FAQ: Why not Home PC speakers for the car?

RedGTiVR6 · 07-16-2006, 08:59 AM

Why can’t I use PC speakers in my car?

Thanks to checksum for the topic for this thread…hehehe

I think this would best be answered with a list:

Quote: Originally Posted by checksum

Those of you who have a CARPC, why not use decent computer speakers? Most of them are 5:1.
Their sound is great, very clear and most of them come with a sub. They are also very cheap nowadays.
Their sound is great in the house, a car is a different environment. You have to deal with things like road noise, in the house, you don’t.

Quote: Originally Posted by checksum

But you save a lot of money, you don't have to worry about buying any amps.
How are you going to power these home speakers in the car? With an inverter? Inverters are known for being both noisy and for inducing a lot of noise into audio systems in cars.

Quote: Originally Posted by checksum

If you can build a carpc, i am sure you can take apart your computer speakers and make them fit somehow in there, and nowadays they are small. I know I can.
Precisely, they are small speakers, designed to work well in a relatively quiet environment. The car is not a relatively quiet environment.

Quote: Originally Posted by checksum

Just 2 amps 1 sub and 4 decent speakers can easily run you for around 500.00 or more, with 200.00 you can have a nice set of 5:1.
Am I missing something here???
Yes, again, everything. 5.1 in the house is one thing, in a car, it’s completely different. If you’re not willing to spend the money on a true car audio set-up, then chances are, you’re not going to be willing to spend the money to fabricate the mounting methods for these home PC speakers nor are you going to want to hack up your dash to mount that center channel.

Quote: Originally Posted by checksum

well, that is more of a space issue there, house stereo are too big. But computer speakers are as small as car speakers, just take them out of their enclosure and you have a set of nice speakers.
The enclosure is the speaker in essence. These home speakers are designed with an enclosure that matches the Thiele-small parameters of the speakers they house. Taking them out of the enclosures they were designed to go in will essentially cancel their abilities.
Mounting – how would you mount these speakers in your car?
Computer speakers are made to be mounted in a situation where they will be stationary for the vast majority of their lives. Car speakers are made to where the mounting points are beefed up and are made to handle the jarring and elements of in car use better.
The acoustics of your house are completely different from the car. The car is one of the worst possible places that you can put a system and expect to get good sound out of it. The various surfaces and small ‘room’ size of a car present hell for audiophiles.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mandos

Most speakers made for cars are of much higher quality than a computer speaker in an enclosure. And if you're looking at things equally priced, the car speaker properly installed in a car should blow the computer speaker out of the water.

Quote: Originally Posted by checksum

That is not true
Yes it is. Even the $15.00 Wal-Mart speakers are of higher quality than the $200 home PC speakers mentioned earlier. Things like being able to handle the elements, surrounds, motor structures, etc.

Quote: Originally Posted by ”checksum”

You show me any car speakers, and I will show you a competing PC speaker that matches its sound quality with even more power.
Focal Beryllium

I’ll see if anyone else cares to add to this as I’m sure it will come up again in the future.

blairellis · 07-16-2006, 11:06 AM

Take apart a home stereo speaker and look at the tweeter. Usually its made of paper. Get a 30 dollar 2 way car speaker and look at the tweeter. There is proof enough.

Thanks for writing this. I sincerely hope no one would use PC speakers in their car for audio.

:Shudder:

RedGTiVR6 · 07-16-2006, 01:59 PM

blairellis - there have been a few threads around where people couldn't understand why you couldn't use it. It's what prompted this post, unfortunately.

blairellis · 07-16-2006, 11:18 PM

I wasnt criticizing you, I just couldnt believe people would actually consider it. I was also posting an example. I should have posted it with a ex. in front of it

pyros · 07-17-2006, 01:48 AM

I tired it, it was horrendus. I just did it because I blew my amp. After trying it, I bought a new amp the next day. It was brutal.

RedGTiVR6 · 07-17-2006, 07:32 AM

pyros -

will you post your exact experiences?

I believe others could benefit from that.

b8bboi · 07-17-2006, 02:54 PM

I'm not pyros

, but a while ago I wanted to quickly test if I can get sound out of my carpc so I brought in my logitech speaker set and powered it by an inverter. It was still a quality set. In house, it sounded loud and clear. In the car, it sounded like total ****. The sound is all muffed because of the various surfaces like Red mentioned. I cranked it up high and still couldn't hear crap with all the road and engine noise.

