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How Do I Tune My Car Stereo Amplifier

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:41:43 +0000

How Do I Tune My Car Stereo Amplifier? This is a great video that gives beginners to the car stereo industry some tips on how to tune a car’s amplifier. I have seen way to many people turn gains all the way up and not be able to turn the car’s stereo to half way. This video explains the correct way to set the amp up.

What Is The Difference Between RMS and Peak Power?

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:51:14 +0000

The RMS rating is determined but what the amplifiers, or CD players can produces and speakers and subwoofers can handle continuously under normal everyday use. I believe that the RMS rating is the most important when looking at any car stereo equipment, because it tell you what you can expect consistently from your equipment. The higher the RMS rating the cleaner and louder the sounds will be.

The Peak power rating is what the amplifier and CD player can produce and the speaker and subwoofers can handle during short burst of music. You can not and expect your car audio equipment to handle this kind of stress and power at all times.

Be careful when look at ratings on equipment, all most of the time, it is listed in peak power and keep that in mind when pairing amps to speakers and subwoofers.

How Can I Tell If My Car Stereo Subwoofer Is Blown?

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 02:51:02 +0000

A lot of people are always asking “How can I tell if my car’s subwoofer is blown?”. Well this is a great how to video that shows exactly that. Now this is really a video for people that are new to the car stereo scene, most experienced people will all ready know these tricks.

Pre-Loaded Subwoofer Boxes

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:08:45 +0000

Looking for the ideal audio system could be difficult. Perhaps you’re searching for a subwoofer, or an amplifier, or even an enclosure. You have to know what kind of power you need to supply your subwoofer with and how big of a subwoofer enclosure you need for your installation. But there is one solution for all of these—pre-loaded subwoofer box.

The trick is finding out which out exactly what these pre-built systems could do. Often times, these combo packages are designed for car audio beginners who want to test the water without much headaches. There are tons out there now geared specifically for audiophiles such as yourself. Check out the 2008 Kicker loaded enclosures! They’re packed with features and could easily outperform most brands. The new Kicker 08TS10L72, for instance, will house one 10” Solo-Baric L7 subwoofer, capable of delivering 600 watts of continuous power and 1200 watts of peak power.

What are some advantages to these types of enclosures? First of all, the manufacturer knows what would be the best placement, size, and volume of the enclosure in order for the subwoofer to operate in a consistently optimum level. With this in mind, they have only purpose for these boxes—to make the box fit like a glove for the subwoofer. Perfection is definitely key in designing the best sounding system. Whether it would be perfect calculation, calibration, or tuning, the bottom-line is the fact that these are made for the included subwoofer.

In addition, they have also tailored these subwoofer boxes like suits, built with the best material, shape, and position possible for the subwoofer in order to achieve the best sounds possible. You wouldn’t have to measure how big the ports have to be or worry about the internal wiring. All you have to is place it where you want it, hook up the wires from the amplifier, and you’re good to go!

They have various sizes, from 8” to as big as 15” loaded subwoofer enclosures. In addition, various companies have both dual or single voice coil designs as well as single or dual subwoofer mounts. You can be sure of one thing with pre-loaded subwoofer boxes: you’ll be free of headaches and will not be disappointed!

How To Install A Car Amplifier

admin — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:50:30 +0000

How To Install A Car Stereo

admin — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:05:06 +0000

Beginner Car Audio Information

admin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:04:03 +0000

Mike’s Car Audio Reviews will be reviewing all the major components of custom car audio equipment and covering the information for what it will take to have the set up you want. Rather you are looking to compete in local or national car shows in SPL (Sound Pressure Level), SQ (Sound Quality), or just want to have a great sounding system in your car, you will be able to get a lot of great information from this website. Car cd player reviews will cover all the important information you will need to look in to when choosing the perfect car stereo for you car audio system. Car speaker reviews will cover important information you will need to keep in mind when looking to buy component, coaxial and tweeters. Car amplifiers reviews will help you choose the perfect amplifier. Car subwoofer reviews, i think the most important, will have you choose the best subwoofer so you can get the bass you are looking for out of your car audio system. Be sure to read the car audio blog so you can read all of my reviews.

