This may be a transient problem as people get used to new technology. It's like using Filmlook to put scratches and grain on HD video. The 2013 Lotus Evora, a series hybrid vehicle with an electric motor and a fixed gearbox, took this to the point of silliness. Not only did they provide fake engine sounds, they provided shift paddles and required the driver to shift software-simulated gears . They even provided a mom…
I still want one that makes the sounds of the vehicles in The Jetsons. Why aren't loadable and customizable sounds a thing?
If the sounds are too different from existing mental models, they won't be associated with oncoming traffic?
It's the same as hearing a recording of someone playing the violin vs. the real thing. Even with the best audio system you can still tell it's just a recording. And I don't treat the sound the engine makes as a side effect of other attributes - it's just as important as acceleration or fuel consumption.
The real thing is also a recording, it's the memory of the music and the playing skill recorded in the violinist's mind, with the musician and his violin as the playback device rather than a speaker. You prefer the acoustic qualities of one type of playback device over the other, but that doesn't make it any more or less "real" for any commonly accepted definition of "real".
...I honestly can't tell if you are serious. Your argument is basically that everything is real, because sound coming from the speakers is no less real than the sound coming from an actual violin. Should I have used a term "artificial" then? Just like artificial diamonds are not the same as real diamonds, artificial sounds produced by a speaker are not the same as sounds made by a real violin. Like someone else said - the difference is the same as there is between attending a concert and sitting in your room listening to a CD. You could even argue that with a sufficiently advanced audio system, the aural experience is exactly the same, so technically they are the same. And that would be true, if humans were robots - but we experience a whole set of irrational emotions,and that's why a lot of people prefer being at a concert to listening to a recording, having real diamonds instead of mass-produced ones, or using actual sugar instead of sweeteners - even if the sensory experience produced is no "more or less "real" for any commonly accepted definition of "real". And that's why I would personally prefer having an actual combustion of fuel to be producing sounds in my car, instead of the speaker system , thank you.
Surely you are not using the term "ricer crowd" to refer to Asians?
> Surely you are not using the term "ricer crowd" to refer to Asians? No, he's using it to refer to Asian vehicles (and colloquially, people immersed in the culture surrounding them). It's a bit racist, but more of a subcultural epithet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_burner
Really? I always thought that "ricer" was a word play on "racer", a funny term used to describe idiots in their pimped out cars who think they are racers.
The sound of an approaching Merlin V12 at full throttle is the most thrilling sound in the world. http://www.amazon.com/Sigh-Merlin-Spitfire-Alex-Henshaw/dp/0... "For anyone who has heard a Merlin engine on any aircraft, you will understand the title." No stereo has ever been able to reproduce that sound.
Nostalgia can be insatiable, sure.
It would only be nostalgia if you found it attractive because of an old memory you had. If you put someone in a car with a V-12 engine there is a very good probability that they would find the sound exciting, even if they never heard it before. That has absolutely nothing to do with nostalgia.
You don't believe what? You don't believe that pedestrians can step into traffic? Or you don't believe that drivers can get away with no punishment if pedestrians step in front of them without giving them time to stop? I'm not looking up a source because it's so ridiculous that I'm not even sure there's a law on the books about it, but if you walk into the side of my (moving) car and get hurt, that's your fault, not…
We disagree on a more basic level. I know people can run in to the street without warning. I know drivers get away with no punishment if somebody darts in to the street. In fact, my point was that drivers get away with no punishment _almost every time they kill a pedestrian_. In NYC they have less than a 5% chance of even being arrested, much less convicted. Driving a car is probably a great way to commit murder. Als…
I think you're disagreeing with something I never said. From what I understand, you're asking me for a source stating that drivers can hit someone and not be at fault, while your argument is that drivers are never at fault? I guess I still don't get what kind of source you're asking me for.
But apparently you believe there is such a thing as a speed so low that you cannot hit a pedestrian. Have you ever watched some Russian dashboard camera footage where pedestrians throw themselves at cars that are sometimes completely stopped? Or my previous example of someone walking into the side of your car? I've had that happen, where a bicyclist ran through an intersection without looking and ended up in the back of my pickup truck. Tell me that's my fault. The responding officer sure didn't.
> I would love car traffic to be more silent A minor nitpick, but you can't get more silent than silent since silence is the absence of any noise.
Sure, but absolutes are rarely used in their literal meaning. "Silence" doesn't refer to the absence of any noise, it refers to a very low level of noise. The absence of any noise at all is very difficult to achieve (although you can come close: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI ). The same goes for other absolutes like "black" (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack is arguably "blacker" than other "…
Damn, you couldn't have been any more on with that.
> Surely you are not using the term "ricer crowd" to refer to Asians? No, he's using it to refer to Asian vehicles (and colloquially, people immersed in the culture surrounding them). It's a bit racist, but more of a subcultural epithet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_burner
Really? I always thought that "ricer" was a word play on "racer", a funny term used to describe idiots in their pimped out cars who think they are racers.
(This is more my personal opinion, and less sourced)
I think the "rice" word (aside from the racial connotations) came from the stereotypical first modification being an absurdly large exhaust to try and lower the frequency of the typically smaller, higher-rev'ing / turbo'd Asian engines.
A noticeably large cylinder shoehorned on to the back of your car? Rice cooker.
Options include simulated straight-6, American V-8, and V-12 engines, plus some turbine-like sounds. This is like changing ringtones on your phone. Can I download a twin turbo?
There have been aftermarket speaker setups to emit the "choosh" sound of the wastegate opening marketed to the ricer crowd for years.