Car Audio Blog

BATTERY TESTER DUAL LOAD

Continue reading

You just set up your Equipment for the first night dive of your vacation in Saint Somewhere, as you turn on your dive light to checkyour gauges the light beam fades. The worst thing that could happen before a night dive just did! Your dive light batteries are dead. For the Sea Torch, Sport Diver and Pro Diver, this rechargeable kit includes the overnight charger (12 hours) and 5 industrialNiCad batteries. These are much better than the batteries you’ll find in electronic shops. Never leave for your holiday without somespare batteries. Don’t forget your Dive Computer need’s some too! NITE-RIDER|NITE-RIDER RECHARGEABLE KIT|NITE-RIDER SEA TORCH|SEA TORCH|NITE-RIDER 1140|NTR1140

Continue reading

I want to go out and purchase a car audio system next week and want to find out what to look for.

So firstly, what is RMS and is more better or less better?

Secondly, Is more ohms better or less better?

Thirdly, im looking to buy 1 or 2 subs (Not sure yet), an amplifier, a deck, and 6 by 9’s x2 (Putting it above the boot behind the back seat head rests). Is that what i need for a car audio system? am i missing anything i NEED?

RMS Power vs. Peak Pcontinuousamount of conthat’sus power, measured in watts, that an amplifier produces is called RMS power. The higher the RMS figure, the louder and cleaner your music sounds. When choosing an amplifier, the RMS rating is the power rating you should pay most attention to.

Ohms- impedance (resistance)–
Impedance
Impedance is a measure of the resistance of a speaker’s voice coil to the audio current supplied by the amplifier.
Impedance
The total opposition to the flow of alternating current in an electrical circuit at a given frequency. Impedance is measured in Ohms. Although car audio manufacturers label the impedance of most car speakers and subs at 4-ohms, the impedance of a speaker is actually not a constant. It’s actual impedance changes with frequency and can vary greatly. Therefore, though 4-ohms is the standard impedance in car audio, this standard is more of an average impedance for speakers and amplifiers when driven within the part of the audio spectrum for which they are designed.
Ohm
The unit of measurement for impedance or resistance. It tells you how much a device will resist the flow of current. If you take two signals of exactly the same strength and send one to a 4-ohm speaker and the other to an 8-ohm speaker, twice as much current will flow through the 4-ohm speaker. In other words, the 8-ohm speaker will require twice as much power (wattage) to play at the same volume.
Resistance
The opposition to the flow of electrical current. Resistance is measured in Ohms.

—the lower the final impedance at the amp the lower the sound quality, but the easier/cheaper it is to power
(this link will help you pick the correct sub setup for your desired final impedance at the amp http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer_configurations.asp)
—the more cone surface area you have the louder it will be, so 2 subs is better than one

when it comes to car audio nine times out of ten you get what you pay for- and you need to look for CEA-compliant brands which means that the amps have been tested and produce or exceed the advertised RMS wattage with minimum distortion and the subs can handle their advertised RMS wattage also (distortion is the main cause of speaker damage over time)
here are the top CEA-compliant brands
Alpine (highly recommend)
Bazooka (don’t like their subs)
Blaupunkt (don’t like their subs)
Clarion
Eclipse
Infinity (highly recommend)
JBL
JL Audio (very good but over priced)
JVC
Kenwood (don’t like their subs)
Kicker (the best in my opinion)
MTX (highly recommend)
Pioneer
Polk Audio (highly recommend)
PPI
Rockford Fosgate (highly recommend)
Sony (don’t like their subs)