Why choose an independent store?

We care. It’s true that in some areas the market is flooded with shops that just see consumers as dollar signs or at times, an annoyance. I assure you that 90% of the brick and mortar shops out there do care about their good name. Normally you can tell just by the lines they carry, how they speak to you, and the work they proudly exhibit on their counter tops or walls. We WILL offer you the best service out there. We may not be able to match pricing, but if you shop based on price, then you should reevaluate how you would like your sound system to perform. Bottom line, if we do not offer the best service, along with quality installations that will last the life of your vehicle, then we really offer nothing that the others do not already.

The big boxes

Big box stores have one thing in common; inexperienced installers. Normally they have one very experienced installer, who is holding a management position. He will probably not be the person installing your equipment. He will not care if he breaks something in your car………….he doesn’t have to pay for it. The store will. He will not care about the quality of the install………..it’s not HIS car. He will get paid regardless. Granted many installers do not have this type of attitude, but with age comes experience.

Ultimately the ball is in the consumer’s court. Shop around before you make a decision. How much do you care about YOUR vehicle?

Written by Andy Pendley
Owner of Carolina Car Stereo and Security in Morganton, NC

Kevin “Andy” Pendley was named one of the top 100 installers in the country by Mobile Electronics Magazine. His passion for this industry shows in the top quality service and installations he provides.

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.

Head Units

The first thing you need to know is about head units, decks, source units. They are all the same thing just pick your terminology. In the modern car, is it worth replacing the factory CD player with an aftermarket one? For 75% of the people that want to improve their sound quality it is not worth replacing their CD player. The stock radios of today’s vehicles are integrated into the dash board more than ever. So why do people do it, well it’s because the general public has been conditioned to think that if it’s stock then it must be no good (remember our step back to 1985). The simple fact is that in more and more cars the radios simply can not be removed from the vehicle. Auto manufacturers are running more and more vehicle functions through the radio then they ever have. Yes you can buy modules to take care of this but is it really worth it?

These days everything is done with a module. If you remove your factory radio you can get a module to retain your steering wheel controls, retain your Onstar system, retain your Bluetooth cellular system, and retain almost anything or add anything.

We asked if it was going to sound better. The simple answer is that the CD player provided in a KIA sounds no better or worse then the CD player found in a Lexus. Most aftermarket decks are not going to sound any better either. And with the crazy flashy cosmetics of most aftermarket decks is it even going to look good in the dash board of your car. If you fall into that 25% that really want that higher sound quality, your going to have to be prepared to spend some good money on a higher end unit.

People will say “well the stock deck doesn’t have RCA’s on it, how do I plug my amplifiers into it. We have a module, several in fact to take care of that.

Basically, if you want better sound spend your money on speakers, amplifiers and subwoofers.

Speakers

The second thing you need to know about is speakers. A speaker is the most important part of a stereo system. After all, it is where the music comes from. If you have good speakers you will have good sound, bad speakers and you will have bad sound (back to 1985 again). Well what is a good speaker you ask? Ask 10 salesmen and you will get 12 opinions. Go online and ask 10 people on a forum and you will get 30 people responding with just as many opinions. The best sounding speaker is, are you ready for it? It’s the one that sounds the best. Brands, models, wattage, color, looks and opinions aside the only speaker worth buying is the one your ears like and the only way to tell this is to listen to them. Go into a store, tell the sales people to stop talking and listen to the speakers. The best sounding ones that you can afford are the ones you should leave with.

Not every speaker will fit into every car so you want to make sure you are listening to the type of speaker that may be installed in your vehicle. Any reputable shop will be able to custom mount most speakers into any car but you want to make sure they have the capabilities.

