Hi Matt!
 > BG> Competition sound levels seem to be more important than sound stage,
 > BG> cleanliness, quality of sound, etc.
 > But Bonnie, that's exactly the point I tried to make to Tom way back
 > at the start of this -- the "professional" competitions (IASCA,
 > USAC, the ones with the big money behind them) place a very small
 > value on loudness.  SPL counts for probably 5% of one's total score,
 > and in a given power class, there's probably no more than 40%
 > difference between scores in that category. In short, it's not very
 > likely that anyone's going to win or lose an IASCA trophy based
 > on his SPL scores.
 Then why weight the SPL maximum points at 140dB then when most anything 
above about 110 can be harmful to the ears?
 > BG> I stress test major sound systems at far lower levels than these
 > BG> monster cars, where fewer components and amps serve hundreds of
 > BG> people.
 > Aye, but it's still hard to compare the two, as they're designed
 > for radically different environments.  Particularly, the amps are
 > designed and rated quite differently because of the different
 > power sources.  Even small PA amps (for reinforcement systems,
 > not little "lounge lizard" setups) start at around 400W/ch at 8
 > ohms, whereas a car amp that puts 400W/ch into 4 ohms would be a
 > behemoth and limited only to the upper end of high-end systems.
 Nope,, Here you have it radically wrong. Ever hear of efficiency? The kinds 
of drivers I use have a sensitivity of like 102dB at 1 watt at 4 feet. Ever 
consider putting some constant directivity horns into an installation? My 
last major installation used 200 watt/channel Crown amps. I've used lots of 
Spectrasonic card amps (8 to a rack with electronic crossover) each about 70 
wpc or bridging will give about 120 or so. I use electronic crossovers and 
seperate amps per speaker in my best designs.
 > Ahh, that's the whole challenge with car audio (for me, at least)...
 > GETTING a decent sound in such a bizarre environment. Heck, getting
 > decent sound in an acoustically-designed cathedral is no fun at all.
I heard that.. it is a hard tims making sound work in a car. Designing a 
system for a cathedral is hard though, because the direct sound to reverb 
ratio is so critical, e  ecially when dealing with nothing but hard surfaces 
and 4 second RT60 reverb times. Easily as difficult as the worst auto install 
if not far worse!!!
Bonnie *:>
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