Adding a subwoofer to a car audio system is the best bang for the buck regarding audio performance upgrades. You can instantly hear the difference, and it dramatically improves the realism and enjoyment of your system. Let’s look at how to pick a car audio subwoofer for your vehicle.

Factory Audio System Limitations

Before we get into how to choose a car audio subwoofer system for your vehicle, let’s examine why a subwoofer is such a great upgrade. In a nutshell, factory audio systems are designed around a budget – both monetary and weight-related. When automakers start looking at car audio products, price is often their primary concern. Automakers also work hard to reduce vehicle weight as much as possible, thereby reducing fuel consumption and, subsequently, environment emissions from the vehicle. This means that the performance of even these so-called “premium” factory audio systems is mediocre at best, and typically can be quantified as disappointing.

A factory audio systems that does happen to include a subwoofer is often limited in the amount of power available for the sub. The subs themselves are typically small, and the speaker cones can’t move very far to produce sound. Finally, the enclosures are often extremely compact, further limiting low-frequency sound reproduction. These limitations combine to produce bass that, if it seems to exist at all, won’t play very loud, doesn’t play very deep, and lacks clarity and definition.

Retail To The Rescue!

A specialist car audio retailer can work with you to design a subwoofer system that can offer an octave or two more low-frequency output. With the availability of subwoofers designed specifically to fit into small enclosure volumes, these subwoofers can be hidden inside storage compartments, inside your spare tire or in the footwell of almost any vehicle. Gone are the days when all your storage space has to be sacrificed for great sub-bass.

Before we delve into how to pick a sub, don’t let the stereotype of “booming bass” sway you from adding a subwoofer. Just as every home theater system includes a subwoofer to accurately reproduce low frequencies, the addition of a subwoofer to your vehicle will add accuracy and realism. Subwoofers make your music sound bigger and more lifelike by letting you hear and feel frequencies as low as 20 Hz. A sub also takes the load off the smaller door and dash speakers that aren’t capable of making accurate or deep bass.

Starting The Process

Before you head out to your local car audio specialist to inquire about a subwoofer system, there are a few things you should do. Accurately quantify your goals for the subwoofer – are you looking to “warm up” the system, are you trying to rattle your fillings loose or something in between? It’s important that you know what you want. A properly designed system with adequate speaker cone area and power will sound dramatically better than an undersized system pushed to its limits.

As with any purchase, have a rough idea of your budget ahead of time. Consider that there will be some installation cost and additional expenses for wiring for the amplifier and vehicle integration.

Finally, have a look at your vehicle and consider how much space you want to dedicate to the subwoofer system. As mentioned, it doesn’t need to be much these days, but every subwoofer needs a proper-size, properly built enclosure.

Auditioning Car Audio Subwoofers

Listening to a subwoofer in a vehicle is highly useful. The small space inside the vehicle boosts low frequencies more than a larger listening room. Once you have established a reference for how a specific subwoofer in a specific enclosure sounds in the vehicle, then you can listen to different options in the showroom for changes compared to that reference.

As with any listening session, you will want to use music you are familiar with, preferably something you have listened to dozens, if not hundreds, of times. In the case of a subwoofer, the performance of the speakers that are playing with it can affect the perception of its quality, so choose something similar to what you will be using. You will want to focus on three aspects of the subwoofers performance: frequency response, how loud it will play and how accurate it is.

Regarding frequency response, you will want to listen to how loud different frequencies are. Some subwoofers produce a lot of energy in the 50–70 Hz range, some between 30 and 50 Hz, and some play well below 20 Hz. You need a find a balance that accurately reproduces your music and meets your performance goals. High-quality subwoofers can be very musical, accurately defining subtle nuances between each different frequency. A pipe organ, piano, harp, bass guitar, contrabassoon and even a tuba all play into the range of a common car audio subwoofer. In fact, some male voices extend down to 65 Hz or lower. The best subwoofers offer smooth and extended frequency response while remaining tight and dynamic.

Quantifying how loud a subwoofer will play has a great deal to do with what type of enclosure it is installed in, and how much power you have to drive it. The limiting factor on output is cone area and how far the speaker cone can move – we call this excursion. Without accurate measurement equipment, all you can do is decide if the combination of the subwoofer, amplifier and enclosure you have chosen meets your needs.

A Word On Car Audio Subwoofer Enclosures

There are four common ways of installing a subwoofer in a vehicle. If you have a trunk, you can have your installer create a baffle that separates the trunk from the interior of the vehicle, and install the subwoofer in that baffle. That is known as an infinite baffle installation. You need a subwoofer that was designed specifically for that kind of application.

More common is a sealed enclosure, known formally as an acoustic suspension enclosure. These are forgiving regarding their volume requirements and can offer very smooth frequency response when combined with the output gain that most vehicles offer.

Perhaps the “most fun” of all subwoofer enclosures is the ported design, known as a bass reflex enclosure. In these, which are larger than a sealed enclosure, there is a vent of a specific area and length that uses the back-wave (sound coming off the back of the subwoofer cone) to help reinforce the output. You get more bass output for the same size subwoofer.

