Difference Between Car and Home Subwoofer

[ttan98]

I notice there is a price difference between car and home subwoofers. Normally the car subwwofer are generally cheaper(there are expensive ones as well). They can be purchased from Ebay at relatively cheaper price, eg less AUD $100 for 12" driver. Also there are more variety to choose from.

My question is that for a similar priced home and car subwoofer, can we generalise that both types would be of similar quality.To generalise further for comparable subwoofers, the car subwoofer would have higher distortion compared with similar home subwoofer.

This issue comes to my mind as I am thinking of using car (in a home speaker cabinet) which are generally cheaper and more variety to choose from.

Any inputs, eg avoid car subwoofer in home speaker cabinet and the reasons for saying so.

Thanks.

[tktran]

FAQ # 18:

Have a read of this site:

http://www.diysubwoofers.org/car/

This is a gross generalisation, but I've found that many car audio subwoofers have T/S parameters that are different to subwoofers aimed at domestic use. Despite what kind/size/tuning I do with the box, F3 typically "only" around 60Hz. Most of the car audio subwoofer seemed designed for high sensitivity/high output, at the expense of low end extension.

That doesn't matter in a car, or can even be an advantage, because when combined with the small cabin gain effects, bass goes all the way down to subterranean depths.

But when you bring a car audio subwoofer into a living room, if you don't equalise for the low end, it sounds like a midbass driver!

Oh, and the other thing is, their published T/S parameters are completely unreliable. Many car audio brands actually purchase woofers from other OEMs, so you better get yourself Woofer Tester if you're going to embark on such a project.

[cotdt]

Car subwoofers are generally designed for smaller enclosures. The better car subwoofers are NOT cheaper than home theatre subs, they cost about equal.

[lunchmoney]

I'm interested to know why car subs tend to have a lot more power allocated to them.

There are a number of well-respected HT subs that use 70 or 100 watt plate amps... budget subs, for sure, but respected nonetheless...

In the car audio world, it seems that no one ever dream of such a low powered sub.

Why is this? I'm sure part of it is because of reasons such as "it's gotta transmit thru the rear seats since it's in the trunk", etc etc... but I think it goes beyond that, to a certain mentality.

Any thoughts?

[cotdt]

I'm interested to know why car subs tend to have a lot more power allocated to them.

There are a number of well-respected HT subs that use 70 or 100 watt plate amps... budget subs, for sure, but respected nonetheless...

In the car audio world, it seems that no one ever dream of such a low powered sub.

Car subs are put in smaller enclosures and therefore less efficient than home subs, so they will need more power. Notice also that many home subs like Peerless XXLS, Dayton Reference, Aurasound etc. are used in the car. So there is a lot of crossover.

[KAC]

I have a JL Audio 12w6 in a 7 ft3 box tuned to 19 hz and powered by an EP1500 and it sounds awesome. The sub hits the lows in movies without any noticable distortion and sounds great during music playback. Although there is a difference between home and car subwoofers, if the enclosure design is correct for the speaker, a car subwoofer can be used for home audio.

[impala454]

Frequency range is the major difference IMHO. Car subs are designed with 30-40Hz in mind. There's not a lot of mainstream music (even rap) that dips below 30Hz. Usually just your bass-specific music like Bass Mekanix or whatnot. Whereas home theater you want something in the 20Hz+ range at least, if not down to 10-15. Not saying car audio subs can't do very low, obviously there's plenty that can, just saying the source material is the main difference.