This blog is dead.
October 26, 2009
If anyone wants to see me keep this going, leave a comment!
thanks.
Something Cool I Found.
October 15, 2009
Perry Babin, the owner/founder of bcae1.com has a form that you can fill out once you’ve tested the transistors in your amp, and he’ll tell you if they’re good or bad:
This is useful because a common problem of amps is, obviously, blown transistors.
Above: What the form looks like.
Installing a Headunit. Basics.
October 13, 2009
As per usual, I’d like to start with a rumor and dispel it.
There is a COMMON misconception that you have to hack up the original factory plug/wiring harness of your car and match wires to the aftermarket head unit.
DO NOT DO THIS.
There are wiring plugs sold at Best Buy, Circuit City, and even on the internet that can simply be plugged into your stock head unit harness, and have all of the matching colors for your aftermarket head unit. The benefit to this, is once you decide to sell your car or just remove the aftermarket head unit, all you have to do is unplug the aftermarket harness and plug in the old one; no wiring, crimping, anything that tedious.
If they do not make a plug for your car and you must cut off the factory plug, then I suggest using this awesome site that has a comprehensive database of wiring diagrams for many modern cars: The12Volt.com
A good method of actually connecting the wires is to buy bullet butt connectors, strip the wires, and crimp them together, however, you may also solder the wires together and put heat shrink tubing on them. My favorite method however, is using ’screw-type’ bullet connectors that can be reused and don’t necessarily damage the wire by having to crimp it. These can be found nearly anywhere, though I usually get mine from Checker Auto.
Any connection method that is 1)insulated and 2)secure will work fine, actually.
TIP: The remote wire (turn on signal) for your amplifier(s) is the blue wire with a white stripe NOT the solid blue wire. The solid blue wire is for a power antenna. You will know that you hooked it up wrong if the amplifier doesn’t turn on when you’re listening to anything but AM/FM (because power is obviously sent through the antenna turn-on only when it is needed).
Multiple strands of wire…
October 12, 2009
Just a little blurb.
Say, for example, you need 4gauge wire. But you can get the same gauge equivalent by running multiple runs of 16 gauge wire, and it’s cheaper.
The first reason this is a bad idea (and more expensive, even) is that EACH wire has to be fused. You can’t have one big fuse for all the wires; if one wire short-circuits, a single large fuse won’t catch it (obviously, as current draw for that particular wire isn’t enough to blow it). This could get really bulky and really expensive.
In short, it isn’t worth it: just get the right size gauge of wire.
FM Radio: Dead?
October 11, 2009
I realized today I haven’t turned on FM radio for….five years. And AM? Can’t remember the last time I had it turned on.
With the influx of mp3 players (iPods mostly), Satellite Radio, USB drives, and even internal storage capabilities, FM is well, lame. The format is boring–they play about 3 songs, then five mintues of commercials. Sound quality is debatable, but the formerly-mentioned media sources are better for the most part.
HD radio admittedly IS an improvement in sound quality, but it doesn’t magically fix the boring format.
Yet it surprises me that SOME newer headunits don’t have CD players yet retain FM/AM compatibility. I suppose this is understandable with how much more space a CD mech utilizes as opposed to an FM tuner that can be placed anywhere in the unit.
I would be interested to hear your comments about this.
From 12 volts to 42 volts?
October 9, 2009
Though this concept is somewhat old (started back in 2002), it still remains relatively obscure. Just wanted to shed some light on it.
In brief, car electronics are requiring more and more power, and consequently the limitations of the current 12 volt system are being reached. We’ve already seen alternator’s amperage outputs increase dramatically, from 30A (minimal lighting/electronics) “back in the day” now to alts putting out about 100A on average. And the demand continuously grows. After 300A, complex cooling systems become necessary as well as the alternators becoming unwieldy in size.
Perhaps one of the most exciting things about using 42v systems is wiring does not have to be so thick. The higher amount of voltage will carry the amperage much easier. Thinner wiring means less-expensive wiring–a definite bonus. Plus it would be easier to work with.
What would this mean for car audio? Well first of all, and possibly the most negative: all 12v equipment will be obsolete in new cars. This means we will no longer be able to use our ‘old-school’ high quality audio equipment unless we use a voltage transformer (major pain-in-the-butt). Wiring would be cheaper, and I personally would be happy to not have to tear my hands up over 0 gauge wire.
Are you scared? Let me tell you something.
A vital problem was found! “Forty-two volts draws a much longer, hotter arc, and vaporizes more metal. (Source)” As per the article, this could entail replacing window switches every 10,000 miles. Who wants to do that?
42 volt systems were a nice idea. But they’re a dead idea.
Factory Sound Systems Made by Aftermarket Companies.
October 6, 2009
Car manufacturers are becoming increasingly serious about the car audio systems in their cars. At least to the extent that they have aftermarket audio companies (JBL, Infinity, Bose, Dynaudio, Bang and Olufsen, Mark Levinson etc.) design the factory audio.
As grand as many of these companies are, buying the equivalent audio gear aftermarket (even the same brand) will actually be cheaper, yield higher-quality equipment and certainly sound better. There of course will be exceptions, but we’re looking at it as a whole.