Finally, the most complex of enclosures commonly used is the bandpass design. In these, the enclosure acts to filter out high-frequency information. These enclosures sound the best when you have great-quality midbass drivers in the system.

An entire article could be dedicated to the benefits of one enclosure design over another, but your car audio retailer can help steer you toward the correct one for your application.

If you are thinking of upgrading your car audio system and you do not already have a subwoofer, drop in at your local car audio specialist right away! There are enclosures not much larger than a shoe box that can make a dramatic difference in the way your system sounds. If you want something more significant, that is easily arranged. Take along your favorite music and have a listen. Adding a subwoofer not only makes a huge improvement, but can be a lot of fun!

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.

One of the most critical components in a high-quality vehicle entertainment system is your car audio amplifier. While the concept of increasing the power of an audio signal is simple, it can be somewhat complex to execute elegantly the process. Amplifier design is as much as science as it is an art form. In this article, we will look at everything you need to know to buy the right amplifier for your system.

How We Measure Car Audio Amplifiers

For more than 100 years, people have been using amplifiers to take a small audio signal and increase its power so it can move a speaker. We measure an amplifier’s capacity to do work in watts. Before the industry had a reference set of guidelines for measuring amplifier power, we would see outrageous claims from otherwise minuscule products. The Consumer Technology Association (formerly the Consumer Electronics Association) has worked with industry experts and manufacturers to produce a set of standards to allow the power produced by different brands, makes and models of amplifiers to be comparable. This standard is currently known as CEA-2006A. When you see the associated logo on a product, you can be confident that the power specifications are real and directly comparable.

Features Help Increase Performance

Modern car audio amplifiers are equipped with many different features. These can include crossovers, bass boost circuits, remote level controls and equalization. Crossovers allow your installer to limit the range of frequencies that the amp will reproduce. In the case of a subwoofer amplifier, we can send the entire audio spectrum to the amp. With a low-pass crossover set, only those frequencies below the crossover point will be amplified and sent to the speaker. A high-pass crossover does the opposite, sending only high-frequency information from the input to the output of the amp.

Limiting which frequencies pass through the amplifier allows the speakers to operate within the frequency range for which they were designed. You wouldn’t want bass information to be sent to your tweeters, nor would you want midrange and high-frequency information to be sent to your subwoofer. Almost every car audio amplifier includes crossovers.

Infrasonic or subsonic filters and bass boost controls are additional tuning options that can be used to help maximize the performance of a dedicated subwoofer amplifier. A remote level control – something also found on most subwoofer amplifiers is a volume control for the amp that can be mounted in the front of the vehicle. This control gives you the option of fine-tuning the amount of bass right at your fingertips.

Auditioning a Car Audio Amplifier

Quantifying the performance of a car audio amplifier can be very difficult. The speakers connected to the amplifier are an infinitely bigger contributing factor to how a system sounds. To properly audition an amp, you need to compare it to another using the same set of speakers. A display board in a car audio specialty retailer is a great way to do this. You will want to ensure that the volume level of all amplifiers is the same for the comparison to be valid.

How can the design of an amplifier affect the way it sounds? There are always exceptions, but for the most part, whether the amp is a Class AB or Class D design can have an effect on the high-frequency performance. Class AB amps are often more detailed in the highest of frequencies. Switch back and forth between amplifiers on a display and listen to the ring of a crash or ride cymbal, or that of a triangle. You want to hear clarity and detail.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the impact and definition of lower frequency information can show off differences in the design of an amplifier’s power supply and the way the amp behaves when amplifying a complex signal. What you want to listen for is the perceived “speed” of the car audio amplifier. When a drummer hits the rim of a tom with his stick or the skin of the bass drum with the pedal, you want be startled. It should be very tight and controlled. The sound should be clear and natural.

One thing you don’t want to hear is warmth. While this goes against what many people perceive as good, warmth can be a sign of even-order harmonic distortion. The best amplifiers don’t change the sound; they just make the signal louder.

What’s Right For You?

When it comes to choosing an amplifier for your mobile entertainment system, the right amp for you is the one that fulfills your system requirements. A four-channel amplifier has always been a great starting point for system upgrades. They can be used to run four speakers and a subwoofer. If a dedicated subwoofer amp is added later on, that four-channel amp can do an even better job of powering those same four speakers. A lot of specialists like to use a four-channel amp to power a set of midrange tweeters and some form of electronic crossover to split up the audio signal between the two.

Amplifiers are available with one to eight channels at power levels from 35 watts per channel to almost 20,000 watts. Always make sure you have enough power for your system. If saving for another few weeks will let you purchase a more powerful amp instead of one that is “just enough,” it is well worth waiting.

The Latest And Greatest

In the past few years, many companies have introduced car audio amplifiers that include powerful DSP processors. These signal processors provide your installer with more control over system crossovers and add time-alignment and advanced equalization options. In the hands of an expert installer, this can add amazing accuracy and realism to a system. When tuned properly, they are the icing on the cake!

