Swapping out an anonymous factory amp for a top-shelf brand name is a good start to improving your sound system. It will certainly make it louder. But what about making it sound better?
Bringing sound to life? That’s a real work of art.
Challenges to Great Car Audio
Unlike the controlled environment of a home theater, the interior of moving cars is replete with obstacles that make audio sound rough (beyond your tone deaf buddies singing along).
Speaker Positioning: Default speaker positioning isn’t necessarily the best placement for your specific vehicle.
Reflective Surfaces: Glass windows, thick seats, and even your passengers themselves bounce sound.
Road Noise: Even luxury vehicles suffer from tire hum, engine whine, wind, exhaust, and assorted body rattles.
Car Material: Fiberglass, metal, and plastic don’t combine to make the best quality sound experience.
Fix #1: High Quality Premium Speakers
The best place to start? Quality speakers. Yes, they cost a few more bucks, but nothing makes music come alive like the right speakers. So what separates regular speakers from their “High Quality” brothers?
PREMIUM MATERIALS
Look for materials like ex-beryllium, kevlar, carbon fiber, and mult-laminate for smoother frequency response
LOWER DISTORTION
Xmax identifies how far a speaker can move with minimum distortion. Higher Xmax = Lower Distortion
ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION
You want bigger voice coils, stronger magnets, and wider rubber surrounds sustained high output
We’re not going to lie — the science behind speaker engineering is super techy. Best advice? Talk to one of our speaker pros to find the best match for your ride.
Fix #2: Sound Damping
Want to make $99 sale speakers sound like $500 premiums? Want to boost bass and enrich mid-tones WITHOUT turning up the volume? Damping reduces road noise, muffles rattling car parts, and improves overall audio fidelity. And you never even see it!
Fix #3: System Design, Equalizers, & DSPs
System Design Every vehicle layout is unique, making speaker placement and angling critical. Poor design leads to a psychotic mix of highs, lows, and variations in volume.
Equalizers Think you got this covered because your stereo has bass and treble control? Yeah, this isn’t that. Add-on equalizers provide multiple points for adjusting frequency response and varying widths of each EQ band, so you can really zero in on precise sound.
Digital Sound Processors (DSP)
Digital sound processors (DSP) help eliminate frequency response peaks and increase bass response, and some even include a microphone for analyzing your car’s acoustics. Add a DSP to your system, and treat yourself to the ultimate sound upgrade!
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