Auto sound
Some tips and tricks to get the best out of your vehicle.
Head units:
A head unit is your radio,tape player etc. It's mounted in the dash and you turn It on to hear music. It usually has a volume,bass and treble to let you tailor the sound to your liking.
There are many terms for head units. such as cassette receiver, CD receiver with CD changer control for example.
Some head units do not have their own built in power amplifier, they are designed to use an external one. These are called tuners. These types tend to be high end and cost lots more.
What to buy: Your first option is CD or cassette. Cassette receivers are usually cheaper to buy than CD's. They have been on the market along time and there are many types and brands to choose from. More expensive units will give you better radio reception with less noise, and better sonic performance on local stations. For better cassette sound Dolby b or even better Dolby c is recommended. As for a CD receiver the more you pay will get you better radio section as well as better performance and less skipping. It's a personal choice, do you like CD's or tapes better?.....
Speakers and drivers:
Speakers are the most important component of your auto sound system. If your speakers aren't doing their job accurately then the best head unit or amps will sound distorted or just plane bad. So take your time and look around when shopping for speakers.
Get the best speakers that you can afford. Best meaning the ones that sound the best to you and can perform in the volume range you are looking for.
Speaker styles: A tweeder is a speaker designed to produce only the highest frequencies humans can hear.
Midrange speakers reproduce the middle of the frequency range. Usually somewhere around 400hz to 5000hz. Most peoples hearing is sensitive and acute in this range. This makes speaker placement and tuning critical.
Separates Are matched pairs of speakers(midrange and tweeders). They usually come with a matched crossover as well.
Midbass is a subclass of the woofer family.It is designer for midrange and subbass. Usually around 100hz to 500hz.
Subwoofer is a speaker designed to produce the lowest frequencies. From 125hz lower. You need to enclose all woofers to prevent the back wave from canceling the front wave.
Coaxial Speakers are designed to feature two drivers (midrange and tweeter) in one. The advantage is simplicity. You only have to mount one speaker instead of two.
Triaxial Is like the coaxial but has another speaker usually a super tweeder for crisper highs.
Crossover is a device that splits the full frequency band into smaller bands and then sends those to the proper speakers.
Much more to come........