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[quote="Jonathan"]It's mainly the [i]vehicle[/i] difference. Regardless of how great your system is, it's flat out hard to beat a hatchback. A Blazer, while not a bad SPL vehicle, isn't going to match a hatchback unless you really take advantage of the room they offer (have the whole back end crammed with equipment) Kinda like a CRX, they'll get loud as snot off of mediocre equipment as well.
On top of that it's the shitton of 6x9s he has, and the fact that he has basically 3 sets of speakers in the car.[/quote]

bingo.
power, speaker cone area, and mainly in this case, the fact that he has a smaller airspace and a hatchback, and you have a big boxy SUV. He had the advantage.

ive always thought that systems installed in the acura integras sounded amazing most of the time... ims ure theres some that sound better, but ive driven 2 integras and they both had the best sound, 1 im not sure what it had it had in it, it was my older brothers car, all i know was it was all pioneer except for the 2-10's, and the other had 2-12's and infinity speakers in it...im nto a huge fan of infinty or pioneer, but those 2 cars both sounded pretty bitchin.

actually ford probes are some of the crappiest spl vehicles around.

A guy way back in the day had a little yellow CRX. Single 10" RF sub, 150 WRMS...

My god it was insanely loud...

i realize the list has always been opinion,but opinions change so often....i listened to this guy's system again last night,i was blinded by the bass the first time i think.yeah,it sounds louder,but mine is actualy alot cleaner,now that i've "listened" a little bit...i'd still have to say that i'm fairly impressed with those little pa 10's though.ya' know,talking abut certain vehicles being louder,i had an old friend who had a single cerwin vega stealth 15 in,a sealed box,off of a pos philips sound labs amp in an '89 probe,it would make you queezy...just thought about that one

Damon

Referred to as "loading". You're taking advantage of immediate reflections from the floor/walls of the vehicle in order to reinforce the sound wave. And, of course, these immediate reflections aren't too far out of phase with the original signal, thus cancellation isn't an issue.Tying in to what I said above-taking advantage of an environment ;)

Same principle as corner loading in home audio, really

From a technical standpoint I agree. As soon as the freq leaves the cone it is formed. Its just weird that the exact same truck, with 2 diffrent setups can sound SO diffrent. Especially given the only real diffrence between the two is the pathway the bass is directed before it arives at your ears.

I'm saying soundwaves don't need "x" amount of distance to develop. A frequency is a frequency. If a cone vibrates 20,000 times in a second, you're going to hear that regardless of where you're located relative to the driver itself, it doesn't "need" a given environment to sound the way it does. The environment can, however, reinforce or take away from the sound due to how the sound interacts with the environment. They aren't going to change frequency or sound any different if it arrives prior to the wavelength. Like I said, if that were the case, then we wouldn't hear much when we had headphones in because you're talking about a fraction of an inch to travel, which would be the treble region.

Not saying that you don't need optimal volume in the cabin in order to achieve high SPL, just saying the "wave to develop" theory isn't the reason that certain vehicles [i]lack[/i] SPL. Obviously when the wavelength is larger than the cabin it's in, then you're pressurizing said cabin. It's similar to turbocharging an engine. But like a poorly designed enclosure, you have the potential for reflections and standing waves as well, should it not be optimal geometrically. That's why competitors focus so much on the internal volume of their vehicles as well as put so much emphasis upon the tuning frequency.

If you want to prove the "wave to develop" theory, calculate the wavelength of a given frequency. Say 40hz. Set your subbox on the ground and stand that distance away from your subbox and let me know if it's any louder than it was when you were an inch away from the subcone. Have fun :D

What you're really worried about is the resultant phase of it all. When you have reflections, you have the incedent wave, the reflected wave, and the resultant wave.

The thing is there are so many variables in vehicles you would never be able to isolate the reason for the change ;)

[quote="Jonathan"]The "distance for the wave to develop" is a myth, BTW. If that were the case, we wouldn't be able to hear jack when we were wearing headphones.
It's really a deal of cancellation. When the wavelength is below the resonant frequency of the cabin, the environment is pressurized due to reflections. This is where cancellation/standing waves can occur[/quote]

You know your probably right, but I have to go with my experiances here.

I sat in a 99 extended cab S10 with 4 12s up firing, and turned right around and sat in mine with my single 12 down firing. Both were well sound dampned. Both were running high end equipment, and both installes were extreamly well done. Yet my single 12 sounded just as loud, and WAY more detailed.

I have sat in S10s with the subs firing forward, and my experiance was the same.