car sound system

I have a car system that puts out 1000 watts, mine sounds amazing. My friend has one that puts out 3000 watts, I dont think his sounds and clean. He says his is better, so what else factors in to how it sounds?

It sounds like I would rather have your system any day over your friends. I have a 1300w RMS system in my car using JL Audio gear. Around this 1000w range is going to be the upper threshold of power to quality unless you've got piles of cash laying around to spend on this stuff. Besides, if your friends system is really putting out 3000w I'm sure he doesn't ride around with it turned up anyway, unless he's already deaf and has no consideration for others around him.

2007-08-12 09:02:05 by LinkTheWorld

A car sound system starts with the head unit, which is the AM/FM radio and CD player that gives a system its sound quality and controls. Learn ...

I getting close to getting my liscense, and I'm looking at prices for car audio. The car I'm recieving has I guess what you would call the standard sound system, a radio, and speakers in the back, etc. I'd like one of those sound systems with really awesome bass. What parts would I need for that?

Well you would need an amplifier that would be able to handle the load being transferred to the speakers, plus if you want a lot of bass, then you want to get speakers that will handle it, make sure that the speakers you are looking at will be able to handle this and not blow out

If you are looking for quality sound, you may want to look at different wiring as well, but a shilded wire, which the car should already have, should do.

2008-10-30 16:32:13 by erka

Price: $235.99 $46.74

Bandpass design with four tuned ports for deep, efficient bass delivery
Frequency response of 35 Hz to 1 kHz
Subwoofers feature silver polypropylene cones, rubber surround, and high-temperature aluminum voice coil
1,000-watt subwoofer enclosure features two 10-inch subs in a custom bandpass box
Built-in neon accent lighting for added visual appeal

I'm 15 years old and im getting my first car in october. Since I'm a kid i wont have a lot of money to spend on a sound system. What is the best i can get without having to spend a lot of money? (over $2000)

You can get a nice system for well under $2,000.

Get a decent Pioneer deck, they're nice because they include crossovers for your main speakers. Taking the low frequency out of them will make even the factory speakers a lot clearer and louder.

Get a single 10" or 12" sub, get a decent brand, here's where to spend a little of the money to get some performance out of it. I'd go with at least JL. Stay away from anything like MTX, pioneer, RF etc. A single 12" JL will be a lot louder than two crap subs anyway. Then get a decent amp, a small Alpine is a good amp for a sub. Around 250 RMS will be plenty to power one sub. With everything installed you should be around $1,000, maybe less. Need to spend a little more? Get a little more power to that sub. A little more? Get a better sub, Boston Accoustics makes great subs. A little more yet? Upgrade the factory speakers and put an amp to them.

2009-06-11 10:23:26 by 4est

The car that I own is a 2001 Dodge Neon ES and the flyer that was advertising it said that it already has a premium sound system in it but it does not sound like it to me.

Here's a reeeaaaallllllly long answer for you:

Many people don't know what quantifies a "good" sound system. And just because your car was advertised as having a "premium" sound system doesn't really mean much of anything.

Audiophiles generally refer to the following qualities in determining how "good" a sound system is: Imaging, staging, dynamics, and spectral balance.

I won't go deeply into each of these qualties, but I'll touch on a couple of them:

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1) Spectral-balance:::
This is the sound system's ability to play evenly across the entire audible spectrum, which is usually defined as 20hz to 20khz (20 vibrations/second to 20,000 vibrations per second).

To achieve an even balance across the above mentioned frequency range, a "good" system will use specialized speakers to cover various parts of the frequency range: Subwoofers handle the lowest bass (20hz-80hz), woofers would handle the bass chores, midranges would handle the frequencies above that, and tweeters are sent frequencies in the highest ranges (about 5khz and above).