Amplifiers

The third thing that you need to know about is amplifiers. Amplifiers do just that, they amplify the music coming out of your radio. Just like speakers, people ask “well what is a good amplifier”. This is a little trickier to explain than speakers because if a cheap pair of speakers sounds good to a person then that is ok. With amps there are as many cheap ones as there are good ones, and by cheap we mean poor quality. The market is flooded with cheap crap in every corner of the world. To sort this out you need to do a little research and find a good reputable shop or person to help you thru this mass confusion that can and will be brought on by the hundreds of options out there. Matching up the power ratings of the amp with the speaker is a good thing but it not written in stone. For the most part you can never have too much power when it comes to speakers. You will always do more damage to a speaker by under powering it then you will over powering it. It’s like having a 4 cylinder motor or an 8 cylinder motor. When you’re driving fast the four cylinders simply has no more and tops out, well when a speaker “tops” out it will keep trying to play louder and that is when distortion happens and that kills more speaker than anything else. With the 8 cylinder you can just keep going and going (yes you will also run out of power at some point, but not as quick).

Subwoofers

The fourth thing that you need to know about is subwoofers. Most people think that if they add a subwoofer they are now one of those annoying “ground pounders” that drive around and piss everyone off. Adding a subwoofer means nothing of the sort, in fact it simply means that you want to have a complete and enjoyable sound in your car. Subwoofers come in all sizes and even shapes and finding one to suit your car and your needs is as simple as talking to your qualified shop about what you need.

Installation

The last thing and the most important things is installation. This is an area where everyone says they can do what you want and how you want it but few are actually capable of doing a quality and professional job. Some things to look for and know when it comes to who you are going to get to work on your vehicle and what to expect when having a installation done:

1. Do they have examples of the type of work you want to have done? Everyone can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk.
2. Do they have a car in the shop at the time that shows the quality of work they do?
3. What does their shop look like? Is it a mess, as in a bomb went off or is it a working mess but in general is a clean shop. This can tell a lot about a shop.
4. What does their showroom look like? The pride and detail a person or business takes in their showroom and shop can tell you a lot about the type of work they turn out.
5. Do some prior research regarding potential issues with your vehicle and or type of install and test their knowledge. No person will know everything about every car or product but how they answer will tell you a lot about them. Maybe your research was off and they will correct you.
6. Ask them if you can see the work as they are working on the car. Most shops won’t let you hang out in the bay for safety and security reasons but most good shops shouldn’t object to you coming into the shop, with permission and escorted just to see what things look like when it’s all apart. If they don’t want to do that then I would question having them work on your car.
7. You are going to need parts no matter how big or small the job is and knowing what all of these parts are before you start is sometimes hard. Make sure you ask what the parts are and what they do if you don’t understand them. Don’t just pay for it and be uncomfortable about it after the fact.
8. Plan on the job taking longer than expected so it is usually good to just make plans to drop the car off in the morning and pick it up at the end of the day. This way you’re not rushing around if there was a delay during the installation, and the installer won’t rush to get the job done in the expected time frame. Not to say that every job is that way but there can be unforeseen circumstances that are out of our control. Ever wonder why it takes the dealership 4 hours to do a oil change? It’s better to under promise and over deliver then over promise and under deliver.
9. If you drive a new car or even a car that is a few years old there is always the chance that there may be an unforeseen complication. These days it is really hard to have all the information about every vehicle ahead of time. A lot of information and knowledge an installer has is actually from working on the actual cars. Things like wrong speaker size, factory amp or no factory amp, antenna adapter or no antenna adapter are just a few examples of unforeseen complications we run into all the time. The hardest part is, there are so many different options and sub models of every model car that it is impossible to know everything. A good example is the Ford Aerostar from several years ago. To put a aftermarket radio into one requires rewiring the speakers because of a headphone module in the rear side panel. I personally know of 6 different ways that Ford wired these vans, and I don’t think the Aerostar was on the market much more then 6 years. These different wiring configurations were different based on trim levels, options and even which plant it was built in.
10. Ask about the warranty. A vehicles environment is one of the roughest out there. It’s hot, cold, damp, dusty and then there is coke and kids. Know how long your product is covered and what it is covered for. Some extended warranties are great, some are a cash cow for companies.
11. Is Sirius better than XM Radio or is XM better then Sirius. I have heard them both with excellent sound quality and poor sound quality. I have seen excellent reception from both and poor reception from both. Just like everything, ask 10 people get 10 opinions. Most aftermarket and OEM radio companies allow you to use either on their radio’s now. The difference in my opinion is the content. You have to decide what you want to listen to. The 60 odd music channels are all going to be the same, it’s the other 40 or channels that sets each one apart from one another. The only thing that is a sure thing, is a direct plug in option is always going to sound better then one that plays through the FM modulator.
12. Radio Pricing. Is a $399.99 radio that much better then a $199.99 one? Not generally, as the price goes up, quality of parts goes up a bit but it’s mostly just features and cosmetics.
13. If you buy a radio for $399.99, by the time you pay for all the parts and labor needed you may be well over $500 and it isn’t going to actually physically sound better. Spend that $500 on 2 or 4 new speakers and a amplifier, maybe at a small subwoofer. All of these kinds of options is guaranteed to improve your listening experience.

