When you go shopping for a computer, it’s important that all the pieces work together to provide maximum performance and reliability. When you head out to upgrade your car audio system, your salesperson should ask you a series of questions that will help them identify the perfect solution for your needs and application. When it comes to car audio system design, there are many variables. In this article, we will look at a few upgrade considerations talk about some options to enhance the performance of your system.

Heads Up!?

For decades, car audio system upgrades have followed the recipe of a new radio, front and rear speakers, an amplifier and a subwoofer. Lately, it’s becoming difficult or impossible to remove the factory radio from many vehicles. In these situations, your mobile enhancement retailer should be able to provide you with options to make use of the signal from the factory source unit or amplifier, then upgrade the performance of the system with new speakers, a subwoofer and an amplifier.

Adding a subwoofer to your system is always a great idea. A subwoofer should be the first thing you upgrade in any vehicle. Once you have a speaker dedicated to reproducing low-frequency information, the smaller speakers in the car or truck can focus on mid-bass, midrange and high-frequency duties.

Regarding the overall listening experience, having a new amplifier and new front and rear speakers should let your system play a lot louder with less distortion. Having rear speakers playing as loudly as the front speakers will wrap the sound around you as though you are listening to a set of headphones. A system like this is unlikely to offer any improvement in staging or imaging unless you invest in a digital signal processor of some sort. Listening to a system with great staging is like sitting in the audience at a concert or in front of a set of home stereo speakers.

The Front Stage Upgrade

If you are interested in recreating your music with a sense of realism regarding placement, your system design will need to change. Instead of upgrading the rear speakers, a better option might be to invest your speaker budget in a set of good component speakers for the front of your vehicle. You can choose an amplifier with a built-in DSP that allows your installer to tune the system. If you pick a five- or six-channel amplifier, your installer can wire the tweeters and midrange drivers to dedicated channels, then connect the subwoofer to the rear or subwoofer channels.

Once configured properly, a system like this reproduces your music from an imaginary stage that spans the width of your dashboard. If the tune is really on-point, you should be able to pick out individual instruments and identify their locations on this soundstage. With careful tuning, the sound from the subwoofer will seem to come from the dash, rather than the rear of your vehicle. Finally, high-quality speakers can handle more power and produce less distortion than moderately priced OEM-replacement options.

The Front Stage Mistake

To maximize the features and capabilities of a DSP, each speaker should have its own amplifier channel. If you use a two-channel amp and a set of components with passive crossovers, your installer won’t have full control over the tweeter level relative to the midrange. He can’t change the crossover slopes between the mid and tweeter or adjust the signal delay to each driver.

The Balance of Power

Picking the right size amplifier for your system is important. If you listen at high volumes, then power is very important. That said, you’ll need to choose speakers that can handle those high power levels in order for the system to be reliable. Even though a manufacturer prints a huge number like 250 or 350 watts on the box, it’s unlikely the speakers can handle that amount of power for any significant amount of time. Always look for the continuous power handling numbers, no peak or maximum ratings.

If you like a lot of bass, then you have some choices to make about subwoofers. Do you pick a single sub that can handle, say 1,000 watts of power? What about two subwoofers that can handle 500 watts? The proper choice depends on your budget, but also on the capabilities of the subwoofers themselves. Can the 1,000-watt subwoofer move as much air as the pair of 500-watt subwoofers? The answer will depend on some computer modeling and requires some consideration as to how much space you can afford to provide for the subwoofers. Two subs are going to require a much larger enclosure.

The Recipe Book for System Design

Shopping for an audio system upgrade is like cooking: You need to determine what you want long before you head to the grocery store. Do you want loud? Do you want incredible accuracy? Do you want something that does not affect the cargo capacity of your vehicle? What is your budget for the project? Do you want to do everything at once? Only once you have a plan in place can you get an accurate quote to upgrade your vehicle. You may learn or experience something new as you do your research. It’s certainly OK to change your plan.

Drop by your local mobile enhancement retailer today and ask some questions. Let them know what you like about your existing car audio system, and what you would like to improve. If they have a demo vehicle, ask for a demonstration. Hearing someone else’s vehicle can be an eye-opening experience. Listen to their advice about system design and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Take your time with the system design plan and you’ll end up with great results.

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.

If you talk to someone who is truly passionate about the accuracy of their sound system, then terms like tonal balance, soundstage and stereo imaging are bound to be part of the discussion. Each of these terms describes a different aspect of how your audio system reproduces music. For the listening experience to be truly magical, each element needs to be realistic. Let’s look at stereo imaging in detail.

