Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
The Lexus RX series made its way to the United States 20 years ago. In that time, it has become Lexus’ venerable workhorse and sales icon. Most people would agree that it created the luxury SUV category known in the industry as the soft-roader. Instead of a rough-and-tumble, body-on-frame chassis, the Lexus SUV sits on a unibody chassis. This makes a lot of sense for the way we Read more
In 1998, Demitrios Karabinis, a veteran of the car audio and show car scene, created ARC Audio with the help of several friends and business partners from around the globe. With offices in California, Washington, Taiwan and China, ARC Audio operates as a global family of mobile electronics enthusiasts that engineers and delivers products that offer the features system designers Read more
We’ve talked about car audio amplifier features and specifications at great length, but up to this point, we haven’t discussed how a car audio amplifier works. In this article, we’ll provide a simple overview of how the power supply in your mobile amplifier can take the 12 volts supplied by your electrical system and convert it into a much higher voltage to drive your Read more
As we slowly approach the end of our latest Understanding Specifications series, we want to take a look at car audio amplifier distortion ratings and explain what they mean. We should make it clear: No matter how or good or bad a piece of audio equipment is, every audio component adds some amount of distortion to the signal. The amount and type of distortion those audio Read more
If you’ve been a reader of BestCarAudio.com for any amount of time, then you’ll know that we harp on choosing a reputable installer to do work on your car. We’ve also suggested repeatedly that you will want a tour of the facility and should ask to see examples of their work to qualify their skills and subsequent suitability to work on your car. We’ll never stray from this, as Read more
Next, on our look through the common specifications included with modern car audio amplifiers, we want to take a look at amplifier efficiency. With the electrical systems in modern cars shrinking in capacity with every passing year, getting power from your amplifier without taxing the wiring, battery, and alternator in your car is a genuine challenge and concern. Modern Class-D Read more
As the next topic in our series explaining amplifier specifications, we will look at the frequency response information that manufacturers provide and explain how to interpret this information. In the simplest of statements, the frequency response spec will tell you about the low- and high-frequency limits of the amplifier based on its design. As with all the specs we have Read more
One of the most recent source unit introductions from Sony Car Audio is the XAV-AX210SXM DVD receiver. This multimedia receiver features a 6.4-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration. It’s the first Sony product to include iDatalink Maestro compatibility. Let’s look at the features of this high-value source unit and explain how Maestro Read more
The next topic in our look at car audio amplifier specifications is input sensitivity. This specification is easy to understand but is important to choose an amp that will work with the system your local car stereo shop has designed. In the simplest of terms, the sensitivity specification determines how much voltage is required on the input of the amplifier for it to produce Read more
The BestCarAudio.com editorial team recently talked to none other than Ricardo Rangel, head of the famous Mexico City-based Monster by Rangel, about the 2018 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 project they recently completed. Ricardo told us that this is the sixth build they have done for this client in the past three years and with each project, the client’s interest in Read more
We’ve touched on the topic of signal-to-noise ratio in car audio amplifiers before. This specification is one of the most important in quantifying the quality of the amplifier you are going to choose for your audio system. While the power ratings are the only way we’ll know how loudly an amp can play, the noise specs give us a look at the design philosophy of the amp. Quite Read more
Welcome to our new series about understanding product specifications. Our goal in these articles is to help you understand what the amplifier power ratings mean when you start to compare solutions. We’ll not only explain which numbers are good, but we’ll include a detailed description of what each specification means, how it’s measured and how it affects what you hear or Read more
