A significant car audio system upgrade takes four items: a budget, great gear, expert installation and proper configuration. If you’ve read any number of the articles here on BestCarAudio.com, you’ll know we hold the importance of quality equipment, proper installation and expert calibration in the highest regard. Deciding how to distribute your budget should include that crucial final step that brings everything together. This article will look at what it takes to achieve an awe-inspiring listening experience in your vehicle.

Establish Your Car Audio Budget

We know that everyone has different budget constraints and equally diverse expectations for upgrading their car audio system. Some are willing to spend thousands of dollars to achieve the most accurate, realistic listening experience in their vehicle. Conversely, many want the most bang for their buck and seek out the biggest upgrade possible from a small investment. Neither approach is wrong, and your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer can typically work with either end of the spectrum.

The key to getting the best value is to be clear about your expectations and how much you want to spend. If you want your car audio system to sound as though you’re sitting at the mixing console at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, but have a budget of $1,500, you’re going to be disappointed. Yes, the shop can make your system sound much better, but that last bit of sparkle, detail and transparency will likely be missing.

Be open and upfront with your budget. The product specialist designing your sound system can work backward from your budget to help you get the best value for your investment.

Avoid Used Car Audio Equipment

A friendly word of warning, if we may: It’s tempting to start shopping around for deals on previously enjoyed equipment to achieve a higher goal than your budget would allow. Most of the time, these efforts turn out fine, but surprisingly often, they end up being frustrating. It’s nearly impossible to know if a set of speakers has been abused and the voice coils are on the brink of unwinding. You can’t tell if an amplifier has been exposed to vibrations because of improper installation, and a component is on the verge of breaking loose. For a head unit, CD mechanisms have a finite life span; for the better units on the market, finding replacement parts is difficult.

If the shop you’re working with will accept third-party products, there will likely be an additional charge to test them before they are installed. In most cases, the installation warranty doesn’t apply to removing and reinstalling those components should they fail or have issues.

Choosing the Right Car Audio Upgrades

Just as asking “What’s the best car audio system?” is a relative question, finding the best products for your system is difficult if you aren’t experienced in auditioning audio equipment, even for those that often have a surprisingly low benchmark for what sounds genuinely accurate. Accuracy is the key word here. Any brand that describes its gear as having a “sound” or “style” has missed the boat in terms of understanding what audio equipment should do.

High-end amplifiers should amplify the audio signal. There shouldn’t be “warmth,” and they shouldn’t sound “smooth.” The signal that goes in should be increased to drive a speaker. Speaking of speakers, they have a similar task. They should transform an audio signal into sound with the addition of as little distortion as possible. Speaker systems should be designed so that the frequency response and dispersion characteristics of each driver compliment those operating in adjacent bands. You don’t want a 6.5-inch woofer and a ¾-inch tweeter working together. The woofer becomes too directional before the tweeter starts playing.

Expert Installation Is Crucial

Installing car audio equipment properly requires a few essential skills. First, the technician needs a thorough understanding of the laws of physics, including AC and DC theory and acoustics. They also need excellent problem-solving skills, excellent mechanical skills to construct adapters and mounting panels, and a certain amount of artistic flair to make it all look as though it belongs in the vehicle. Finding someone who excels at all of these criteria is difficult. Often, you’ll need to visit more than one shop to find the right match before you let someone start modifying your expensive vehicle.

Proper component installation doesn’t need to be fancy; it needs to be reliable. An amplifier will sound the same bolted to a piece of extruded ABS or a welded steel bracket as it would to edge-lit plexiglass or carbon fiber. Don’t fall prey to fancy designs while missing out on the opportunity to use higher quality equipment. Sadly, we see this all the time.

Proper System Calibration Is the Most Important Step

If you are expecting to hear Diana Krall’s voice as though she were really in the car with you, then your car audio upgrade is going to need a properly calibrated digital signal processor. No matter how great your installation is, how fancy a source unit you’ve purchased or how impressive your speakers are, your audio system won’t sound right without proper equalization and level setting. The bare minimum here is that each channel in the vehicle is equalized to remove the effects of resonances and cancellations in the vehicle. You will also need to decide if signal delays should be used to optimize the soundstage for a single seat (the driver’s seat) or both front seats. The latter may require some changes to the system design, so this decision is crucial to the design stage.

Your technician will need a calibrated microphone to properly tune the audio system. He or she will also need to have a thorough process to complete the task. Setting up a DSP properly isn’t an art, and it doesn’t take unnatural talent. It’s a scientific process. With that said, it does take practice to execute efficiently. Knowing what characteristics of the response need to be addressed and what needs to be ignored or dealt with by changes in crossover points takes proper experimentation. There’s no guessing or voodoo involved.