What You Hear at a Live Performance

Listening to a band in a small club is very different from a performance in a stadium or outdoor setting. When the performance requires a great deal of amplification, it’s up to the person behind the mixing console to determine where the sounds from each performer come from. In most cases, there are two large banks of speakers, one on each side of the stage. If the sound technician decides that the sound from the guitarist on the left side of the stage should come primarily from the left speakers, and the sound from the bassist on the opposite side of the stage should come from the right speakers, there will be some sense of realism to the performance. If everything is mixed in mono so that the music is as loud as possible, well, it might sound great, but you won’t be able to discern where each performer is on the stage from the sound alone.

At a small live performance, especially one with minimal amplification, the instruments themselves are responsible for what you hear. A choir or an orchestra are great examples of unamplified performances. Don’t let the stereotype of “fancy music” fool you; every genre of music, save for maybe dance and EDM, has opportunities for live, acoustic performances. How does the listening experience differ?

In an acoustic performance, the sound you hear from each instrument originates at the instrument. The sound could be that of a guitar, an upright bass or a set of drums. Drums are a great example. In most configurations, the high-hat and snare drum are to the left of the drummer, the ride cymbal and the floor tom are on the right. The small and medium toms and the bass drum are usually centralized. If you are listening to a drummer, you can see and hear each cymbal and drum as he or she plays it.

The introduction to Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” is a great example of a drum kit recorded in stereo. Maybe the size of the kit is a little large relative to the rest of the performance, but you can certainly get a sense of where each drum or cymbal is on the soundstage relative to one another. Being able to pick out the placement of each instrument in the listening environment is known as stereo imaging.

Locations for Excellent Stereo Imaging

Put on a set of headphones and listen to your favorite recordings. Whether it’s a live performance or computer-created effects in the latest pop music, using different amounts of information in the left and right channels has the effect of placing sounds in different locations from left to right. Many audiophiles strive to perfect the accuracy with which their sound systems reproduce and focus sounds on the soundstage. A sound system with great imaging will be able to isolate instruments and performers very accurately. When a system has excellent imaging, each sound is often described to have a sense of space around it. This space separates one sound from another.

Stereo Imaging in Your Vehicle

When it comes to creating excellent stereo imaging in a car, several significant challenges need addressing. First and foremost, without some amount of signal processing, the driver is going to hear the speakers on the left side of the vehicle before the speakers on the right, simply due to his or her proximity to them. For the same reason, those speakers will seem to be louder. These issues wreak havoc with our ability to create a realistic soundstage and accurate imaging. So, what solutions are available?

Using a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), your installer can apply a delay to the speakers closest to the listener so that the sound of each speaker in the vehicle arrives at the listening position simultaneously. Likewise, the installer or tuner can reduce the output level of these speakers so that all the speakers have the same relative volume level at the listening position. Now, sounds that are equal in both channels will come from a location between the speakers, and everything will be distributed nicely across the soundstage.

How Can Imaging Be Improved?

If you are looking for incredible realism and accuracy, the next step is to apply equalization to each channel of the system so that we hear the same amount of information from the left and right speakers. Once executed properly, sounds will become more focused on the soundstage and seem to be more stable. The result is impressive and awe-inspiring.

Are There Any Drawbacks to DSP Tuning?

The process described above is called a “one seat tune.” This configuration means that each speaker in the system is optimized for a single seat in the car or truck. If you sit in the passenger seat, the tonal balance will be mediocre and all the sound will seem to come from the far right speaker. Is there a solution? Well, at the time of writing, not really. But, there will be very soon. Several companies have signal processors coming to market very shortly that include an upmixer. These processors analyze the content in the stereo recording and then output a left, center and right signal that can place sounds accurately for both the driver and the passenger in the vehicle. Using an upmixer does require that the vehicle has a center channel, and the tuning process is much different to make these systems work. The result is that everyone in the car can enjoy a realistic listening experience from any seat, even in the back.

Experience Your Music with Amazing Detail

If you haven’t heard a car audio system with excellent imaging and staging, visit your local mobile enhancement retailer today and ask for a demo. Most shops have a demo vehicle or two that are set up to show you what they offer. Once you hear a car with amazing imaging, you’ll want your sound system to be the same. Ask the sales team what options are 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.