Does SQ change with the season?

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

I may be crazy, but I swear that during the summer, my car system's sound quality sounds way better than in the winter. The bass seems tighter (and louder), the mids more defined. Is this just an illusion, or is there some truth here? Does anyone else notice this? And if so, what could be some explanations? I know the air is colder, and therefore, denser but enough to make a noticeable difference?

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[MyFartsStink 10+ year member]

Its all in your head

 

[FordaTaurusRex 10+ year member]

Winter makes us all go a little crazy, its normal.

 

[timaishu 10+ year member]

Your not crazy. I made mention of this in a previous thread of mine.

My sub gets considerably louder with more punch to it during hot summer days.

On a cold night its not nearly as loud.

 

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

Alright, so I've been doing some research and I came up with a hypothesis that involves me not being crazy. (Although I most likely am). Okay, so when dealing with sound dampening materials like Dynamat, B-quiet, etc, they have a rating called an acoustic loss factor, (you guys should already know about this but...) and it basically tells you how much vibration energy the material can absorb, on a scale of 0 to 1. With 1 being 100% and 0 being 0% dampening. However, this rating is highly dependent on temperature. For example, Dynamat Extreme has an ALF of .42 at 68F and .24 at 32F. That's a very significant variation. So what does this have to do with SQ in winter? I think it's a safe assumption that most other materials behave similarly. More specifically, the material that compromises the cone of you speakers. So, my hypothesis: the materials that compromise your speakers have an optimum temperature where they are best dampened. At temperatures to cold, they loss dampening capacity and the same is true at temperatures to hot.

Any comments? Or am I do I still get a crazy vote?

 

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

Your not crazy. I made mention of this in a previous thread of mine.
My sub gets considerably louder with more punch to it during hot summer days.

On a cold night its not nearly as loud.

Yeah, I tried to search for a topic like this but I couldn't find anything. I think the way to get past this, is to let your car warm up with the heater on high for a while.

 

[MyFartsStink 10+ year member]

Alright, so I've been doing some research and I came up with a hypothesis that involves me not being crazy. (Although I most likely am). Okay, so when dealing with sound dampening materials like Dynamat, B-quiet, etc, they have a rating called an acoustic loss factor, (you guys should already know about this but...) and it basically tells you how much vibration energy the material can absorb, on a scale of 0 to 1. With 1 being 100% and 0 being 0% dampening. However, this rating is highly dependent on temperature. For example, Dynamat Extreme has an ALF of .42 at 68F and .24 at 32F. That's a very significant variation. So what does this have to do with SQ in winter? I think it's a safe assumption that most other materials behave similarly. More specifically, the material that compromises the cone of you speakers. So, my hypothesis: the materials that compromise your speakers have an optimum temperature where they are best dampened. At temperatures to cold, they loss dampening capacity and the same is true at temperatures to hot.
Any comments? Or am I do I still get a crazy vote?

you are really crazy dood

 

[timaishu 10+ year member]

Here's my previous thread if your interested.

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=356649

 

[tez4life Premium Member]

I may be crazy, but I swear that during the summer, my car system's sound quality sounds way better than in the winter. The bass seems tighter (and louder), the mids more defined. Is this just an illusion, or is there some truth here? Does anyone else notice this? And if so, what could be some explanations? I know the air is colder, and therefore, denser but enough to make a noticeable difference?

Your windows are down in the summer,

/thread

Just kidding, seriously, I think its a mind thing, but who knows?

 

[endofdays89 5,000+ posts]

it's a mind thing. My system sounds louder and less/more distorted on certain days. Don't worry about it.

Hell, whenever i wake up in the morning and get in the car and start bumping, it is louder than when i go somewhere in the evening for some reason, or at least it seems.

 

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

Yeah, it sounds like a lot of people are trying to say more dense air means more dBs, which is contrary to what really happens. That's why I threw out density as a major factor. Also, according to wikipedia.org/wiki/Density_of_air, the density of air at 20C (slightly less than room temp) is 1.204 kg/m^3. At 0C it is 1.292 kg/m^3. So let's say an average car's interior is 3m x 1.5m x 2m. If we take it's volume times density at 0C and 20C, we only have 0.792 kg or 1.742 lbs more of air in the car. I don't believe this small addition of mass inside your car will affect the loudness of your subs a very noticeable amount, which is why I came up with a hypothesis based upon the cones' properties dependent on T.

 

[bigbirney420 10+ year member]

It depends on a lot of factors, cone material and what not. When I lived up north my subs had to warm up a little to sound right in winter, its not in your head, and any moron that says so is stupid.

 

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

Sorry, for geeking out. I had to make up something to try to sound smart. Did it work?

 

[lambo37 10+ year member]

Your windows are down in the summer,
/thread

Just kidding, seriously, I think its a mind thing, but who knows?

im so addicted i leave my windows down in winter too, big ****in deal its colder for 10 more minutes then i goto school for 8 hours in hell aka school.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif

/thread

 

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

I don't mean to be judgmental, but if you don't notice an audible difference between cold and hot weather on audio performance, you may not quite be audiophile material.