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Product Spotlight: Rockford Fosgate TMS69

Rockford Fosgate TMS69

Where once the domain of only a few specialty brands, motorcycle audio speakers are now available from dozens of brands. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean all the offerings sound good and play loudly. This Product Spotlight will examine the Rockford Fosgate TMS69 6×9-inch bag lid speaker set to explain what differentiates them from the other offerings in this category.

Rockford Fosgate TMS69 Specifications

The TMS69 set includes a pair of motorcycle-specific 6×9-inch speakers and hex-head mounting screws. Rockford Fosgate rates the speakers as capable of handling 100 watts continuously with peaks up of 200 watts. The speakers have a nominal impedance of four ohms and an impressive 1W/1M efficiency of 89 dB SPL.

For those into analyzing and understanding Thiele-Small parameters, the TMS69 woofers have a resonant frequency (Fs) of 75 Hz, an equivalent compliance (Vas) of 16.8 liters, and a total Q (Qts) of 1.63. The Xmax specification, which is measured at 10% THD using Klippel transducer evaluation equipment, is 3mm. Unless you know another manufacturer used 10% THD, you can’t compare this number with their maximum linear excursion specification.

Designing a speaker for an outdoor application, as you’d find on a motorcycle, is no easy feat. The Rockford Fosgate team spent countless hours cruising Arizona highways to audition dozens of samples of the TMS69 during the development process. The goal was to tailor the frequency response to what enthusiasts would enjoy while compensating for exhaust, wind, and tire noise. While most speakers in this market are marinized car audio speakers, the effort put into making the TMS69 truly unique is impressive. If you are looking for a speaker that sounds good at 75mph, you’re in the right place.

Rockford Fosgate TMS69
he TMS69 speakers are designed to sound amazing on your Harley-Davidson, even at freeway speeds.

TMS69 Bag Lid Speaker Features

Motorcycle speakers differ from typical car audio speakers in several ways. First, they are designed with efficiency in mind. Getting more output for a given amount of power dramatically reduces how much current the amplifier driving the speakers consumes. This is crucial on a motorcycle where power is limited. Rockford Fosgate uses a low-mass polypropylene woofer cone with a high-Q suspension design. This will maximize output through the midbass region to ensure the drivers pack a punch; no pun intended.

Thermal power handling is also crucial, as the speakers are typically installed in airtight Harley-Davidson saddlebags. This means they can get quite warm. TMS69 speakers feature a huge 1.4-inch diameter voice coil to help dissipate heat efficiently.

These speakers have a shallow design, so they don’t take up valuable room in the saddlebag. Mounting depth is specified as being only 2.8 inches deep. The compact size is achieved thanks to a high-efficiency neodymium magnet structure. A second benefit to speakers that use Neodymium magnets is weight reduction. Each TMS69 weighs about a pound. Ceramic-magnet speakers, albeit cheaper, can be five times as heavy. Rockford Fosgate chose the Neodymium route because it’s much lighter than a traditional speaker with a large ceramic magnet, while still producing the same output. Added weight, especially at the top of the saddlebag, can affect the handling and stability of the motorcycle.

Rockford Fosgate TMS69
A compact, high-efficiency Neodymium magnet ensures the TMS69 sound great without adding a lot of weight.

Materials and Design

When you look at the top of the TMS69, you’ll first notice the low-profile 25mm dome tweeter with a phase disc integrated into the grille. The disc helps ensure even sound dispersion at extreme frequencies. The small vertical waveguide around the sides of the tweeter help direct the output towards the driver.

To ensure the speakers are 100% water resistant, Rockford Fosgate has implemented a synthetic rubber surround between the tweeter post and the polypropylene woofer cone. This ensures water can’t get into the motor assembly should you get caught in the rain.

The last feature worth noticing is the massive amount of cone area afforded by the Vertical Attach Surround Technique surround. The way the surround attaches to the vertical sides of the basket allows the radiating surface to be much larger than competing products. In short, you get way more effective cone area and output for your money compared to other offerings.

Rockford Fosgate TMS69
The VAST surround design maximized cone area to ensure impressive efficiency and good midbass output.

Element Ready Design

While other products may claim water resistance, Rockford Fosgate takes building speakers for outdoor applications seriously. They use the term “Element Ready,” which means the speakers are water resistant and UV resistant. This means they won’t dry out and crack after prolonged sun exposure. The speakers are also subjected to vibration and impact testing to ensure all components remain secure. A solid design is crucial for a motorcycle, which experiences intense vibrations from the lumpy camshafts. The ultra-rigid glass-fiber reinforced polymer plastic frame is an example of putting durability at the forefront of the design.