Above: Even in a ‘high-quality’ Mark Levinson sound system offered in the Lexus ES, 6×9″ paper woofers with paper cones are used in the front doors. Source
To understand this, one needs to realize that the car companies do not commission aftermarket companies to create audio systems to make the car more competitive to another car’s audio (who’s seriously going to buy Car A instead of Car B because the sound system is better?). There is no incentive to make the audio system sound the best they can make it. Their goal is to make it good enough so that the consumer marks the checkbox for the audio system to be included with their car. The price of the system is further marked up so that, obviously, two business make a profit (the car company and the aftermarket company). Consumers are willing to pay for the nicer system for any number of reasons: It’s already installed, it fits better than aftermarket equipment would, it’s just part of a certain trim package or model, etc.
One thing that really gets me about this whole system is that when the aftermarket equipment won’t fit, instead of modifying the car, the actual equipment is modified. I can understand this, as costs would increase substantially if a car company were to work so closely with an aftermarket audio company, but it still affects the sound! Thus if a speaker won’t fit in the door, instead of making the hole deeper, for example, the size of the magnet on the speaker itself is reduced, and thus performance is affected. Bose provided a particularly amusing example: their inverted subwoofer, found in Cadillacs, Nissans, even Porsches:
Above: Because of a relatively shallow mounting depth, Bose created this monstrosity; inverting the suspension and magnet to create a thinner subwoofer. The result? Abysmal.
Admittedly, Bose is one of the worst examples of an aftermarket company supplying OEM equipment. Some of their tweeter/woofer component systems don’t even use a crossover and just wire the speakers (tweeter and woofer) in parallel. Thus the tweeter is receiving frequencies down to 200Hz and the woofer is receiving frequencies up to 20kHz. This is atrocious. Not to mention their untreated paper cone materials they utilize.
Aftermarket companies, whose main profit is selling their equipment not as a complete package, but in seperate pieces, are competing with other companies and must make the best product they can for the price if they expect to sell their product. This is a major factor as to why aftermarket is significantly better.
But I digress.
One area where factory systems are, candidly speaking, kicking butt is in the surround sound realm. Just look at Lexus, Volvo, Porsche, even Honda, Volkswagen, and more. They’re all offering surround sound systems as standard equipment or as an option. Pick up a Crutchfield magazine, or check a well-respected aftermarket car audio supplier and…what’s going on, guys? Where’s the surround sound? There are little to no surround sound processors, and most head units are infused with psuedo-surround sound shaping features at best. Center channel speakers are next to nonexistant. Any semblance to buying a true aftermarket surround sound system is EXPENSIVE. I hope that this practice doesn’t stay exclusive to factory systems, especially now that, for example, a center channel won’t require cutting a huge hole in the dash anymore: the space is already there.
Rear speakers? Who needs ‘em, anyway!
October 6, 2009
You don’t necessarily need them.
Here’s a quick blurb on getting better sound-imaging in your car:
Leave your rear speakers turned off, or at the very least, use them as midbass speakers (even using the fader option will do the trick–turn them down). Think about it: when you’re at a concert, where does the sound come from? In front of you. You might say that passengers won’t be able to hear the sound (in vans and other elongated vehicles this might be the case) but most of the time it is not. Too often, the rear speakers will ruin the soundstage of the front speakers. I find it very distracting when I can hear the singer’s voice coming from behind me, for example.
The reason for rear speakers typically being bigger than front speakers is fairly straightforward: there’s more space back there! And the reason they were used in the first place was due to audio systems not being very good quality and thus needing rear speakers for backseat passengers to be able to hear the sound well. This is no longer the case. I can understand when one has them back there because they create the bass for the audio system, but if this is the case, a LPF should be utilized so they aren’t playing distracting high frequencies.
I personally run a Dolby Pro Logic II setup, so the rear speakers are used in a much more effective way (and using them as surround is the best option, albeit more expensive). The effect becomes irresistible: the soundstage is completely opened up, sounds that would normally reflect in a concert hall do so in my car’s environment. More about surround sound in my next post.
I must admit, I’ve seen some very high quality SQ systems out there, and most don’t even incorporate rear speakers. It’s amazing.
Charging Systems: “The Big 3″ Part 5.
October 2, 2009
The Big 3 is essentially upgrading three major wires that run from the alternator throughout the car. I saved this part for last for a specific reason: the big 3 upgrade MUST be performed after a high output alternator has been installed!
So once you have your high output alternator installed, these wires MUST be upgraded if you plan on taking advantage of your amperage boost!
The wires to be upgraded are:
Alt(+) to battery (+)
Battery (-) to Chassis (-)
Engine (-) to Chassis (-)
There is a rumor circulating that upgrading these wires on your stock electrical system will help you get more power out of your stock alternator. This might be true for SOME cars, but the majority of car manufacturers use appropriate gauge wiring that is adequate for the amount of amperage running through the system. Just check your alternator’s output amperage against the gauge of the wiring. 8 gauge wire, as an indicator, will carry ~75A maximum. 6 gauge brings it up to ~100A max.
This is a good source for how it is to be done: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Big-3-Car-Audio-Wiring-Upgrade&id=1411196
Though I do not agree with why he made the upgrade. The reason for the author’s amplifier blowing was due to the alternator not providing the necessary amperage, NOT because of the wiring.
To quote from the article:
“If [the headlights] dim while playing your system…What causes this problem are the stock, small gauge wires used to connect various electrical components.”
This is NOT why your headlights are dimming! I find it ludicrous that the author doesn’t even find it necessary to mention other possible alternatives as to why he has such low voltage. Morever, he really made my day when he said,
” Large amplifiers can pull up and over 200-300amps, so now you see the problem.”
This is true…but in the context of the article, I don’t see how upgrading the wiring is going to magically give you an extra 150-250A. Not sure what the author meant by this.