Car audio systems has come a long way from when I first start competing. People used to just get a nice amp and and a couple of subs and a carpeted box. These custom set ups can be very complex. Custom subwoofer enclosures, amp racks and very nice looking subwoofers can really make a car audio system look very good and can cost a lot of money if you are going to be paying someone to do the work, but if you don’t mind using your own time a lot of these can be done your self and save a lot of money, just take time, the willing to learn and patience.

There are many things you will or may need to build the custom car audio system that you want. The most popular are listed below for you to use as a check list or get to get a idea what all or more you will for your system.

Stereo ( Head Unit )
Speakers
Tweeters
Midrange drivers
Subwoofers ( Subs )
Amplifies ( Amps )
Crossovers
Equalizers
Wiring ( Power Cables )
Fuses and Breakers
Upgraded Battery
Power Caps
More Powerful Alternator

Stereo Receivers Information For Beginners

admin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:37:50 +0000

Car stereo receivers, or CD players, are not the most important thing when it comes to SPL or SQ, but it is still a couple of things that need some consideration, even if you plan on having all of your car speakers and subwoofers powered by amplifiers. Features and looks are probably going to get a lot of consideration when choosing a car stereo. The most important thing, in my mind, is going to be preamp voltage, if you will be using amplifiers on all of your speakers.

Stereo Features And Information, Lets Review

Here are the most important things you want to review when you are deciding what car stereos to choose from. There are the most common and important specs of car stereos and what they stand for.

Preamp Outputs: The number of RCA output jacks on the back of the receiver that allow you to connect external amplifiers. More is normally better, just depending on the amount of amplifiers you will need.

Preamp Voltage: The output voltage the stereo preamp output rating. This is very important for the amplifiers you will be using. The higher preamp output voltage the better (over 2.0V), because it lets the amplifier produce at its maximum output.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio: This is a very import to look at. This measures how well the receiver silences the background noise. The higher the rating the less background noise you will have.

RMS Power Output: The amount of continuous power, in watts, that the car stereo can produce. The higher the RMS, the louder the sound of the music will be. But remember higher RMS does not always mean clearer sound. The RMS output is what you should use when reviewing different receivers to see how much power they have the ability to produce. This is not important if you are going to have amplifiers on all speakers

Peak Output: Peak power is measured by short sound burst. You will probably see output power numbers on the front of any receiver. This is not the receivers RMS, but its peak power.

RMS Power Bandwidth: The frequency range used when using the amplifier in the stereo receiver. This is figured by the RMS rating. The range you want your receiver to have is 20-20,000 Hz, because this is the range we can hear.

FM Sensitivity: This has to do with the receivers ability to pick up FM stations. It is listed in decibel femtowatts (dBf). If this is something that is import to you, the smaller the value the better.

Amplifiers Information For Beginners

admin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:34:03 +0000

Car amplifiers, or amps, and another big piece of the car audio puzzle. If you going to be using the amp to power midrange speakers and tweeters, you will want to look for a AB amplifier that is multi channel. If you are planning on powering subwoofers, you will probably want to look for a class D mono amp. You also have to look at the RMS and peak rating on your speakers. If the amplifier going to be use to power subwoofers, you have to know how you are going to wirer the subs. Positive to positive, negative to negative, parallel and series and how this affects ohms and how a drop in ohms affects to output of the amplifiers. You also have to make sure the ohm load matches the ohm of the subwoofer as well. Don’t worry, i will soon having wiring diagrams for you to use. Car amplifier reviews will be available in the car audio blog.

Car Amplifier Features and Information, Lets Review

Class: This refers to the way the amplifier operates and is very important to look at. The 2 most popular are going to be class D and class A/B. A/B amplifiers will usually be used on tweeters, coaxials and components. Class D amplifiers are usually for subwoofer amplifiers and can reach efficiencies in the 80%+ range. So this design can be smaller, uses less current and not get as hot as class A/B amplifier

Crossover: A filter is a crossover that only affects one channel, just reducing a range of them.

Separate Gain Controls: This allows the gain of each channel of the amplifier to be set independent.

