TL vs AC score

[PUNKYOU007]

my boy finnaly went up to a local shop and got metered. he has two audiopipe 15s and a power acoustick 3000d amp. in a prefab box and hit a 146.2 on music. i have never been on an AC and i dont know where they put the mic but how far off is and AC from a TL?

[Kranny]

depends. AC's have that gain knob for god knows why (i'd like to know if anyone does) so the only way to know how far off one meter is from a TL, you gotta have em side by side

[PUNKYOU007]

so gay, i gotta find out where they put the mic too.

[tristan560]

Also depends on what AC they are using. I put up a 162 with the AC. But i know damn well thats not the case. Still need to get on the TL with my new setup.

[jhmeg2]

The AC is also used as a tool to tune with and test RTA. Thats why it has knobs... there is more to car audio than going boom. Actually, is rare, but I heard that some people actually listen to muuuusic in thier cars. Crazy right!!!? LOL

I think the AC is about 3dB off from the TL, but I think the AC3056 has a new sensor and is a lot closer that it used to be. I prefer to tune only with the AC unit, and use it to find Res. Freq. Others wise if I were to get back into SPL, I would get meeterd on the TL.

[Mr. Ben]

The AC is also used as a tool to tune with and test RTA. Thats why it has knobs... there is more to car audio than going boom. Actually, is rare, but I heard that some people actually listen to muuuusic in thier cars. Crazy right!!!? LOL

I think the AC is about 3dB off from the TL, but I think the AC3056 has a new sensor and is a lot closer that it used to be. I prefer to tune only with the AC unit, and use it to find Res. Freq. Others wise if I were to get back into SPL, I would get meeterd on the TL.

yea i heard the same depending on the meter and your gain but yes have to be side by side because they are 2 different forms of data to the unit

[Decaf]

The AC is also used as a tool to tune with and test RTA. Thats why it has knobs... there is more to car audio than going boom. Actually, is rare, but I heard that some people actually listen to muuuusic in thier cars. Crazy right!!!? LOL

I think the AC is about 3dB off from the TL, but I think the AC3056 has a new sensor and is a lot closer that it used to be. I prefer to tune only with the AC unit, and use it to find Res. Freq. Others wise if I were to get back into SPL, I would get meeterd on the TL.

o gosh are u wrong

tl is more accurate because it doesnt have a diaphram that changes chacteristics depending on weather

tl is a stress guage, meaning it measures how much one piece of steel presses against another which is basically not affected by any fluctuations

whereas a AC is still a standard mic diaphram, subject to changes from humidity, temp and the fact that even NASA was more interested in TL than AC says alot

TL RTA is more commonly used than AC too, just because its cheaper doesnt mean it isnt as good

$600 > $4000

[noiseycricket]

our Ac is 2 to 3 db off, and our mic is place on the windshield where a TL mic would normally be

[raytard]

ours is 9db off

competition wise, an AC mic is VERY accurate, everyone would have the same 9db boost. so if you were 1.3db louder on an ac, youre 1.3 louder on a tl.

tl is pre-calibrated so unit to unit, show to show, your score is going to be the same. AC's are all calibrated slightly different, so a 150 here is a 145 there and a 152 somewhere else.

[Nightshade]

ours is 9db off

competition wise, an AC mic is VERY accurate, everyone would have the same 9db boost. so if you were 1.3db louder on an ac, youre 1.3 louder on a tl.

tl is pre-calibrated so unit to unit, show to show, your score is going to be the same. AC's are all calibrated slightly different, so a 150 here is a 145 there and a 152 somewhere else.

This is not completely true. I've seen variances between TL's from person to person. For example my Team's TL reads about .3db lower than the TL that the promoter of NSPL uses and about .7db lower than a local SC organization. I've also seen this to be true from show to show in Ohio where different TL's have been used since a different promoter was running the shows.

I've never seen more than a db but it is still odd how they are completely different even when tested side by side, which has been done several times before. They can still fall out of calibration and need to be sent back every once and a while to Wayne Harris for recalibration. Usually when a vehicle over 170db is on the mic is when it will start to loose it's accuracy.