bigaudiofana

This thread was made to help new people understand what is being talked about in car audio. There are different subjects on different pages just look around and enjoy your reading!

Music Compression
So I want to shed some light on the different formats out today. The fact of the matter is that almost everyone downloads illegally "I personally do not". But people do not see what they are missing out when they do this. When you download a mp3 or wma file from the internet, not only is the quality very poor but has gotten poorer than from the previous time it was downloaded. Now for some people this is fine. These format mp3 and wma are compressed audio. Weather you rip a cd or download from the web. These formats take the highs and the lows of them song and compress them to the bit rate that you have selected. There are many other formats as well but none as popular as the ones listed. For those that use itunes and buy your songs you are still either getting 128 or 256kbps, so your still compressed.

The standard for most programs is 128kbps than it goes up from there. A normal uncompressed song is around 1035kbps. So what I am getting at is the more compression the worse your music sounds. Now a simple way to get better music is look for better compression rates such as a 320kbps as appose to the standard 128. This will allow the highs and the lows to become more lively. But the best way to avoid compressed music is to buy your cd's. Now a lot of you at this point are saying HA ya but that is tons of money. Well not true, you can get almost any cd from amazon used for around 3 bucks. After getting the cd wether it be from the internet the store or that good friend, the next step is to rip it uncompressed.

For itunes users it is pretty simple just go into your setting and go to the rip tab and select apple lossless. For windows media users go into setting and select Flac or uncompressed. For whatever you use for ripping cd's there should be a setting for uncompressed.

All and all this may not be for everyone, some people do not mind compressed music. Also for people that are happy for the factory stereo they will still hear a difference just not as much as a aftermarket system. People that just use mp3's for there ipod through ear buds might not notice the difference unless using a more expensive set of ear buds. All and all I hope this has opened your eyes to a new kind of music. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

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bigaudiofana

Well class take your seats it's time for another lesson. Today were going to learn about car audio and the terms associated with it, and what they mean.
Let's begin!

Ohm's
Okay ohms or Ohm's law is the rule of resistance that something has. Most of you probably think about things like rubber and all having high resistance and that is correct. But in car audio we use ohms for what a speaker's resistance is at. For example if you have a sub that has a 4 ohm single voice coil. Than that sub can be wired up to an amp with the resistance of 4 ohms.

The next part of Ohms is power. If you look at any amp's specs you will see that is has something like 100 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms (150 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms) 300 watts RMS x 2 bridged output at 4 ohms (4-ohm stable in bridged mode) so lets look at the first one. This one states that is can run 100 watts per channel "or speaker" as long as each speakers has a resistance or Ohm's of 4. The second one states that as long as all the speakers are at 2 ohms the amp can put out 150 per channel. The last one shows that it will put out to 2 channels 300 watts a channel if there ohms are 4 ohms. "you will also notice that is says 4 ohm stable at ridged mode." This states that the amp was built for the load of 4 ohms and is able to be bridged.

The thing with ohm's is that the higher the ohms the more resistance. So when you go with a lower ohms rating it can have much more power to run that speaker. You may be asking well can I wire different ohm rated speakers to two different sets output on an amp? You can ONLY do this if the amp is setup for it. If you want to get relay technical about Ohms law just google it and click on any of the first few links that come up. Or just simply ask.


RMS

Now you may have notice in the previous section when watts were being explained it said RMS. Something like 100 X4 at 4 ohms RMS. This is very important when choosing an amp. RMS stands for root men square. In normal terms this means what an amp can continue to produce for long periods of time none stop. You may bee seeing things like 1200 watts MAX. In a few simple words this is a gimmick the amps will never produce this power and no matter how hard you try there just not going to make it. You always look at RMS when shopping for an amp. You will even see it on head units saying 50 X 4 max it is rely putting out around 12-15 watts RMS.

