6 replies to this topic

[[schmick]]

Hey Peeps,

I just wanted to know if there would be an audible difference between a car with Aluminium Checker Plate Flooring in the front compared with a car that just had the normal carpeted flooring...

I'm looking at getting some checker plate for my car...

Anybody had any experience or opinions??

Car is a 2000 SSS Pulsar by the way...

Cheers...

[T-Bro]

yes it will be affected. even though i havent heard the effect first-hand myself with actual chequerplate flooring, such a large, flat and hard surface right near your mid-range drivers will create alot of reflection (echo, or hollow, thin sound, smeared imaging). similar to placing mid-range speakers aiming at the windscreen, the sonic effect will be a bit like listening to your system in the bathroom

some reflectivity is inevitable in any cars cabin (consider all the glass and plastic and vinyl around the place) but hard flooring is getting it real close to the action.

its this very phenomenon that now has me itching to experiment with carpeting portions of my dash

try getting some cardboard and putting it on the floor, and listening with it there and with it removed, to see what effect it may have.

[Sathid]

wouldn't u want some reflection of sound? otherwise you would really only hear the sound coming from where the speaker is positioned. which, correct me if i am wrong, is very bad for SQ comps.
if you've ever been into a room that is designed to absorb all sound hitting the walls, you'll know it's very eerie and quiet.
because u only hear the sound coming directly from the source (i.e. a persons mouth)
if your car had no reflective surfaces, wouldn't you have to pretty much look at the speaker to hear it properly?
mind you...they do have curtains all the way around movie theatres...(they have heaps of speakers tho lol)
soz about the hijack.

[smeg]

This isn't SQ advice, but it's advice nonetheless!

Checkerplate is over man, you put it in your car and you're stepping back to 2000! Unless your heart is REALLY set on it, give it the big miss

[T-Bro]

the issue of reflectivity in a car is interesting. in an ideal world, you want ZERO reflectivity, as is found in a recording studio. in this way, you only hear what the speakers produce, and no sonic artifacts from the room itself. similarly in a car, this is a good thing to have, but its impossible to achieve totally (try covering your windows in carpet and see if you can still drive it!) though that said, cars with softer cloth-like interiors do sound more solid and warm.

as for no reflectivity meaning you would just hear the speakers directly, NO NO NO the whole idea behind stereo is that you have two speakers at the stage extremities that, when working properly, means that you 'hear' or 'see' sonic images in the middle of the speakers, like vocalists of intruments or a helicopter if your watching a movie. this is because your personal audio system (your ears) are 2-channel stereo, and will hear sound from in-between the speakers because of the way it is timed in the recording.

however, more interesting, is that reflectivity helps you gain stage height and ambience/size as the higher frequencies disperse and bounce off the dash / windscreen etc, and fool your brain into hearing part of the stage from those points. this is partly why when you turn the volume up, the sound stage gets higher as the high freq's bouncing up high become more noticable.

so in alot of installs, reflectivity can be used either intentionally or un-intentionally, to alter the soundfield characteristics. you just have to make sure its working for you, and not against you

[Sathid]

t-bro
i never thought of it like that.

i hope my post didn't sound patronizing, cos thats not how it was intended.