We live for clean lines!
Don’t just wire up your amp- make it a focal point of your design. At Premier Car Audio, we love custom work. We can help you design a unique layout for your car, improving both aesthetics and functionality.
Your amplifier can change your entire system. Get the best sound by matching amplifier power to speaker handling power. Our technicians can help you find the right setup for your vehicle.
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Why not start with replacing the factory speakers?
These days, car manufacturers are engineering speakers specific to your vehicle. Factory speakers typically have much higher sensitivity, or efficiency, using less power per db. This can result in replacement speakers playing less loud and having less bass response than the factory.
Let’s analyze the base level audio system in the new Broncos as an example. We have 2.5” mids in the dash, 6.5” mid bass in the kicks, and 4” in the rear. At this point, you’re already lacking in sub bass due to no subwoofer, and replacing the 6.5″ mids will result in less bass because of the lower sensitivity.
Replacing the 2.5” in the dash with a typical 1″ tweeter will severely reduce the bandwidth of the speaker that is at ear level. A lot of the spectrum will be carried by the mid, but because it’s low in the door, many of those higher frequencies will be absorbed by your legs. This can result in an apparent gap in frequencies between roughly 500hz and 2000hz.
At the end, you’ve got gaps in frequencies, still no sub bass, and a lower volume overall.
*** If you find yourself in this situation, we can help! Replace that tweet with an extended midrange and add an amp/dsp, and you’ll be loving your life choices!
Speaker Vocab
Coaxials have the mid-range and tweeters built into one speaker. Often these can be less expensive and easier to install than component sets. Many vehicles use coaxial speakers in the rear and component sets in the front. Coaxials are especially useful in cars where space is limited, or for rear fill.
Component sets have a mid-range and a tweeter and a crossover. This setup presents a fuller and wider sound, covering the mid to high range of your system.
Crossovers can be adjustable or built into the speakers, depending on the speakers. The main function is to adjust the intersecting slopes of the sound waves coming from the tweeter and mid-range to provide the most pleasing mix.
Tweeters are the small speakers, usually located in the dashboard, A pillars, or in the door panel. They emit the highest range of sound for your system, between 5 kHz and 20 kHz. Tweeters are a necessary component to a full sound system, reproducing the higher vocals and instruments.
Amplifier Vocab
Clipping happens if the gains on the amp are too high for the speakers they are connected to. The normal sound curve coming from the speakers will be cut abruptly the max exertion, making a plateau. This distortion is terrible for the speakers and will ruin them if left unchecked.
Oscilloscopes measure the input and output audio signals to and from your amplifier to set the gain to the correct level without clipping. Gain control is not volume control; volume is for consumers, gain is for technicians.
RTA stands for Real Time Analyzer. It measures the full bandwidth of the audio spectrum between 20 hz and 20k hz. Technicians will play a special noise through the stereo system and adjust the equalizer in order to achieve a flat response curve on the RTA
DSP Digital Signal Processors take the signals coming from the amplifier and head unit and adjust them to make the entire system sound better. In some cases, a DSP is is a useful addition for tuning and imaging purposes. In many newer or high-end cars, a DSP is necessary if you’re considering replacing the factory system. The manufacturers of these vehicles have thrown a lot of research into the specific acoustics and power handling of each component in these systems, so simply replacing the speakers can often make the car sound worse.