Is this all of it ? Not even close, it would take a few dozen of these posts to even come close. It really comes down to finding the right person and shop to deal with. Service is everything. Everyone will give you the “lowest price guarantee” but can they give you service over and over again. There is never a dumb question so if you ever have a question please email us at info@hzemall.com

Remember, “a fool and his money will soon be parted” so do some research and ask some questions.

Written by Tim Baillie
Owner of HzEmall, The Custom Connection in Surrey, BC, Canada
HzEmall is a full blown custom car shop that believes attention to detail, quality and integrity are the key ingredients to success and happy customers. With specialties like Mobile Electronics, Auto Trim and Upholstery, Automotive Electrical Wiring and Performance, they are a true one stop shop.

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? They want to get better sound quality and more features than what the OEM is offering. People think that stock systems are now at an all time high as far as sound quality but it just isn’t true. In the 80’s and 90’s we had tapes, that was the standard back then and they sounded OK but nothing special. The fancier systems like “Bose” and others sound a little better, but nothing to write home about. Today the standard is CD so all the cars have CD players and most people think that because it has a CD player now it’s a much better sound system, but it’s not. It’s the same thing we have always had. Now there are some cars out there like the Acura TL and the new Lexus that have really good sound systems but we all can’t afford those kinds of cars.

In the modern car, is it worth replacing the factory CD player with an aftermarket one? Yes it is and if you choose to do this there are so many options out there for you. With most aftermarket head units you can now expand them so far beyond just a tuner and CD player it isn’t funny.

We live in a portable world, and the portable world is ruled by the Apple iPod. Every head unit company out there has teamed up with Apple to allow you to control your iPod from your head unit just like you could with a CD Changer. Radio is an ever changing world as well. You have your standard AM/FM radio that we have always known but now you have the world of digital quality Satellite radio from Sirius and XM Radio. With hundreds of channels at your finger tips, you will always be able to listen to something that you like, for $12.95 a month. The owners of terrestrial radio stations are losing listeners left, right, and center to Satellite radio because of it’s higher quality. So they got behind the movement of HD (High Definition) radio. Now we have seen radio formats come and go over the years all claiming better sound but the radio stations never got behind it. Now that Clear Channel (the largest terrestrial radio company in the world) has gotten behind the format (HD Radio), it seems to be here to stay.

Navigation has been around for years now, but it has only been in the last year or so that it has become affordable and portable. You can get your head unit with navigation built in or you can have a portable stand alone unit that you mount to your dash or suction cup to the window to guide you to your destination.

Bluetooth is one of those formats that was finally agreed upon by the manufacturers as being a standard of wireless communication between devices. While it is used everywhere these days, the one place that has greatly benefited from it is the automotive world. Bluetooth Hands-free in-car cellular kits will make the roads a much safer place. Back in the 80’s, in-car cellular phones had the hands-free feature with them. Well when the world went portable, these were forgotten by most companies. Bluetooth now allows you to wirelessly hook up your cellular phone to a hands-free kit so you can keep your hands on the wheel and not holding your cell phone while trying to drive (yeah you know who you are). While these are stand alone units, almost all head units have this as a option as well, so not only do you have the safety of hands-free communication, it will also mute your stereo when a call comes in and allows you to control your phone from your radio.

Companies like Harmon Kardon have gone so far as to incorporate iPod, Bluetooth Hands-free and Sirius satellite all into one stand alone unit that can be added to any car.

