When upgrading your car stereo, speakers are the only link between your electronics and your ears. Unfortunately, low-quality speakers connected to the best amplifiers and source units in the world will still sound mediocre at best. In this article, we’ll take a look at the classes of speakers available for your car or truck. In addition, we’ll provide some tips to help you expedite the process of working with the Product Specialist at your local retailer to end up with the best value and performance for your investment.

Start by Determining Speaker Sizes

The first thing that needs to be determined is the size of the speaker you’re hoping to upgrade in your car or truck. In the car audio industry, the most common speaker sizes are 6.5-inch and 6×9. With that said, there are 3.5-, 4-, 5.25-, 6-, 6.5-, 6.75- and 8-inch round speakers, along with 4×6, 4×10, 5×7, 6×8, 6×9 and 7×10 oval speakers. The Product Specialist you’re working with will likely know what size speaker is in your vehicle or they’ll remove a trim panel to check.

Once you know the speaker size, the next step in terms of physical requirements is to consider your vehicle’s mounting depth and protrusion limits. The mounting depth refers to how much space is available behind the speaker mounting surface for the speaker basket and motor (magnet) assembly. The limiting factor for door speakers is usually the distance to the window when the lower edge is behind the bottom of the speaker. For dash speakers, the limitation is often venting from the climate control system. For rear parcel shelf speakers, torsion-type springs that hold the trunk lid open are the primary concern.

The second consideration is the amount of space available in front of the speaker. If the installation will use the grille included with the speaker, then this isn’t a problem. However, if the speaker will be installed behind the grille that came with the car, then adequate space must be provided for the tweeter, and the woofer at its maximum forward excursion limit.

If there’s room, the technician working on your vehicle may choose to build a spacer out of plastic or a composite to move a deeper speaker outwards. It’s worth repeating (as we have many times) that wood spacers don’t last very long in a car or truck door. They will get wet when it rains, and even when painted, coated in fiberglass resin or sprayed with an undercoating, they will eventually swell and become moldy. This deformation is rarely even and can damage or break high-quality cast-basket speakers. Materials like cast acrylic, ABS, high-density polyethylene and expanded PVC are good options for spacers. Most reputable shops will have these materials in stock and will cut custom spacers for your application. We’ve even seen spacers constructed from composite kitchen countertop materials like DuPont Corian. Companies like Metra offer vehicle-specific speaker spacers and mounting adapters to allow for reliable installations that don’t require any fabrication skills.

Speaker Design

Once you’ve determined the size of speaker that’s suitable for your application, you’ll need to decide on your goals for the audio system. We aren’t quite at the stage where we’ll talk about performance and quality, though. This step involves deciding if you are going to want a coaxial speaker or a component set.

In a coaxial speaker, the tweeter, or a tweeter and super-tweeter are integrated into a single chassis along with the woofer. The benefit of these systems is that they are typically an all-in-one speaker solution. However, if you’re replacing the front speakers in a vehicle, you may want to consider using a component speaker set. In most cases, a two-way component speaker set includes a pair of woofers and tweeters. The woofers would be mounted in the door location, and the tweeters would go in the dash location, in the A-pillars, up high in the doors or in the sail panels. The benefit of a component set is that the higher mounting position of the tweeters may afford better high-frequency delivery, and the source of the sound in the vehicle may be at the dash or windshield level instead of down near your legs.

In the case of component speakers, most include an external passive crossover network. This compact circuit includes capacitors, inductors and often resistors that divide the audio signal from a radio or amplifier into different frequency bands and send the bass and midrange information to the woofer and high-frequency information tweeter.

Component speaker sets are also available as a three-way solution for cars that use a woofer, a midrange driver and a tweeter. In most cases, the mid and tweeter are mounted higher in the door or in the dash to help raise the sound source.

Suppose you’re seeking the best possible performance from your audio system. In that case, a three-way speaker set that’s installed in combination with six channels of amplification and a digital signal processor is the way to go. We won’t get into DSP applications in this article as we’ve covered it many times already.

If you’re going the DSP route, many companies sell their mid- to high-performance drivers in pairs. The Product Specialist can help you chose a woofer size, an appropriate midrange solution and tweeters to create a bespoke configuration for your vehicle’s speaker locations.

Speaker Selection Considerations

Now we get to the part where you decide what level of performance you want from your audio system. Do you need an inexpensive speaker to replace one that came from the factory that’s worn out, or are you trying to upgrade the audio system to deliver clearer, more detailed sound? Part of this consideration includes deciding how much power you have available and your preferred listening level.