Before you commit to having a sound system installed and calibrated, you will want to audition several systems that the installer has completed. Hopefully, and expectedly, the shop will have a demo vehicle or two that you can audition. If not, ask if they can put you in touch with a previous client.

The cost of the calibration process is an important part of the overall car audio budget. Don’t be shocked for there to be at least one to two hours’ worth of labor dedicated to the process. For a four-way system or one designed for two-seat imaging, three hours isn’t at all unreasonable.

How Do I Know if the Calibration Is Correct?

We hear horror stories about signal processors being installed but not configured properly all the time. Here are a few things you can listen for while auditioning the demo system before you commit to letting a shop work on your vehicle.

The audio system should produce a stable center image. This means the voice of a performer that would be center-stage should be reproduced in the center of your windshield. The voice shouldn’t move left or right as the pitch changes. If the system is calibrated extremely well, the image should be small, about the size of a softball. Sounds on either side of the center image should be equally focused. If there is a guitar, backup singers or a saxophone, they should be placed accurately, and the source of the sound should be easily discernable.

Some music enthusiasts prefer to have the music wrapped around them with an equal amount coming from the back as the front. In this case, you will want the center image to be focused on you, the driver. There should still be a realistic balance of left and right instrument placement on either side of that position. If you like this style of listening (which is akin to a great seat of headphones), be sure to let the product specialist know before the system design begins.

The overall tonal balance of the system should sound natural. No part of any performer’s voice should stand out. This applies to both treble and bass. Sibilance, or having too much emphasis on S sounds, could be a tuning issue or a distortion issue with your speakers. If it’s the latter, only better quality speakers will resolve the problem.

Deciding how much bass is right is tricky. We know bass is a lot of fun, so it’s not unheard of to have much more than would make a drum kit or upright bass sound realistic. This is another criterion that needs to be determined before the system design process begins.

It’s Your Job To Get the Most from Your Car Audio Budget

Unlike buying a set of speakers for your home audio system or a soundbar for your television, a car audio system needs to be designed for the speaker locations and size options in your vehicle, installed securely, safely and reliably, then calibrated for the environment so that it sounds excellent. It’s your job to define a budget, then seek out a specialty mobile enhancement retailer that can complete this car audio upgrade task professionally.

Lead-in Image: The interior of this stunning Roadster Shop-built 1970 Chevy Camaro, known as Road Rage, was built by Avant Garde Design in Palm City, Florida. It should come as no surprise that a 3D rendering of the interior was completed before a single square inch of leather was cut. Thanks to Roadster Shop for the photograph.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Just as we’ve looked at the Mustang in the past, it’s now time to check out the car audio and convenience upgrades available for the Chevy Camaro. As one of the veteran pony cars, the Camaro went on sale in September 1966 as a 1967 model. These midsize coupes have been synonymous with performance with models like the Z/28 and IROC-Z models offering impressive levels of power and performance at their time. The latest ZL1 1LE model with 650 horsepower would put supercars of the ’80s and ’90s to shame.

Camaro enthusiasts have sought to personalize and upgrade their vehicles with more power, more features and, of course, improved audio system performance. Whether you want to add seat heaters or a new radio to an older model, or you need better sound and more bass than the Bose systems in the fifth- and sixth-generation models offer, your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer can help.

Camaro Radio, Speaker and Amplifier Upgrades

For those with first- and second-generation Camaros, the first upgrade you would want to make to improve the performance of the audio system is to have a new source unit installed. The stock twin-shaft radios in these vehicles are as basic as it gets. Companies such as Custom Autosound and RetroSound offer modern source units with USB and Bluetooth connectivity in a design that will bolt right into the factory radio location. Many of these radios are available with options to add a SiriusXM satellite radio tuner module. The best part: You can add an external amplifier to these radios to dramatically improve the performance of a new set of speakers.

If you want better sound quality and more features, you have two options. You can have your local retailer cut the dash to make way for a single-DIN-sized receiver, or you can hide a radio in the glove box or under a seat. Sony offers an app for Android and Apple phones that will let you control all the important features of its modern Bluetooth receivers remotely.

If you’re considering a radio upgrade for a third- or fourth-generation Camaro, you have a few more options. The stock radio in these vehicles was, in most model years, a 1.5-DIN Delco unit. Kits and adapters are available to allow a single-DIN radio to fit with no modifications. If you don’t mind a little bit of customization, then a double-DIN multimedia receiver becomes an option. Having a large touch-screen to display navigation information or let you use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto will bring the technology of your vehicle in line with the latest cars and trucks to roll off the assembly line.

