Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
In the spring of 2018, I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon hanging out with Bing Xu from Simplicity in Sound in Milpitas, California. Aside from talking shop about car audio stuff, he offered to let me listen to the sound system in his 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 S wagon. It was amazing! The imaging was detailed, the tonal balance was excellent, and the integration was Read more
Car audio enthusiasts will run across the term Q, Q factor or Quality factor when discussing car audio speakers, subwoofer enclosures or parametric equalizer configuration. The Q factor describes the damping characteristics of a resonant system. For speakers, proper cone control requires carefully calculated damping. When talking about equalizers, the Q of a filter describes Read more
If you were into car audio in the ’90s, you’ve likely heard of amplifiers having mixed-mode or tri-mode capability. The implication was that these amps could power a pair of coaxial speakers and a subwoofer at the same time from a cost-effective and straightforward two-channel design. If you dig down into the nitty-gritty of how this works, you’ll see it’s pretty simple. With Read more
Many years ago, I read an article that said the difference between a tube amp and a solid-state one was primarily in their distortion characteristics. Even though I thought about the statement repeatedly, I was mistakenly correlating the presence of distortion with what happens when we try to over-drive the output of a source unit or amplifier. As with any complex topic, it Read more
Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, having an amplifier or a radio with a built-in high- or low-pass crossover was rare. To filter the audio signals going to our speakers, installers and technicians would use inductors and capacitors on the speaker wires. We recently took a look at how capacitors work, so let’s dive into inductors to understand their function and application Read more
A while back, we looked at how some car audio speakers and subwoofers change in performance after they’ve been broken in. We analyzed how the Thiele/Small parameters of a sample subwoofer changed after being played for many hours. What we didn’t clarify adequately in that article was whether or not speakers had to be broken in before use. Parts of a Speaker or Subwoofer Let’s Read more
For decades, car audio installers have used capacitors to reduce the bass that small speakers would reproduce. I vividly remember installing 47-microfarad capacitors inline with a set of 3.5-inch speakers in the dashes of Fox-body Mustangs back in the ’80s and ’90s. Passive crossover components like these are still an essential part of the car audio industry, even with the Read more
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have one of the most amazing jobs in the car audio industry. One aspect of being the editor in chief of BestCarAudio.com that I am particularly fond of is researching and performing experiments to create the content we publish. Unlike most of the hard-working folks who develop products, drive all over the countryside visiting retailers Read more
If there’s one thing synonymous with Rockford Fosgate, it’s loud car audio systems. If you’ve outfitted your SUV or van with their 13-, 16- or 19-inch superwoofers, you’ll need some serious midrange speakers to keep with all that bass. Enter the Punch Pro Series of midrange drivers. These super-efficient midrange drivers not only make the most of the power from your amplifier, Read more
Having the windows of your car or truck tinted is a great way to enhance the look of your vehicle, add protection and keep the interior cool on a hot summer day. However, picking a shop to install tint on your car windows is more involved than most people think. The automotive enhancement experts here at BestCarAudio.com have put together this guide to help you choose Read more
In March 2022, we published an article that demonstrated how high-quality amplifiers often increase the noise they output at high gain settings. I’m somewhere between shocked, confused and impressed at the feedback we got on the article. So, as a bit of a follow-up, let’s crush a few of the myths I read in the Facebook comments. Myth 1: Gains Should Be Set Based on Speaker Read more
Buying a new car radio has been challenging for most of 2021 and so far in 2022. The scarcity of computer chips has made picking up a name-brand radio from Sony, Kenwood, JVC, Alpine or Pioneer difficult or impossible. If you have to have a new radio in your vehicle, you’ve had two choices: wait patiently or buy a less popular option. I’ve heard good things about the short-term Read more