For example, suppose you want to recreate the Kiss concert in Ottawa, Ontario, from back in the 1970s. The show reached an output level of 136 decibels. In that case, you need speakers that can handle a lot of power, have significant woofer cone excursion capabilities and include features that will help to ensure they sound good when played loudly.

A quick aside here: Speakers are much more complicated than most people think. For every speaker, as it plays louder, more distortion is added to the output signal due to mechanical and electrical non-linearities, along with cone, dust cap and surround resonances. If you want a speaker that will be clear when played loudly, then choosing something with technologies like a copper or aluminum shorting ring and a copper cap will help. The diameter and length of the voice coil play a prominent role in determining peak power handling. Some 6.5-inch mid-woofers have 2-inch diameter voice coils. Likewise, the suspension should use a flat, progressive spider, and the cone, cap and surround should be designed to eliminate resonance. It’s a complicated balancing act to get this perfect.

Let’s back up here. If you want your music loud, then you’ll need to consider the speaker power handling specifications. If they’re compliant with the ANSI/CTA-2031 standard, those numbers will tell you how much heat energy the speakers can dissipate before they are damaged. Power ratings do NOT define the quality of a speaker. There are terrible-sounding speakers with high power ratings and some that sound quite good with low ratings. Car audio enthusiasts need to stop buying speakers based on power ratings.

Auditioning Speakers Helps Determine Quality

Most car stereo shops have display boards that can be used to audition speakers. Here are a few quick tips. First, when switching from one speaker set to another, try to make the listening level equal. Even slightly louder speakers will sound better because you can hear the quieter parts more clearly. Second, bring one or two songs you know pretty well to the store to listen to the speakers. A dynamic track with a wide frequency range will tell you a lot about the dynamic and damping characteristics of a speaker. A song with clear male and female vocals will tell you a great deal about the clarity and accuracy of the drivers. Lastly, listen to them for a short time at high volume levels. If they sound stressed, they are likely missing distortion-reducing technologies.

When shopping, your goal is to find the speakers that sound the most accurate for a given price point. For a 6.5-inch speaker set, you can pay anywhere from about $55 for an introductory-level two-way coaxial speaker to well over $5,500 for a premium two-way component set. The power handling, output capability, frequency response and, most importantly, the speakers’ clarity increase as you move up the price range. Better speakers reproduce audio signals more accurately, recreating the original sound from the recording studio in your vehicle without adding unwanted emphasis, leaving anything out or adding distortion.

Upgrade Your Speaker Upgrade

You can improve the performance of your audio system significantly by having sound deadening installed in the doors of your car or truck. High-quality deadening products reduce the transfer of noise energy into your vehicle and make it easier to hear the quieter parts of your music.

If you have a vehicle with large openings in the door, sealing those with fiberglass or plastic and then covering the area with deadening can dramatically improve a door speaker’s bass and midbass performance. We’ve seen gains in output of 10 dB from the addition of sound deadening alone.

Another upgrade that can help with the performance of your speakers is to have your installer add a set of rubber or foam gasket rings around the drivers. These rings help to seal the gap between the door and the speaker to prevent sound from bouncing around and potentially causing cancellation.

The Best Way To Improve Your Door Speakers

Finally, if you’re after the best performance possible from a set of door speakers, the best upgrade you can make is to add a subwoofer system to your vehicle. Relieving the speakers’ need to reproduce bass frequencies below 80 hertz can significantly cut the power sent to the speakers. Just as we mentioned earlier, the speakers won’t need to work as hard and consequently will add less distortion to the audio signal. The result will be a system that can be played at higher volume levels with less distortion. That’s a win-win!

When it’s time to replace or upgrade the speakers in your car or truck, drop by a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and audition the options available for your vehicle. Always remember, when it comes to sound quality and accuracy, the speakers in your vehicle are your most critical consideration.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

There are a lot of theories around the benefits of adding stuffing to a sealed subwoofer enclosure. Most contend that stuffing makes the enclosure behave as though it is larger, allowing the woofer to play louder at low frequencies. If this is true, then adding stuffing seems like a great idea. While creating many of our articles, we conduct many low-frequency enclosure simulations in BassBox Pro. Let’s see what the software predicts and then translate that into a real-world experiment with an enclosure in our lab.

