Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
If you are into car audio, then you know there are a lot of ultra-compact amplifiers on the market. Most of these solutions focus on size over anything. Knowing how Rockford Fosgate thinks, their four-channel PBR400X4 amplifier also delivers impressive power. Let’s check out the unique Boosted Rail design that offers impressive performance. Feature and Specifications of the Read more
From the 1960s through the 1980s, car radios used mechanical potentiometers to adjust volume. As time progressed, volume controls moved to the digital domain, and radios employed rotary encoders that sent commands to a dedicated volume IC to adjust the output level. As we advanced further, radios required volume controls for different functions. This complexity has led to Read more
When Acura asked me to try the upwardly mobile sibling to the Honda Prologue, I jumped at the opportunity. After all, Acura has always meant sporty and luxurious. Although there are some sporty Honda vehicles like the Civic Si, Acura has geared more of its fleet toward performance and luxury, especially when you consider vehicles such as the Integra and NSX. It also has the Read more
Talking about the performance of audio equipment without objective measurements is like describing the taste of food without eating it. Maybe that’s a bit over the top, but the concept is accurate. You’ll hear many folks into high-end audio describe listening experiences that are sweet or emotional. However, those adjectives do very little to describe the physical Read more
When it comes to replacement car speakers, the 6.5-inch class is by far the most popular. If you read any number of our Test Drive Reviews, you’ll know that Rockford Fosgate has three series of speakers in their line, some with two or three additional performance levels. Sitting at the most affordable range is the Prime series. For component speaker sets in the Prime series, Read more
The Question of the Month for December brings up the often-discussed topic of subwoofer damage. Specifically, we’ve seen it asked time and time again if you can damage a subwoofer by underpowering it. The answer is a simple no, but the topic is a little more complex than it might seem. Let’s discuss what amplifiers do when they exceed maximum power and what causes damage to a Read more
In the late 80s and early 90s, a car audio fad involved running an entire multi-speaker system with subwoofers from a single two-channel car audio amplifier. Why were people building these systems? The primary driving factor was a 0 to 50-watt class in car audio sound-offs. In other cases, it was to show off the capabilities of an amplifier in a demo vehicle. These days, audio Read more
Honda is no stranger to delivering vehicles with great fuel economy. For example, the mild hybrid Honda Insight, with its Integrated Motor Assist, delivered 53 MPG combined. But now we have vehicles that do not burn gasoline at all. Honda wants to capture some of the electrification market and deliver a product worthy of its namesake. So here we have the first fully electric Read more
A while back, we examined the difference in sound quality between wired and wireless Apple CarPlay. Now that many Android-based smartphones have access to additional audio streaming codecs like LDAC and aptX, it’s time to check out how they perform in terms of signal accuracy and frequency response. We’ll use the Sony XAV-9000ES digital media receiver we tested in May 2024 for Read more
