PIAA Sports Horn

Did you happen to compare the sound to the JDM horn from Sigma Auto ? I'm curious how the sound of the PIAA compares. The horn is on my list of gotta change items.

Ken

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(olmanwompa @ Nov 7 2006, 11:58 PM) [snapback]345288[/snapback]</div>

Where did you order these horns? Thanks.

 

So the PIAA horns just plug into the original wiring connector?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher @ Nov 21 2007, 12:30 PM) [snapback]542564[/snapback]</div>

+1 Is it truly a plug-and-play install?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(H2OSkier @ Nov 8 2006, 09:28 AM) [snapback]345495[/snapback]</div>

Amazon sells them for $39, free shipping for Amzaon Prime members. They actually have two kinds, one with 400 & 500 Hz horns, the other with %00 & 600. For some reason, this latter one, which I assume is higher pitched, is much more popular. Anybody have any idea what the sound difference is like?

 

Most likely stupid people think the bigger numbers mean louder.

 

I like the sound of the 500/600, but then again I am not very bright.

 

LOL; right on brother!!!

 

Here is the sound of the 500/600:
http://www.autobacs.com/download/sound/4960311270492.wav

Here is the sound of the 400/500:

I still like the sound of the 500/600hz over the 400/500hz.

 

I just installed the PIAA Sport Horns 500/600 tonight. I installed them in the stock locations and it took about an hour. Sounds way better then the wimpy horns the Prius came with.

I made a short extension for each of the power wires using a male prong to fit into the stock wiring harness and an insulated female prong to fit on the horn. I attached the included grounding wires to the mounting bolts. I was able to get better access and retrieve dropped items by removing the grills by the fog lights.

This morning, I had to honk (with the stock horns) at a woman who tried to change lanes into me; my 9 year old and 7 year old daughters both agreed that the stock horns were wimpy. Now, in a sick way, I almost can't wait for the opportunity to honk at someone with my new horns.

 

I also discovered mid-install of my PIAA 400/500 horns that I needed an extension for the 12V cable. I mounted mine in the stock locations, and in both places the 12V cable was just about an inch or two too short to get it on the horn without putting a lot of strain on the wiring harness. (On the stock horns, the electrical connection is pointing down, whereas the connections on the PIAA horns point up, so you need a slightly longer cable.)

Fortunately, the grounding wires included with the horns are way too long, so I cut them to size for the ground connection and used the remainder for the extension cable. I used the male lugs from 1/4" insulated crimp-on quick disconnects from Radio Shack (part 64-4040) for the end on the wiring harness and the female lugs from 1/4" fully insulated crimp-on quick disconnects from Radio Shack (part 64-3133). You could probably get the job done with the former only, since I doubt it matters if the ground connection is exposed. Each package is only $1.99, and I would highly recommend having them on hand just in case you also find that you need them.

I didn't have to pop the whole grill off to get the horns in place, but I did remove all the top fasteners on the grill to pull it forward enough to access the area in which the horns are mounted. I observed at the end of my install that the connectors on the passenger side are jammed against one of the braces. Hopefully there will be no long-term heat issues for the wiring because of that.

 

I just installed the PIAA 400/500 Hz horns this morning... what an improvement! I found them on Amazon for $40.77 with free shipping.

 

I installed the PIAA 500/600 Hz horns. No problem with the installation. No need an extension and pretty much straight forward install. The horn sound meaner now.

 

I gotta agree, the 500/600's do sound much better than the stock horns!!!
Simple install. I made jumpers to extend the wires, but thats just me, it will work OK with out the extensions!!

But by all means, upgrade the horns!!

You will be glad you did. And yes, I got mine from Amazon, FREE SHIPPING, good price!!

73 all de Pat KK6PD

 

That could have been a good opportunity to educate some of us about sound instead of calling those who do not know or have never heard of decibel ratings stupid....just a thought.

 

Sound pressure level



Sound pressure is defined as the difference between the average local pressure of the medium outside of the sound wave in which it is traveling through (at a given point and a given time) and the pressure found within the sound wave itself within that same medium. A square of this difference (i.e. a square of the deviation from the equilibrium pressure) is usually averaged over time and/or space, and a square root of such average is taken to obtain a root mean square (RMS) value. For example, 1 Pa RMS sound pressure in atmospheric air implies that the actual pressure in the sound wave oscillates between (1 atm Pa) and (1 atm Pa), that is between 101323.6 and 101326.4 Pa. Such a tiny (relative to atmospheric) variation in air pressure at an audio frequency will be perceived as quite a deafening sound, and can cause hearing damage, according to the table below.
As the human ear can detect sounds with a very wide range of amplitudes, sound pressure is often measured as a level on a logarithmic decibel scale. The sound pressure level (SPL) or Lp is defined as
where p is the root-mean-square sound pressure and pref is a reference sound pressure. Commonly used reference sound pressures, defined in the standard ANSI S1.1-1994, are 20 µPa in air and 1 µPa in water. Without a specified reference sound pressure, a value expressed in decibels cannot represent a sound pressure level. Since the human ear does not have a flat spectral response, sound pressures are often frequency weighted so that the measured level will match perceived levels more closely. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has defined several weighting schemes. A-weighting attempts to match the response of the human ear to noise and A-weighted sound pressure levels are labeled dBA. C-weighting is used to measure peak levels.

Examples of sound pressure and sound pressure levels
Source of soundsound pressure level dB
Nuclear Weapon explosionapprox 248
Krakatoa eruptionapprox 180 at 100 miles
Stun grenades170-180rocket launch equipment acoustic testsapprox. 165
threshold of pain134

PIAA 500/600 115

jackhammer, 1 m distant / discothequeapprox. 100
hearing damage from long-term exposureapprox. 85traffic noise on major road, 10 m distant80–90moving

automobile, 10 m distant60–80 TOYTOTA STOCK HORN

TV set – typical home level, 1 m distantapprox. 60
normal talking, 1 m distant40–60
very calm room20–30
quiet rustling leaves, calm human breathing10
auditory threshold at 2 kHz – undamaged human ears0


IN SHORT THE MORE THE dB RATING, THE LOUDER THE SOUND
IT DOESN'T GET SIMPLER THAN THAT!!!

73 DE PAT KK6PD

 

I just received my PIAA sports horns and I ran into problems. This is NOT an easy install, not for me anyway. I'm a pretty accomplished dentist and pretty good handiman. The grilles were quite hard to remove and I broke 2 clips despite my best efforts--that plastic is super soft.

Then I would have needed to do some major wiring work. Let me explain.

The stock horns are each attached by a single plug connector. The PIAA's use 2 blade connectors and I would need to splice the stock wire to a female blade connector. The PIAA packaging only included 2 connector wires, and you need 4 since each of the 2 PIAA horns has 2 blade connections.

So, my question is: **did your PIAA's come with single slot connections like the stock ones or the double blade connectors that require some splicing??? I can't imagine splicing wires and crimping connectors in that very tight, limited space even with the grilles removed.

Please help!
thanks!

 

Actualy it's a rather EASY install. I took 20 minutes, did not have to use "Novacaine" either... of course a couple of beers helped!!

Why did you remove the grill, that is just NOT necessary!
The existing wires if routed correctly will fit 1 spade lug on the horn, the other lug goes to car chassis ground, about 5 inches from the horn.
I reused the existing holes, used their wire to go to the mounting screw hole for the horn gnd lug, that's ground.
Just because I could,I made a 3" cable with a Male/Female Spade Lug, an "Extension Chord" so to speak, for the existing power plug for the horn, which will fit on the PIAA lugs, plugged it together, ALL With the Grill on!!!

Works Great!!!