Why Do Subwoofers Need Enclosures?

Speakers, specifically subwoofers, need an enclosure to limit cone excursion at extremely low frequencies. Without the added compliance of an enclosure, the subwoofer’s cone could exceed its excursion limits at high power levels and be damaged. Therefore, when designing an enclosure for a vehicle, technicians need to balance the requirements of the subwoofer to hit a target Q-factor and low-frequency cut-off point. The enclosure also needs to ensure adequate power handling and have a volume that will fit in the desired location in the vehicle.

Subwoofer Enclosure Specifications

For this experiment, we will use an audiophile-quality 12-inch subwoofer in a sealed enclosure with a net internal volume of 1.358 cubic feet. Before we began any simulations, we measured the Thiele/Small parameters of this particular subwoofer using our Woofer Tester 2.

In terms of specifications, our simulation in BassBox Pro predicts a -3 dB frequency of 40.4 Hz and a Qtc of 0.924. That’s a bit higher of a Q-factor than we’d typically target, but the enclosure will work well in the space we have allotted. Power handling remains well below the 17.6 mm Xmax specification when driven with the 500 watts the subwoofer is rated for.

For reference, we compared the predicted response of our woofer in the 1.35 cubic foot enclosure to the factory-specified 1.02-cubic-foot design. Our larger enclosure will yield 1.6 dB more output at 20 Hz than the smaller design. From that perspective, it’s barely worth the extra space. What we do like is the reduction of the system Qtc from 1.001 down to 0.924. The ideal damping value (Qtc) is considered 0.707. If you’re wondering what speaker or subwoofer Q is all about, give this article a read.

What Does BassBox Pro Predict When We Add Stuffing?

Bassbox Pro includes three options for simulations that include stuffing: Minimal, Normal and Heavy. We repeated the frequency response simulation using these options to see what the software thinks will happen. The results from BassBox show a decrease in the Q-factor of the enclosure

What Happens in terms of the System Q-factor?

In the un-stuffed enclosure, we see a predicted Qtc of 0.924. In the enclosure with the minimal stuffing, the Qtc drops to 0.906. In the normal scenario, it’s predicted to be 0.837. Finally, in the heavily stuffed enclosure, the Qtc is a well-controlled 0.755. As we aren’t looking for boomy bass, adding lots of stuffing should benefit our application.

Any time you get more output from a subwoofer in a sealed enclosure, there will be a correlating increase in cone excursion. This is true for a decrease in output as well. The graph below shows the effects of simulating different stuffing levels in the software.

Testing Our Sample Enclosure

For this experiment, I bought a pair of the least expensive pillows available at the local Wal-Mart. I think they were $3.99 each. They are listed as weighing 0.56 pound each, so it’s reasonable to assume there is 0.5 pound of the specified polyester stuffing in each of them.

Here are the results. Pleasantly, the predictions from BassBox Pro seem to have panned out, for the most part. The chart below shows the changes to the impedance measurements as we added more stuffing.

With no stuffing, the subwoofer presented an Fs of 43.35 Hz and the enclosure Qtc was 0.9532. With a half pillow’s worth of stuffing, those numbers dropped to 42.5 and 0.9148. A full pillow’s worth of stuffing in this 1.3-cubic-foot enclosure is what I’d consider tightly packed and resulted in the numbers dropping more to 42.1 and 0.919, respectively. By adding any more, I was genuinely concerned that I’d put too much in and that the density would negatively affect the performance of the subwoofer. I was wrong. The Fs dropped once again to 41.7 Hz, and the Qts was now a moderate 0.8397. That’s still a bit higher than I prefer, but the change was impressive and quite beneficial. Our simulation predicted that “normal’ stuffing would yield a Qtc of 0.836. I’ve never put that much stuffing in an enclosure. The take-away is, you need to pack it surprisingly tight.

So, does the addition of stuffing simulate a larger enclosure? It certainly seems so! If we want an unstuffed sealed enclosure for our subwoofer with a Qtc value of 0.8397, it would need to have 2.05 feet of airspace. We have a feeling that the larger empty enclosure is a little louder at the lowest frequencies. Nevertheless, we’ll take this compromise any day!

Is Resonance Control Relevant?

Look at the four graphs below, specifically at the dips around 180 and 510 Hz in the “empty” image. The interior length of this test enclosure is 26.5 inches, which is the same wavelength as a 512 Hz tone. There is a standing wave in the enclosure. The addition of more and more stuffing slowly reduces both of those little resonances.