Harley-Davidson Installations

The TMS69 speakers are available as stand-alone options. However, they are the heart of the popular and often imitated bag lid speaker kits; the TMS69BL14 for 2014-2023 Harley-Davidson® touring motorcycles, and TMS69BL9813 for 1998-2013 H-D® touring models. The kits feature a cutting template that allows your installer to modify the existing bag lids to accept the 6×9 speakers using the provided mounting brackets and grilles. This eliminates the need to try to paint-match aftermarket lids. If you want to bring the sound system on your Harley-Davidson Street Glide, Road Glide, Electra Glide, or Road King to life, these kits are a perfect upgrade.

Rockford Fosgate TMS69
The TMS69 speakers are the heart of the TMS68BL14 and TMSBL9813 bag lid speaker kits.

Enhance Your Motorcycle Audio System with Rockford Fosgate Speakers

If the stereo system on your Harley-Davidson motorcycle doesn’t put a smile on your face when you crank the volume, drop by a local authorized Rockford Fosgate retailer and ask about an upgrade that includes the TMS65 fairing speakers, TMS69 bag lid speakers and their impressive amplifiers. You can find a local authorized retailer using the dealer locator at on the Rockford Fosgate website. Be sure to follow the gang from Tempe, AZ, on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to learn about the products they offer and the incredible events they attend.

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.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Motorcycle Audio, PRODUCTS, RESOURCE LIBRARY Tagged With: Rockford Fosgate

Car Audio Myths: DVC Subwoofers Can Handle More Power

DVC Subwoofer

We’re back to bust another car audio myth wide open. This article will discuss the myth that DVC subwoofers can handle more power than a single voice coil driver. After some research, it’s clear that consumers seem to think dual voice coil (DVC) subwoofers have the equivalent of two separate voice coil assemblies, allowing them to handle twice as much power as an SVC design. That’s not the case, so let’s explain how it all works.

Subwoofers and Voice Coils

Almost all car audio speakers use what’s known as a moving coil design. These speakers include everything from a 0.5-inch tweeter to a 3-inch midrange, a 6-inch woofer or an 18-inch subwoofer. In a moving coil speaker, the current passing through a voice coil winding causes the cone assembly to push away from or pull toward a fixed magnet.

The amount of current that passes through the voice coil determines the strength of the magnetic field around the voice coil winding. A stronger magnetic field moves the voice coil farther. In most cases, the limit regarding speaker cone travel depends on the selection of suspension components. The spider and cone surround should prevent the voice coil former from smashing into the back of the motor assembly. There’s only a surround in a tweeter, but excursion requirements are minimal.

All moving coil speakers are surprisingly inefficient. On the high side, maybe 2% of the energy from the amplifier is converted into sound, though it’s usually well under 1%. The rest of the energy heats the voice coil. So, if we send 100 watts of power to a subwoofer, the voice coil becomes a 99-watt heater. This wasted heat energy is why coils rated for more power are larger in diameter, taller or have more layers. The added mass allows the coil to absorb more heat energy.

Speaker Voice Coil Construction

The image below will serve as our basis for understanding how a voice coil works. Every voice coil starts with a former. The former material might be anodized aluminum, Kapton, fiberglass, stainless steel or paper. These tubes aren’t much different from what you’d find at the core of a roll of paper towels. The technician building the voice coil will wind a conductor made of copper or copper-clad aluminum around the former. It’s worth noting that more resistance can be a good thing in this instance, so copper isn’t always the best material choice. The technician winds the conductor onto the former to create a voice coil winding of a specific length and number of layers.

DVC Subwoofer
Our rendering of a speaker voice coil with one winding.

The image shown above represents a voice coil with a single winding. You’d find this in most moving coil speakers like tweeters, midrange drivers, woofers and many subwoofers. As there is a single conductor, the exposed voice coil wires connect to a pair of tinsel leads, which connect to the terminals on the speaker chassis or frame. These terminals have positive and negative labels applied. If a technician applies a DC voltage to the corresponding terminals in the same polarity as the labels, the speaker cone will move outward, away from the motor.

What Are DVC Subwoofers?

The technician will start winding two conductors instead of one to create a voice coil assembly with dual windings. As the former spins, the windings lay side by side. The total length of the winding and the number of layers are the same as if there were only one conductor. Put another way, DVC subwoofers have the same amount of copper as if it were an SVC design.

DVC Subwoofer
Illustrating a speaker voice coil assembly with dual windings. The color changes show two different conductors and not two materials.

A Bit of Simple Math

Let’s assume that in the SVC coil assembly, the former has a diameter of 2 inches, and the winding is 3 inches tall. The circumference of the winding is 6.28 inches. If wound with 20 AWG wire with a diameter of 0.0254 inch, there would be a total of 118 wraps for a length of about 742 inches. If we calculate the total resistance of the wire, it comes out to 0.997 ohm.

So now we have a voice coil assembly with a single winding with a nominal resistance of 1 ohm. What if we wanted to make this a DVC subwoofer assembly?

