If we can take anything useful away from the 1984 movie “This is Spinal Tap,” we know that “turning it to 11” is for those times when you need your car audio system to play louder than loud. While the concept seems like a lot of fun when your favorite song comes on, playing your stereo beyond its capabilities might not be the best idea. Keep reading to find out why.

What Is the Volume Control?

The volume control on your car radio determines how much of the signal from the source (CD, tuner, Bluetooth or digital media file) is fed to the amplifier. The amplifier doesn’t know what signal it’s getting, but it happily applies a fixed amount of voltage gain to whatever ends up on its input terminals. If we send a tiny signal because the volume control is turned down, we get a tiny amount of sound. If we crank the volume all the way, and if everything in the system is configured properly, we should get the maximum possible power out of the amplifier with minimal distortion.

The caveat here is the assumption that everything in the audio system is configured properly. If the sensitivity on the amp is turned down a bit, then we won’t get full power from the amp. On the other hand, if the gain is turned up too much, the audio signal may be distorted when it leaves the amplifier. This distortion adds a significant amount of high-frequency harmonic information to the audio signal that can overload fragile midrange drivers and tweeters.

How Much Power Do You Need?

Here’s another tricky question with lots of loopholes. Since music is typically very dynamic, the average power level in a musical audio signal is about 25% of the peak power. The speakers in our cars and trucks are, for the most part, only damaged by overheating from too much power. If you match the continuous power rating of your amplifier in a system with a subwoofer to that of your speakers, you are unlikely to damage them. But is that enough power to turn it to 11? Probably not. The speakers can likely handle a little more power and will play a little louder. It’s a slippery slope, though. If you push a higher-power amp to the point of clipping (where it produces a lot of distortion), then you can quickly overpower your speakers. You didn’t think that designing a car audio system was easy, did you?

For most high-quality component speakers rated around 75-100 watts, matching them with a similarly rated amplifier will be adequate. If you have a set of budget-oriented coaxial speakers, you may want to limit the power to 50 or 60 watts.

Why Do Musicians Turn It to 11?

There’s a common and rampant misunderstanding in the car audio industry about the difference between creating music and reproducing music. During the creation process, especially for instruments like the electric guitar, the addition of distortion in controlled amounts can be a desirable upgrade to the process. Distortion, overdrive and fuzz pedals take the audio signals coming out of the guitar and add harmonics at odd and even intervals in varying levels to change the way the instrument sounds. The result is very different from what would be heard with a standard microphone placed close to the guitar strings.

Many guitarists also have favorite amplifiers and speaker cabinets that further tailor the sound to their tastes. It’s not uncommon to see a recording studio equipped with a selection of Orange, Marshall and Fender amps. The use of vacuum tubes in guitar amps is a clear sign that the musicians want to hear more from their amp and speaker combinations that the information contained in the original signal.

When it comes to reproducing music in our homes or in a vehicle, we don’t want to change the harmonic content of the song that’s playing, Yes, we want it loud and we may choose to equalize the system with a little more bass than was heard in the recording studio, but we don’t want to change the sound of the instruments or performers. Using high-quality audio equipment with excellent distortion specifications, combined with premium speakers and proper tuning with a digital signal processor, will ensure that your car stereo can play your music as loudly as you want while staying true to the source.

Take Care of Your Audio System

If you find you are damaging speakers in your car audio system, then it’s time to visit your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and talk with them about an upgrade. You may need more speakers, proper system configuration or a subwoofer to make the system sound the way you want and play reliably. Let them have a listen to your system and see what they suggest.

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’re shopping for a subwoofer amplifier for your car stereo system, you may have noticed that some have two sets of speaker terminals. In most cases, it’s reasonable to assume that an amp with two positive and two negative speaker connections would be a stereo amp. As you’ll soon see, this isn’t always the case.

Sub Amp Design Process

When an engineer is designing a car audio amplifier, there are lots of criteria to keep in mind. First and foremost is the amount of power the amp will need to produce. Power production has the most significant impact on the cost of an amp, since it determines the size of the heat sink and the power supply, and the number of power supply and output switching devices.

Next, the features to be included in the amp have to be taken into account. All subwoofer amps have a sensitivity control and most have an adjustable low-pass crossover. Some will add an infrasonic filter, a remote level control knob and perhaps a bass boost circuit. The cost of the parts (switches, potentiometers, op-amps, capacitors and resistors) adds to the cost of the amplifier, but also its flexibility and value.

Use What You Have in Stock

It should come as no surprise that a mono sub amp needs only a single positive and negative speaker terminal. If the company designing the sub amp already has a four-position terminal block in its inventory, then they can use that to eliminate the cost of adding another component they need to stock.

