Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
When you think about vehicles that are popular worldwide, few besides the Honda Civic can compete with the Toyota Corolla. To capitalize on the Corolla nameplate, Toyota has engineered a crossover version of the wildly popular and reliable sedan. Although the Corolla has never been known for pure motoring excitement, some customers are enthusiastic about the prospects of the Read more
Off-road capability isn’t usually something that comes to mind when you focus on vehicle technologies and conveniences. But the white-hot Ford Bronco is one of the most coveted vehicles in America. If you order one, the typical wait is six months to a year. In addition to the supply-chain problems, a production problem with the hard top and its supplier backed up the queue even Read more
If there’s a single marketing statement that makes my eye twitch, it’s one that claims a specific subwoofer will “work” in a small enclosure. Contrary to many marketing claims, enclosure volume is directly proportional to low-frequency extension and sound quality. Let’s look at the math and how these tiny enclosures ruin the performance of your subwoofer. The Backstory on Read more
You’d think it’d be easy to choose an amplifier of a specific power rating to work with a 500-watt subwoofer. In reality, we need to consider several factors, particularly performance and reliability. Let’s take a detailed look at the complexity of choosing the perfect amplifier for your car audio subwoofer system. The Myth and Mystery of Car Audio Amplifier Power Read more
For as long as I can remember, car radios have had their “maximum power” ratings all over their packaging and often right on the face of the radio. These numbers are not only useless in terms of an ability to reproduce music with any sense of quality, but I have always questioned whether they are even possible. Let’s measure how much power a conventional car audio head unit can Read more
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen enthusiasts and folks in the car audio industry claim that Class AB amplifiers are better for high-frequency (as opposed to subwoofer) duties than a Class D design. I recently had a chance to put a popular new Class AB amp through its paces on the BestCarAudio.com Test Bench, and the results were surprising. Let’s make a quality Read more
The addition of amplifiers to Sony’s Mobile ES line means that every component in a premium car audio system can come from this prestigious series. Our second amplifier spotlight focuses on the compact and powerful XM-4ES four-channel amplifier. Let’s see what Sony’s development team has created! Sony Mobile ES XM-4ES Amplifier Specifications The XM-4ES can drive four 2- or Read more
The team here at BestCarAudio.com has been privileged to follow the introduction of new, high-performance car audio components in the Sony Mobile ES line. From their impressive speakers and subwoofers to the genuinely outstanding XAV-9500ES source unit, each solution has delivered exceptional performance and value. For 2022, Sony has added three amplifiers to the Mobile ES Read more
We’ve talked about audio component and speaker distortion a great deal. The reason for this is that distortion is one of the critical factors in quantifying the quality of an audio system. Components that add a lot of distortion take away from the realism of the listening experience, making the music blurred, muddy and unnatural. This article will follow an audio signal through Read more
It would be a gross understatement to say I spend a lot of time reading the content on car audio manufacturer websites and social media. The average day can involve a minimum of an hour researching information for articles, and sometimes it’s more than five or six hours. During this time, I see many terms passed down from model to model, even if they are technically incorrect. Read more
Adding a subwoofer to your car audio system is one of the best ways to improve the way your music sounds. If you are looking for a high-quality subwoofer at an affordable price, the Prime Series R2D2-12 from Rockford Fosgate is an excellent choice. This dual-voice coil 12-inch subwoofer is rated to continuously handle 250 watts of power with peaks at 500 watts. Best of all, you Read more
A few months back, I wrote a very detailed article that explained what happens when you push the output of an amplifier (or source unit) to the point that the signal clips. To be clear, and much to the dismay of many who think otherwise, there is NO DC component riding on the top of the waveform. What you see there is a large number of harmonics that produce the top of what is Read more