Amp Settings and Gains

So great you got your new amp and are wondering what in the world are all these knobs and switches on it for? Well here is your answer. Gain or volume. Some even say it differently than that but the deal with this is, think of it as a second volume for your system. When you are all done installing your system is it time to put a test disk in of a normal song or a test tone of 80HRZ go to your amp and turn the gain all the way down than go back to the head unit and turn the volume all the way up to full tilt. Now you go back to your amp and slowly start turning up your gain until you hear distortion than turn it back just a hair. This will insure that your speakers are not going to distort or clip.

Now those Low pass and High pass knobs and all. Well a normal setup consists of your fronts being components. "speakers with separate tweeters" So the crossover will take care of the filtering of all that so your front should stay on Full. If you are going with rear speakers I would turn on the High pass filter and dial it to around 80 or maybe a bit higher. What these filter do are basically insure that the speaker will not get frequency's that it can not reproduce. The Low pass filter is fro when running a sub woofer your cut off should be around 60 for your sub.

Crossovers
So you know that little box that comes with your component speakers and some coaxial speakers. There things are called crossovers. Basically what they do it take the unfiltered signal that your amp sends it and sends the frequency's to the tweeter and the proper frequency's to the woofer. Some people like to turn there high pass on there amp to around 100HRZ so that way it takes more strain off the crossovers. It is a personal thing I prefer to let the crossovers to there thing.

Sub Wiring

This and this alone is the trickiest to master of everything in car audio. There are so many was to wire subs that it is very hard to explain, but I am going to try my best. There are 4 kinds of subs which included there Ohm's and all. There is a SVC "single voice coil" 4 ohm and a 8 ohm formats. Than there is a DVC "dual voice coil" 4 ohm and 2 ohm formats. The SVC are pretty easy. You can hook up a 4 ohm coil as a 4 ohm or if you have 2 you can wire them as 4 or 2 ohms. If you have a SVC 8 ohm sub than you can hook it up as 8 ohms. If you have 2 of them as a 2 ohm or a 8 ohm load. You can not wire different ohm rated subs or speakers together this will damage the sub and or the amp.

Which brings me to DVC subs. Honestly there are so many ways to wire them that I would hope that you IM me or consult this guide to help you wire them properly.
http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/wo...igurations.asp

As always if you have any questions or comments let me know.

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bigaudiofana

Wire Size
So power wire is used to send power to your amp. Usually the rule is the bigger the wire the less resistance the power has going threw the wire. The normal size is usually 8 gauge or 4 gauge, the lower the number the bigger the wire....don't ask LOL. 8 gauge wire can carry power up to around 400 watts that is total from whatever your amp is putting out. If you are going to have more than that or 2 amps I would step up to 4 gauge wire. 4 Gauge is good up until 1000 watts. After that you will have to step up to 2 gauge or even the big 0 gauge. Now when you run any of these other than 8 gauge, you can use something called a distribution block. this allows you to hook up multiple amps to the same wire which is completely fine. Most of them will step down the size like 4 gauge in and 4 outputs of 8 gauge.

Ground Wire
This is a huge thing for your amp. Believe it or not DC "Direct Current" flows from negative to positive. SO your ground wire is as if not more important than your power wire. Now your ground should be on a solid piece of metal preferably on a main beam or brace of the car. Not saying that you can not use just any piece of metal just these are the better places. A lot of people like me do not like to drill holes and all so we look for bolts that we can place the wire under it. Before just drilling a hole make sure to check under were you are drilling you do not want to drill into a fuel line!!!. After you drill your hole sand or grind the paint off so your ground is a real nice ground. Before i go and install my ground I put some di-electric grease on there.

Fuse Rating
These little babies help from you starting a fire on your nice car! LOL DON'T GO RUNNING AWAY. Fuses are simply to protect the wire and the electronics from shorts weather it be on accident by touching a wire to ground or a wire slipping out of an amp. The easiest way to find out what kind of fuse you need for your amps is look at the fuses on your amp add them up and that will give you the correct fuse. Most people just run what fuse comes with the wiring kit which is fine.

