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Car speakers in home theater!

70K views 34 replies 13 participants last post by  uniquepattern 
#1 ·
I have looked at every site and forum and pretty much saw nothing but negative views about using car audio speakers for home theater. Despite what people have said, I just want to say if done properly you will get very satisfactory results. Just my opinion
 
#2 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by clemenslee /forum/post/0


I have looked at every site and forum and pretty much saw nothing but negative views about using car audio speakers for home theater. Despite what people have said, I just want to say if done properly you will get very satisfactory results. Just my opinion

They are engineered completely differently and I found out trying it myself quite a few years back. I did not have satisfactory results. Car audio speakers are designed to sound good in tight spaces, not open ones, like a living room.


Design wise, it is not possible for them to sound good in open rooms. I'd like to see some room charts to prove otherwise though.
 
#4 ·
Maybe this is a stupid question, how do measure sound for room charts? Never done that before.


As far as design, I used Win ISD for all the enclosure dimension to give the proper output and requency response and roll off for every speaker. So i dont think its impossible. Did you do something like this or just slap them in a box. Home speakers and So called car speakers are essentially the same, the only major difference is that most of car audio is 4 ohms.
 
#8 ·
Car subwoofers are designed to:


1. Make use of the automotive "cabin gain", where low frequencies are "boosted" because of the small size. T/S parameters typically shoot for an F3 in the 60Hz range for a smallish sealed enclosure.


2. Survive the abuse thrown at them by a typical user.


3. Survive the harsh automotive environment...temperature swings etc.


4. Appeal to the consumer with fancy surround shapes, dust cap logos, frames, magnet covers...etc...



Home subwoofers are designed to:


1. Make use of the living room "room gain", where low frequencies are boosted much less than a car. Typical T/S paramters shoot for an F3 of 30ish Hz. in a 60 to 90L sealed cabinet...or lower in a vented cabinet.


2. Low distortion-long excursion without the flashy graphics and plastic.


So I'd say they're not really designed the same. The only similarities would be the physical parts of the speaker itself.
 
#10 ·
That is why I said that you need to build the enclosures properly, the speaker is only as good as the enclosure it is in. In my setup I used car speakers for all channels except the sub, because I already had a JBL powered sub to use.


Power: Dual Yamaha CP2000 PA AMPS

Yamaha EX660 powered Mixer

Pioneer VSX-520-k


Center Speaker: Dual Rockford Fosgate 6.5" 3-way

L/R Fronts, Surround Towers: Rockford Fosgate 6X9" 3-way

Attachment 244961

Attachment 244962

Attachment 244963

Attachment 244964

Attachment 244965




 
#12 ·
Did you have Larry the Cable Guy help with those?



Not to bust your bubble or anything, but for about 300 bucks, you could have got yourself Polk Audio CS2 center and 4 Monitor50 towers and had yourself a pretty decent setup. Speakers designed for car audio are just that. You are somewhat correct in that a speaker, in theory, operates on the same principle, but from a design standpoint, there are many different applications that call for a different approach to get the desired results.


I applaud your effort, but i think you would do much better if you put them back in your pickup truck and got something designed for the task at hand.
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by clemenslee /forum/post/21962966


That is why I said that you need to build the enclosures properly, the speaker is only as good as the enclosure it is in.

Building an enclosure is much more than building a box to put the speaker in. The dimensions of a speaker cabinet must be in accordance with the way the crossover is designed. As someone else stated, the car speakers you're using are probably designed for an infinite baffle.
 
#14 ·

Quote:
There's no difference between car sub drivers and home sub drivers other then the enclosure designs they're put in. Many "car" brands are very well regarded by DIYers. If you're designing and building your own boxes there's no reason you cant use a car sub if it models well.

Backwards you have it. The enclosure is driver spec dependent, not the other way around. Autosound drivers tend to have high Fs and high Qts figures. They're made that way to work in small sealed boxes and large untuned enclusures because that's what will fit in a car. They trade off both broadband sensitivity and low frequency response because with short driver to listener distances and cabin gain of a car they can afford to do so. Remove them from their intended environment and those trade-offs become shortcomings.