These resonances don’t matter much for a subwoofer system where we already have the signal going to the sub attenuated by 20 or 30 dB by 180 Hz. However, if we were building a full-range speaker, the addition of the stuffing would make a noticeable difference in what we hear through the midrange and midbass regions.

The Theory on Subwoofer Enclosure Stuffing

Having a look through the owner’s manual for BassBox Pro reveals two very relevant statements about adding damping or stuffing to an enclosure. First, “the acoustical absorption inside the box will increase,” and second, “the box damping will increase, making the box seem bigger than it really is.” Our results confirm the second statement as being the most significant benefit. It should be noted that just as with a larger enclosure, the maximum output level drops, but so does the Q-factor of the system. For those interested in optimizing sound quality, this would seem like an ideal solution. For bass-heads, you might be better off leaving the interior of the enclosure empty to gain those extra few tenths of a decibel in output and efficiency.

Drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer to have them design and construct a subwoofer enclosure that works perfectly for the subwoofers you’ve chosen and the available space in your vehicle.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Having your local specialty car audio retailer install an amplifier in your car or truck is a great way to improve the performance of your audio system. The extra power will allow you to turn the volume up higher to extract more from your speakers. If you have a subwoofer installed, you’ll need to choose an amplifier that can produce lots of power. While there are some subwoofer, enclosure and amplifier options that represent excellent value, it’s pretty rare to find a deal on power wire. Delivering power to your amplifier is crucial to its performance and longevity. In this article, we will take a look at what happens when you skimp out on the power wire for your amplifier.

Why Is Power Wire Quality Important?

Unlike home audio and professional public-address audio systems, car stereos are asked to produce massive amounts of power from a relatively low voltage. For example, a 1,000-watt home theatre subwoofer amp might draw 10 to 11 amps of current from a wall outlet. A similarly powerful car audio amplifier will need to draw almost 100 amps from the charging system to deliver the same power to a subwoofer.

What does this have to do with power wire? In the 1880s, Nikola Tesla realized that transmitting power to homes at high voltages reduced losses due to the resistance of power cables. Power is calculated by multiplying the square of the current through a load by the resistance of that load. In the case of undersized wiring, the cable itself can become a significant load.

A good-quality four-AWG conductor should have a resistance of 0.268 milliohms per foot. Let’s look at an example where we have a run of 17 feet from the battery to an amp in the back of an SUV. Let’s also say the amplifier can produce about 1,000 watts of power, and as such, needs to draw 100 amps of current. Using good-quality, full AWG-spec four-AWG cable, there will be a drop of 0.456 volts across the power wire and 45.6 watts of heat generated. Since most vehicles have a chassis with a similar ground return path resistance, we lose another half-volt or so. Now, our amplifier is only seeing 12.4 volts instead of maybe 13.4 when the truck is idling. This voltage drop limits how much power it can produce without distorting and also makes the amp run hotter.

Car audio power wire is constructed from three common materials: pure virgin copper, recycled copper alloys and combinations of copper and aluminum. It’s nearly impossible to find out exactly what’s in the wires available from various brands. This is why the Consumer Technology Associated created the ANSI/CTA-2015 R2017 Mobile Electronics Cabling Standard. This set of guidelines describes not only the size of conductors (cross-sectional area) but the minimum number of strands, the minimum number of strand groups, the nominal resistance and the maximum allowable resistance per meter. Another important note is that the CTA-2015 standard allows for a maximum of 0.25 volt across the length of the cable.

Our Test Victim

Years ago, some of the staff here at BestCarAudio.com performed extensive testing on more than a dozen brands of entry-level car audio amplifier installation kits. Unfortunately, the worst kit of the bunch had wire with more than three times the resistance of the best in the group. That’s a scary proposition, considering all were called Four Gauge.

We asked around to find some inexpensive amplifier kits and one solution that came up a few times was the four-AWG kit sold by Princess Auto in Canada. Princess Auto is a chain of stores very similar to Harbor Freight in the U.S. We purchased their four-gauge amp kit for our test. The kit claims to include 17 feet of “4-Ga” clear matte power cable, 3 feet of ground cable and a nickel-plated ANL fuse holder with a 120-amp fuse. We measured the power wire, and it came in at 17 feet and 0.625 inch. The ground wire was 35.75 inches. Partially hidden under the fuse holder is a label stating “W/AWG Standard,” and the bottom of the packaging has “1600W” emblazoned across it. We assume that this label implies that a true four-AWG amp kit is suitable for use with an amp that can produce up to 1,600 watts of power.