Even a good old cheapass $10 cassette adapter would kick the crap out of most of these PC speaker systems.

Mind you, I never wanted to put PC speakers in the car but it was unbearable even just for testing.

pyros · 07-20-2006, 04:43 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Red GTi VR6

pyros -

will you post your exact experiences?

I believe others could benefit from that.

Exactly the same as b8bboi:

Quote: Originally Posted by b8bboi

I'm not pyros

, but a while ago I wanted to quickly test if I can get sound out of my carpc so I brought in my logitech speaker set and powered it by an inverter. It was still a quality set. In house, it sounded loud and clear. In the car, it sounded like total ****. The sound is all muffed because of the various surfaces like Red mentioned. I cranked it up high and still couldn't hear crap with all the road and engine noise.

Even a good old cheapass $10 cassette adapter would kick the crap out of most of these PC speaker systems.

Mind you, I never wanted to put PC speakers in the car but it was unbearable even just for testing.

It was ****

roadhog · 07-22-2006, 09:31 AM

I think the main problem is as Red mentioned earlier. The room size or volume of a car is probably less than an airing cupboard. This means that car speakers are designed differently, because a small volume of air behaves totally different to a large volume - resonance, compression etc.
The enviroment is much tougher, temperatures may easily vary 30 degrees in a few hours. Humidity will also fluctuate considerably.

Finally, hopefully not too off topic, you could have top quality speakers mounted perfectly and still have poor sound. The reason - poor or not set eq. The large reflective areas of glass and dash play havoc with mid range, and a half hour or so of eq-ing will prove invaluable.
Anyone know any good software in this dept? Maybe a whole new area for a FAQ.

RedGTiVR6 · 07-22-2006, 10:33 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by roadhog

Finally, hopefully not too off topic, you could have top quality speakers mounted perfectly and still have poor sound. The reason - poor or not set eq. The large reflective areas of glass and dash play havoc with mid range, and a half hour or so of eq-ing will prove invaluable.
Anyone know any good software in this dept? Maybe a whole new area for a FAQ.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/car-audio/72613-1-3-octave-software-eq.html

roadhog · 07-22-2006, 05:23 PM

Thanks for the link.

dvvt_sprinter · 08-25-2006, 11:29 AM

I've thought about that some time ago, and I pulled out the AC extension to my car from my house, plug in my Soundblaster 5.1 and well, yes, true, it doesn't sound as nice as in the room. Honestly, at that moment, I juz couldn't explain why. I come to the conclusion because I have 4 speakers concentrated in front of me and 1 sub at the back when I am in my room. In the car, I position it in such a way, 2 front, 2 rear and 1 sub rear.
It was way louder than my Pioneer speakers (juz a pair of 3 way at the back), but the quality it was producing obviously did not come close to my Pioneer.
Get a car speaker for OEM look.
Get a PC speaker if you wanna be.........different.

But I would rather get another pair of 2 way for my front than going for PC speakers.

dvvt_sprinter · 08-25-2006, 11:35 AM

I've thought about that some time ago, and I pulled out the AC extension to my car from my house, plug in my Soundblaster 5.1 and well, yes, true, it doesn't sound as nice as in the room. Honestly, at that moment, I juz couldn't explain why. I come to the conclusion because I have 4 speakers concentrated in front of me and 1 sub at the back when I am in my room. In the car, I position it in such a way, 2 front, 2 rear and 1 sub rear.
It was way louder than my Pioneer speakers (juz a pair of 3 way at the back), but the quality it was producing obviously did not come close to my Pioneer.
Get a car speaker for OEM look.
Get a PC speaker if you wanna be.........different.

But I would rather get another pair of 2 way for my front than going for PC speakers.

DASimpson · 11-08-2006, 09:48 AM

i used a pc 5.1 amp and just cut the house speakers off and used 6X9 load anogth that the m8 gets pulled and he has surround sound btw the amp unit in most surround sound sets ups are 12v

BiG K · 01-16-2007, 09:03 AM

I have a pretty sweet 7.1's 700W RMS

THX certified Creative S750's, featuring titanium tweeters in each speaker (70W RMS per speaker) and a 210w RMS sub, all running at 8 Ohms

Can I use these?

User Name		Remember Me?
Password