Remote Starter Buying Guide From One of Our Contributors

Mobile Edge, a contributor to Best Car Audio, recently offered a post on their site titled “Top Ten List: Remote Car Starter Buying Guide.”  This is a very informative post that does not plug any specific vendor.  The point Mitch makes are spot on.  If you are in the Market for a remote car starter, take a few minutes to check out this post.

Things to know…

The year is 1985 and the stereo system in your new vehicle is just not good. It doesn’t sound good, it doesn’t look good and it didn’t have a CD player. Fast forward to the year 2006 and the stereo system in your new vehicle is pretty darn good, or is it?

Factory stereos overall quality in vehicle are at an all time high. With features like a CD player (not even a tape deck anymore), MP3, iPod ready, steering wheel controls, rear mounted controls, satellite ready, navigation and Bluetooth cellular hands free they have all the bells and whistles. Some cars manufacturers have even gone to the aftermarket companies to help them with their factory stereos by even badging them with names like Rockford Fosgate, Alpine, Pioneer, Dynaudio, Infinity and Boston Acoustics. Can you get any better then this? Sure you can, but you have to know a thing or two or three or maybe four for it to sound better then what the factory has provided for you. Read more

Head units, Navigation and everything else in between

I wrote this a few months ago for my monthly article in RPM Motoring Monthly and I thought I would post it here as well.I wanted to talk about what’s new in the world of head units (radio’s, CD players, decks, just pick your terminology) but there really hasn’t been anything “new” for quite sometime, so lets talk about what has changed and been improved on.

Almost every car sold now in the world comes with a CD player as a factory feature, so why do people still want to remove them? Read more

What is a Stiffening Capacitor and Why Do I Need One?

We sell a LOT of capacitors in our store. We recommend them with every amp and sub sale. They make a difference in the quality of the bass and they help with that annoying dimming of the dash/head lights. But what are they, what do they do, and why do they help an audio install?

Definition

American Heritage Dictionary defines a capacitor as “an electric circuit element used to store charge temporarily, consisting in general of two metallic plates separated and insulated from each other by a dielectric.” Sounds almost like a battery doesn’t it? Well it is and it isn’t. A battery and a capacitor both store a charge. There are several key differences:

• A capacitor charges very quickly. A battery charges more slowly.
• A capacitor discharges very fast. A battery discharges more slowly.
• A capacitor stores a relatively small charge where a battery stores a tremendous amount of energy.

A battery’s main purpose is to start your car. It stores the current necessary to power your starter and turn your engine over. There is a lot of current delivered during several seconds of the crank cycle. But a battery is not capable of delivering quick bursts.

A capacitor does deliver those quick bursts. It also recovers (recharges) very quickly. But it does not have much reserve. It could never start a car. Or a lawn tractor for that matter!

How does this relate to car audio?

Music is a very dynamic medium. In every type of music there are quiet sections and very loud sections. When these loud passages occur, the amplifier needs more current to push the subs and speakers harder. It attempts to derive this power from the battery and charging system of the vehicle. Since a battery is not a very dynamic device (slow to discharge), the amp sometimes has trouble getting enough current to make the level of sound it is being asked to produce. This is where a capacitor comes in. Read more

Dual Voice Coil or Single Voice Coil? Which is right for me?

As a store owner since 1994, I’ve heard it a million times: “I want a dual voice coil sub.” So I do my job and ask “why is it that you think you need a DVC sub?” The answer every time is the same: “Well they’re louder!”

I guess it is natural to think that. If one coil is loud, 2 coils are louder. Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. All things being equal, an SVC sub and a dvc sub are virtually identical in output.

Why make them if they produce the same output? Simple… To be able to derive the maximum power that an amplifier can safely produce. Let me explain…

For the purpose of this post, we will assume that all individual coils are 4 ohms.

Suppose a customer has a 1 channel (monoblock) amplifier that produces it’s maximum power output of 500 watts when presented with a 1 ohm impedance. If presented with a 2 ohm load, it produces 250 watts and a 4 ohm load produces 125 watts. You have decided that you want 2 12 inch subs.

If you take 2 single voice coil (SVC) subs (4 ohms each) and hook them up in parallel, you end up with a 2 ohm load. You are essentially using half of your amplifier. Not an optimum situation… Read more

Gain Controls… Level Matching Devices, Not Volume Controls

I’m sure every contributor to BestCarAudio.com would agree that one of the most common misconceptions in the car audio industry is the purpose of the gain control on an amplifier. We all see it on a weekly, if not daily basis… The custom comes in with a blown sub and complains that “my amp is only 200 watts and the sub can handle 500 watts! What’s up with that?”

Truth is, in the 15 years that I have been doing this, I would say that 90% of the blown subs that I have encountered are due to improperly set gain controls, not big bad amplifiers! The purpose of this post is to explain what a gain control is.

To put it in it’s simplest form, a gain control is a level matching device. Read more

What are Component Speakers and Why Should I Buy Them

Today’s vehicles come from the factory with decent sounding systems. I say decent because that is what they are. Todays factory systems sound better than they did 10 years ago, but there is still a LOT of room for improvement.

Back in the early 90’s when I started my shop, we sold tons of coaxials and triaxials. Simply described, these are speakers that have a woofer, midrange and tweeter all in one unit. They are bolted together and have a minimal crossover typically hot glued to the back of the basket. By taking out the customer’s dual paper cone speaker and installing a coaxial, we could make a vast improvement in sound quality.

That is not so true anymore. The manufacturers are putting better speakers in their vehicles. In order to achieve the same amount of improvement, we now offer our customers Component Speaker packages. Component Speakers are typically 2 separate speakers and an outboard crossover. A common Component Speaker setup includes two 6.5″ woofers, two 1″ tweeters and a pair of crossovers the size of a pack of cigars.

Speaker quality is tremendously important when selecting a good component set. Just as important is the role of the outboard crossover. Because there is significantly more room to work with, better quality components can be used within the crossover unit. By using better parts, the frequencies going to the woofer and tweeter can be better controlled and separated. This allows for vastly better frequency response, sound quality and power handling.

Installation of a component set is definitely more complex. A location must be found for the crossover and in many cases, additional wires need to be run into the doors. Some component sets allow for the tweeter to be mounted into it’s customary location in the center of the woofer. Other sets require the tweeter to be mounted elsewhere. This may mean the cutting of a door panel, the construction of an a pillar pod or perhaps surface mounting.

When considering a speaker upgrade, consult with your local specialist who, undoubtedly has several pair of component speakers on a working display for you to audition. They can make installation recommendations based on previous experiences. And when it comes time to install the set, they can do the job properly the first time to ensure that you receive the most from your investment in sound quality.

What about the cost? Component speaker generally start out at the price of a decent set of coaxials and go up in price from there. The sky is the limit with components. Installation ranges from slightly more than a coaxial install to many hundreds of dollars for a customer fiberglassed door pods.