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

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