Stability: The measure of how low of an ohm load an amplifier will be stable at. Any decent amplifier will be 2 ohm stable. The amplifier will normally double its power each time the load is cut in half. This is most useful when running multiple speakers off of a single amplifier.

Distortion: This is often given as T.H.D. Distortion is the measure of how much an amplifier will change its signal from the input signal it receives . The figure can be in the 3% range without being heard, but almost all high quality amplifiers will have a T.H.D. below 0.1%.

Bridgeable: This feature allows a 2 channels to be connected into one channel for more power. This is normally used for powering a subwoofer.
Channels: The more channels an amplifier has, the more options you will for installing speakers.

Efficiency: The ratio of power input (battery) to power the speakers. Lets say you have a 50 watt amplifier with an efficiency of 50% would take in 100 watts of power (battery) and output 50 watts of power to the speakers. The other 50 watts of power is wasted as heat. The higher the efficiency, the better the amplifier. Amplifiers with low efficiency will have a better chance of overheating.

Power Output: The power output of an amplifier will almost always be given in a four ohm load, all channels driven from 20Hz-20kHz. Keep in mind that while the low end amplifiers are exaggerated in their power output, many high end amplifiers are under-rated in their power output.

Pre-amp Inputs: This is a set of RCA jacks that will accept a low level pre-amp signal from the amplifier.

Pre-amp Outputs: This is a set of RCA jacks that pass on a low level pre-amp signal to another amplifier.

Tube Amplifiers: These are not very common and also the very expensive. They are said to produce a a lot better sound in midrange speakers.

Subwoofer Information For Beginners

admin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:30:09 +0000

Car Subwoofers, or Subs, is where the fun starts, but again you may need different type of subwoofer drivers depending on SPL vs SQ. You will also have to keep in mind the air space required per subwoofer, watts, RMS and peak, and size. Subwoofers also come in more than one shape now. You have round, square and triangle subs to choose from. Subwoofers also come in 2, 4 and 8 ohms with both single and dual voice coils. Other things to know and understand when buying a subwoofer is listed below. You can also read the car audio blog to get my reviews of all different types of car audio equipment including car subwoofer reviews.

Car Subwoofer Features and Information, Lets Review

RMS Power Handling: This is the amount of continuous power, in watts, that the subwoofer can handle. Make sure you match the sub’s power handling to your car amplifier’s power.

Peak Power: This is the peak amount of power, in watts the subwoofer can handle. Remember, this does dont mean you can send the subwoofer the amount of power for a short time it will happen will normall music in short burst.

Frequency Range: Frequency range gives you an idea of how low a sub can play. Keep in mind, though, that the actual performance of the sub can depend on a lot of variables, like how the subwoofer is mounted.

Sensitivity: Sensitivity goes along with power to achieve high output. A subwoofer that has a higher sensitivity rating requires less power to produce the same amount of sound as a model with a lower rating.

Impedance: Ohm of the subwoofer. This will be very important for choosing becuase it will affect how the system has to be wired. most subwoofers will come in either 2, 4, or 8 ohms.

Woofer Material: The type of material the subwoofer is made out of will affect the sound quality. Poly / Plastic: Probably the most used material for car speakers, they are weather-resistant and have good internal damping. Composite: Mica, CMMD, Glass-imides, HCL, and IMPP are all types of composite materials used for speakers cones. These materials are stiff and strong. They all can producee great sound with excellent dispersion.

Surround Material: Santroprene: This is a popular new durable plastic material. Urethane: Urethane is a plastic compound with proven flexibility and weather resistance and is an advance on natural rubber.

Top Mounting Depth: This will give you the hieght of the speaker, and will help you determen the size box you will need for it or if this subwoofer will fit in your car or truck.

Mounting Diameter / Length: Simply the width of hole the subwoofer will need to slide into.

Number of voice coils: A dual voice coil subwoofer has two separate voice coils. This offers more flexibility in wiring than a single voice coil sub. The DVC sub can be wired in three different ways: parallel, series, or independent. This way, you can wire the sub according to your system design and preferences.

Subwoofer Enclosure: Type of box your subwoofer will be mounted in. The main types are, sealed, vented (ported), and bandpass.