You’d think it’d be easy to choose an amplifier of a specific power rating to work with a 500-watt subwoofer. In reality, we need to consider several factors, particularly performance and reliability. Let’s take a detailed look at the complexity of choosing the perfect amplifier for your car audio subwoofer system.

The Myth and Mystery of Car Audio Amplifier Power Ratings

Let’s start by talking about amplifier power ratings, since this is an area the BestCarAudio.com editorial team is moderately obsessive about. Measuring practical amplifier power production requires rules. The industry standard for power measurement is defined in the ANSI/CTA-2006-D Testing and Measurement Methods for In-Vehicle Audio Amplifiers standard. Without getting too into the details, this standard requires that the audio signal be reproduced with no more than 1% total harmonic distortion and noise into a specified load and that the amp be powered with 14.4 volts. More supply voltage, which usually results in more power being produced, would be cheating. Not specifying THD+N in the rating is also cheating.

If you’re shopping for an amplifier for your subwoofer, you need to know how much power it will actually produce in your vehicle. You’ll know you’re in good hands if you see the CTA-2006 quoted in the specs. Some companies will specify identical or similar criteria but forego the standard. That’s odd but fine. Further, some companies under-rate their amplifiers’ power production capabilities. While this is often good regarding a value proposition, it might mean you have enough power to damage a subwoofer. Sadly, some companies flat-out lie about how much power their amplifiers can produce, and that’s a problem.

Subwoofer Power-Handling Ratings

If making sense of amplifier power ratings gave you a headache, try dedicating some time to figuring out subwoofer power ratings. The ANSI/CTA 2031 Testing and Measurement Methods for In-Vehicle Loudspeaker Systems and the ANSI CTA-426-B Loudspeaker, Optimum Amplifier Power standards describe a test where a speaker must play a test signal for a minimum of eight hours at a specific average power level without inducing any damage to the driver.

Variability and accuracy in providing real-world specifications are once again an issue. If you look at subwoofers from reputable brands, you’ll see that drivers with standard component features typically have similar power ratings. For example, as you move up through this company’s subwoofer series, their power ratings, which are specified as being CTA-2031-compliant, increase in proportion to voice coil diameter. The chart below gives you an outline of the relationship between voice coil size and power handling.

While venting under spider mounting ledges, vented pole pieces and vented formers can help, it’s unlikely you’ll find a subwoofer with a 2-inch diameter voice coil that can handle more than 500 watts of power for eight hours. Nevertheless, many companies make these claims.

So, how do you know what’s reasonable regarding power-handling ratings? The chart above is a good guideline, but some subwoofers might have small-diameter four-layer voice coils or designs with added length that also help dissipate heat. The mobile enhancement retailer you’re working with will have a good idea of how much abuse their subwoofers can take.

What Happens When a Sub Gets Too Much Power?

Because speakers and subwoofers are notoriously inefficient, most of the power sent to them is converted into heat. Usually around 99% is wasted in heating the coil, voice coil former, top plate, T-yoke and magnet. As we explained here, bigger subwoofers with heavier cone assemblies are often less efficient.

No matter what features are included in a subwoofer design, once the voice coil gets too hot, it will melt the varnish or adhesive that holds the assembly to the former. When this happens, the coil usually unravels and physically interferes with the top plate. The coil often rubs for a while rather than failing instantly. Nevertheless, the damage is permanent.

Another consideration in matching an amplifier to a subwoofer is physical power handling. It’s easy for someone unfamiliar with how to model a subwoofer in an enclosure to design a solution with physical power-handling issues. Subwoofers need enclosures to limit cone travel. When an enclosure design is incorrect, a subwoofer might bottom out, and the former will run into the back plate, or the spider might be stressed and damaged where it attaches to the cone.

The Power vs. Frequency graph above shows that a subwoofer rated to handle 500 watts of power can only handle just over 400 watts around 42 hertz because of the design of this seemingly simple 1-cubic-foot vented enclosure.

Picking the Right Amplifier for Your Car Audio Subwoofer

This topic is more complicated than it appears on the surface. Let’s simplify things a bit so you can head to your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer with a plan. Don’t skimp on subwoofers if you want your audio system to play at high volume levels. Choose high-quality drivers with real power ratings. Then choose a high-quality amplifier with a similar power rating. So, if you have a 500-watt subwoofer, then an amplifier capable of producing 500 watts into the current load impedance for that driver is a good choice.

