Explaining essay on the dB dragracing

Essay by rscrimoCollege, UndergraduateA+, January 2005

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Decibel Drag racing

The mobile electronics industry is growing larger each day. A new sport is

growing within this industry. Sound Pressure Level (SPL) contests are held all over the

world to see who has the loudest vehicle. The stereotype this sport holds is of young

rebellious kids blasting their music. In the contrary, it is made up of middle-aged men

with a rising growth of women. Through the twenty years of existence the sport has

become so competitive it has turn SPL into an exact science. The three factors that

influence SPL are: equipment selection, sound propagation, and enclosure design.

Selecting the right equipment is the easiest part, yet it is the most costly. For

subwoofers you want a sub with a strong motor structure, Kevlar cone, high Xmax

(displacement), and the easiest to assume; be able to handle a lot of wattage. Second, you

want to select an amplifier that will get the most out of your sub(s).

The very first thing

you look at in an amp is to see if the lowest impedance the amp will go down to (where

the amp produces maximum power) will wire to the same ohm load as the sub. The

second is to make sure the amp is maxing out the capabilities of the sub. Common

subwoofers used in competition are: Treo, Concept, Digital Designs, ReXXX, Shocker,

and Kicker. Most of the companies listed, with the exception of Kicker, now offer a

quad-coil subwoofer that can handle up to 16k watts. This means you can wire up to 8

amps now to a single subwoofer by strapping two amps into one large amp and wiring

each pair of strapped amps to each of the 4 coils. If your system is going to compete in

endurance class or is...