As we mentioned, the technician would wind two conductors of the same size side-by-side around the former. Given that the total area to cover is the same, we have the same amount of wire on the voice coil. However, the length of each conductor would be half as long. So each voice coil would have a nominal resistance of 0.5 ohm. Once again, there is the same amount of copper on the winding, so the power handling is the same as if it had a single conductor. A DVC subwoofer offers no power handling benefit over an SVC driver.

Benefits of Dual Voice Coil Subwoofers

So what are the benefits of dual voice coil subwoofers? The answer is flexibility and nothing more. Your installer can wire the two voice coils in series or parallel or power each individually from different amplifier channels. In our example, let’s assume the woofer with a single winding can handle 200 watts of power continuously. Therefore, the dual voice coil subwoofer can handle the same 200 watts of power, given that the coil assembly has identical dimensions.

The impedance the DVC subwoofer presents to an amplifier can change, though. It can be a 1-ohm subwoofer if we wire the coils in series. It can be a 0.25-ohm subwoofer if we wire the coils in parallel. Alternatively, each voice coil could be connected to two separate amplifier channels, presenting each with a nominal impedance of 0.5 ohm. Each amplifier channel can provide up to 100 watts of power for 200 watts in total.

Multiple Voice Coil Configurations

Many car audio companies simplify the wiring options for their DVC subwoofers by including a switch or jumper block. For example, the Rockford Fosgate T1-Series subwoofers have a Selective Woofer Impedance Fuse Termination that uses a jumper block to let your installer select between series and parallel voice coil connections. The actual jumpers inside the removable block are fuses, hence their mention in the acronym.

Rockford Fosgate T1-Series Subwoofer
Rockford Fosgate T1 Subwoofers feature SWIFT terminals to simplify subwoofer voice coil configuration.

While most car audio subwoofers are available in single- or dual-coil designs, other options exist. For example, Harman International has a patent on Selectable Smart Impedance technology that uses three 6-ohm voice coil windings on a single former along with a switch on the basket to select between a 2- or 4-ohm impedance. In the 2-ohm configuration, the three 6-ohm coils are wired in parallel. Two coils are wired in series and connected in parallel with the remaining 6-ohm winding in the 4-ohm configuration. The result is 4 ohms. Yes, more current flows through the single 6-ohm coil, but the total power handling remains consistent because they are all wrapped together in a single assembly.

DVC Subwoofer
The JBL Club 1224 12-inch subwoofer features SSI voice coil impedance selection.

Many subwoofers in factory-installed sound systems might use triple or quad voice coil configurations. The benefit is that several low-cost, low-power amplifiers can drive the subwoofer. For example, four 50-watt amplifiers will still provide 200 watts to a subwoofer but may not need significant power supply components that would be part of a single-channel 200-watt amp.

Less Conventional Subwoofer Voice Coil Designs.

A similar application is in high-power subwoofers used in SPL competitions. A competitor might be trying to provide 8,000 watts of power to the subwoofer using four separate 2,000-watt amplifiers. A separate amplifier can feed each coil. An alternative would be to wire two pairs of coils together and connect those to a pair of 4,000-watt amplifiers. Finally, all the coils could be wired in series (or parallel) and connected to a single amp.

Many years ago, Clarion introduced a speaker system called Full Digital Sound that featured midrange drivers with six voice coils. A technology for computer speakers limited to the 5 volts of power available from a USB port was the basis for the FDS design. The multiple voice coils allowed six amplifiers to drive the speaker to reach moderate volume levels.

DVC Subwoofer
The Clarion Z7 midrange speaker from the FDS system used six voice coils with six low-power amplifiers.

Myths about DVC Subwoofers

Now you know how speaker manufacturers create subwoofer voice coils, and you understand why DVC subwoofers are no better or worse than a single voice coil design. The dual voice coil design might have more installation flexibility or options, but in terms of performance, there is no benefit. If you aren’t sure which subwoofer design will work best with your car audio amplifier, drop by a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and talk with a product specialist. They can help you choose a solution that will optimize the power production capabilities of your amplifier while offering exceptional sound quality.

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.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Car Audio, RESOURCE LIBRARY

Car Audio Myth: You Can’t Hear Low-Frequency Distortion

Low-Frequency Distortion

At least once a week, someone comments on social media or in a forum that you can’t hear low-frequency distortion from subwoofers or amplifiers. We have no idea where this myth came from. However, if you understand what distortion is and how it works, you’ll know this myth is utter and complete nonsense. Yes, we know we’ve challenged the status quo. Don’t worry; we can always back up everything we say with science.

What Is Distortion?

In car audio systems, two types of distortion affect the accuracy of the sound reproduced by the audio equipment in our vehicles. Harmonic distortion creates audio information in multiples of the sounds the system produces. The second distortion is intermodulation distortion, or IMD, which adds unwanted audio content at frequencies that are the product of two different sounds. Yep, a mouthful. Let’s explain with examples.