What happens if you have less power than the sub can handle? Not much. The sub won’t play as loudly. If you push the amp to clip, that will put more heat into the voice coil, but it won’t make your music any louder. Make sure the shop that installs your amp and subwoofer has the tools and training to set the sensitivity controls on the amplifier properly. What if you have too much power? Well, it’s easy to put too much heat into the sub. If you are listening to music, a 650-watt amp on a 500-watt sub isn’t a recipe for instant disaster. You have to use that extra power for something bad to happen. For example, if you’re playing test tones to measure maximum SPL readings, you might be in trouble.

If you want the subwoofer system to sound great and last for decades, use a high-quality subwoofer amp and lots of drivers, then under-power the subs. If you have four 500-watt subs, choose a 1,000- to 1,200-watt amp. This will produce lots of bass but will never push the subwoofers near their limits. This reduced drive level not only allows the subwoofers to last longer, but they will sound better. Of course, don’t compromise on a proper enclosure design only to increase the number of subwoofers in the system.

One last thought: If you want your music to sound the best it can, focus on choosing an amplifier with excellent distortion ratings rather than focusing on power. Power ratings aren’t in any way related to sound quality. Some of the most powerful amps we’ve seen sound terrible. Choosing a high-quality amp that produces 500 watts of power will produce better bass than an inexpensive or poorly designed amp that produces 800 or 1,000 watts.

Your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer should be able to help you choose the correct number of subwoofers to deliver the kind of bass response you want and match them to an amplifier that will sound amazing.

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.

For as long as I can remember, car radios have had their “maximum power” ratings all over their packaging and often right on the face of the radio. These numbers are not only useless in terms of an ability to reproduce music with any sense of quality, but I have always questioned whether they are even possible. Let’s measure how much power a conventional car audio head unit can produce.

Car Audio Head Unit Amplifiers

Most car audio source units use an all-in-one four-channel amplifier integrated circuit (IC) to power the speakers in the vehicle. These ICs are typically driven directly by the supply voltage to radio with something on the order of 12 to 13.5 volts.

Some quick research shows that these units have a “power rating” of 50 watts by four. As a reader of BestCarAudio.com, you know supply voltage and distortion measurements are critical in quantifying a power measurement. The spec sheet for these little amps includes that information. Many are rated at 50 watts by four at 10% THD when powered with 15 volts. If ever there was a “that’s not useful” specification, this would be it.

When comparing car audio amplifier power measurements, the ANSI/CTA-2006-C standard defines the maximum noise and harmonic distortion to be equal to or less than 1%. Second, we use a maximum supply voltage of 14.4 volts – even if that number is a bit optimistic.

Is a Rating of 50 Watts per Channel Possible?

You might not know it, but 10% distortion from an amplifier playing a pure test tone starts to look a lot like a square wave. Let’s assume there is very little voltage loss due to the components in these amplifier ICs, then do some basic math. To calculate power, we square the voltage across a load, then multiply that number by the load’s impedance. As such, 15 times 15 is 225. Dividing 225 by four gives us 56.25. If the amp could produce a pure square wave, it could produce 50 watts of power.

Let’s back things down to something realistic and consider what power that amp might make if the output waveform was a sinusoidal signal. To convert a square wave to a sine wave, we divide it by the square root of 2. In our theoretical “perfect efficiency” amp example, we now have an output voltage of 10.6 volts, which the math says is 28 watts per channel.

Let’s back this down to a more reasonable test voltage of 13.2 volts – something we might see while driving in an average, everyday car or truck. Our amp IC can now theoretically produce 21.78 watts.

If we dig back into the datasheets for a real amplifier IC, we see that they have a rating of 20 watts per channel with 1% THD when supplied with 14.4 volts. It almost makes sense.

Why Worry About Head Unit Power Ratings?

I’ve seen many instances of car audio enthusiasts asking how to upgrade their sound systems. One of the first suggestions is to purchase new speakers and an external amplifier. Many compact four-channel amplifiers will fit in a dash, under a seat or in the center console of a car or truck. These amplifiers are typically rated to produce 45 to 50 watts per channel. On many occasions, I’ve witnessed ill-informed owners state that this power rating is the same as their head unit. This statement is incorrect because the numbers aren’t stated with the same supply voltage and distortion ratings. If we want to use Maximum Power head unit ratings, these compact amplifiers would produce around 100 watts per channel. Nevertheless, we don’t deal in inflated numbers.