Inside the amp, the two positive terminals are connected together, as are the two negative terminals. The extra connections are added for convenience to make wiring multiple subwoofers easier. If you have a vehicle like a Jeep Wrangler that is commonly upgraded with two separate subwoofer enclosures, being able to connect two sets of wires is easier. Is there a performance benefit? Not really. If you need to run two sets of speaker wires, the extra connections make that easier, but that’s about it.

Upgrade Your Car Stereo with a Subwoofer

If you want to dramatically improve the performance of your car stereo system, drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer today and ask about adding a subwoofer system. They’ll be happy to demonstrate different sub, amp and enclosure options 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.

There’s no denying that sound deadening is one of the easiest ways to enhance the comfort of your vehicle and improve the performance of your car audio system. Many kinds of deadening have been available over the years. Let’s take a close look at some of the most common technologies and explain the terminology used to define the different sound deadening solutions.

What Are Constrained Layer Dampers?

The most popular sound deadening materials fall into the class of constrained layer dampers (CLD). In most designs, CLD deadening materials are made from a sandwich of a dense and flexible base layer that is bonded to a sheet of thin aluminum. The base layer, in most cases, is made of butyl rubber. Butyl is a synthetic rubber with very low stiffness, so it can bend and mold to the contours of the surfaces it is adhered to. The aluminum layer gives the material a structural component, allowing it to span openings in door panels without sagging.

CLD materials add mass to the objects they’re attached to and reduce their ability to vibrate. The concept is similar to how a heavier piano or guitar string resonates at a lower frequency than one that is very thin and light. Imagine how a bass guitar would sound if you wrapped the E string of a guitar in dense rubber? From a technical perspective, the damping material converts the energy from the sound vibrations into heat, though this happens on a microscopic level.

Once damping material has been added to a large, flat surface like a door panel, a rear fender, the trunk lid or the roof of a car or truck, it’s harder for sound energy outside the vehicle to make that panel vibrate. If the panel doesn’t vibrate as much, less sound will be transferred into the vehicle, and the interior will be quieter.

What Are Noise Decoupling Solutions?

The second popular type of sound control product is decoupling materials. In most cases, these are closed-cell foams with a strong adhesive. When applied between the chassis and trim panels, or anywhere that two surfaces contact each other, the foam will help prevent annoying buzzes and rattles.

It’s important to remember when choosing a decoupling foam to make sure that it’s a closed-cell design. You don’t want it to absorb or trap moisture in any way. Trapped moisture can lead to mold, corrosion and damage to the vehicle.

What Are Sound Barriers?

The third and least popular of the sound deadening materials are sound barriers. These products work independently of the vehicle chassis and panels as opposed to being bonded directly to them to reduce noise. Sound barriers typically feature a dense lead or vinyl core that is suspended between two layers of foam. The foam isolates the dense core from the vehicle and allows it to absorb energy in the form of noise. Sound barriers are also good at blocking heat transfer into a vehicle. Many hot rod builders will cover the transmission tunnel where the exhaust runs with a sound barrier to help keep the interior of the vehicle cooler.

When we mentioned that sound barriers are the least popular, that isn’t because they don’t work well or offer significant benefits. They are fantastic and can dramatically improve the comfort of your vehicle. Because they’re usually installed on the floor of a vehicle, their installation requires that the carpet be removed from your car or truck. This is a time-consuming process as the seats, center console, trim panels and the lower part of the dash need to be removed. If you’re after the quietest and most luxurious driving experience, it’s a worthwhile investment. If you are having a vehicle interior built from scratch, you may want to consider this as part of the upgrade.

What To Look for When Shopping for Sound Deadening

There are a few things to take into consideration when you’re shopping for deadening materials. The absolute most important criteria are the adhesion properties of the CLD you choose. There have been hundreds of cases where low-quality products have fallen off of door panels and roofs. In some cases, the deadening has melted completely and turned into a tar-like sludge. The results can be incredibly expensive to repair, and upholstery and carpet can be permanently stained by the sticky, goopy mess. Likewise, deadening that falls into the window mechanism in a door car leads to damage.

One tip: If the CLD has a strong odor, you may want to avoid it. Many damping materials that contain bitumen smell bad and have problems staying in place when they get hot in the summer.

Finally, you want to make sure the material you purchase is fire retardant. The last thing you need is your car going up in flames because a spark or heat from a short circuit sets your sound deadening on fire. Get a small sample of the deadening material and try to ignite it with a lighter. It might smolder for a second then go out. Self-extinguishing is the key here.