The stock radios of today’s vehicles are integrated into the dash board more then ever. The simple fact is that in more and more cars the radios simply can not be removed from the vehicle. Auto manufacturers are running more and more vehicle functions through the radio than they ever have. If you need or want to retain your stock head unit but upgrade your system, there are modules to help you do that, there are also modules so if you remove your factory radio you can retain your steering wheel controls, retain your On-star system, retain your Bluetooth cellular system, and retain almost anything or add anything.

Written by Tim Baillie
Owner of HzEmall, The Custom Connection in Surrey, BC, Canada
HzEmall is a full blown custom car shop that believes attention to detail, quality and integrity are the key ingredients to success and happy customers. With specialties like Mobile Electronics, Auto Trim and Upholstery, Automotive Electrical Wiring and Performance, they are a true one stop shop.

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.

If you will recall, a capacitor charges and discharges very quickly. When there is a slow, quiet time in the music, the capacitor is charging. It stores this current until it is called for by the amplifier. Electricity will always take the path of least resistance. When a heavy bass note or a loud passage is called for the path of least resistance is the capacitor. The cap will instantly discharge the current necessary to make the note. And then it recharges just as quick.

During peak current demands, the amp is pulling its power from the cap instead of the charging system. The capacitor re-charges during less demanding periods. This process essentially smooths out the electrical system of the vehicle. The amp can do it’s job to the best of it’s ability making great bass and your headlight and dash lights don’t look like a disco.

The end result

When a quality capacitor is properly installed in your audio system the results can be significant. The key is getting the right capacitor and making sure it is installed properly. Take a trip down to your locally owned mobile electronics store. These guys know what they are doing and can give you the most out of your audio system.

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…

Instead, you would want to use dual voice coil subwoofers (DVC). Again, assuming that each coil is 4 ohms, we can wire the individual coils on each sub in parallel, in essence, creating a 2 ohm sub. Now you wire these 2 subs to each other in parallel and you end up with a 1 ohm load. Your amplifier is now seeing it optimal load and will put out it maximum power of 500 watts.

There are a ton of variations to this. You may have an monoblock amp that produces max power at 2 ohms instead of 1. In this case, 2 SVC subs would do the job. And it gets even trickier when you have an amp that produces max power into a 4 ohm load.

Sound complicated? It can be. We see lots of people every month that have mismatched amp and sub configurations. These people are robbing themselves of the power and output that they paid for. As a specialty store, we have experts on staff that know car audio like the back of their hand. When we put a system together, our customers get every watt that they are paying for.

When building your system, take the time to visit your local specialist. They are the true experts. Will you pay a little more. Maybe. But you can rest assured that you will get a great value and a system that is configured for best performance.

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. It matches the output of your headunit’s line outs (RCAs) to the input of the amplifier. When set correctly, it allows your head unit and amplifier to work together in an efficient and powerful manner. When set incorrectly, bad things happen! (yes, i know that many times, amps are hooked up to factory radios without rcas, and much of this post applies to that scenario also)

There are a lot of good and bad head units on the market today. One of the characteristics of a well built head unit is a higher output voltage on the RCAs. Some head units today exceed 8 volts of output. This is a far cry from the cheaper, 2nd and 3rd tier units that deliver 1-2 volts.

The purpose of the amplifier is to… well amplify. It takes a low level input (from the RCA leads) and increases it proportionally and sends it along the speaker wires to create your music. Now if some head units are outputting 1 volt and other are outputting 5 volts, there needs to be an adjustment. That is where the gain control comes in.

Lets say the intended output is 20 volts AC on the speaker leads (an arbitrary number for the sake of easy explanation). In the case of the 1 volt (AC) head unit, we need to increase the signal by a factor of 20. In the case of the 5 volt head unit, it only needs to be increased by a factor of 4.

The end result is that the amplifier does not have to work as “hard” to produce a similar output. Distortion is minimized since you are not amplifying tiny imperfections or induced noises on the input by a factor of 20, only by a factor of 4. The amp runs cooler, again improving performance and sound quality. Not to mention the longevity of the amplifier. When listening to music at lower levels, you will not hear that annoying “hiss” created by improperly set gain controls.