Testing Power from a Car Audio Source Unit

I dug through the cupboards in my lab to see if I had an older source unit and found a high-quality marine radio from around 2010. Let’s set this up on the BestCarAudio.com test bench to see what it’s capable of in terms of power production.

I created a test disc with various 1 kHz test tones in hopes of hitting an output level that contained exactly 1% total harmonic distortion and noise. Yes, a compact disc. Do you remember those round discs that store data? To keep the test simple and reliable, I will only drive one 4-ohm load during the test as I don’t want to overheat anything or damage this “vintage” piece of car audio history. Hahaha. Nevertheless, the disc has 40, 30-second long 1 kHz sine wave test tracks recorded at 0 to -4.0 dB FS in -0.1 dB increments. Yeah, this took a moment to create. Driving only one channel will allow me to use my small variable-voltage power supply to see how different supply voltages affect maximum power production.

The graphs above show how a single channel behaved when driven to an output level as close as I could get to 1% THD+N. The deck produced a waveform with a 7.16 volts RMS amplitude at this level. That works out to 12.81 watts. That’s most certainly not 20 or 45 watts.

Just so you know what you’re looking at on the waveform (oscilloscope), the yellow and teal traces are the voltages on the positive and negative speaker wires. The violet trace is the sum of those voltages calculated by the scope. This is what the speaker “sees” in terms of power.

Let’s up the supply voltage to the same level we’d use on a good quality car audio amplifier to see what happens.

At 14.4 volts, the output has increased to 8.66 volts RMS, which works out to 18.75 watts. This is now getting into the realm of the 22-watts-per-channel rating. Can we get closer by supplying it with 15 volts?

Supplying the deck with 15 volts resulted in an output of 8.99 volts RMS, which works out to 20.2 watts.

And In Today’s News, 20 Watts Isn’t 50 Watts

Over the years, I’ve tested dozens, if not hundreds, of source units. Most don’t make 20 watts of power per channel – they are typically between 14 and 17 watts.

Where am I going with this information? I want it to be clear to those wishing to upgrade their car audio systems that even a 45-watt-per-channel compact amplifier would be a significant upgrade over the power available from a head unit. For head unit manufacturers, please stop printing 45Wx4 on the packaging. It just isn’t a realistic rating.

Genuine High-Power Head Units

Before I wrap up, I have to note that some source unit manufacturers have gone the extra mile by including a small switching power supply and a high-power Class D amplifier in their source units. These radios can produce around 45 watts of power per channel using standard CTA-2006-C compliant distortion and supply voltage specifications. You’ll know when you’re talking about these radios because their installation requires running a larger-than-normal power and ground wire to a high-current power source in the vehicle. These decks usually include that 100-watt-per-channel rating I mentioned earlier.

Upgrade Your Head Unit for Better Sound

If you have a typical car audio source unit that makes around 15 to 18 watts of power per channel, upgrading your stereo system with a high-performance amplifier can dramatically improve both output capability and sound quality. Drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer today to find out about the options available for 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.

The most popular car radio upgrades these days include a touchscreen. Multimedia receivers with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are a great way to make communicating safer while driving. When it comes time to clean your car or truck’s interior, here are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that the display on your car radio will look great for years.

Cleaning Touchscreen Radios and Overhead Monitors

It shouldn’t be surprising that touchscreen radios will get some fingerprints on them. Most of us have naturally oily skin. When we touch the plastic screen, we leave marks that can make reading the information on the display more difficult in bright sunlight. You may also need to deal with the occasional splash of coffee or droplets from a sneeze. Using the proper process and cleaning products is essential to prevent damage to the fragile anti-glare coating.

Many of us are accustomed to the toughness and durability of the glass screens on our smartphones. We can wipe them on a shirt or pant leg with minimal risk of damage. Your car radio, an overhead monitor or headrest monitor isn’t anywhere as durable. The plastic overlay on top of the glass screen in your vehicle typically has a slightly frosted anti-glare coating. This coating helps diffuse light and makes it easier to see information on the display behind it. To put things into perspective, some of these coatings can be scratched or scuffed by a sharp fingernail.

