dB Dragger gets 180.5dB from a single subwoofer

We've seen (and heard, er, felt) some pretty sensational subwoofers in our day, but we can't even imagine what 180.5dB of mind-rattling bass (at the dash, no less) would do to one's senses. Nevertheless, Alan Dante has reportedly set a new record in the world of in-car bass output by using four Stetsom 7KD amplifiers, 15 Power Master batteries, and a single Digital Designs 9918Z subwoofer. Kudos Mr. Dante, you exemplify overkill, and that's exactly how we like it.

[Via AudioJunkies]

[James Ollier @ Sep 11th 2007 5:38AM]

And the point of this is?

[Dan @ Sep 11th 2007 7:13AM]

well obviously, four amps = quad damage

[J. Neutron @ Sep 11th 2007 8:54AM]

Same as hitting 762 home runs. This is an organized competition. And no, this car wont be driving down your street when you try to sleep, its loaded with concrete.

db Drag rules state that you cannot sit in a car that can exceed 150db in competition, so his hearing is still good.

[Scott @ Sep 12th 2007 3:34PM]

that many dB's must make that guy one REALLY deaf redneck.

[ilh @ Sep 11th 2007 5:41AM]

Chav.

[FireFox @ Sep 11th 2007 5:48AM]

Can he actually hear us?? He must be deaf right now! That is more than a jet fighter flying over.

[Madis Juurmann @ Sep 11th 2007 6:04AM]

com on, need the win sooooooooooooo bad :)

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 11th 2007 6:10AM]

Just to give you an idea of how loud this really is, a BOEING 727 puts out 165dB, 1 LB of TNT @ 15ft is 180 dB, and 1 TON TNT at 150 FEET, IS EXACTLY 182.2 DB!

http://www.makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt

[Carbonize @ Sep 11th 2007 6:28AM]

Wow talk about needing a life. Whats the point when you can't really listen to it as you drive along and it needs more batteries than a convent.

[Matt @ Sep 11th 2007 7:24AM]

its the extreme class, its not meant to be a daily driver.

[matt @ Sep 11th 2007 9:30AM]

Remember kids, the bigger your car stereo, the smaller your penis is.

[Andy @ Sep 11th 2007 7:27PM]

Needs more batteries than a convent. I'll have to remember that.

[Phour ZwanZig @ Sep 12th 2007 1:13AM]

More batteries than a convent..

Gesh.. Long day for me.. It took awhile b4 I got that one....

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 11th 2007 6:38AM]

Midrange and high end were not available for comment...

[Chino B @ Sep 11th 2007 7:09AM]

He looks like he's on crack. Look at his eyes!

[Futon @ Sep 11th 2007 12:10PM]

how close is that to the threshold of pain?

[Atanas Boev @ Sep 11th 2007 7:22AM]

"we are tree companys that sale to or clients the best you can bay in car audio!!!"

[Scooter @ Sep 11th 2007 7:33AM]

...after spending all his money on the stereo, Alan found he could finally drown out the noise of the broken muffler he couldn't afford to fix...

[rwb @ Sep 11th 2007 7:52AM]

what a waste of $, 30 years from now he could probably retire on the $s spent if he had saved/invested the money...

[Richard Lai @ Sep 11th 2007 8:12AM]

"Smile for the camera, Alan!"

"Sorry, could you say that again?"

[Shane @ Sep 11th 2007 8:16AM]

Heh. I wonder what the Total Harmonic Distortion was on his rig at that volume level?

One of my jobs is in live sound. My current setup at that gig has four 18" subwoofers but I'm afraid to push it to this kind of extreme. I'm guessing the neighbors might get a bit annoyed...In an average session I reach peaks of 92-96 dB at the mix position.

My truck once had a pair of 12" Rockford-Fosgate subwoofers in a dual sealed enclosure (each woofer in its own compartment, appropriately sized for the woofer...Around 1.1 cu ft each).

These woofers were driven by a 500 watt Rockford-Fosgate amplifier. I did not have any exotic battery or capacitor setups. 1/0 wiring straight from the existing battery to the amp was sufficient.

