When I worked a ticket booth on weekends, I got exposed to all kinds of people. Panicky covid nuts with masks, heavy rubber gloves, people reeking in cars full of pot smoke and, those annoying base blaster speakers. I mentioned to a customer next in line to those boomers how I thought they sounded shitty. He took offense to this and tried to convince me I was not a audiophile. I gotta say, loud pipes on Harleys I prefer. Today, in Florence, Kentucky I lined up along side a white Accura with its windows down, the driver was laid way back in the seat and the strangest thing I have ever seen a car do, was going on. The sheet metal roof of his Accura was vibrating over one inch up and down. I mean just as a speaker cone moves, his roof did. The whole roof.. I know damn well I wasn't the only non audiophile in local traffic who was being annoyed by the sound, much less by the stupidity of the roof movement. Even blocks ahead of me, it sounded like he was close by. Am I missing something here or does this actually sound good in his car? WTF is the attraction ? I don't get it.

It a childish "hey, look at me!" cry for attention. It sounds like shit and makes me nauseous when it's close enough. I've never seen anyone pulled over for it, either.

After too much of it I figure they probably can't hear it anymore. they aren't capable of recognizing good music. They just feel the punch in their chest.

Their hearing is pretty well gone.

And they never seem to realize that is you properly sound proof your car by adding vibration dampeners in your doors and trunk, the SPL gets far more intense.

I consider myself an audiophile, and I detest having my eardrums involuntarily assaulted by the anti-music of car subwoofers.
I deeply wish I could push a button to silence—or preferably explode—-those abominations.
There is no possible reason for them not only to be illegal, but to result in their owner’s arrest and incarceration.

We got a few of those cars around here too, but we have many more bikers on Harleys with their stupid speaker kits. The combination of loud pipes and distorted music is particularly annoying. Definitely overcompensating for some shortcomings somewhere else.

An audiophile wants accuracy, not just volume **cue Cerwin Vega ads from the '70s**

Maybe the music they're playing is supposed to sound that way, bass overpowering everything?

If not, then, yeah, it's just an audio 'F You' to everyone else by a thoughless jerk, not an audiophile passing by.

Why is it that the audiophiles who play their music at 11 are the same ones who choose the most annoying imbecilic recordings? I am not saying all rap is in this category, maybe there is some that I haven't heard yet.

I would put myself into the aspiring audiophile category. I listen for accuracy in all ranges of sound / music, and have subs in both of my cars. Now, my volume seldom finds it's way above half, but with the way I have set up my systems in both my jeep and Vette, it never needs to. Yes, I can tune both to be bass-thumping, car rattling, future deaf person annoyances, but that is not what listening to music is about to me. If I can hear your ghetto rap crap from more than a few feet away from me (or whatever genre you choose to force upon others), you are an annoyance to me.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
I mentioned to a customer next in line to those boomers how I thought they sounded shitty. He took offense to this and tried to convince me I was not a audiophile.

An audiophile is someone a person who is interested high sound quality. People with those systems are about as far from audiophiles as you can get.

I agree with flesheatingvirus. Whether the woofer-booming moron wants to admit it or not, I believe it's an extension of some inferiority complex, a cry for attention, and this is their mechanism to be noticed. Yup..."Look at me! Look at me! Look how COOL I am!!"

WTF-ever...

It is less a personal assessment with a response, but more a quest to be in a tribe and to be placed in the tribe at a reasonable standing.

I will admit that I do turn up the volume a bit when I am in my truck or at home when the wife is away.
Good sound is meant to be heard not imagined, especially some of the great 70's rock.
That being said I also consider myself an audiophile,.
I also despise hip-hop-rap.
One also has to know that bass sound is primarily what you hear when you hear the "thumping" as the high frequencies do not transmit through nearly as well.
However, I do not leave the volume up when near others nor do I leave the window down and I also in my truck properly dampen the enclosure area.
This will stop the annoying rattling and buzzing that us audiophiles will not tolerate as well as we will not turn up so loud until clipping distortion makes the sound unlistenable.
So no background elevator music for me and I also keep the listening private and not force it upon others.
A little volume yes, hip-hop-rap (not that I consider it even music) no and listen not to overpower others.
.02

They are simply an assault on the ears as well as a public nuisance. The asshats who inflict this on innocent bystanders should be fined with repeated offences getting them jail time and possible confiscation of their booming ride.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
It a childish "hey, look at me!" cry for attention. It sounds like shit and makes me nauseous when it's close enough. I've never seen anyone pulled over for it, either.

I got pulled over once for it in my Honda CRX while driving through a construction zone. The officer said he couldn’t hear the jackhammers over my radio. My system was fairly balanced. I had an Alpine active crossover fed by a Nakamichi head unit. The Alpine fed three amps: one for the Boston Acoustic tweeters, one for the 6 1/2” Boston Acoustics drivers in the doors and one bridged for 500 watts mono driving the 12” JBL sub in a 2 1/2 cuft enclosure I built for it. It took up a good chunk of space under the hatch. The neat thing about the CRX was it didn’t have a lot of interior volume, so the single 12” sub worked fantastic.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

I call them 'Boom Boom Idiots".

It won't be too long before the guy starts saying "What did you say?"

big difference between SQL and SPL (the 2 major classes in car audio competitions)

not a fan of SPL at all

quote:

Originally posted by RB211:
I would put myself into the aspiring audiophile category. I listen for accuracy in all ranges of sound / music, and have subs in both of my cars. Now, my volume seldom finds its way above half, but with the way I have set up my systems in both my jeep and Vette, it never needs to. Yes, I can tune both to be bass-thumping, car rattling, future deaf person annoyances, but that is not what listening to music is about to me. If I can hear your ghetto rap crap from more than a few feet away from me (or whatever genre you choose to force upon others), you are an annoyance to me.

Same setup for me. I’ll have it loud, it’s tuned, and I do have a sub. Say I’m on the highway for an extended drive. I’ve got my tracks bumping. But if I get to a light, stop sign, etc, etc, I turn it down. I’m not trying to call attention to myself and the worst my systems do is rattle the rear view mirror slightly, certainly not metal on the roof. And my windows are always up, not down. So basically if I’m moving, at speed, I’m bumping my tunes, but not around other motorists and I turn it down at all lights, etc. The last thing I want is some crook getting my plate, and trying to do theft at night or something.

At a light it’s annoying AF. What’s worse is they do this shit at the gas station. I’m pumping gas and some fool drives up, windows down, shitty system, loud as fuck, blaring bad rap music, or Tejano, so loud the entire gas station has to hear it. I’m like WTF do you do this? Do you want all your shit ripped off? The real bad times is the shitty speakers they have amped, are already blown out, and they don’t care. They want the entire world to listen to their shitty music taste.

When I was a kid I was fascinated by high fidelity stereo sound systems.
By the time I got to high school I had my own stereo system.
1970.
I found a job selling stereo systems and did that for years.
McIntosh Yamaha Bang and Olufsen Revox Nakamichi Technics Thorens JBL
I like audio in vehicles but it has to be balanced.
Best audio in cars that I have had was a Lexus with Mark Levinson and a Nissan Xterra with Rockford Fosgate.
I am annoyed when I encounter a persons buzzing thumping booming vehicle.
It is their right but I don’t have to like it.