Understanding Sound Deadening Terminology Makes Shopping Easier

With a basic understanding of how sound deadening technologies work and a grasp of the common terminologies used in the car audio industry, you can now shop for a solution. Dozens of companies offer sound deadening, which comes in different thicknesses and densities. We’ll leave you to work with your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer to choose a product that works for your application.

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 choosing a subwoofer system for your car or truck, picking the right products can be the difference between accurate and musical bass or a sloppy, boomy mess. Over the decades, small subwoofers have gained a reputation for being described as faster than those with larger cone diameters. Is woofer speed a thing? Can we measure it? Don’t fret; we’ll explain what you’re hearing.

Subwoofer Diameter vs. Frequency Response

Each high-quality subwoofer on the market is optimized to play a certain range of frequencies. For most companies, the engineers balance the design so that there is a good mix of efficiency and low-frequency extension.

Changes to the weight of the woofer cone and voice coil will dramatically affect how low a speaker will play. The graph below shows a 6.5-inch subwoofer and a 6.5-inch midrange, both with similar power handling ratings and excursion capabilities of about 9 mm.

The subwoofer output is down 3 dB at about 79 Hz, where the midrange starts to roll off at just over 130 Hz. The subwoofer cone assembly weighs about 50 grams, whereas the midrange cone assembly is about 20 grams. As is clearly evident, a heavy cone assembly will play lower, but you sacrifice efficiency. In order to play bass frequencies at high levels, you need speakers with more surface area. This is one of the main reasons why subwoofers are typically quite large.

The graph below shows the output of five different-size subwoofers from the same brand. Each subwoofer in this simulation is getting 150 watts of power.

It’s clear to see that efficiency increases as the subwoofer size gets larger. What’s harder to see in this graph is that the low-frequency cutoff gets lower as the subwoofer size increases.

The graph below shows the same five subwoofers with their outputs normalized to the same level. The -3 dB points are 80 Hz for the 6.5-inch, 85 Hz for the 8, 59 Hz for the 10, 54 Hz for the 12, and 46 Hz for the 13.5-inch woofers.

Frequency Response vs. the Perception of Speed

Maybe you’ve heard stories and jokes about someone building a system with a 15-inch sub for deep bass and a pair of 10-inch subs for “fast bass.” If all the drivers are being used below 80 Hz as subwoofers, then there’s no need to mix and match sizes.

If you’re listening to a recording of a drum kit and are hoping for a perfect recreation of the original sound, you need a subwoofer system that plays flat to just under 40 Hz to capture the fundamental of a kick drum. To play the floor tom accurately, your subwoofer needs to play down to about 60 Hz.

Imagine if you cut off the subwoofer at 60 Hz with a steep high-pass filter and attempted to play the kick drum recording. It would sound more like the tom with more emphasis on higher-frequency content. This is what happens when you compare the output of a small subwoofer with a larger one where the system hasn’t been equalized to deliver the same response. You won’t hear as much deep bass from the smaller speaker, so there will seem to be more emphasis on higher-frequency instruments.

This is the same reason why sealed (acoustic suspension) subwoofer enclosures are perceived as being “tighter” than vented (bass reflex) enclosures. The vented enclosures play louder and lower, changing the overall balance of the system.

Speaker Speed – What’s That?

In absolute terms, a small speaker can move faster than a larger speaker. This is the reason we have large woofers and small, lightweight tweeters. A speaker’s “speed” limit determines its upper-frequency response limit, not how accurately it can reproduce low frequencies. You’d never use a 12-inch subwoofer as a tweeter. So, yes, a big sub isn’t “fast enough” to be used as a tweeter. However, if you shave off a bunch of weight, it can move back and forth faster, and it becomes more efficient. Many PA systems and pro-sound speakers use 12-inch midrange drivers.

The Importance of Proper Equalization

When a professional installer finishes an installation, he or she will usually set the equalizer on a DSP as one of the final steps. Assuming the subwoofers in the system have the excursion capability, and there’s enough amplifier power, they will tune the system to deliver flat bass response, usually down to 30 Hz. In a scenario like this, most subwoofer systems, even with different-sized speakers (not in the same system, please), will sound similar. So, is subwoofer speed a thing? No, it’s isn’t. If you try to use a subwoofer as a midrange, well, then, you have system design problems.

If you’re planning on upgrading your car audio system, drop into your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and talk with them about picking the best subwoofer for your car or truck. They can help you choose a size that will deliver the low-frequency output you want for the space available 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.