On fifth-generation Camaros from 2010 through 2015, many dash kits will let you upgrade the vehicle with a new double-DIN multimedia receiver. With items such as climate and heated seat controls built into the original dash, these replacements include hardware that replicates those features.

The latest generation of Camaros has moved to a relatively subtle version of the tablet-style radio. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to install a new receiver. Fortunately, companies like NAV-TV make interfaces that will add high-quality, full-bandwidth pre-amp outputs to the factory radio so your technician can install aftermarket signal processors and amplifiers.

Custom Audio Upgrades

Even with a better radio, you will likely want to upgrade your Camaro with new speakers, amplifiers, a subwoofer and a digital signal processor. Adding a dedicated subwoofer system improves the impact and visceral experience of listening to music while driving. It also allows the system to play louder as the small speakers don’t need to provide bass.

New speakers will improve the clarity of your audio system and let it play louder than the factory speakers ever could. A nice set of components in the front of the vehicle can transform your commute into a studio-quality listening experience.

Finally, digital signal processors, whether a stand-alone solution or built into a high-power amplifier, allow your installation technician to calibrate the output of each speaker to work with its position in the vehicle and the acoustics of the environment. Proper system calibration is the only way to achieve realistic tonal balance and excellent imaging in a vehicle.

Window Tint Adds Comfort and Security

Another popular Camaro upgrade is automotive window tint. While many owners choose to add tint to enhance the style of their vehicle, it’s also a popular upgrade for those who want added security and a cooler interior. Modern ceramic and nano-technology films block as much as two-thirds of the infrared heat energy from the sun to help prevent your vehicle from turning into an oven. Darker films make it harder for people to see the contents of your vehicle, so your belongings stay safe. Finally, films with a strong adhesive make it harder to get into the vehicle for smash-and-grab thefts.

Remote Car Starters Make Driving More Comfortable

Whether you live where it’s below freezing in the winter or swelteringly hot in the summer, a remote car starter is a great investment in making your Camaro more comfortable. When it’s cold, starting your vehicle a few minutes before it’s time to leave will let the engine begin to warm up. In most cases, the starter system can trigger the rear window defroster and even a heated-seat system to make things more comfortable. When it’s hot out, letting the air conditioning run for a few minutes can drop the interior temperature by more than 20 degrees. If you or your passengers have respiratory issues, cooling the interior can be a godsend.

Lighting Upgrades make Driving Safer

Whether you have a classic Camaro or something just a few years old, new headlights and auxiliary lighting can make driving at night much safer. If your car came with halogen bulbs, then new HID or LED upgrades can provide as much as three times as much light on the road. Many companies offer replacement light assemblies that include colored accent lighting to add extra style to your muscle car.

Personalize and Enhance Your Camaro Today!

Your local mobile enhancement retailer has a nearly unlimited list of options to personalize and enhance your Camaro. From a set of replacement or upgraded speakers to a full custom interior with a bespoke audio system, there’s truly no limit to what can be created. Drop by a specialist retailer today to find how they can upgrade your Camaro.

Lead-In Image: Thanks to Roadster Shop in Mundelein, Illinois, for sharing this amazing photo of their 1970 Camaro project known as Road Rage. Aside from the Texas Speed engine, amazing BASF paint and a truly track-ready Roadster Shop chassis and suspension, the vehicle features a custom interior and audio system by Avant Garde Design in Palm City, Florida

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Day after day, we see clients who have purchased extraordinarily large car audio amplifiers and expect them to make their full rated power using the stock electrical system in their car or motorcycle. This article will look at amplifier efficiency, how vehicle charging systems work, and why it takes power to make power.

Let’s Talk About Car Audio Power Amp Efficiency

Mobile audio amplifiers need to draw current from your vehicle’s electrical system to function. They need power to feed the circuitry that operates the amp and processes the audio signal. Of course, they also need power to drive your speakers. On the high end, a thoughtfully designed Class-D amplifier may use 90% of the energy it consumes to drive speakers. On average, this number is closer to 80% and drops into the 60% range when amplifiers are loaded down. Class-AB amplifiers, though they typically sound better, peak in the 60% range at full power and can drop into the 30s and 40s at lower output levels.

