Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
We’re now into our fourth speaker in our series about understanding speaker quality. For this article, we will analyze the performance of an old-school premium speaker, the MB Quart PWE-160. If you were into car audio in the ’80s and ’90s, then the MB Quart brand was a name you’d know well. This brand was famous for its performance in car audio competitions. So let’s see how Read more
Pickup truck sales per year have more than tripled in the last three decades. With millions of these vehicles on the road, it’s no wonder that the popularity of shallow-mount subwoofers has increased dramatically. Hertz has recently introduced 10- and 12-inch shallow subwoofers in their top-of-the-line Mille series. These subwoofers are rated to handle 500 watts of power Read more
Toyota’s Sequoia has always been a worthy competitor to Chevy’s Tahoe and now Jeep’s new Wagoneer. It flexes a nice interior coupled with Toyota reliability, and the mild hybrid system delivers 20 mpg, which is astounding for a large SUV. Now, let’s add aggressive wheels and off-road tires, a dual-tip exhaust, roof rack, LED lighting and other tasteful touches usually only Read more
As you may know, the product development team at Sony has been busy over the last few years creating an entirely new line of premium car audio products. Their efforts have rewarded the industry with the amazing XAV-9500ES multimedia receiver, as well as six speaker solutions, three amplifiers and three subwoofer offerings. In this Test Drive Review, we’ll inspect and evaluate Read more
Though factory-installed audio systems have greatly improved over the last few decades, they can’t hold a candle to even a modest aftermarket car stereo system unless you’ve got a premium vehicle. This statement is especially true in terms of subwoofers and bass performance. Most factory-installed subwoofer systems are better described as woofers. It’s rare that they play loud Read more
Expert installation technicians in the car audio industry are fortunate to have several options to simulate speaker and subwoofer response in different applications. Whether it’s modeling a bass reflex enclosure for a pair of 12-inch subwoofers or ensuring that an A-pillar speaker pod is large enough for a 4-inch midrange, computer simulations are crucial to delivering car Read more
Matthew Crouch of Shelbyville, Kentucky, owns the ultra-clean 1991 Toyota Hilux you see above. Matthew is one of the installers at Xtreme Autosound & Marine in Louisville. I called the store and spoke with owner Tony Zagata and jack-of-all-trades Michael Humphrey, who helps with sales, installations and social media. I learned that Matthew is a huge Toyota fan, and his dad Read more
Though I’ve written it a dozen times across many articles, it’s always worth repeating: The most critical component in any audio system is the speakers. You may have invested thousands of dollars into a source unit, a digital signal processor and premium amplifiers, but without precision-engineered speakers, all of that quality is wasted. The car audio fanatics at Rockford Read more
Every few months, I learn something that, had I put some effort into thinking about it, would have been obvious. For example, my friend Andy created a Facebook post a while back, asking why people thought amplifiers needed fuses. They will tell you it’s to protect the amp from damage. That’s not incorrect. However, the scenario where fuses are necessary is very different from Read more
A few months ago, I had the privilege of reviewing the Sony XAV-AX4000 multimedia receiver. I was impressed by the incredibly intuitive and responsive interface, complete feature set and snappy performance. However, Sony has a big brother to this radio called the XAV-AX6000. The basic platform is the same as the previous model, but Sony has included several sought-after Read more
It’s with great sadness that we share the news that car audio industry legend Larry Frederick passed away on March 2, 2023. Larry is best known for his work at Phoenix Gold, where he was the director of product development. Larry shared his experience and talent with Alpine USA, Elettromedia, Diamond Audio and Cerwin-Vega! Mobile. Most recently, Larry was president of Cicada Read more
Every now and then, I get into hot water for recommending, or more commonly, for not suggesting, a particular brand of car audio equipment. The same has happened over the years with retailers near me. However, I can say with confidence that in every case, there’s a solid reason why I stand behind and recommend specific solutions and why others aren’t even remotely on my radar Read more