It sounded AMAZING. I always went for QUALITY of sound, not sheer SPL (although that system could do a respectable 120 dB and still maintain quality). I was extremely saddened the day that system was stolen.

To me aiming solely for loudness is downright pointless.

I am annoyed by the cars that run down the street with bass that you can hear from 2 cars away. Most of the bass in my car stayed INSIDE of the car. Bass just for the sake of bass is dumb.

[NHAnimator @ Sep 11th 2007 8:22AM]

What?

[Hiro11 @ Sep 11th 2007 8:45AM]

That pale, greasy, bug-eyed, unshaven, baseball-hatted close-up is extremely disturbing.

[Mac Gyver @ Sep 11th 2007 9:27AM]

That look on his face = Kid Rock's "Hillbilly Stomp" blasted at 180.5 dB

[DakStaka @ Sep 11th 2007 8:59AM]

dB is a relative measure... what's the absolute measured against?

[Shane @ Sep 11th 2007 9:07AM]

This is dB with reference to Sound Pressure Level...Loudness relative to the threshold of hearing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure_level

[DakStaka @ Sep 11th 2007 9:37AM]

Perhaps but without the units your answer is Pseudo-scientific mumble jumble. If it is SPL the notation must be dB(SPL) or dBSPL. Otherwise your absolute value could be anything.

[John @ Sep 11th 2007 11:50AM]

Well, when discussing sound that can damage your hearing, no one actually says dBSPA, it's just "sounds above so and so dB can damage your hearing". Everyone knows what is being said, so why try and confuse people.

[Shane @ Sep 11th 2007 12:03PM]

You are correct in that dB in and of itself does not express anything but in this context it is understood to be dB SPL. If we were talking about signal levels we would likely be using dBm (Decibels referenced to a millivolt).

[Chris @ Sep 11th 2007 9:00AM]

I wonder if he can hit the brown note

[Mredraider @ Sep 11th 2007 9:32AM]

At 180dB EVERY note is the brown note =)

[gigo08 @ Sep 11th 2007 9:50AM]

A few points:

This guy is Brazilian, so can he still be a chav?

Related to previous item, being from Brazil this guy is probably pretty rich to be competing in this as the average monthly salary won't buy even the wiring for this setup.

Finally, I'm sure at least one of us here has a hobby that's similarly pointless. Any sneaker collectors here? Or anyone that drops ridiculous amounts of money for the latest device which is only a fractional increase in functionality compared to your old device?

[Tabajara Labs @ Sep 11th 2007 9:52AM]

Woohoo! Brazilian guy! We're going to own the world! :oD

[Jonathon @ Sep 11th 2007 9:54AM]

It is just funny that everyone makes fun of the guy for entering into a organized competition...and winning. I'm sure if you posted some of the geek/tech competitions winners over on their boards they would make fun of you too.

Also, the jeering is somewhat hypocritical as I'm sure that a lot of tech goes into getting that amount of output.

[Rusty @ Sep 11th 2007 11:23AM]

Call homeland security! He has a sound WEAPON! LOL

[bjrcboy @ Sep 11th 2007 12:00PM]

Wow okay guys, sure a loud stereo system seems pointless. But it is a "sport" to a certain crowd. He was in the extreme class, meaning his car weighed several tons(they put concrete in the doors, sound proof the interior of the car, use several inch thick hard wood for the sub enclousers). His team was sponsered meaning, he spent next to no money on the set up.

These systems arent meant to play music, only play one or two notes to get the highest dbSPL.

Theres quite a bit of money to be won here to..

So please guys back off, I know several people that laugh at me for always wanting some new gadget. I love car audio but i only spent around 4k over the years on my stereo.

Anyone fly rc airplanes and/or helicopters? those get mighty expensive!

[The ZeroCorpse @ Sep 11th 2007 12:49PM]

So fine, it's a competition.

But still. . . What's the point? I mean, it's not anything he can USE. It's not going to be installed in a real car. It's not going to influence any technology. It's just a hobbyist making the loudest thing he can make, trying to be louder than other hobbyists doing the same thing.

There's no point to it. At least sports can be spectator events. How is this spectator worthy? (and I hate sports, but I see more merit in watching a guy get a home run than I do watching a device measure decibels.)

