Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
Many new cars, trucks and SUVs come with small speakers in the dash that accompany a larger woofer in the door. These small speakers, often called “middlers,” are tasked with handling frequencies from a few hundred hertz to the upper limits of human hearing. For over a decade, we’ve seen car audio system upgrades replacing the door and dash speakers with a component set that Read more
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
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 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
Dozens of articles here on BestCarAudio.com explain the concept of audio component distortion. More specifically, harmonic and intermodulation distortion represent the addition of unwanted information to an audio signal because of non-linearities in an electronic circuit or mechanical system like a speaker. Ask anyone who’s heard a genuinely high-end sound system and they’ll Read more
