Showcasing the Best in the Mobile Enhancement Industry
It might not be a stretch to say that thousands of 6.5-inch aftermarket car audio speaker options are available. There are hundreds of brands worldwide, and many of them have almost a dozen solutions for this ultra-popular size. That said, finding a set that sounds great and can play loudly isn’t easy. Our fanatical friends at Rockford Fosgate from Tempe, Arizona, make 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
We had the opportunity to check out Sony’s Mobile ES monoblock XM-1ES, four-channel XM-4ES and five-channel XM-5ES amplifiers in 2022. All three amps performed well on the test bench and in our listening room. For 2023, Sony has introduced two new amplifiers: the eight-channel XM-8ES and the six-channel XM-6ES. Let’s dive into the XM-8ES in this BestCarAudio.com Test Drive Read more
In the minds of most car audio enthusiasts, the only thing that matters when it comes to subwoofer amplifiers is how much power they make. Subwoofer amplifier quality is essential for those who want the bass frequencies in their audio systems to sound accurate and musical. Our friends at Rockford Fosgate in Tempe, Arizona, sent up one of their T500-1bdCP 500-watt monoblock amps 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
Every genre of car audio enthusiast looks at amplifier performance differently. The SQ guys worry about distortion and noise. The bass heads focus on power. The keyboard commandos and know-it-alls talk about slew rate or something equally irrelevant. Despite all this, an audio system's frequency response matters the most regarding the perception of quality. The folks at KICKER Read more
If you’ve been a long-time BestCarAudio.com reader, you know we prioritize performance and reliability when choosing audio system components. With that said, an installation that looks good does matter. You don’t want a bunch of amplifiers in your vehicle that are all different shapes, designs or colors. This is your car or truck, and it should look clean and classy, not like a Read more
As much fun as it is to test and audition high-end car audio products, we all know that a massive amount of business happens with more affordable products. Rockford Fosgate sent up one of their R2-1200X1 Prime Series 1,200-watt monoblock amplifiers for us to check out. This amplifier isn’t bottom-of-the-barrel inexpensive, and once you’re done reading this, you’ll understand Read more
Choosing the best digital signal processor for a car audio system requires balancing features and design choices with your amplifier and speaker configuration. The product development team at ARC Audio knows more than a thing or two about designing and calibrating DSP units, as their products have consistently proven to be a vital part of the best-sounding car audio systems on Read more