Sorry... Doesn't matter if this is competition; It's still utterly pointless. He's a chav in spirit, even if he's got money and lives in Brazil.

[MitchSchaft @ Sep 11th 2007 1:18PM]

What a waste of time. It reminds me of a friend in the early 90s wearing earplugs in his car because he liked his system so loud and "bumpin'".

[shortyg83 @ Sep 11th 2007 3:25PM]

Not a spectator event? If you dont know what your talking about please do not talk. Car audio comps draw very large crowds some of the bigger comps draw crowds of over 1000 people who drive quite a ways to be there. Just because somone doesn't like the same crap you do doesn't give you the right to bash them.

[MitchSchaft @ Sep 11th 2007 5:30PM]

Sure it does. With all the worlds events, the loudest subwoofer has to be at the bottom of the chain. I was around the whole subwoofer craze when it blew up in the early 90s. Very annoying! Even though I've owned one myself, I always turned it down when pulling up to a store or my house to keep from annoying people. 1 10" woofer was plenty for my style at the time.

[King T @ Sep 11th 2007 4:55PM]

I do the same thing with my car, Ive hit around 160 dB but thats with about 2000 put in. Considering this is a blog about technological advances I dont see whats wrong with posting this article. This guy has no more of a life then most of us on here that sat in front of our computers for hours waiting for Apple's release of all the new iPods. Also shits great driving around and having your car be heard 2-3 blocks away =D

[MitchSchaft @ Sep 11th 2007 5:32PM]

Everybody hates it and cringes except for you goofballs. It is very annoying hearing a sub 2 miles away! I live in Memphis (Memfrica?) and it's all I hear all day in my apartment with people driving by.

[dot @ Sep 14th 2007 2:03AM]

160?

Bullshit.

[wasted911 @ Sep 11th 2007 6:31PM]

WOW OMG!!! I can do 164 dbs with my 10" Rockford P2.

Good for him on posting a waste of an article.

[Phil @ Sep 11th 2007 8:35PM]

From how far away from the source was the 180.5dB measured? Isn't it conventional to measure from 1 meter away for a fair comparison? The article doesn't seem to say. Any one spotted something I didn't?

[electro_master @ Oct 29th 2007 1:41PM]

He will must let us he has SPL to watt of 130dB as the his produces 180dB to 104kW??? Apprehend as the he is a joke. Whence incite the power??? As his you produce 104kW on a such loudspeaker will must let us you have an apt to source tri-phase alternating current of precinct 150-200kVA? Whence delivered the such machine power? Is impossible. Is a joke that apprehend as the nescient ofs to which committee grant don't l they knew it. Is caned obtained 180dB but don't with subwoofer.

[Alex @ Nov 21st 2007 4:03AM]

What I want to know is why is that guy using the same 14" Packard Bell monitor I used in the mid ninities with my 486 machine?

[Gustavo @ Nov 27th 2007 8:56AM]

Realmente lo felicito por el record logrado.
Y como siempre estan los que hablan y hablan y hablan. Deben ser los que trabajan para las grandes marcas, que llenan de woofer y potencias y no pueden pasar los 179 dbs. Si hacemos memoria recordemos que en los EEUU estaban en los 16x con sus ban, cuando aparecieron los Finlandeces rompindo todos los records. Recordemos el record de 176 con 1 solo woofer de 18 y 2 potencias. Si le sumamos 2 pote mas (con mas watts c/u) lo que evoluciono el woofer (dicho sea de paso que es el mismo woofer) y sobre todo la tecnica en el armado, estariamos llegando a los 180 dbs.
Al que dice que si calculamos la potencia que uso, 100000 watts y queremos ver la sensibilidad con 1 watts, nos da 130 dbs, pero no tiene en cuenta la ganacia del habitaculo del auto, que en un extreme esta por encima de los 20 dbs, y que el tipo de caja (box, enclosure) que uso debe estar en los 110 dbs de sensibilidad.
En fin creanlo o no el tipo marco los 180.5 en una final del dbdrag, ensima se da el lujo de despacharlos a todos en muerte subita. Aprendan gorditos de yankilandia.