Where does that power go? Let’s say you have a four-channel amp that is rated to produce 150 watts per channel. If the amp has an efficiency rating of 86%, it will need to consume 698 watts of power to produce that 600 watts. Where does that extra 98 watts go? Almost all of it is converted to heat because of losses in the power supply and output switching stage components. If your electrical system is running at 13.2 volts, the amp will need to draw about 53 amps of current to produce 600 watts of power to your speakers.

In a second example, let’s say we have a similarly powerful amplifier, but this unit only has an efficiency of 68%. To produce 600 watts of power, it needs to consume 882 watts of power. That’s right; this amplifier is then going to convert 282 watts into heat. As such, the heatsink would need to be three times larger than the preceding amp to maintain reliable operation. In terms of current draw, this second amp will need 67 amps of current to make the same power. That’s an extra 14 amps that will be converted to heat and nothing more.

Which amplifier would you buy?

Automotive Electrical and Charging Systems

At the most basic level, the electrical system in our car or truck, or on a motorcycle or side-by-side, comprises a battery and an alternator. The battery is there to start the engine. Once started, the alternator takes over the operation of the vehicle and recharges the battery. If sudden high-current requirements exceed the current production capabilities of the alternator, the battery will often provide some extra current, albeit at a lower voltage.

Vehicle manufacturers are doing everything they can to improve the efficiency of modern vehicles. The switch from halogen and HID headlights to LED can reduce current consumption by several amps per light. Less current draw means the car can be wired with smaller cabling, which saves additional weight and increases fuel economy while improving handling, road-holding and braking performance.

Let’s say you have a typical pickup truck. It could be a Ford, Chevy or Toyota. Unless you’ve opted for a special towing or heavy-duty package, the truck is going to come with an alternator capable of providing about 200 amps of current. The alternator needs to have enough capacity to run the engine, the computers, safety system, climate control system, lighting and such accessories as security and maybe a keyless entry system. Even the radio needs a couple of amps of current to power the display and keep the processor running. The alternator also needs to charge the battery, which can consume a significant amount of current if the vehicle has been sitting for a few days.

To give you an idea of how much power you have available, a 2015 Civic comes with an alternator capable of producing about 95 amps of current. A 2018 Dodge Challenger with the 5.7L V8 has an alternator in the 160-amp range. A newish EcoBoost Mustang has a roughly 175-amp capacity alternator.

If you want to undertake a little experiment, have four friends hop in the car with you and go for a drive. Turn on every electrical accessory you can find. That will be the defroster, blower motor, high-beams, the stereo and heated seats. Now roll the windows up and down consistently and, if the vehicle has one, open and close the sunroof. You can kill the car battery while driving because a modern alternator only provides enough current for the average load the vehicle will see – not the peak load.

Another consideration is that alternators are rated to produce their current at engine speeds well above idle. If you’re sitting in a parking lot and the vehicle has a 180-amp alternator, it will only produce 130 amps at idle. A 240-amp alternator makes about 115 amps at idle. In the same case size, more peak current capacity results in a reduction of output current at lower engine speeds.

Worse, alternators lose performance as they heat up. A typical three-phase alternator can lose 30% of its output capacity. High-end alternators that use high-quality six-phase windings may only drop 15%. This heat problem is a self-compounding issue, just like under-sizing the wiring in your vehicle. As you approach the limits, you end up with less voltage and the load will demand more current, which makes things hotter and reduces output even more.

Electrical Systems on Motorcycles and Powersports Vehicles

Upgrading audio systems on motorcycles is challenging. It would be best if you chose the most efficient speakers and amplifiers possible. Why? The stock charging system is often only capable of delivering 30 amps of current. Upgraded stators may be able to bump this to over 50 amps, but that still isn’t very much when you have an ignition system to run. Would you have 30 to 35 amps of current leftover for a stereo? Maybe. Even if you have picked the 86% efficient amp we talked about at the beginning of this article, you can only produce about 400 watts to the speakers. If you chose that 68% efficient amp, that number drops to a little over 300 watts as the rest of the energy is wasted as heat.

Lastly, don’t expect the battery to help much. In a typical motorcycle size, as you’d find on a Street Glide, they are rated for 32 amp-hours and have a cold-cranking amp capacity of 500 amps. Compare that to the battery in a full-size sedan at 100 amp-hours and almost 1,000 cold-cranking amps.

Upgrade Your Electrical System for Better Audio Performance

If you plan on having a large amplifier, a high-performance ignition system or lots of lighting installed on your vehicle, then drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer today to find out what upgrades are available. Feeding your amp or accessories with the power they need is the only way to ensure that they will provide the performance and reliability you expect from your investment.

