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10/09/2006

Mythbusters: 50-inch Subwoofer Test

In this Mythbusters episode, the crew attempts to "destroy a car with a gigantic 50-inch diesel-powered subwoofer." The results are shattering to say the least. What are your thoughts? Videos after the jump.

Part 1

Part 2

This entry was posted on 10/09/2006 04:40am and is filed under Auto, Science, Video, Weird .
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There are 22 comments about this post (1 pages).

1
Posted at 10/09/2006 05:30am by Newlaunches.com
Mythbusters: Destroying a car with a home made subwoofer The crazy folks from Mythbusters attempt to destroy a car using a gigantic 50-inch diesel-powered subwoofer. The results are of course heart thumping. Check out the videos after the jump....
2
Posted at 10/09/2006 08:10am by GSM
Thats kool but they could done that beter and stronger.
3
Posted at 10/09/2006 10:42am by Rex
Poor mercedes. Im so tired of mythbusters. Why you ask? Because it takes them AGES to get to the point, even with the most boring subjects, they try and heighten the suspense by dragging it on forever.
4
Posted at 10/09/2006 11:06am by Mr.Wednesday
I really like Mythbusters but the later episodes those guys are loosing their edge... I mean, they are trying the worst methodes to achieve their results and when they fail, they say its "busted"... Come on! This experiment couldve used a real subwoofer... From the first sight of their speaker I could see that it would fail...
5
Posted at 10/09/2006 2:52pm by Timothy
They could have blown out the speakers using ANY system developed by the db drag guy that was helping them. I mean a diesel powered speaker is cool, but it just seemed like they were dancing around the myth for the sake of doing something very unconventional.
6
Posted at 10/09/2006 3:06pm by Mogo
that's not a speaker at all. it's just a paper cone turned into an air pump. No magnet at all. It's amazing how much they'll exaggerate just to get people to watch this stupid crap
7
Posted at 10/09/2006 3:14pm by Ishi
"Come on! This experiment couldve used a real subwoofer" Earlier they had someone at a competition in which people had custom speakers in their cars to see who could get the loudest. That pretty much took care of that part of the experiment for them.
8
Posted at 10/09/2006 3:35pm by N8DOGG
That was 10 minutes in my life I'll never get back :(
9
Posted at 10/09/2006 5:46pm by perpetualtranze
Why didn't they just weld the sunroof shut. Not every car out there has a sunroof. All in all this was pretty lame.
10
Posted at 10/09/2006 6:42pm by Ishi
And typing that comment was 10 seconds you'll never get back...
11
Posted at 10/09/2006 10:14pm by maeryk
Umm.. air compresses. If the car was a "sealed box" then all you are going to do is compress the air X amount (the travel of the speaker plus some mumbledy math) which is _VERY_ unlikely to "blow the windows out". Vibration from a crappy sub (like most of the ones you hear cruising down your street with a fart tube) will do far more damage.. but they were so low in the Hz range that that wasnt much of an issue. Blowing windows out of cars with speakers is pretty much a physical impossibility, simply because the speaker can only move so much air. That is the reality of it.
12
Posted at 10/10/2006 09:54am by Jorg
"Use a real subwoofer"?!? There has never been a subwoofer made for a car that is capable of as much power as what they made - and the dB tester they had in the car proves that out. As the guy said, 166 dB at 15Hz is unheard of. If the myth is that a subwoofer blew the windows out of a car, they destroyed that myth. On the other hand, if the myth is that an audio system destroyed the windows, that's something else entirely; for that, they'd have to use something close to the "natural frequency" of the glass, like on the old Memorez commercials, where a singer's high note destroys a glass champagne glass. To mogo and mearyk: "That’s not a speaker at all. it’s just a paper cone turned into an air pump." Sorry you guys never studied your physics, hate to break it to you, but ALL A SPEAKER IS, IS AN AIR PUMP.
13
Posted at 10/10/2006 6:53pm by maeryk
To Jorg: Yes, that was my point. A speaker is an air pump, but it can only move so much air. Due to the fact that air compresses, it's unlikely to blow out windows. Popping the sunroof was not surprising. The reason subs work the way they do is they move large amounts of air at very low frequency. That can actually transmit the vibration into body panels and such, which then in turn act like subs themselves. (The annoying vrrrrrrrrrrrrbbbbbbbbbbb you usually hear in badly installed over-powered car audio systems). I wasn't arguing that a sub is an air pump.. just the likelihood of blowing out windows with one. Cracking them I could see. not blowing them out of the car. Had the sunroof not popped, the top of the door would be the next most likely place for a "leak".
14
Posted at 10/10/2006 7:56pm by
50 tommer - diseldrevet subwoofer Knap så cool at der ikke er plads til at sidde i bilen.
15
Posted at 10/20/2006 05:13am by cbgi grvcx
akoenm adhnjpg pamoitcr ueorjbc fvjqz opxqc kqvnfomy
16
Posted at 10/20/2006 7:32pm by jonny
jonny
17
Posted at 11/12/2006 6:09pm by heinz
Ok Why use "real" subwoofer? They actually achieved 160db at 16hz did you noticed that? Its far more powerful than any "real" sub could do. Ok. Did you see it was measured? Welding the sunroof? ok. Welding the sunroof does not prevent the car from drowning in water. If they could make the car airproof then they could probably make it undrownable aswell. Subwoofer is an airpump. Correct. Actually any gas would do. But then. They could just blow the car up with explosives. That was not the point. Myth did include a subwoofer, although it was electro magnetic most probably. But the first goal is to make any subwoofer at all what could shatter windows. They could not do it with 160db at 16hz so why try conventional reusable electromagnetic woofer which is weaker anyway.
18
Posted at 11/17/2006 06:36am by Car Audio
Dave Interesting topic... I'm working in this industry myself and I don't agree about this in 100%, but I added your page to my bookmarks and hope to see more interesting articles in the future
19
Posted at 12/26/2006 00:01am by mash
malady front I cogitating it worked out whole, his dam said. Leena ki ukhadi saans thodi shaant huyi tab boli, ha, phalli baar pi malady front hun.
20
Posted at 01/19/2007 11:01am by Christina Milian
come on over I Googled for something completely different, but found your page...and have to say thanks. nice read.
21
Posted at 01/19/2007 8:38pm by Evan W.
Its not impossible to blow a window out, it will work itself loose overtime, and the burrrrrrrr you hear is not always poorly installed when ur doing 150+ dbs on the term lab( the meter they were using) no amount of dampening will stop all vibrations, i know people using sand, concrete and or several hundred square feet of asphalt based dampening material. No no one single conventional sub will get that loud and that low but alot of conventional subs with alot less surface area lets say 10 inches in diameter in a bandpass done by someone who knows what they are doing can exceed 170db's at a mid bass level of lets say 70hz, anyone has anything to say to me email me a omegusprime@hotmail.com
22
Posted at 02/18/2007 02:50am by ANAMOUS
From the looks of things most of you people who commented know very little about sound. An object such as glass has a resonant frequency. this is the htz at which an object tends to vibrate. With very little sound you can shatter a window but spl will not break out windows. what breaks the actual window is the sound waves itself not the air pressure. so a high tuned bass system such as 70 htz will break a window with less pressure than it would take a system tuned to 35 htz.
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