Example of Harmonic Distortion

Let’s start by discussing harmonic distortion. Let’s say a performer plays a B1 note on a bass guitar. With conventional tuning, that would produce a sound with a fundamental frequency of 61.74 hertz. That’s well into the range in which most car audio subwoofers play. As with all sounds, natural harmonics are present to give the instrument its tone or character. For now, we will ignore those.

In a theoretically perfect audio system, the preamp, amplifier and speaker (or subwoofer) would reproduce this 61.74-hertz tone with no additional harmonic content. If we looked at this theoretically ideal system, we’d see a single spike on a spectrum analyzer at 61.74 hertz, as shown below.

Low-Frequency Distortion
Spectral analysis of a 61.74 hertz sine wave.

In the context of this discussion about distortion, nothing else shows in the spectral domain above an amplitude of -95 dB. We can say that the 61.74-hertz note has at least a harmonic distortion level that’s better than -92 dB. Why not -95? Well, the signal itself, in this example, was created at a level of -3 dB FS. We chose this level to leave room to add some harmonic content without inducing clipping. So, 95 minus three is 92. This -92 dB level equates to <0.002512% THD.

Let’s introduce some harmonic distortion. Harmonic distortion implies that the additional unwanted content is an even multiple of the fundamental frequency. We’ll throw in some 123.48- and 185.22-hertz information as an example.

Low-Frequency Distortion
Second- and third-order harmonics added to the 61.75-hertz fundamental frequency.

Amplifiers and Speakers Add Harmonic Distortion

The above is typical behavior for a car audio source unit and amplifier. We can see a second-order harmonic of 61.75 hertz at 123.48 hertz at a -75 dB FS level. A third-order harmonic at 185.22 is now present at -85 dB. If we combine the amplitude of those harmonics (with a bit of fancy math), we get a level of -74.5861. To compare that to our fundamental, we would subtract three (to compare to our fundamental frequency) for a distortion level of -71.5861 dB or 0.0263%.

Consider this for a second: We fed the amp with a signal with no more than 0.0025% distortion. That level equates to harmonic content below -95 dB FS. The amplifier has added content at 123 and 185 hertz because of distortion. This distortion is information above the low-pass crossover point. It’s information the subwoofer will try to reproduce.

Example of Intermodulation Distortion

OK, we now should understand how harmonic distortion works. We get unwanted multiples of any frequency that passes through the amplifier. What about intermodulation distortion? Let’s add a G1 note from our bass guitar to our musical experience. The G1 has a frequency of 49 hertz. This frequency is also well into the subwoofer region of a car audio system. Let’s look at G1 in the spectral domain.

Low-Frequency Distortion
A 49-hertz tone with no harmonics louder than -95 dB FS.

Nothing stands out as abnormal so far. We have our fundamental 49 hertz at a level of -3 dB FS, and nothing else. Once again, this means harmonic distortion is better than ~0.0025%. We won’t be talking about harmonic distortion, so we need to add that B1 note at 61.74 hertz to explain intermodulation distortion.

Low-Frequency Distortion
Spectral analysis of 49- and 61.74-hertz notes played simultaneously.

So far, everything looks logical and makes sense. We have two notes or sounds played simultaneously. Having two frequencies playing is a requirement for explaining how intermodulation distortion works. First, we need to do a little math. The difference between 49 and 61.74 hertz is 12.74, which is called the f2-f1 frequency.

Showing what IMD Looks Like

The first thing that happens when an amplifier adds IMD is the addition of audio information at this 12.74-hertz frequency. Let’s add it to our spectral frequency analysis graph.

Low-Frequency Distortion
Spectral analysis of 49- and 61.74-hertz notes with the f2-f1 IMD frequency shown at 12.74 hertz.

As you can see, the amplifier has added information that wasn’t in the original recording at this 12.74-hertz frequency. The f2-f1 frequency is only the first issue related to IMD. The second issue is sidebands, which are additional distortion frequencies spaced at 12.74 hertz (in this example) on either side of the fundamental frequencies. Here’s what one set of sidebands looks like on our graph.

Low-Frequency Distortion
Spectral analysis of 49- and 61.74-hertz notes with the f2-f1 and one set of sidebands.

It’s easy to see that an amplifier or speaker that adds significant harmonic and intermodulation distortion would change how our music sounds. Remember that this is an example with only two frequencies playing, and we’ve excluded the harmonic content that the instruments would add naturally.

Every frequency from every instrument or performer is subjected to some harmonic and intermodulation distortion. Simultaneously, intermodulation distortion adds unwanted content between and on either side of every frequency.

Subwoofers and Hearing Low-Frequency Distortion

A while back, we published a short series of comparisons of subwoofers to analyze their distortion characteristics. A good-quality 10-inch subwoofer with robust excursion capabilities adds 2% to 3% total harmonic distortion between 40 and 100 hertz when playing at 90 dB SPL measured at 1 meter. Increase the output to 100 dB SPL, and you are in the 5% THD range. Yep, compared to electronics, speakers add a LOT of distortion.