We’ll use an ARC Audio ARC1000.2 amplifier rated to produce 1,200 watts of power into a 4-ohm load for our test. We’ll use our D’Amore Engineering AMM-1 to set the output of this very efficient amplifier to specific power levels to see how the wire behaves.

Wire Performance Test

If we analyze the chart below, we can see that the resistance of the wire increases as the current demands increase. However, the resistance remains relatively stable around 8.8 milliohms up to 40 amps of current flow. At this level, the amplifier is producing about 450 watts of power to our load resistor bank. If this was a product we were selling, that’s where we’d set the current limit.

As you can see, at current draw levels above 90 amps of current, the resistance started to skyrocket. At 110 amps, which was close to 1,175 watts of power to the dummy loads, the resistance increased to 9.7 milliohms, and the wire was at almost 50 degrees Celsius.

Part of our test included measuring the voltage across the power wire from where it was connected to our supply to where it connects to the amplifier. The voltage drop increased to more than 1 volt across the power wire at just over 105 amps of flow. Had we left the amp playing, the wire temperature and resistance would increase further, and the voltage drop would increase.

How Does the Princess Auto Amp Kit Stack Up?

If we were selling this amp kit and intended to follow the maximum allowable voltage drop of 0.25 volt, this kit would be capable of powering a roughly 350-watt amplifier. Unfortunately, that’s a pretty far stretch from the claimed 1,600 watts listed on the packaging.

If we wanted to be a little more generous, the wire started to heat up when flowing 90 amps of current. If you’re into playing marketing games, then perhaps this is good for an 800-watt amplifier? That said, we’d rather not waste 0.6 volt across the run of wire.

According to the ANSI/CTA-2015 standard, a 17-foot run of four-AWG cable should have a nominal resistance of 4.55 milliohms and maximum resistance of 4.818 milliohms. At 8.783 milliohms, this is almost twice the resistance of a good quality cable. Let’s revise our voltage drop chart and scale the resistance of this cable by 55% to see what happens.

In reality, the difference between the two conductors would be more considerable because the copper cable wouldn’t heat up as much, and the resistance would increase less.

Car Audio Power Wire Matters

It takes power to make power. If you can deliver more voltage to the amplifier in your car or truck, it can provide more power to your speakers and do so with less wasted energy and distortion. Skimping on power wire quality simply isn’t worth the small cost saving. Instead, talk to your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer about using high-quality, full American Wire Gauge (AWG) spec wiring when they install your amplifier. The investment will be worth every penny!

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

When designing a car audio subwoofer system, the Product Specialist and Installer you’re working with have two options for mounting subwoofers in your enclosure. There is, of course, the typical method with the motor assembly and basket inside the enclosure. With that said, many installations have the subwoofers mounted upside down, or as many call it, in an inverted fashion. There are benefits and drawbacks to this installation method – let’s talk about it!

Benefits of Inverted Subwoofer Installation

The most significant benefit of having your subwoofers installed such that the motor assembly and basket are visible is cooling. The heat generated in and around the voice coil and magnet can easily escape into the air in the vehicle. Access to all the relatively cool air in the vehicle can dramatically improve thermal power handling, especially compared to an acoustic suspension (sealed) enclosure.

The second benefit of an inverted subwoofer installation is mounting depth. With only the cone inside the enclosure, you can install deep subwoofers in locations with minimal mounting depth. Yes, you’ll have a large woofer protruding from the enclosure’s front, which may affect your vehicle’s cargo carrying capacity.

Extending this same philosophy regarding depth, another small benefit of inverted subwoofer installations is increased enclosure volume. Subwoofers with large baskets and motor assemblies can easily displace 1/10th of a cubic foot. Thus, your installer can reduce the size of the enclosure or use that extra airspace to improve the low-frequency output of the subwoofer system. The difference isn’t likely to be dramatic, but more deep bass is always a good thing!

Drawbacks of Having Your Subwoofers Upside Down

There are some drawbacks to inverted subwoofer installations. First, it’s challenging to protect the rear of the subwoofer and the wiring from damage caused by cargo. This isn’t the sort of installation you’d choose for a daily driver that’s also used to get groceries or go on vacation. On the other hand, it might be great for a company demo vehicle or a show car where there’s a conscious and consistent effort to keep things safe.