Touchscreen Display Cleaning Products

When it’s time to clean the display on the radio in your car, the first thing you’ll need is a microfiber cloth. If you want to be 100% fanatical (like us), we recommend a cloth that’s been used and washed once as the fibers are matted down a little bit. Further, when you wash microfiber cloths, do not use fabric softener. A laundry detergent like Purex Free and Clear or an application-specific product like Chemical Guys’ MicroFiber Wash or P&S Rags to Riches is better. Tumble dry the cloths on a low or no-heat setting that won’t melt the fibers. If you get the feeling we do as much research into automotive detailing as car audio, you are 100% correct.

Next, you need something to cut through the grease, oils or coffee. We’ve had excellent success with a product called Woosh! Screen Shine. That said, distilled water (which is free of minerals) is often adequate for day-to-day maintenance. A few drops of vinegar in distilled water will give it extra grease-cutting power. The same goes for a drop of dish soap like Dawn. If you are shopping for a “screen cleaner,” make sure it says it’s 100% compatible with plastic displays and that it’s not designed specifically for the glass screens of tablets and smartphones.

Spray the Cloth, Not the Screen!

One of the most important things to know when cleaning any display, be it on your car radio, your flat-screen television, a computer monitor or even a smartphone, is to avoid soaking the display. Do not spray the cleaner on the display – spray the cloth. You don’t need anything soaking wet. No liquid should be running down the screen with the potential of getting into the electronics and circuitry below. Water and liquid damage are never covered under the manufacturer’s warranty. Nor are scratches on the display from improper care and maintenance.

If you’re a detailer, don’t use steam on or around the screen. That’s a LOT of moisture that can infiltrate the display and cause permanent damage.

Give the microfiber cloth a spray (preferably outside the vehicle) and wipe the screen lightly. Resistive-style touchscreens move slightly to make contact with a second layer. You don’t want to dent, crush, nick or scratch the display membrane. If something stubborn is on the screen, reapply your cleaner (on the cloth) and continue to rub gently. Pressure is bad.

What Not to Use on Car Screens

In terms of wiping the screen, never use a paper towel, newspaper or even facial tissue (Kleenex). You should also avoid cotton rags and waffle-weave clothes – even though they can be great for cleaning glass windows. The fibers used in these materials can scratch the screen.

Do not use strong chemicals like alcohol, Windex or other glass cleaners or degreasers, especially those with ammonia. Even lens cleaning wipes for your glasses can be too strong. These products can strip the anti-glare coating off of a screen very quickly. The only way to undo this damage is to have the screen replaced – and that’s a costly component. Most aftermarket replacement displays cost between $100 and $300, but some new high-resolution displays can be even more. This price doesn’t include the labor to remove the radio, ship it somewhere to be repaired and pay for the time to do the swap. Even a quick swipe with the wrong product or materials can end up being a $500-600 mistake.

Tips for The Obsessives

If there is dust or debris around the edge of a recessed display, a soft makeup brush from the dollar store is a good way to get rid of it. If the brush has a metal band that holds the bristles in place, wrap it with cloth tape so you won’t damage the plastic trim pieces. You can also use compressed air to clean dust out of the corners. A quick blast before wiping the screen can blow away anything that might cause scratches. If you have kids who like to snack in the car, then you know what we’re talking about. Those cookie and cracker crumbs seem to end up everywhere!

Take Care of Your Car Radio

We expect few folks put this much thought into keeping the display on their car radio looking good. Being overly obsessive about even the most minute details is our thing! If fingerprints are on your radio, we hope this guide will help you clean them off quickly and efficiently while ensuring that your radio will continue to function superbly for many years. If you’re considering upgrading the stereo system in your vehicle, drop by a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer to find out about the available options.

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.

We’ve talked about audio component and speaker distortion a great deal. The reason for this is that distortion is one of the critical factors in quantifying the quality of an audio system. Components that add a lot of distortion take away from the realism of the listening experience, making the music blurred, muddy and unnatural. This article will follow an audio signal through the typical car audio system, from the source unit to the speakers’ output, to explain how unwanted information is added to your music. We aim to emphasize the importance of choosing high-quality audio components at every stage to get the most from your stereo upgrade.

As our virtual audio test source, let’s imagine an audio track with three sine waves. The first is at 50 Hz, the second at 1 kHz and the third at 5 kHz. I’ve chosen this approach so you’ll be able to “see” how things change as we work through the system.

As you can see above, we have three unique peaks with little to nothing between them. This is as pure as our audio signal will ever be. The sine waves are “recorded” at -10 dB FS, so we should have enough room to add harmonics without clipping the signal.