Let’s reverse what that 5% distortion means if we play a 61.74-hertz note. Converting the percentage value back to a decibel number, we get -26.02 dB. To simplify the explanation, if the subwoofer created a single second-order harmonic (at 123.48 hertz), it would be 26.02 dB below the fundamental frequency. That would be very audible.

Let’s look at that in the spectral domain, shall we?

Low-Frequency Distortion
The output of a 10-inch subwoofer playing a 61.74-hertz note with 5% harmonic distortion.

Here’s what you need to remember when looking at this chart: The information at 61.74 is the audio signal from the amplifier. As shown, it doesn’t contain any distortion. The nonlinearities of the subwoofer itself add the harmonics at 123.48 and 185.22 hertz. You will hear these sounds that were not in the original recording.

Subwoofer Crossover Points and Hearing Low-Frequency Distortion

Harmonic and intermodulation distortion add frequency content to an audio signal because of nonlinearities in a source unit, digital signal processor, amplifier, speaker or subwoofer. By a long way, speakers are the worst in the amount of distortion they add to audio signals. Choosing good speakers is crucial. Every component in the audio playback chain adds a bit of distortion. Well-engineered audio equipment adds less distortion. The result is that your music sounds more precise, more detailed and more accurate.

Let’s tie all this talk about distortion back into the context of low-frequency audio playback. First, we know that the harmonic distortion characteristics of an amplifier and the subwoofer itself will add audio information to what we hear. This harmonic content will primarily focus on the 60- to 250-hertz range. Above those frequencies, harmonic levels drop off to below audible levels as other audio information will mask them. There will also be intermodulation distortion content that’s mixed in with the original frequencies.

So what does this sound like? The higher frequencies cause the subwoofer itself to be much easier to locate in an audio system. We typically choose a steep crossover point around 80 hertz for the top of the sub. However, harmonics at relatively high levels, one or two octaves above that crossover point, can trick us into hearing the sub-bass from behind the listening position. Of course, this assumes your subwoofers are behind you in the vehicle. If the amplifier and sub were perfect and did not play any audio much above 80 hertz, it would be much harder to pinpoint the subwoofer in an audio system. Aside from time-alignment phase issues, if you can pick out the location of a subwoofer easily, it’s probably adding a lot of unwanted distortion.

Hearing Sounds Not in Your Music

From a tonal standpoint, a subwoofer system with moderate to severe distortion of harmonics usually sounds boomy or tubby rather than tight and dynamic. The addition of unwanted midbass harmonics changes the sound of the instrument. In our theoretical perfect recording, our bassist playing only that B1 note creates only audio content at 61.74 hertz. Once distortion has affected the signal, we hear more like a good pluck of the B1 and a little bit of B2 and B3. It’s just not the same thing. Now multiply that by every note they play. What you hear is a slightly different instrument. You’ll still know it’s a five-string bass, but it won’t sound the same.

A kick drum generates another good low-frequency sound that can be affected by unwanted distortion. The sound of the beater hitting a kick drum’s skin is unique. When analyzed critically, it’s easy to pick apart. Depending on the drum and its tuning, you might have a fundamental around 40 or 50 hertz for an 18- by 24-inch kick drum. In a good recording, you can pick out the sound of the beater hitting the drum head. You can also hear the resonance of the sound bouncing back and forth inside the body. Hearing this requires that the audio system be balanced correctly in the spectral domain and have the lowest distortion possible.

Is Bass Distortion as Easy to Pick Out as Midrange Distortion?

So, why does the myth that we can’t hear low-frequency distortion exist? Almost all of us are used to hearing voices. No, the voices with our ears, not the “in our heads” kind. Many of us talk with people almost nonstop every day. When there’s something wrong with a voice in a recording, it’s very easy to detect. However, let’s say you are someone like Mark Petrocelli. Mark is the drum technician for Styx drummer Todd Sucherman, considered one of the top drummers in the world.

As with many experts in the field of drumming, Mark and Todd can tell you when the head of a drum is too tight or loose just by listening; they can probably tell you whether Todd is using a different stick or whether a skin needs replacing. Musicians simply become attuned to the instruments they play. The same goes for listening to audio equipment. If you focus on the music – the lyrics and the sound — then most gear might sound good. If you focus on the sound of each instrument, picking them out from the mix and analyzing their timbre and timing, you become very good at picking out good quality audio gear from the mediocre.

Low-Frequency Distortion
Todd Sucherman with his Pearl/Sabian drum kit. Image: www.toddsucherman.com

Hearing Low-Frequency Distortion is Easy

So, is it easy to hear distortion at low frequencies? Of course it is. Are most people good at detecting this distortion compared with midrange frequencies? No, not at all. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Let’s wrap this up with a quick story. Last year, we attended an industry trade show in Canada, where we had the opportunity to audition a half-dozen demo vehicles. The one that stood out was the one that used subwoofers with significant distortion-reducing technologies. The bass was several orders of magnitude more accurate than all the other vehicles’. There was more definition to each note and better separation. Adding a shorting ring and copper inductance-reducing pole piece cap to the subwoofer design made a huge difference.

