[T2] Radio, DIN Opening & Rip Van Winkle

[Robert Mann]

Nick wrote:
>
>2ea 5.25" between the front seats, ABS kick panels in the future for
>mounting
>2ea 6"x9" under the middle seat in boxes
>2ea 12" subwoofers in Blaupunkt box in the cargo area
>1 425watt amplifier in the cargo area

	Nick has been good enough to confess youthful excessiveness, 
opening the topic of gross vehicle sound systems; it is certainly not 
him personally that I'm criticising.

	How many watts input electricity does such a '425W' amp 
demand?  The claim to produce 425 W audio power will, I predict, turn 
out to apply to periods <1ms while some capacitor gets drained.  The 
audio power produced, on average, may well be < 1 W and therefore in 
no danger of overtaxing a generator or alternator which can produce 
only c.400W.  Nevertheless, I feel an urge to open up on this theme 
of power in vehicle sound systems.
	My home stereo features 1960s Goodmans 12" speakers, which I 
couldn't get matches for so one is an Audiom 60 and the other a 
TriAxiom in a different cabinet.  My ears don't much detect the 
music >5kHz I'm sure, and I'm v content with this pair.  But my main 
point is that when I, in my own excess decades ago, slapped 6 honest 
W into those puppies the neighbourhood was rightly annoyed (c. 1 
acre).  One single honest W converted with reasonable efficiency, 
despite the feebler alnico magnets of the 1960s and whatever guts 
they've lost in a half-century of use, is all suburbia should be 
asked to tolerate, and then only rarely.  I don't know whether anyone 
is bothering to mfr efficient speakers these days, but I'm darn sure 
they could.  The 'security' piezo-horns force something towards 1 W 
of actual sound onto the burglars who, absent special protection, 
cannot stay in a room with 1 W of audio.  They are efficient (having 
to work off smallish no-maintenance 12V batteries after the burglars 
have disconnected the mains).  But woofers they are not.
	Anyone who wants to abuse their ears as many of us did when 
young & foolish should seek efficient speakers rather than 
stupendously inefficient speakers which seem to have been created so 
that a certain sub-culture of vehicle sound-system enthusiasts can 
vie for a Wasteful Wankers title.  At this rate the apeakers become a 
means for selling even more expensive kW-label amps almost all of 
whose output gets wasted as heat in the speakers.  I for one stand 
against this unhealthy decadence.  And the inane pulsing boom 
distracts me as they thump past on their way to a local annual 
hotrodfest featuring a competition for Loudest  ...  :-(
	Sami's rig sounds far better value, and much more efficient, 
than the bloated gear so heavily plugged by the big auto parts chains.

	May I also carp quixotically against the term 'sub-woofer'? 
Actual woofers were often not much good < 30 Hz (the lowest note on a 
typical organ, made famous by '2001', and the lowest note on a 
typical bass guitar).  Are we to believe the progress in more 
powerful magnets and more flexible speaker-cone margins has now 
allowed hi-fi <<30 Hz, because that is what the term 'sub-woofer' 
implies.  But, meanwhile, what happened to 'woofer'?  SuperCheapAuto 
Inc does not advertise them.

	I flash the Friday card as a backup, because gross sound 
systems in vehicles is not only bus content.

	BTW I anti-carp my discovery of the vehicles & people (mainly 
Poms) of http://www.dmfv66.com, the Dairy Flat air-cooled VW club who 
seem to be organising something like those Buses of The Corn etc that 
youse NorteAmericanos so enviably stage.  My first mtg with them last 
night, in the real world of a home Workshop, has me in a good mood 
today, so my grump-thru regarding vehicle sound systems is in spite 
of, not because of, my current mood.
	Let us spread the enlightenment which has been realised by 
the formerly excessive Nick and nearly all the rest of us.  If we can 
get by happily with c.50 bhp, let us also promote efficient sound 
systems. 	  And let's encourage Library items on insulation, 
not only thermal but also acoustical, so that anyone who slaps in a 
TriAxiom in a folded-horn enclosure taking up all the space behind 
the back seat will not annoy too grossly those s/he overtakes 8-) on 
the way to the Loudest Hotrod contest :-P.


-- 
Robt Mann
Whangaparaoa, New Zealand
'73 VW 1600dp Devon camper
'53 Meteor V8
various Jawa-CZ and Jawa-NZ strokers