The System: Source Unit, DSP, Amplifiers and Speakers

For this example, we’ll use a typical consumer-grade source unit from a name-brand company like Sony, Kenwood, Alpine or Pioneer. These radios typically add about 0.1% distortion on the preamp output unless they are a premium Mobile ES or eXcelon XR model. This rating of 0.1% means that for every piece of frequency content, information is added at a level of -60 dB at different harmonics. Most radios I’ve tested add second-order harmonics at this level, so to keep the example simple, we’ll only consider that.

So, let’s add second-order harmonics to our test track. The third harmonic of 50 hertz is 150 hertz. The third of 1 kHz is 3 kHz, and the third of 5 kHz is 15 kHz. So, we’ll add sine waves at -70 dB FS to the track – which is 60 dB less than the original 50-, 1,000- and 5,000-hertz signals.

Now we can see how there is some low-level content added at three times each of the fundamental frequencies. Remember, in real music, we aren’t dealing with pure tones but with bands of audio information. So, everywhere there is audio information, the product adds harmonics to the output.

Signal Processing

The next step in the audio food chain is to pass the signal through a processor. Once again, our goal is to explain the concept here, so we will keep things unrealistically simple and ignore any equalization or filtering. We’ll consider the harmonics added by a typical good-quality processor. Since this system isn’t using top-of-the-line gear, we’ll use an affordable six-input, six-output processor as the model. I’ve tested several of these, and they add about 0.05% THD to the signal. That value equates to another round of harmonics added to the output at a level of -80 dB.

Since the processor doesn’t know the difference between the original audio source and the information that includes harmonic distortion, it adds harmonics to the harmonics. Think of this like compound interest on a car loan or mortgage. In this case, those harmonics are below the background noise level in the audio track, so they are invisible.

The third-order harmonics have now increased to an absolute level of -67 dB FS from their -70, thanks to our digital signal processor’s third-order distortion characteristics.

System Amplification

Here’s where we need to make some assumptions about how the system is being used. Amplifiers don’t have linear distortion characteristics. They add more harmonics at low levels and less when being pushed hard. For this example, we will go right up the middle and assume we are listening to the system at a moderately loud playback level. Given the typical speakers in a vehicle and their reference efficiency, let’s say we’re enjoying an average playback level of around 90 dB SPL. Believe it or not, your amplifier is likely only producing 1 or 2 watts of power, assuming you haven’t cranked up the bass control on the radio. Most consumers and audio enthusiasts underestimate the importance of clean audio amplification and low output levels. This is why BestCarAudio.com measures amplifier THD+N and S/N ratio at 2 volts, as this equates to 1 watt of power into a 4-ohm speaker.

A modern, affordable Class-D amplifier adds about 0.01% THD, but it’s often reasonably equal between first and second harmonics. We don’t want to overload the concept, so we’ll add -83 dB FS frequency content at first- and second-order spacing to our audio signal. Please don’t fret; this will make sense when you see it.

The third-order tones are now above -70 dB FS, making them only 60 dB SPL quieter than our original signal. This isn’t loud but represents a total harmonic distortion level of 0.1%. Imagine if any component in the chain were of poor quality. We’ve measured ultra-compact amplifiers that are much worse than our example. Stacking another 10 dB of harmonic distortion on top of the existing audio content is almost easy.

Speaker Distortion

Sadly, we’ve reached the weakest link in the audio system in terms of adding distortion to our original signal. We’ve just started characterizing speakers’ harmonic distortion characteristics, so officially, we don’t have a massive database of information to pull from. For this example, let’s say that the vehicle has a set of upgraded speakers in the front and back – something like a 6.5-inch coaxial in both locations. We know that every speaker increases the amount of distortion it adds as cone excursion increases. Since reproducing bass frequencies requires that we move a lot of air, that’s where we’ll run into the most significant distortion issues.

We’ve already decided we’re at a playback level of around 90 dB SPL. Based on our testing and some educated forecasting, let’s add 1% even- and odd-order harmonic distortion at the bass frequencies. We’ll add 0.3% at the midrange and 0.1% at high frequencies. These equate to -50 dB FS tones at 100 and 150 hertz, -60.45 dB FS tones at 2 kHz and 3 kHz and -70 dB FS tones at 10 kHz and 15 kHz. Let’s see what that looks like.