Low-Frequency Distortion
The T1-Series subwoofers from Rockford Fosgate include their Inductive Damping Heat Sink, which improves power handling and reduces distortion.
Low-Frequency Distortion
The Mille subwoofers from Hertz include an aluminum shorting ring to help reduce inductance.

So the next time someone says that you can’t hear low-frequency distortion, you’ll know that comment makes no sense. You can hear distortion; however, it reveals itself as unwanted midbass information. No, it doesn’t stand out like garbled midrange frequencies, but it’s there. If you want a car audio system with clear, detailed, accurate bass reproduction, drop by a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and audition their subwoofer solutions. Ask about the technologies included in the subwoofer motors that make them more accurate.

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.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Car Audio, RESOURCE LIBRARY

Product Spotlight: Compustar EZGO-II

Compustar EZGO-II

Hands-free proximity unlocking is a feature found on many new cars and trucks fresh off the showroom floor. The Compustar EZGO-II adds this convenience to your remote car starter or security system. Let’s take a close look at this unique keyless entry solution.

What are Keyless Entry and Proximity Unlocking?

A typical keyless entry system uses a key fob to unlock the doors of your car or truck. The key fob communicates with the electronics in the vehicle using radio frequency signals. In most cases, you need to press the unlock button on the fob to disarm the security system and unlock the doors. This keyless entry technology was a major upgrade from manually inserting a key into a door lock, as was common in the ’90s.

Compustar developed a fully hands-free unlocking solution when it launched the Compustar PRO T13 and R5 remote controls for its starters and alarms in 2021. That same technology is now available in the EZGO-II proximity unlocking system.

Proximity unlocking refers to the automated process of unlocking the doors of your car or truck as you approach the vehicle. As we found when testing the T13 and R5 remotes, when you are about four or five feet from the door, the system will automatically detect the remote in your pocket and unlock the vehicle. In most cases, the tailgate of an SUV or truck will also unlock to provide full access to the vehicle.

Once the last door is closed, the system will search for the EZGO-II remote. When it doesn’t detect the remote, it automatically locks the doors. If you remain around the vehicle for five minutes or more after turning off the engine, the proximity locking feature is disabled until a door is opened or the vehicle is started.

With a Compustar remote starter or alarm and the EZGO-II, looking for car keys is a thing of the past.

The EZGO-II Remote

The EZGO-II system includes a small antenna and a compact, square remote with a single button. In terms of features, it’s surprisingly similar to the T5 remote we mentioned earlier. First and foremost, the remote will automatically unlock your vehicle as you approach. This is a godsend if you are carrying groceries or have one of your kids in your arms. Sure, you still have to pull the door handle to open it, but that’s always been the case.

Next, the remote’s single button allows you to lock or unlock the doors from up to 150 feet away from the vehicle. A single tap sends a lock command, and double-tapping the button sends the unlock command.

Finally, if you hold the button for 2.5 seconds, the remote will transmit a start command to your car starter. Pressing and holding the button again for 2.5 seconds will transmit a stop command. So, if you are in your home and the vehicle is in the driveway, the EZGO-II remote provides enough range to start the vehicle remotely.

The EZGO-II remote has a small LED that indicates when it is within range of the remote car starter or security system controller.

If you need additional range, then upgrading your car starter or security system with the Drone smartphone-based control system is a perfect solution. So long as you have access to the Internet, you can lock, unlock or remote start the vehicle. With a premium service plan, you can also use GPS-based tracking to monitor the vehicle’s location and how it’s being used.

Compustar EZGO-II
If you need more range to control your vehicle, add the Drone smartphone control system.

How Does Proximity Unlocking Work?

If you are like us, then knowing how something works is as interesting as the features it offers. The EZGO-II system uses a communication system called Bluetooth Low Energy, or Bluetooth LE. The key fob transmits a low-power signal that can be picked up by the EZGO-II antenna mounted to the dash. If the signal matches the security pattern, the antenna sends a digital command to the remote start or security system controller in the vehicle. That module then sends an unlock command to the vehicle’s door locks or, in some cases, the body control module (BCM).

When you close the last door, the antenna starts communicating with the EZGO-II remote again. Once the communication stops, as would happen when you walk away from the vehicle, the antenna sends a lock command to the controller.

Bluetooth LE was designed specifically for applications like what we’ve described above. These systems can consume as little as one microamp of current when in standby mode. As such, a typical CR2032 coin cell can last for more than a year. Even when communicating, the current draw is well under five milliamps. This communication is brief, however – lasting only as long as the remote is near the vehicle and the engine isn’t running. Put another way, the remote only consumes relatively high amounts of current while you are approaching or walking away from your car or truck. Honestly, that’s pretty cool!

