When I was growing up and had a car. You were judged by the wattage and the clarity of your stereo system. Nowadays the kids today seem to be obsessed with excessive bass and wattage, without clarity. Has human hearing evolved in a way that eludes me?
by 
Scooter
ANSWERS: 17
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I think the excessive bass and sound is just an attention getting device--"Hey, look at me"...but it is too bad about their hearing (and what they are doing to it).
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i think its just a way of making people look at them. me and my friends just have our music loud enough for us, and clear enough so everything can be heard. no idea why youd want to drive around hearing nothing but DOOFDOOFDOOF
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the problem is most people dont really care about clarity... at least not in their cars... bass is an attention getter. shaking the earth is a way to let people know youve arrived. also, most of the music that young people listen to these days isnt anything they really want to hear anyhow. personally ive always been a fan of clarity... thats why i got my 5 ways before i got subs and i only have one 10'... its enough to rattle the trunk at high volume, but not enough to blur everything else.
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i agree with you totally, i can't stand the excessive bass, it annoys me sooo much. all you hear is boom boom boom, it don;t sound like music, its just noise!!!
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If it vibrates your body when standing within 10 feet... it is way too loud!
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I don't know about human hearing evolving but my stock picking in a hearing aid company has.
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I think it is laziness, loud is easy and cheap. Quality is expensive and challenging. I used to do car audio competitions, but my stereo days have toned down but I can still out blast and out quality most of the punk kids out there when need be. My favorite is to crank some Miles Davis, or Johnny Lee Hooker, over there Hip and/or Hop and rattles (those are easy to fix too but it's a secret)!
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I dont know if our hearing has evolved or if the music thats being produced. When you cant rely on the melody or orchestration, which most of that music cant. Your left with only volume to impress with. Maybe if they concentrated more on writing something decent, this wouldnt be an issue.
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I'll take old school, any day.
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sound quality and spl(loudness)has been around a long time.excessive bass is only excessive when the midrange and high freqeucy cant keep up. the spl compatitions play one note bass for a very short time,and no its NOT MUSIC!!! just one note bass.
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Its a maturity issue. When I first got into car audio, I wanted to be heard for miles. Now that I'm not so interested in getting the attention, I seek an audio system that can accurately reproduce the frequencies of the music as they were intended to be heard. Give those youngins some time and they will realize the same. But hey, atleast they are showing the same interest that we started at!
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The problem is that "kids" these days dont have a clue what good,LOUD,and clean sound is all about. They actually mount subs in such a way as to get as much vibration as possible,problem being that they sacrifice clarity for the destruction of their vehicles.Unless the car (truck) is properly prepared it will eventually vibrate apart. (hopefully sooner than later)When they start to grow up they will hopefully come to realize there is more to music than distortion.
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No, it's just about who has the biggest speaker in the boot of the car.
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ithink todays teens dont know what distortion is they just turn it up till the speakers are rattling sounds like shit i reckon.
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I think it has partly to do with the car audio retail industry. Gradually, it has steered away from sound quality and volume. Many of the major 12-volt manufacturers flood the market with 120,000,000 watt (150W RMS) amps and rediculous neon lit band pass enclosures with horrible frequency response, cheap 2V pre-out decks with multiple faceplates and Aux inputs, 5-way four-tweeter speakers that sound like shit. This crap is all over the place and super cheap because of our wonderful friends at Best Buy and Circuit City. For most kids, all it takes to be a "Baller" is $600 at your local Best Buy. Old-schoolers like us who can justfiably repair 10 year old source units because the new ones just aren't good enough, and use a $1200 component set because the $99, "600 Watt" 6 1/2 at the store just doesn't cut it, are a rarity now. Human hearing hasn't changed. The retail industry actually changed what the comsumer wants. Retail sucks!
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I compete but i play my music at reasonable levels and only draw attention at comps or the shops. I have to have sound quality but I also achieve respectable spl numbers at the same time. I tell people in my team to respect the local ordinance and citizens because it is'nt everybody's idea of fun. "you can avoid tickets with a toggle switch too!"
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It's part of the decay of culture. Everything has to be exaggerated and in your face. There is no tolerance for elegance. Sound reproduction in general is very poor for the most part. Compare the specs of equipment from the golden age of the late 60s and 70s. "Subwoofers" are required to produce an exaggerated, muddy blob of undefined bass in home systems. Clarity and accuracy take a back seat. The Bose systems are a good example of this, using boomy bass and a 7K treble spike to fool the ear into believing it's hearing true highs and lows. It's culture, not our sense of hearing that is evolving or, if you will, de-evolving.
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