It's probably one or more of the following
1.) He has Time Alignment
2.) He has more processing/EQing
3.) The Acoustics of the car are drastically different
4.) His amp has a higher voltage rail than yours is. Feeding the speakers power isnt what makes them sound good. Think of it this way, an amp rated for 200w RMS and 400w peak by voltage...You can feed the speaker the voltage 40w RMS and when a signal 20dB peak amplitude comes by (such as the clash of a symbol) your amp is going to try and produce the voltage to reach 4,000w peak. That isnt going to happen and the voltage is clipped. He has an amp rated at 400w peak and he feeds them the voltage for 4w RMS. That same spike comes along and the amp is called upon to produce the voltage for only 400w peak which it is capeable of so the signal is complete.
5.) Install...reguardless of what he is telling you
6.) In your head. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
first off, i appreciate the detail of all your guys responses.
1. his time alignment was off. i also have time alignment, but because of the fact that the front speaker location embodies both the tweeter and woofer, and because these two drivers are roughly 16 inches apart, it is difficult to pick a midpoint between the two.
my HU has Front Left, Front Right, Back Left, Back Right, and Sub 1 and Sub 2 inputs for the time alignment.
if i was to go active, i could use the front speaker settings for the tweeters, and the back speaker settings for the woofers, this way, each driver location has its own input.
however, due to the fact that i have been playing drums almost all of my life, my hearing in my left ear isnt great, so time alignment, in my case, is not of the utmost importance.
2. i have pretty sick BBE processing and a 16 band EQ. how does a 16 band EQ (all other things being equal) compare with a 4 band parametric EQ?
3. you're probably right, 4 door vs. 2 door
4. little technical, but are u basing these comments on the amp i have and the amp he has or just speaking generally? I have a kicker kx650.4, he has a JL 300/4.
5. if anything, i would say my install might be a little better than his, bc more dynamat was used to prevent vibration distortion. the first set of components i had in the front, i couldnt turn the HPF any lower than 150 Hz or it would shake the doors louder than the music was playing.
6. i would consider that it was in my head, except for the fact that the test was done using 2 identical songs, 'so cold' by breaking benjamin and 'ghost of perdition' by opeth.
not only do i know very well how both songs sound in my car, after playing them for him in my car, we immediately went into his car and listened to the same 2 songs.
i didnt think his setup would stand a chance, since we have the same components, same install (for all intents and purposes), however, he is underpowering them and only sending them half the rms. i am sending them one and a half times the rms.
i have played in so many bands i cant even remember, and i play 3 other instruments besides drums. i have been giving drum lessons since i was 19, and have seen over 200 concerts. with that said, when he played 'so cold' by breaking benjamin, it sounded like the 2 guitarists were playing out of 2 separate amps.
i have heard what it sounds like to have 2 guitars sharing an amp. even with my boys marshall stack and all his ridiculous processing, simply plugging in another guitar at the same time lowers SQ noticeably (which makes sense based on what i have learned on these forums).
on the recording, the 2 guitars are not panned to sep. sides (e.g., rhythm guitar to the left speaker, lead guitar to the right speaker), but it sounded like they were.
NOW THAT THERE HAVE BEEN 30 RESPONSES TO MY THREAD I FINALLY TAKE THE TIME TO EXPLAIN THE ACTUAL DIFFS IN SQ I NOTICED!