Compustar EZGO-II
The EZGO-II remote control is incredibly small, measuring 1.5 inches square and only 0.25-inches thick.

Upgrade Your Convenience System Today

If you have a Compustar, NuStart, or FTX-branded remote car starter, the EZGO-II should be a compatible upgrade. Your Firstech (the parent company of the above brands) retailer can provide up to two additional remotes—whether they’re the EZGO-II or a more conventional one-button or four-button unit.

If you want to unlock your car, truck or SUV by simply walking up to it, you can find an authorized Compustar retailer near you using the dealer locator tool on their website. Be sure to follow Compustar on Facebook, Instagram and, of course, YouTube to stay up to date with all the new products and technologies available from this award-winning company.

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.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Driver Safety, PRODUCTS, Remote Car Starters, RESOURCE LIBRARY Tagged With: Compustar

What’s the Ideal Car Warm-Up Time with a Remote Starter?

Warm Up?

Never in a million years did we think that the internet would debate the appropriate amount of time that’s ideal for a remote starter to warm up a car. Some folks believe that even a minute is too much, and others want the interior to be toasty and warm and are willing to let the vehicle idle for 15, 20 or even 30 minutes. Let’s talk about the physics of cold engine starting and why a little warm-up time can help get you on the road faster.

Engine Oil Science

There is a myth that whenever you start your car or truck, you inflict serious damage to the bearings, cylinder walls and piston rings because oil isn’t flowing. Modern engine oils are designed with adequate viscosity (thickness) and surface tension so they don’t completely drain into the oil pan when your car sits overnight or for a few days. Think of the fingerprints you leave on a stainless-steel fridge door. They don’t evaporate. That’s because the oils on our skin stick to the surface. The same applies to engine parts. If you want to test this, put a drop of cooking oil on your finger and touch a stainless appliance. That spot will be there until you clean it off with a degreaser.

If you put the car away for the winter and nothing moves for several months, there will be a bit of extra wear during the first start in the spring. However, so long as you drive your vehicle regularly, accelerated wear from starting isn’t an issue.

Modern engine oils include viscosity modifiers. An oil like 5W30 acts like a 5-weight oil at cold temperatures and a 30-weight oil when warm. The lower viscosity when cold helps it to flow better when it’s frigid outside. The W in the 5W30 stands for Winter. We got an email from a reader in mid-January informing us it was 49 below zero Fahrenheit near Edmonton, Alberta. It was 25 Fahrenheit in Anchorage! When it’s this cold, any fluid will have difficulty flowing. This doesn’t mean that you can’t drive your vehicle. However, it will take a while for the engine to warm up.

Ultimately, you’ll have to start your vehicle at some point if you want to go to work. So, a remote starter will give the engine a head-start in warming things up.

Warm Up?
Cold mornings are no fun. A remote car starter can help make your vehicle more comfortable. Image: Phil Heck

Transmission and Differential Warm-Up

Another argument against prolonged warm-up time is that the transmission and differential aren’t warming when idling. In the case of the differential, gear oil is usually 75W90 or similar in viscosity. After just a few revolutions of the driveshaft, every part in the differential will have a thorough coating. Just as with the engine, the lubricants don’t drain dry overnight or even after sitting for a few days or weeks. The oil coats the gear surfaces and the roller bearings. A colder, thicker oil provides more protection between gear surfaces. The only drawback to the differential being cold is that it takes more energy for the ring gear to move through the oil in the bottom of the case.

Most modern vehicles have a transmission cooler integrated into the radiator. Fluid lines from the transmission run up to connections in the radiator. A small heat exchanger might be in front of or behind the main core or a dedicated cooling channel and fins integrated between the engine coolant lines. Ultimately, once your engine is warm and coolant passes through the radiator, that speeds up the process of warming the transmission.

So if you don’t warm up your vehicle significantly, neither the engine nor the transmission will be warm. If you let the engine idle for a while, both will be warm. Worrying about one and not the other isn’t an argument against using a remote car starter.

Warm Up?
An example of a radiator with an integrated transmission cooler. Image: Summit Racing

Cold-Weather Driving

If it’s 40 below, you aren’t going to go outside, start your vehicle, then put your foot to the floor and drive off like Roscoe chasing Bo and Luke Duke. On the other hand, you don’t need to let your vehicle idle for so long that every fluid in every system is up to full operating temperature. The latter is a waste of fuel since it might take 10, 15 or even 30 minutes. Vehicles with physically larger engines take longer to warm up. A big V-8 engine has much more mass to bring up to temperature than a 1.5-liter four-cylinder. Idling is the slowest way to warm an engine. It’s not doing much work, so less heat is produced.

