I think it's more so that the peak in impedance drops to nothing.

 

Good Post.

I've always had my system in my car during the winter...never really pounded it...but played it with no problems **knock on wood**

just h8t when the factory head unit dims.

damn artic air

 

21 years of high end car audio through out winter with not a problem...just use your brain a little and most things will work fine!!

 

I let my subs/speakers warm up at a low volume until my faceplate display warms up. Then I let her rip. I try to warm up the suspension and cones a bit so they aren't so brittle.

 

I hope you realize how much you need to alter a speaker before the difference is audible... ie less then 1db of difference in freq response will not be audible... and it will definatly take 2-3 db before its plainly audible....

To illustrate I would point out that manufacturing variences commonly cause two speakers to have a paramater like vas that is off by 20% or more... is that audible ? no. You are probably looking at less then .5db of variation between the speakers.... And having seen temperature coeffients for the spring constants of various materials before, Iam still unconvinced there will be some huge difference in something like vas that will cause some blatently obvious change in sound even at -20.... (ie the speaker now sounds like garbage)

As far as ABX testing goes its 100% necassary for any fair A to B listening compairson because our ears are poor scientific instruments and are heavilly biased by our brains... but maybe you have never heard someone talk about the profound difference in sound between amplifiers... or heard the story of the audiophile installer who secretly had a 4" hole cut into his woofer box and didn't notice...

 

I usually play my system at a lower volume until my car warms up before i turn it up and ive had no problems, common sense goes a long way.. I dont imagine the cold would degrade speakers... think about it; most older cars still have working stock speakers.

 

I can't say I can hear a distinct change in sound when listening in pretty cold weather, except for the obvious fact that output is much less from a cold and sluggish sub.

 

ask all the guys with trunk mounted subs...i doubt that the subs ever get warm in the winter!! In fact I know my trunk in the last car I had stayed cold all winter because I had a leaky trunk gasket and the whole spare tire well was frozen until spring.

 

kinda scary that the most exspensive part of my system is in my trunk where there is no heat,

once had a rubber surround on a sub break after the winter