Distortion Adds Something from Nothing

Let’s analyze this final signal. We have 100- and 150-hertz harmonics in the bass region at levels of -50 and -49 dB FS relative to our -10 dB FS source. That’s about -36.5 dB of distortion or 1.5%. For the -10 dB FS midrange tone, we have harmonics at -60 dB and -67 dB, which work out to a total harmonic distortion level of -45.47 dB or 0.423%. Finally, for our high-frequency information, the harmonics are at -58.5 and -52.3 relative to the original signal, for a total distortion of -51.4 dB or 0.27%.

What Are Our Takeaways?

We first need to realize that distortion is added at all volume levels, not just when a component is pushed beyond its linear operating range. Second, speakers are notorious for adding large amounts of distortion. Buying speakers with distortion-reducing technologies like shorting rings and copper or aluminum T-yoke caps can make a massive difference to your audio system. Lastly, this is a very simplified example of how distortion works. We ignored the first- and third-order distortion from the head unit and processor, along with the intermodulation distortion created between these fundamentals and harmonics. More importantly, we ignored that music is full of frequency content and not just three bands. Imagine these exact multiples of every frequency between 50 and 5 kHz.

Higher-quality audio components and speakers can quickly improve distortion performance by an order of magnitude or two, dropping it by 10 or 20 dB overall. Designing an audio system with a subwoofer will alleviate the need for a small speaker to try to reproduce bass frequencies for another significant reduction in unwanted harmonic information.

We also didn’t talk about background noise at all. A source unit like this might have a signal-to-noise ratio of 73 dB. The DSP has an S/N ratio of 78 dB, and the amp is likely in the 88 dB range. All this noise adds up and can become audible between tracks or during quiet passages in your music.

When it’s time to upgrade your vehicle’s audio system, drop by a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and audition some options that will work with your application. The time you invest in choosing the best-performing solutions for the money will reward you with hours of great listening.

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.

Picking new speakers for your home, a new set of headphones or upgrades for your car audio system should all involve the same auditioning process. Take two or three of your favorite songs on a memory stick to a local mobile enhancement retailer and audition the speakers under controlled conditions. We can’t count the number of times people have purchased speakers based on a brand’s perception of quality only to hear others that sound significantly better for equal or sometimes dramatically less money.

We’ve covered the process of auditioning speakers in the past. In this article, we’ll look at what makes speakers that look somewhat similar sound so different.

For this discussion, let’s look at the differences between 6.5-inch woofers that you’d find in a component set. The same design differences apply to many coaxial speakers and even to subwoofers.

Speaker Sizes

You’d think that within a specific speaker size class, the effective cone area of a driver would be pretty consistent. The specification that describes the effective cone area is called Sd and is typically specified in square centimeters, though the official standard is square meters. Many entry-level or high-excursion 6.5-inch drivers have an effective area specification of around 120 square centimeters. Those designs that have been optimized to maximize surface area might be above 140 square centimeters. That’s 17% more cone area that fits in the same application.

In terms of efficiency and low-frequency output, more area is better. The drawback of a larger cone is that it becomes directional at a lower frequency and necessitates a tweeter that can play loudly at frequencies below 2 kilohertz without producing a lot of distortion. Purely from an effective cone area standpoint, you can imagine that different driver designs sound unique, and more so when listened to off-axis.

Cone Excursion Capability and Power Handling

If you want to listen to your music at high volume levels, you need a driver that’s designed to be reliable and can move a lot of air. Without getting overly complicated, the length of the voice coil in relation to the height of the motor structure’s top plate determines how far the cone can move forward or rearward linearly. This specification is known as Xmax. It’s calculated by subtracting the top plate’s height from the voice coil’s height, then dividing by two. The suspension design also plays into how linearly the driver operates, but we’ll skip that for the moment. A basic OE replacement speaker might move forward and rearward 2 or 3 millimeters in each direction. A mid-level driver that can play much louder might reach up to 5 millimeters in each direction. The most premium designs offer more than 8 millimeters of excursion (in each direction) and often outperform larger drivers with lesser designs.

Of course, to make a speaker cone move greater distances, an amplifier needs to feed it significant amounts of power. As speakers are notoriously inefficient, much of the energy they receive is converted to heat in the voice coil winding. To increase power handling, larger voice coil formers are necessary. A typical replacement or basic upgrade speaker might have a voice coil with a diameter of 25 centimeters or about an inch. These drivers can often handle up to 75 or 80 watts of power if the winding is relatively long. If it’s short, power handling is usually down around 50 watts.