Speaker Types
Let us start with component, a component setup usually consists of crossovers, a tweeter, and a woofer. This makes for the best you can get. The reason for this is because of the first component. The crossover, before that power even gets to your speakers the crossover filters the frequency's of the music and makes sure that only those frequency's that the speaker can reproduce, gets to them. The next part the tweeter, this takes car of all your high frequency's. Having it not actually on the woofer means that you can install it almost anywhere giving you the very best sound angle. Look at ti this way are you looking down at the ground at a concert is that were the music is coming from NO of cores not. That is why tweeters that can be mounted anywhere are better you can put them as if you were at a concert giving you a more true experience with your music. Coaxial, there cheaper and easier to install but not better. These are made for rear fill, or for someone who wants to do a quick and easy install. The tweeters are built right into them. This causes loss of power from the woofer as it can not move as far as one without the tweeter built in. Also it can not sound as good because there is resistance to the movement of the woofer the tweeter being right in the way is what dose this. Also there is usually no crossover to take car of the sound that calls for you to use your high pass on your amp and set it by ear.

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bigaudiofana

Alpine- Very nice head units, Great sound quality from the factory or even if you are using an aftermarket amp. Great Interface for the ipod as well, almost as if it was made for the ipod "which some are"

Boss- A very cheap name brand usually sold at walmart or flea markets. Not by any means great or just good. These units have crappy interface and the music signal that it sends out can actually make your system sound worse.

Cadance- This company is more known for there amplifiers than there head units. I have known no one that has used them or has tried them. IMO I would keep away.

Clarion- Still ahs one of the best top of the line SINGLE DIN head units for a SQ active setup. Only thing is that is almost a grand. There other normal head units are nice as well though I am not sure if they have to many choices for DD's. They are still something to keep in mind. My only beef with them there ugly.

Dual- Yet another name brand sold by flea markets and bargan stores. These units are like your lowest end that I would allow in a car, there lower end models are like pyles, and there nicer ones are like a cheap pioneer but not as good.

Eclipse- A fantastic head unit for a nice setup it is right up there with Alpine. There very nice head unti for the money and have a nice interface as well, the only one I may stay away from is the which they do not make anymore, which is the one that integrates a tom tom gps and you use that as your main screen and your gps.

Fahrenheit- Another low class name brand not even sold at flea markets some will try to trick you into these as if they are great units, there not, buyer beware.

Jensen- While not the top or middle class these do have a lot to offer, but it comes at a price. The screen is by no means a god one to look at gps let alone a movie, and the signals that it sends out for an external amp can have engine noise in it as well "not all cars" If you are looking for a low end one to put in your wife's car to make her mad this is the one.

JVC- Middle class head units, while I have not had much to do with them I still have played with a few and such. There flashy screens attract those teens that want that boom boom in the trunk. They are nice units and can be fairly easy to use, only for the money you can always get something better.

Kenwood- Fantastic interface with the best NAV and blu tooth I have seen in years. You can not beat these DD units. If you are looking for a nice Nav interface and a nice unit for music look no further.

Panasonic- If you can get past the flashy blue screen you may like them "single dins" The double dins are nice as well sprting a lot to offer for a good price, but as soon as you want to add nav you are slamed with an extra 500 bucks.

Pioneer- If you do not know me by now I have sort of a beef with pioneer. I started installing stereos 5 years ago. I have used pioneers and had nothing but problems "in my own and others" Problems from face plates dying. internal amps frying, cd's not ejecting, engine wining noise and so on. But I will say this there premier units are pretty nice, and the sound quality signal you get out of them is nice as well. There ipod interface is junk and slow. Other than that there not bad units.

Sony- This company use to be the milestone in sound quality and use to be the baddest company on the block. Now there commercialized junk. I have seen these units literally short themselves out, the power signal you get form there head units and amps are garbage and so on. Stay away!

Valor- Yes they look like a great package don't they? Do not be fooled another name brand just like pyle and Boss only a tad nice, they may look nice but that's all.

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bigaudiofana

Rear Speakers
In top end cars there are no rear speakers because SQ "sound quality" is setup for optimal performance. In small cars such as the z it is even more unnecessary, you only have 2 people in the car and no rear seats. Rear speakers that close to the fronts will collide and cause the audio to sound multiplied. If you listen to it for a few days you will get use to it and it will definitely sound better than 4 channels. Think of it this way an artist records there music in 2 channel format so the optimum way to listen to it is threw 2 channels. It may sound a bit different at first but as I mentioned if you give it a few days it should grow on you. Either way save your money and invest it in better front speakers.