A Word About Installation

While car audio amplifiers seem like one of the easiest components to install in a vehicle, the challenge of sourcing a proper audio signal for that amp from a factory radio and dealing with varying current delivery challenges found in today’s automobiles can make proper installation difficult. Having an experienced technician at a car audio shop install and configure your amp is highly recommended. In many cases, manufacturers offer an extended warranty when their products are installed by an authorized dealer.

Visit your local car audio specialist retailer and bring along your favorite music. Listen to as many different amplifiers as you can, then choose the one that meets your system needs, your performance goals and your budget.

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 is no component more important to the sonic performance of your vehicle’s sound system than the car audio speakers you chose to install. You may own the best radio and amplifier in the world, but without great speakers, none of that great sound can get to your ears. Let’s look at why speakers are so important and a few suggestions on how to pick the best ones for your system.

Different Designs of Car Audio Speakers

Every car audio speaker is engineered to operate well within a specific range of frequencies. As a generalization, subwoofers are best at playing those frequencies below 80 Hz. Most midrange speakers can play from 80 Hz to 4 kHz, and tweeters typically play from 4 kHz and up. The size and weight of the speaker cone or diaphragm and the stiffness of the speaker’s suspension components (the spider and the surround) all affect the frequency response of the speaker. We need different-sized speakers to cover the entire audible range of audio.

For the speakers in your vehicle, you have two design choices – component or coaxial speakers. In a component speaker set, the midrange and tweeters are separate pieces. The midrange is often installed in the factory door or dash speaker location, while the tweeter is mounted high in the door, on the dash or in the A-pillars. This higher location helps make the sound appear to come from in front of you rather than from down by your legs. Coaxial car audio speakers still have two separate drivers. The tweeter is physically mounted to the midrange – typically, on a post that extends up through the center of the speaker. Coaxial speakers are easier to install, because there are only two pieces, not four. Both designs can sound very good, but typically, the best of the best speakers are designed as components.

A common trait among high-quality car audio speakers is high-quality passive crossover networks. Every tweeter needs some method of limiting what frequencies are being sent to it. In better systems, the output of the midrange that would normally overlap where the tweeter was playing is also filtered out. Passive crossovers can include tweeter level controls to help provide some basic system tuning.

Listen To This

Listening to speakers has been described as “personal preference” for decades. That being said, a speaker that is very accurate and free from distortion will always stand out from a speaker that has design issues. The best way to audition speakers is in a vehicle. Some companies put extra effort into the design of their speaker systems to make them sound better in a vehicle as compared to on a display board. Retail display boards have the benefit of letting you quickly compare the performance of several different models. Listening to both a demo vehicle and display can be the best solution for helping you pick a great set of speakers.

When you go to listen to speakers, bring your favorite music. It should be something that you have listened to many times on as many different sources as possible. Pick out and listen to different portions of the performance one at a time. If you are comparing speakers on a display, you can switch back and forth as you listen to different pieces of the performance.

Listen for vocals to sound natural. If there is too much high-frequency information, then S, T and P sounds will be over-emphasized. If there is an unwanted resonance in the midbass region (a very common problem with lower-quality speakers), then M and B sounds may be pronounced and sound unnatural. Some speakers sound nasally, some sound harsh. Either can be a sign of a distortion caused by the speaker design. Keep looking if you hear that.

Listen to high-frequency sounds like the ring of a cymbal or high-hat. It should have clarity and detail. Listen for the speed of transients – drums are a great test of a speaker’s ability to reproduce a wide range of frequencies while demonstrating smooth frequency response and lack of distortion. Drums should sound tight and controlled, with great definition.

Size Matters

When it comes to reproducing music, the size of your speakers has a dramatic effect on what you hear. A speaker with more area can move more air for a given amount of power – we refer to this as efficiency. The design of the speaker’s voice coil and the magnet structure also affects efficiency. In most cases, a larger speaker also produces more bass than a small speaker. This has to do with the weight of the speaker cone and the flexibility of the speaker’s suspension components.

Finally, how far the speaker cone can move will determine how loud the speaker can play. Don’t forget; you need amplifier power to move the speaker cone – don’t skimp on power.

Choosing Car Audio Speakers By The Numbers

One thing that an experienced car audio retailer rarely talks about is power handling. While this is important if you are looking for sheer system volume, power handling is in no way a quantifier of the quality of a speaker. There are speakers rated at 50 watts that sound exponentially better than speakers rated at 200 watts. Just as with amplifiers, manufacturers play many games when it comes to speaker power ratings. The only number that matters is the continuous power handling, sometimes referred to as RMS power handling. If you see a speaker with a CEA-2031 Power Rating, that is the best number to use. Max and peak power numbers start to make assumptions about the energy content of music, and it’s best to avoid assumptions. But don’t forget, power handling does not relate to sound quality in any way.

Drop in at your local specialist and have a listen to a few different car audio speakers in the appropriate size for your application and your price range. It may even help to make some notes as you listen. Your installer can offer suggestions like new wiring and sound deadening that can further improve the performance of your speakers once they are installed in your car. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and most importantly – have fun listening to your music! That’s what a great car audio system is all about!

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.