Bottom line, a well designed autosound driver is made to work well in a 125 to 200 cubic foot listening room, a well designed stereo/HT driver in a 1000 to 3000 cubic foot room. If there was no reason to make autosound and stereo/HT drivers with different specs there would be no such thing as autosound drivers.
 
#15 ·
Bill, I've modeled dozens of autosound drivers, the manufactuers recommended enclosure sizes are almost never the same as the ideal enclosure based on TS parameters (check out Rockford Fosgate for example). Also, what says a driver that wants a smaller box with a steeper roll off cant be put in an alignment that nets 20hz output?


The biggest difference between auto and home drivers is looks of the drivers, plain (home) vs flashy (auto).


Here's my car subs in a small sealed box with the O-Audio 20hz filter (at LP in room)




Here's the modeled response showing max output before the boost compresses.

 
#18 ·
@nooshinjohn - Larry just might have helped me LOL! He siad GIT R DONE!, You are probable right about the polks, but man I had a lot of fun putting this together.


How is a coaxial speaker any different than a sub, they are designed to play a different frequency range right? They just use passive crossoveres instead of active crossoveres to get the desired frequency cutoff whether hi-pass or low pass. Are you talking about that or cone suspension and things like that?


I really appreciate all the posts! I didnt start this thread to really chap anybody's keaster, it was mainly one of those things were they say it cant be done, and I did it anyway lol.
 
#20 ·
Haha yeah, Obviously a 6x9 is not going to have the frequency range of a sub by no means. Nooshinjohn, was saying that a sub and standard midrange driver are different. I am saying the principles are the same as far as designing the enclosure to fit the specs for the speaker. you are just dealing with a different frequency range response and rolloff.
 
#21 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay1 /forum/post/21964176



Here's my car subs in a small sealed box with the O-Audio 20hz filter (at LP in room)

When you measure in-room you're measuring the room response as much as, if not more than, the speaker response. You can't draw any valid conclusions from that.
Quote:
The biggest difference between auto and home drivers is looks of the drivers, plain (home) vs flashy (auto).

You'd be hard pressed to find any transducer engineers or professional loudspeaker designers to agree with you on that one.
 
#22 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Fitzmaurice /forum/post/21968433


When you measure in-room you're measuring the room response as much as, if not more than, the speaker response. You can't draw any valid conclusions from that.

You'd be hard pressed to find any transducer engineers or professional loudspeaker designers to agree with you on that one.

Yes the room response is a little ragged, but look at the basic curve. This is a 22' x 22' x 8' room. I'll stick with my measured response matching my modeled response, in addition to what my ears tell me, as proof enough that you can use a "car" sub in a home lol.


You can also check the "master sub index" thread in the DIY section for many other builds using "car" subs. I'm really surprised you are arguing this given the number of successful builds...
 
#23 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay1 /forum/post/21968657


I'm really surprised you are arguing this given the number of successful builds...

That would be because I am a professional loudspeaker designer, and I work everyday with transducer engineers who design drivers, auto sound, hi-fi and pro-sound.
 
#25 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay1 /forum/post/21969164


I'm aware of who you are Bill, but that doesn't change the results.

In a sense, you are both correct. Many "car" subs do indeed have higher Fs and are designed for very small enclosures, with the idea that a cars interior will produce significant gain at LF to compensate. However, not all "car" subs fit that criteria. As you point out (and obviously Bill is unaware of), there are several that do indeed have all the (T/S) parameters necessary (including low Fs) to be used in a "home" environment.

As long as you can disguise/hide the predominantly garish looks and "bling" factor.


Now WRT to using car speakers, like coaxes and triax's, this is rarely a good idea. The (vast) majority are meant to be listened to at significant off axis (like door mount) angles or even reflected (such as rear deck mount). Thus the upper frequencies tend to be designed significantly boosted to compensate (most, not all). Listened to on axis (like with HT), they will be very bright.

...but, the EQ of typical HT AVR "room correction/calibration, etc" may attenuate this enough to make it bearable. I think.



cheers,


AJ
 
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