It can be tricky to come up with a way to keep the wiring to the subwoofer’s voice coils looking tidy. Inside an enclosure, so long as the electrical connections are solid, few care how the wiring looks. When the wiring is visible, then terminations and wire routing become a genuine consideration. Protecting those connections from damage or from objects that might short the terminals is also an issue.

The next drawback is a minor reduction in efficiency. No, the operation of the subwoofer doesn’t change, but the effective cone area might be reduced. When the woofer is mounted conventionally, you have the entire cone surface available to pressurize and rarefy the air in the vehicle. When mounted upside down, the area of the cone inside the voice coil may not contribute to moving air. This effect depends somewhat on the design of the woofer. If there’s a vented pole piece, the change will be minimal.

Lastly, and perhaps the most significant drawback of having a subwoofer mounted in an inverted fashion, is the chance for unwanted noise. Not all voice coil cooling systems are quiet at high excursion levels. Airflow around the coil, top plate and in and out of vents may add unwanted huffing and chuff at high output levels. There is also a chance that tinsel leads can make noises if they come into contact with the cone when played loudly. Unfortunately, if you have a subwoofer that makes these kinds of noises, there’s typically no easy way to remedy the issue. It’s best to mount those subs in a conventional cone-out installation. Your installer can test the subwoofers by applying a signal to them and listening for noise without any enclosure. Be careful not to bottom out the woofer, though.

Balance the Benefits and Drawbacks

As you can see from the images we’ve included in this article, sometimes the only option is to mount the subwoofers such that the motor assembly and basket are visible. You can discuss your inverted subwoofer installation options with the installer before work begins on your car or truck to ensure that you’ll be happy with the results.

Lead-in Image: Thanks to Matt Schaeffer from Musaic Audiophile Design in Lewes, Delaware, for sharing this installation of a pair of Focal subwoofers in the back of a ZL1 Camaro.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

In the ’80s and ’90s, the target demographic at a car stereo shop was men ages 18 to 24. Guys would work to upgrade their cars with subwoofers, pull-out CD players and lots of speakers in hopes of having the loudest audio systems in their group of friends. Not coincidentally, during that time magazines ran advertisements for products with outrageous cosmetics, promoted by scantily clad women. Fast forward a few decades, and the typical client is likely the same person, but their goals and expectations have matured significantly. So let’s look at the typical client for a reputable mobile enhancement retailer today.

Drivers Want Safe Ways To Use Their Phones

One of the most common types of client visiting car stereo shops these days has a 10- to 20-year-old vehicle and wants to upgrade the technology in that car or truck. It might be a Chevy Monte Carlo, Ford F-150 or a Porsche 911. In almost all cases, they want to add a Bluetooth hands-free solution that will let them make phone calls without having the phone in their hands.

Another popular upgrade is multimedia receivers that include Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration. Along with hands-free calling, these technologies allow the driver to send text messages using voice commands. They can also search for navigation instructions to a destination almost anywhere in North America using Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps (the latter only when using an iOS device). Finally, of course, streaming audio is another popular source of music these days. CarPlay and Android Auto include dedicated apps for Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio and Tidal, to name a few.

In most cases, installing a new multimedia receiver is the solution to these upgrade requests. We’ve covered the basics of buying a new radio in our Car Radio Buying Guide. That guide includes details on radio sizes, features and functions. If there’s a single takeaway from the article, it’s that we recommend that before you buy a radio, test it on a display board. All models aren’t as quick to respond to commands, nor do all of them have intuitive interfaces. Oh, and make sure you connect your phone to the radio to test smartphone integration, as well as Bluetooth hands-free calling and audio streaming. Unfortunately, not every phone is compatible with these technologies.

A few companies, such as AIS and ZZ-2, offer smartphone integration upgrades that will work with the factory display and controls in your vehicle. Check with your local retailer about whether these products are available for your vehicle’s year, make, model and trim level.

Raising the Bar for Realistic Sound

Back in high school, most of us had a Walkman or, for the slightly younger crowd, a Discman. It was rare to see someone who had upgraded the headphones that came with these devices to something that offered better performance, but it did happen. These days, high-end headphones are a multi-million-dollar industry. As such, more and more people have a higher benchmark for what their music should sound like.

