Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
Our first subject in this series of articles about understanding subwoofer quality is a low-cost 10-inch driver from a local electronics parts store. This manufacturer markets this transducer as a “full range” speaker that “looks and sounds great” and not a subwoofer. We’ll start by measuring the Thiele/Small parameters of the driver, then break it in to see if things change Read more
If we could send just one message to car audio enthusiasts, it would be to stop talking about wattage ratings. These numbers are irrelevant and often misleading in the context of quality, performance and value. Leave the reference to watts out if you want to sound intelligent when discussing car audio upgrades. What Are Watts? The SI Unit watt is used to measure power. One Read more
Has the touchscreen of your car radio started to look hazy? Is it more than five years old? We were staring at the display in one of our employees’ vehicles and realized it looked horrible. We started wondering if it might be possible to repair or rejuvenate the screen. Let’s see what we came up with. Car Radio Touchscreen Technology The most popular interface for multimedia Read more
Let’s take a look at amplifier, speaker and subwoofer quality. This time, it won’t be a series of lab measurements that evaluate distortion, frequency response or power. It won’t even include listening evaluations or comments on shiny products. Many years ago, Rockford Fosgate ran a magazine advertisement showing a picture of a Punch 75 HD amplifier and Bruce. Bruce is Read more
Last year, we published a series of articles that compared several 6.5-inch woofers. Those articles were intended to show the linearity and distortion differences between entry-level products and those with features that improve performance and sound quality. The results were exactly as we expected: The better drivers played louder with less distortion. We figured it was about Read more
How much does it cost to install a car audio amplifier? What a great question! How many channels does the amplifier have? What kind of speakers are being powered by the amp? What source unit are you using? How difficult is it to run power wiring to the battery? As you can see, there’s no “one size fits all” answer to this question. Let’s discuss the bare necessities and the Read more
A short while ago, we published an article examining the resistance of different wire-to-wire electrical connection methods. We tested everything from twisting the wires to soldering, crimp connections, and even some popular connections for residential applications. Aside from the solder sleeve connection’s performance, nothing surprised us. Let’s dig into what worked, what Read more
A short while back, we looked at the stunning Audi Q3 demo vehicle built by Pinnacle Autosound in Lake City, Florida. We were so impressed with the attention to detail in the project that we decided to do two “behind the scenes” articles on how the project came together. This article examined the processes and techniques used to install the Morel speakers. Now it’s time to Read more
It’s been more than a year since we first got our hands on the amazing Sony Mobile ES XAV-9500ES multimedia receiver for a detailed Test Drive Review. Our takeaway from that testing experience was that Sony had pulled out all the stops when developing this radio: It sounds stunning, measures superbly on the test bench, and, as we would confirm after an extended period of Read more
