Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
The car audio question of the month for May is: What factor is most important in determining car audio system performance? Do the system design, equipment, integration, installation or calibration determine how accurate the system will sound? As with many questions related to audio systems, there’s no single answer. Let’s look at each aspect of a car audio installation to see Read more
Choosing new speakers for a late-model car or truck can be challenging. Most people want something that sounds good, fits their vehicle and doesn’t require a second mortgage. The folks at KICKER have heard this message loud and clear, and their KS-Series speakers check off all those boxes while leaving a trick or two up their sleeves. In this Test Drive Review, I’ll examine the Read more
There’s no doubt that auditioning high-end speakers, amplifiers and source units is one of the best parts of my job. That said, most of the business conducted by mobile electronics retailers is done at the opposite end of the price spectrum. Affordable audio upgrades or replacement products are the bread and butter that keeps the doors open and the lights on. The Sony car audio Read more
You’d think that the Sony product development team would deserve a break after releasing no less than nine new Mobile ES speakers and subwoofers over the past few years. While they might deserve it, they kept up the momentum by redesigning their popular GS-Series speakers. This Product Spotlight will examine Sony’s new XS-162GS component and XS-160GS coaxial 6.5-inch (16-cm) Read more
Over the past few years, I’ve been fortunate to review the T4652-S and T3652-S Power Series component sets from Rockford Fosgate. The company’s thorough understanding of how speakers work led them to include technologies that allowed these speakers to outperform so-called audiophile products from some of the top boutique brands. I have a set of the more affordable Power Series 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
Can you learn much about a speaker set by looking at a feature list and spec sheet? In the case of the Rockford Fosgate T3652-S 6.5-inch audiophile component speakers, the answer is a resounding yes. From the sizeable 1.5-inch voice coil and integrated induction management to the liquid crystal polymer woofer cone and intelligent mounting hardware for the tweeter, we’ve already Read more
I often see people on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Craigslist or Kijiji (in Canada) selling the passive crossover networks that came with their car audio component speaker sets. In most cases, these people have likely opted for an active system installation that uses a DSP and four dedicated amplifier channels to power their speaker system. An issue that many do-it-yourself car Read more
When it comes to speakers for the front of your car or truck, the flagship Sony XS-163ES three-way component set from the Mobile ES Series is an excellent choice. The set includes a pair of 6.5-inch woofers, a pair of 3.5-inch midrange drivers, two soft-dome 1-inch tweeters and matching passive crossovers. Sony has combined premium designs and technologies to deliver a speaker Read more