In a standard car audio system, you will usually find a single speaker trying to handle the entire frequency range by itself (although sometimes it's broken into a 2-way design, with a tweeter sitting on top of the main speaker). The reason that this doesn't work well is that the physical properties that make a speaker good at a certain frequency range make it bad in another frequency range. For instance, a subwoofer is good at moving very large volumes of air with it's large cone area and heavy mass. But that heavy mass prevents it from moving quickly enough to handle the high frequencies.

Additionally, cars introduce alot of noise to the equation, and most of this noise is in the lower frequencies. Because of this, the audio system has to play a lot louder in those frequencies to compensate for the "noise floor" as it is called. If the noise generated by driving is equal to 48db, then the speaker producing sound in those frequencies has to be 48db louder than the rest of the auido system to compensate for it. 48db translates to 32 times more power needed!

So, placing a high-power subwoofer into the system allows it to make up for the noise floor. For the rest of the frequency range, having seperate high-quality speakers play the different sections of the spectrum will help you achive spectral balance.
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2) Imaging:::::

If you go into a high-end audio store and listen to some well-recorded orchestral music on very expensive speakers (not a surround sound system, just plain old stereo) you may be amazed at what you hear. Despite just listening to two speakers, you can hear hear each individual instrument clearly localize in the space that it occupied in the recording environment. You will be able to tell that the woodwinds were to the left and behind the strings, if the venue was large or small, all in a very 3D effect. How can that be with only two speakers? It's because the recording not only picked up the sound that was being played, it also recorded the temporal and spatial cues of the environment. Played on a quality audio system, the spatial cues are re-created, fooling your ears into hearing the same thing. This is called imaging, and in a car audio system it comes from quality speakers, where they're positioned, and how they are angled into the listening environment.

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Staging:::::
Staging refers to the system's ability to create a "stage" in front of the listener, as opposed to sounding like the music is coming from the doors, or from behind. Like imaging, good staging comes from quality speakers, where they're positioned, and how they are angled into the listening environment.

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Dynamics::::
Refers to the system's ability to play loud and soft music. Adding power amplifiers will allow the system to play more dynamically.

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So, after that long-winded explanation, it all boils down to this question: Is it all worth the trouble to upgrade? That depends on you - the listener. The best way to make this decision is to listen to some well recorded music on a your system, then listen to the same music on a quality system. What you'll likely hear (depending on the source music being played), is that there are bass lines in the music that the standard system isn't playing audibly, that there are imaging cues that your system isn't playing, or that the music sounds like it's coming low from your doors.

Does the system play nice "tight" bass? With some music, the bass is obviously more pronounced than others, but not necessarily as you would think. For instance, "Enya" CDs are often thought of as "light" music, wheras rap CDs are thought of as bass-heavy. But Enya's biggest hit CD "Sheppard's Moon" has a lot more low frequnency material than the majority of rap albums. Most people wouldn't know that unless they listened to it on a quality sound system with a good subwoofer.

So, after listening to the "good" system, did you notice the difference? (Some people's hearing is not good enough to hear the extremes of the frequency range, particularly as you age) Was the difference important enough for you to want to spend money on a good system? Do you even listen to the kind of muscial material that would benefit from a high-quality audio system? Most pop music and rap these days are not good quality recordings. And unless you listen to satellite radio, the source material isn't good enough to make a large investment into your sound system worthwhile.

Hope that helps

2006-04-10 12:38:22 by HNIC43

How can I figure otu how many dB's my sound system in my car is outputing?

You can go out and buy a meter at Radio Shack for around $50. That will give you a good idea of what your system puts out. It will only go up to around 130db so that may not be high enough for a powerful system. It is not going to be terribly accurate but it will give you an idea.

A meter with a higher range is going to be quite a bit more expensive. That is probably not an option for the average person.

I would recommend calling up some local car audio shops. You will often see that they have a meter that you can use. They will probably charge you a little bit of money to use it but it will give you an accurate reading and some other useful information.

Good Luck!!!

2009-03-08 16:42:57 by Josh B