Thread: does your bass mess up your hard drive?

Nice setup. Off topic, I have had the same problem with SATA connectors, not very sturdy. Makes me long for the days of serial ata.

can't you just use a flash drive instead of a harddrive?

Originally Posted by fullgrown

can't you just use a flash drive instead of a harddrive?

You can, but in some cases there slower, and the fact that they cost
more, and there is the limited erase-write cycles, thats why most
make it 'read-only', and making it 'read-only' requires a lot of extra
work when your using Windows, I guess what I am trying to say,
its a pain in the butt

The reason why your hard drives went bad was definitely becuase they were near your subs. Hard drives are the most notious computer component that goes bad; I have had like 3 or 4 hard drives die on me; usually their life expectancy is about 5 years.

However, jarring a hard drive (especially from dropping it) can easily destory it, since it has moving mechanical parts inside of it (it is sort of like a metal record player inside, and it has metal plates that look like CD's, which get read by very precide metal "heads").

Anyways, before I bore you any further with the technical aspects of hard drives, I'll just get back to the main point: you can DEFINITELY permantly destory your hard drive with a loud enough sub right near it, as it will jar and vibrate the heck out of it! Unfortunetly I can't think of a good solution to the problem, other than moving it as far away as possible (which by the sounds you did already, heh heh!)

That... and the fact your placing it near a giant magnet.

Originally Posted by derek156

Im new to this carputer thing, however im a well versed audio installer. I always assumed this would happen, but have finally proved it.....so to speak. My hard drive ( I assume...) can not handle anything above about 135 dbs. I want it in a vehicle hitting numbers over 160. Any suggestions?

I'm sorry but having studied a BSc in Acoustics and working as an Acoustic Consultant I have to question 160dB????

127, maybe pushed to 130dB is the threshold of pain, the point at which your ears will start to bleed. Two minutes in this environment will give you permenant hearing damage!!!
160dB will be close to rupturing your insides!!!

What parameters are you measuring? Is it SWL? Or SPL? Or is this only measured at the MUCH lower frequencies? What SPL meter are you using to measure this? How is it calibrated?

I'm not trying to be be a douche but really I am curios.

Congrats on the install and my thoughts would be the huge magnetic field... possibly put some shielding around it.

That's not so odd. More than likely it's SPL. But SPL installs, esp for competition use, can get up into the 170db range depending on category of competition.

I am racking my brain trying to think how your measuring this?

Are you in the car when it plays at 160dB?

Typically the competitions I've been to, the guy has a remote to control the HU as they crank it up. Generally nobody is in the car... the bodies mess with the acoustics man! Plus, you could probably die.

Ahhhhhh!!!! I see, thanks for not taking offence and clarifying for this.

Yes you would most certainly have bodily issues if you were in the car! Your insides would rupture and you would more than likely ***** yourselve due to your rectal cavities resonating so highly.
The bodies messing with the acoustics would not take effect at that SPL as the SWL will be mega high.

But cudos on getting to that level that is louder than a jet, in fact I think if memory serves me correctly thats a few dB off a rocket taking off from NASA.