Now all of that can be a great argument for a high voltage preout (another future post), but what about the gain control? The gain control is there to allow you to properly setup an amp with any variety of headunits. When set correctly, all is good. What happens when it is set to high?

In simple terms, when the gain is artificially set to high, you are asking the amplifier to produce an output that it is not capable of. When this happens, you end up with DC current on the speaker outputs. This is also know as clipping. CLIPPING KILLS SPEAKERS!!!

Going back to an earlier part of this post, lets imagine that “Tony” has a 200 watt amp and a sub that will handle 500 watts RMS. A lot of customers would think that there is no way that the 200 watt amplifier will blow out the 500 watt sub. Guess what? It happens every day! Here is why:

Tony’s expert friend tells him to turn up the gain all the way. “The sub handles 500 watts, the amp is 200, CRANK IT UP! That gain is just another volume control!” So tony does this and the amp gets over driven, produces clipping (DC current on the speaker lead) and the next thing he knows, the car is filled with the smoke and odor of a burned voice coil. I am sure that ever one of the contributors to www.bestcaraudio.com will agree that this is very, very common.

It is far better to have an amp that puts out equal or more power than what the sub can handle. You set your gains properly, and the sub will live happily ever after.

So how do I set the gain control? There is not “one-size-fits-all” setting. It needs to be set up by a person who knows what they are doing. Your local Mobile Electronics Specialist is a good start. At our store, we do not charge to set gain controls when th equipment is purchased from us. We charge a small fee to cover our time when setting up stuff purchased elsewhere, but this is money well spent. When set properly by a professional, your equipment will last and give you years of enjoyment.

I am sure that most retailers would agreed that a common question we always hear is “Will this installation void my cars warranty.” The car dealer told them that if they had an after market product installed, their warranty would be voided. Nothing is further from the truth! The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975 specifically forbids the use of”tie-ins” by any manufactures. One example of a “tie-in” is a vehicle manufacturer requiring that the consumer use a specific brand of motor oil or the warranty will be voided.

Since “tie-ins” are made illegal by federal law, a dealer cannot void a warranty just because you choose not to use their product. The only way that they can require you to use their product is if they are offering it to you at no charge. For an easy to understand translation of the act, click here.

Of course, a dealer or manufacturer cannot be responsible for faulty workmanship or poor quality after market products. If an after market product is found to have caused a defect in the vehicle, the dealer can refuse to warranty that specific problem. To this end, it is even more important that you choose a reputable shop to do your after market installations.

I don’t want to make it sound like all car dealers are bad and out to refuse warranty claims. By far, most dealers try to stick to the law and do the right thing. In most cases, it is a poorly trained service manager who is unfamiliar with the law. Unfortunately, in some instances, your dealer may just be deceptive. These are the cases that deserve some attention. One option is to contact the Federal Trade Commission at (202) 326-3128 or www.ftc.gov

There are endless upgrades available for your vehicle. When properly installed by a professional, you can rest assured that you warranty will be intact and the results will be fantastic.

If you choose NOT to have your stereo installed at a store, please be aware of the following:
Many times customers will say they are unhappy with how their stereo sounds or that it does not work. We have found 99% of the time THAT IT IS INSTALLED INCORRECTLY. If you find you are in this situation and you swear it is hooked up right, bring your car and the equipment to the store immediately. DO NOT pack it back up in the box ! (We would only test it and tell you it’s fine further upsetting you).

Example: Customer swears his friend knows what he is doing. Says it sounds like $h&%. Customer is mad and brings stereo to the store. We find another bad install (The expert friend hooked it up wrong).

Customer is now embarrassed and mad at friend. DON”T let this happen to you. Your friend can blow the ground trace on your cd player, blow a $2,500 airbag, cause your amp to overheat and ruin it, catch your car on fire, etc!

Also, there are a million different ways to adjust crossover settings, dial in EQs, place speakers in a vehicle properly, etc! Most CUSTOMER installed stereos are hearing 50% of what the equipment is capable of! Trust a professional… You get what you pay for!

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.