sq and spl

im new to this whole audio specifics and everythign and bassically i dotn know much to do with alot of the set up and everything--i jsut like really loud music. and i was just wonderign if someone could clear up what sq and spl meant cuz i see it in so many of these forums and i just dont know hwat it means

thank

No problem dude.

SQ = sound quality or even better is if you like music and want to listen to it, this is for you.

SPL = sound pressure level or even better is how damn loud and annoying can it be.

There is a misguided form that combined this as well, called SQL

SQL = sound quality loud but there is some point in the threshold of human hearing that we can longer distinguish the difference in sound quality between one loud sound as compared to another loud sound. Thus SQL for all intents and purposes in non - existent and I for one sure wish people would not use it.

A lot of younger guys want the big bad bass bonanza booming blatently at all hours of the night, this is the SPL guy. He is more concerned with how loud my system is, unfortunately it has nothing to do with listening to your music and will cause permanent hearing damage. It is fairly simple to get a loud stereo system.

Now once you are tired of SPL or get a little older and want to listen to your music, you would generally have progressed from a crapbox honda with a wing that thinks the car will fly and a fart can exhaust to some other car. SQ is much more elusive as we all hear differently. It is for the most part a much costlier pursuit but is also much safer to listen to and at the end of a long drive you have actually listened to your music. Some people want good sound, some people want to annoy the neighbourhood, the choice is yours.

LOL another classic from the King...the Royal Canadian Mounties don't really know what they're in for, do they.....?

Is sound quality judging always subjective or do some places actaully use an RTA meter to check for flat response. Around here they always just use pairs of judges and that doesnt sit well with me. What sounds good to one person may not sound good to another. I know some people who would listen to a  set o MB Quart speakers and automaticly judge the system of being to bright where others find that to be appealing. I have to point out that last year I went to a show which I thought was SPL but was actually SQ. I entered anyways, despite not even having my front speakers hooked up when I got there because, as i said, I thought it was SPL. So anyways I hooked up my front speakers which were pioneer REV series 6 inch components in kick pods RUNNING OFF THE DECK, because my amp had decided to die like 3 days earlier, and I turned down my 4 pioneer 12's which were running off my HCCA 425 orion amp and then let em judge. Now for anyone who knows sq they should also know that this system is not ideal. Anyways by the end of the day I walked up to the podium to collect my second place trophy. I beat my friends truck which runs Utopia 6 4 tweet in the front with polykevlar drivers off of Pheniox gold Titanium power. I listen to his truck, and I do this for a living and with the exception of his imaging mabye not being quite as good as mine his truck sounded way better than my set up yet I beat him by almost 50 points because the judging was subjective and they decided that my car sounded better. His install was also far nicer than mine being I threw this set up together in about 4 hours specifically for this comp. This is a reason why I dont even bother with SQ competions any more. Not around here at least.

In my opinion, any legitimate SQ competition will use an RTA to measure system frequency response.  But they will also use subjective judges to determine things like imaging and timbre matching and presence, as these are not quite as black and white as the kinds of things a meter is able to tell you.

The thing that surprises me about your story is you won anything using Pioneer...    I'd bet the reason you beat out the truck was your imaging, as this is usually weighted very heavily in SQ comps.  The imaging holy grail that I am currently pursuing is using the windshield as a sound transducer...

Elaborate....  Please.