The philosophy around wanting better sound from our entertainment systems hasn’t changed, but the customer has. The younger crowd is less likely to visit a stereo shop for an upgrade and more likely to try to do it themselves. The results vary from “Hey, nice work!” to “How is your vehicle not on fire?” Partnering with a specialty mobile enhancement retailer is the best bet for those who want predictable results from their investment. These shops have the products, integration solutions and, most importantly, the training to ensure that you get the best performance possible from the upgrades you choose.

A proper audio system upgrade will start with the installation of sound deadening material to reduce noise transfer into the vehicle. Just like treating the listening room in a high-end home audio or theatre system, this is a crucial step in delivering great sound.

The next step in a great audio upgrade is to choose a subwoofer system to help reinforce the bottom octave or two of the music you enjoy. Even the most premium factory-installed sound systems from Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Bang and Olufson, Lexicon, Burmester or Mark Levinson have difficulty playing music below 35 or 40 hertz. That’s an entire octave (or more) that you’re missing out on. As such, synthesizers, drums, a timpani or purely computer-generated sounds will be missing, and you may find the audio system lacks emotion and impact. Can you imagine watching a movie without feeling the bass impact from an explosion or a helicopter landing? The same goes for listening to your favorite music.

Subwoofers come in all shapes and sizes, and a reputable retailer can design a solution that delivers the bass you want without taking up valuable storage space in your vehicle. The subwoofer system can be configured to blend in with the rest of the speakers in your car or truck and provide the extension you want. They don’t have to be set to wake the neighbors or rattle the rearview mirror.

Seeking Clarity Through Upgraded Speakers

Once you’ve addressed adding a subwoofer system, the next step is to upgrade your speakers and add an amplifier. New speakers reproduce audio signals with improved clarity and, when powered by a high-quality amplifier, allow you to play the audio system at higher volume levels. When buying speakers, or more importantly, picking from the options on the display at your local car stereo shop, be sure to audition them. Yes, they’ll sound different when installed in your vehicle, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make sure they sound great. Harshness, unnatural tonal balance or too much midbass emphasis is only going to be exaggerated once the speakers are integrated into your car or truck.

They Care Enough To Include System Calibration

Digital signal processors are a necessity when it comes to delivering great sound in your vehicle. The acoustics in our cars, along with unequal path lengths to speakers, wreak havoc on imaging and staging. Having your audio system configured and calibrated using a DSP by someone intimately familiar with the process is crucial to experiencing your music the way the engineer who mastered the recording heard it. Proper instrument and performer placement on the soundstage, along with neutral and accurate tonal balance, are only achieved when the equalization, signal delay and crossovers are set properly.

They Seek Perfection in Design and Integration

Another observation about today’s car audio upgrade landscape revolves around system design and integration. Many car audio shops can install a set of speakers or replace a radio. Fewer have the skills to design a proper custom subwoofer enclosure. Even fewer again have the tools and training to configure and calibrate a digital signal processor properly.

Finding a shop that can do this all properly and execute the installation in a way that makes the upgrade look like a part of the vehicle rather than a bolted-on afterthought is, well, truly rare. Our point: You’re going to have to have to shop for the right company to work on your car or truck. You want it to be treated with respect while it’s in their bay, and you’ll want an audio upgrade that sounds magnificent and functions reliably. The process may take some time, but partnering with a genuine professional is worth the effort.

They Crave Precision in Speed Trap Detection

For those with a heavy right foot, upgrading a vehicle with a radar detector and laser defense system is an excellent investment. The latest technologies offer exceptional long-range sensitivity to all types of police radar. At the same time, their digital processing helps to reduce or eliminate false alarms from adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance systems. Of course, you have many options when it comes to having these systems integrated into your vehicle. The display and control panel can be attached to your dash or center console, or you can work with an expert who can create custom mounting solutions that make these a part of your vehicle interior. The same goes for laser shifters. Vehicle-specific acrylic mounts help to conceal these pods and make them nearly invisible.

They Want Their Vehicle Treated with Respect

We could go on and on about how installing a remote car starter is crucial to its reliability and how the wiring for a dashcam should be run carefully around airbags. We think you get the message that high-quality car audio and accessory upgrades are now something a more mature client is after. Invest the time in choosing the right shop that offers the right products and solutions to work on your vehicle.

Lead-in Image: Thanks to Shon Besharah of 6Thirteen Auto Design near Ottawa, Ontario, for sharing this image of a custom vehicle interior and subwoofer system he created.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.