Better drivers will use larger voice coils in the 38-mm or 1.4-inch range. Power handling on these drivers jumps to around 100 to 125 watts, depending on the rating and testing method. Finally, the most custom designs might use a 51-millimeter former for the most durability at extreme operating levels. Oddly, the companies using these designs seem conservative, with their power ratings at about 100 to 150 watts continuous.

Cone Materials

If ever there was a topic that confused consumers, it would be the benefits and drawbacks of different woofer cone materials. Paper, plastic, carbon fiber, aluminum, layered composites, woven composites and all manner of in-between designs are prevalent in the top brands. Is one better than another? Some might excel in some frequency ranges while performing poorly in others.

The goal of the woofer cone is to move forward and rearward linearly without resonating. Rigid cones that aren’t well-damped tend to get very excited at higher frequencies and can cause harshness in the upper midrange. They are all reasonably similar at lower frequencies, except for how their mass works with the suspension and motor design to affect bass reproduction. If you see or hear claims of “tighter bass” based on a suggestion of improved cone material, someone doesn’t understand speaker design.

We should talk about dust caps and surrounds as an extension of cone materials. These components exhibit the same distortion-causing resonance issues as a poorly designed cone. These parts aren’t afterthoughts, and their design and selection are paramount to the proper operation of a speaker.

Motor and Suspension Design

Perhaps the most significant factor of loudspeaker sound quality is the motor’s design and the selection of suspension components. As an extension of our discussion of voice coil geometry and excursion limits, how the suspension behaves at extreme drive levels can effectively determine the sound quality of a speaker. Cupped spiders or those with linear compliance curves can result in significant distortion at lower frequencies and high excursion levels. Distortion will occur if more electrical input doesn’t equate to perfectly symmetrical or a proportional increase in cone travel. I’ve measured high-efficiency drivers that produced more output at 160 Hz than 80 Hz when driven with an 80-hertz sine wave. That’s right; the source information didn’t contain any audio at 160 hertz.

Consistent voice coil inductance based on cone position is also an important issue. When the voice coil moves forward, the T-yoke occupies less of it. When it moves rearward, more of the coil surrounds the T-yoke. This not only changes the inductance of the driver but its perceived frequency response.

The result, in extreme cases, is akin to listening to your voice when speaking through the blades of a moving fan. More high-frequency information is produced when bass information moves the cone outward and less when the cone moves inward. Features like aluminum and copper shorting rings in the motor and copper caps or shields on the T-yoke can help reduce this phenomenon.

Another factor that plays a huge role in the understanding of speaker quality is the stiffness of the suspension. A “tight” or inflexible driver typically has a higher Qms (mechanical Q) compared to a very soft one. This results in the driver being overdamped, which causes it to ring and resonate after the signal has stopped. It’s like flicking one of those spring door stops you’d find on the baseboard at home. Mathematically, perfect damping occurs when a driver in its enclosure has a Qtc (total system Q) of 0.5. At this value, the transient response is considered perfect. This comes at the expense of some output in the midbass region. A total system Q of 0.707 is called a Butterworth response, and it exhibits flat frequency response above the resonant frequency with acceptable time-based performance.

Systems with Qtc values around 1.0 are often described as warm as more upper bass information is produced. However, this comes with a significant increase in system distortion and a lack of what is described as “cone control.” It might be fun, but it’s not technically accurate.

Why You Need to Audition Car Audio Speakers

No two speaker designs are going to sound the same. Some drivers are optimized for efficiency to serve as original-equipment replacement speakers that will work well with a factory-installed or low-power radio. Other drivers are designed to handle significant amounts of power and produce a generous helping of bass at the expense of upper-frequency output.

Efficiency, frequency response, distortion characteristics, directivity, Q-factor and much more change how a speaker sounds. To choose an upgrade that will work well in your audio system, audition the drivers you have in mind under conditions that are as controlled as possible. Looking at graphs and specifications can, if you have years of experience understanding how the information affects performance, tell you something about the driver.

Still, none of that characterizes non-linearities that cause distortion. No car audio companies share that information publicly. As such, you must train your ears to pick up issues affecting performance. Take your favorite music to a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and start listening. Give the volume on the source unit a good crank and get the speakers working so you’ll know what to expect.

Once you’ve established a baseline for quality, listen to even more speakers. When you can pick out the differences, choose the driver that’s the most accurate in all regards for your vehicle – you’ll be happy you did.

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.