviour Order. In other words, a little law that only applies to one person.

"You have been pissing people off by doing X. You must not do X (or Y or Z, which we think are related) otherwise we'll bang you up"

The ones that get in the news are generally the mad over-the-top ones - like the recent case where someone with Tourette's Syndrome was banned from swearing.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 10 July 2005 06:48 (twenty years ago)

Heh, I used the term "bass boosters" b/c I don't actually know what the correct term is.

Technology-wise, I guess us brits are a little bit behind the US. Up here in NE England, the really loud/deep ones seem to have arrived in the last 18 months/2yrs, perhaps.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 10 July 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

When I lived in Cumbria, the local kids were happy to drive their souped-up XR3is as fast as possible around the one-way system but hadn't discovered 10-inch woofer cabs; I think it was solely an urban thing in the UK initially - on practically my first day as a London resident seven years ago I felt the sub-bass thing in my chest as a car drove past Tesco on Acre Lane, SW9. It was all ragga and drum'n'bass then, it's hip-hop and R&B now.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Sunday, 10 July 2005 08:43 (twenty years ago)

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