Lead-In Image provide by Luke Schaller at Schallerimages.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

For decades, driving has been synonymous with listening to the radio in our cars. From the early days of AM radio, through advances in FM technology to the latest satellite and streaming services, we’ve been able to enjoy someone else’s music collection for about 100 years. Each advance in technology has improved sound quality and noise reduction to make our music sound more accurate and realistic.

AM Radio

One of the simplest means of transmitting audio information over the air is known as amplitude modulation, or AM, as it’s known globally. From a technical standpoint, AM radio modulates the amplitude (level or strength) of a carrier radio frequency (the station you tune to) to transmit the audio signal. In essence, an analog copy of the sound is sent on top of the radio station frequency. In North America, AM radio stations broadcast on carrier frequencies between 540 and 1700 kHz.

One of the biggest problems with AM radio is its sensitivity to noise. If additional information, say from a lightning strike or a noisy piece of electrical equipment, adds noise at the same frequency as the carrier signal, you will hear it on top of your broadcast.

The second issue is bandwidth. AM stations are limited in their ability to transmit high-frequency information. Audio up to 10 kHz is the limit in North America.

FM Radio

FM radio got its start in the 1930s but didn’t begin to make headway into broadcasting popularity until the 1960s. In contrast to AM, frequency modulation (FM) is much more impervious to noise. To transmit audio over the air, the frequency of the carrier signal (the station you tune to) is modulated by the audio waveform. FM radio offers dramatically improved audio bandwidth (up to 15 kHz) and an easy way to transmit stereo signals.

As digital transmission technology became more popular, broadcasters found ways to include additional information in the 200 kHz band allocated to each FM station. Features such as the Radio Data System (RDS) allowed small amounts of digital information to be embedded with the analog audio transmission, including station call signs, song titles and artist information.

Several radio and portable GPS navigation device manufacturers use the RDS Traffic Message Channel (TMC) to display real-time traffic information within their navigation systems. At the time of this writing, 77 stations are broadcasting this information in major cities in the US and Canada.

Digital Audio Broadcasting

Digital audio broadcasting (DAB, for short) operates at much higher frequencies than traditional terrestrial radio and is similar to the signals from satellite radio broadcasts. While it never took off in North America, DAB remains the standard in Europe and is replacing standard FM transmission there. Many aftermarket radio manufacturers such as Kenwood and Pioneer had add-on tuner modules that would work with these satellite frequency signals.

HD Radio

Using technology identical to FM radio in terms of broadcasting frequencies, HD Radio extends the data transmission concept to include a high-resolution digital copy of the FM station and up to three additional audio streams. Broadcasters can choose how they want to use the available bandwidth and balance fidelity and content. Significant amounts of information, including song title, artist name and even album art, can be displayed on the radio screen of a multimedia receiver.

HD Radio is a free service but requires a tuner that is capable of decoding the data stream embedded within the FM broadcast.

Satellite Radio

Though the basis for satellite radio was first conceived in the early 1990s, the first satellites weren’t launched until 2000, with Sirius launching three satellites that year. XM launched its first two satellites on March 18 and May 8, 2001, then began broadcasting Sept. 25 that year. Full coverage of the US was achieved by mid-2002. Sirius and XM Satellite Radio merged into Sirius XM in 2008 to deliver a single solution for North America.

Unlike terrestrial radio, Sirius XM is a pay-for-use service. You’ll need a specific antenna and tuner module to receive the signals.

Being able to drive across the US and almost all of Canada while listening to the genres of music you enjoy is a fantastic feature. If you drive long distances or live in a rural area with few radio stations, then Sirius XM is an excellent option.

Streaming Music Services

Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, iHeartRadio and Amazon Music are the top music streaming services in North America. Unlike the other systems we’ve discussed, these entertainment solutions rely on the digital data connection of your smartphone to bring music into your vehicle. In most cases, users will launch an associated app on the phone, then use a Bluetooth or wired data connection to feed audio from the stream to their stereo.

Specific apps exist for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for the services we’ve mentioned above, along with Tidal, Radio Disney and Sirius XM. Using dedicated voice-controlled apps makes enjoying these services easier and safer while driving.

Modern Technology Provides Non-stop Entertainment

Whether you wanted to check the score from the game last night, listen to the news or enjoy your favorite music, dozens of options will let you stay informed and entertained as you drive. If your car or truck doesn’t have the ability to play HD Radio, Sirius XM or accept audio from a streaming service over Bluetooth, drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer today to find out about the upgrades that are available.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.