Bose systems
So some of you may of knew this was coming. Yes the bose system is by no mean worth the money you have to pay to get it. I am not trying to get personal just trying to be informative. The system is not even as good as the base sound system. Why I say this is the fallowing. The bose system consists of a amp and a processor. When you start turning up music the processor looks at the signal coming form the head unit. It reads it and detects what can cause distortion on the speakers. It than cuts those frequency's so no distortion will happen. So as you turn up your volume your highs and your mids "sub" start to fade out to the point where you can no longer rely hear them.

Another poor thing about the bose system is the PITA of upgrading it. If you want to upgrade the system in any means you have to start from scratch. If you just upgrade the speakers "can not", the processor will still do the same thing to the signal. So you have to remove the factory amp which in tern you have to replace the head unit. By the time you are done upgrading it you could of saved a bundle and just bought the base model to begin with, because you have replaced everything in the car. "My apology's to anyone that I may of upset that owns a bose system"

JL Myth
So a lot of you may have heard or been told by people or the internet that JL is basically the best you can buy. This is no way true. There are so many better companies out there for around the same or less price than JL. A few to start with are focal, CDT, Image Dynamics, Rainbow, and Dynaaudio. Do not get me wrong JL is good stuff just there is a lot better for the price you spend for JL. If you are looking for a site that carries the brands and others that I have mentioned please look no farther than Woofersetc.com the online car audio super store, the largest selection at the lowest prices!

Base Model Speaker Size
In the base model of the Z the fronts are able to fit 5 1/4 or 6.5 inch speakers. As for the tweeters they are 1 inch tweeters. By using the z enclosure spacer rings in conjunction with the plastic that is already in the door you can fit just about any speaker in the door, as I have shown in my California Z build.

Bose Model Speaker Size
Fronts are 6X9's but with the right spacer rings and fitting you can put either a good set of 6x9's or the better choice would be a set of component 6.5's. Rears I believe are 3 1/2. As for the sub it is 2 small 4 or 5 inch woofers.

Capacitors
Before I get into this I just want to say for most of the systems I have seen, and for what the stock alternator is capable of putting out. NO ONE will even need to worry about running one of these. That being said they DO reduce or omit light dimming, but they are not a fix more like a band aid. What a capacitor dose is stores a charge of power that can be depleted very quickly, this allows some of the strain to be taken off the factory charging system. But the cap still have to be recharged over and over again. This in turn may cause damage to your charging system over time. Do not feel bad if you have run one before as even I have at one time. So if your lights do dim a lot it might be time to look for a new alternator and or a second battery that would be mounted in the trunk. The only time you will have to worry about this happening is if you are running over 1000 rms all the time.

Stock Wiring
So some of you might be worried about running new speakers on your factory wiring. Well I am here to tell you as long as you stay below 50 watts going threw the wire you will be fine. If you are planning on running something like 120 watts to the speakers than you will need to upgrade the factory wire in the doors to aftermarket. The reason you do this is for safety. If you try to push to much current threw to small of a wire you can cause damage to your equipment or even start a fire in some cases. A good wire to run is 16 or 14 gauge.

Satellite Radio
So you have your beautiful brand new z and you want to start taking some road trips or some trips threw the mountains. Well I have taken many road trips and ever sense I purchased my satellite radio I have never been able to go without it. Yes you may have your ipod but sometimes that can get old. If you are taking any kind of trip or a big traveler I would recommend looking into getting satellite radio, the quality is great the selection is great and you never have to worry about surfing for channels. Xm and Sirius have merged so it rely dose not matter which one you choose.

Pioneer Ground Noise
So in some cases even z's can get engine noise after a new system install. If you have a pioneer head unit here is the fix. Pioneers have a ground problem with there rca's that causes this. Here is the fix. Take a piece of wire any size and wrap it around your rca ends. Than ground that wire to the chase of the radio. This should fix it and you should be good to go.

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