Suggestions for Engine Warm-Up Time

Here are our suggestions for an ideal minimum warm-up time for your car or truck. Whether you’re using a professionally installed remote car starter or are just sitting in the vehicle in your driveway, our benchmark for a minimum warm-up time is to wait for the engine idle speed to drop. When you start a fuel-injected car from cold, it typically idles between 1,200 and 1,400 rpm. The idle speed when warm might be 500 to 900 rpm. The coolant temperature sensors in the engine directly control the idle speed.

Go to your car or truck on a cold morning, hop in and start the engine. Listen to the engine speed if your vehicle doesn’t have a tachometer on the dash. Note how long it takes for the speed to start slowing down. This time can vary from five or 10 seconds on a warm day to a few minutes on a cold day. The speed dropping is a sign of some heat in the engine. Whatever the time it took is a perfect time to let your remote starter warm up your engine.

For us, we usually remote-start our vehicles just before getting ready to head out. We still need to put our shoes or boots on, get our coats on, and grab our keys, wallet or purse, and laptop bag. If it snowed, then we can brush off the vehicle and scrape the windows. Most of us have the rear window defroster, heated seats and heated steering wheel controls integrated into our remote starters. They’ll have time to warm things up if it’s below freezing. This is more than enough time for the engine to warm up. You can hop in and drive off.

As always, be gentle with throttle inputs and try to keep the engine speed down until the engine is at full operating temperature. Exerting extreme force on the engine when cold isn’t ideal. The gap between bearings and journals won’t have stabilized yet. These gaps, measured in the thousandths of inches, are small but are critical to maintaining a proper fluid (oil) film. Letting the engine warm up ensures that the appropriate film thickness is present for adequate wear protection.

Warm Up?
Engine builders measure the diameter of bearing journals to the thousandth of an inch or less to ensure proper lubrication. Image: King Racing

Tips For Cold Weather Engine Protection

Here are a few tips to make starting your car or truck on a cold winter morning easier and more reliable. First and foremost, if you haven’t already, switch to a synthetic oil at your next oil change. Even with the same viscosity ratings, synthetic oils flow better than conventional oils at low temperatures. Do you want a thick syrup in your engine or a fluid that will provide excellent protection?

Warm Up?
Synthetic motor oils flow dramatically better than conventional oils at low temperatures, even in the same viscosity ratings.

Make sure your battery has a complete charge. We’ve talked about battery maintenance at length. Invest in an intelligent charger to keep your battery topped up for those cold winter morning starts. Every battery loses some ability to deliver current when cold, so keeping yours charged and in good health is crucial. Proper maintenance with biannual or quarterly reconditioning will dramatically extend the battery’s life and prevent you from being stranded.

Warm Up?
The MUS-7002 from CTEK is one of our favorite battery chargers and reconditioners.

Turn off any electrical accessory you don’t need in your vehicle. Most modern vehicles have a computer called the Body Control Module that shuts down things like the heater motor or radio when you crank the engine. However, in many cases, some of these items are left on for convenience. If it will be very cold out, turn off everything you can think of when you park the car. Turn off automatic headlights, the radio and so on. This will reduce the draw on the battery when it’s trying to crank the engine. If a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer has added heated seats, make sure they’re off while the engine is cranking.

Warm Up?
OE-style seat heaters are a great upgrade to make your vehicle more comfortable. Image: ENORMIS Mobile Specialties, Erie, Pennsylvania.

If it gets extremely cold where you live, invest in a block heater for your car or truck. These small heating elements are installed in the engine block and warm the coolant. You can use a timer to turn the heater on a few hours before starting the vehicle. Likewise, a battery warmer might be a good investment if it’s frigid. A car dealership can often add a block heater to your vehicle. Remember to use a heavy-gauge extension cord with the heater to optimize its performance.

Make sure you have a set of good-quality jumper cables. If you have trouble starting the vehicle or need to help someone else, good cables (4 AWG or thicker) that are nice and long (20 feet) make jumping a dead battery much easier. Most importantly, if your battery has died, you must recharge it properly. This means more than running the engine for a few minutes. Invest in or borrow a high-quality battery charger with a desulfation or reconditioning mode and let it run a complete cycle on the battery. It should take eight to 12 hours to charge a completely dead battery back to its full capacity. The desulfation feature will stir the chemistry in the battery and restore or improve its performance.

Warm Up?
Though a bit over the top for most consumers, the 2/0 AWG Booster Cables That Don’t Suck from CE Auto Electric Supply in Gilbert, Arizona, put a smile on our faces.

Warming Up Your Car Adds Comfort

So what’s the bottom line on how long you should let your car warm up? Technically, a minute or two will be beneficial and allow the parts in the engine to build up some temperature. Do you need to warm your car for 15 minutes? We don’t think so. That’s quite a while, and you could run into trouble with anti-idling laws in your jurisdiction. When it’s time to add some comfort to your vehicle on a cold winter morning, drop by a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and ask them about having a remote starter installed in your vehicle. Your cold hands will thank you for it!

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.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Remote Car Starters, RESOURCE LIBRARY

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