Leaderboard

Welcome to "The Owner's Manual" Second Skin's newest resource for all things sound and heat. Helpful articles, slideshows, and how-to (DIY) instructions will be released over the future weeks, months, and years to help consumers make better choices with their build budgets to get the right products the first time. Check it out, give us some feedback, and let us know what you would like to see articles on in the future!!! Thanks for following Second Skin's journey over the past 19 years, we appreciate each and every one of you. #TeamSecondSkin CONSTRAINED-LAYER DAMPING #SecondSkinInsulation #SecondSkinAudio #AmericanMadeSoundDeadening #SoundProofing #SoundProof #CarAudio #SecondSkinForTheWin #AutomotiveRestoration

Some notes on using Audio Nirvanas in car audio systems: 1. Even though Audio Nirvana are full range, they can also be used to replace existing drivers in 2, 3, or 4 way systems. The crossover will limit the frequencies that the Audio Nirvanas will play--when set up this way--but the quality of the music they produce will be far superior to the speakers you are replacing. 2. The power rating of your amplifier is not important. Even though Audio Nirvanas require only a fraction of 1 watt--when playing--we have customers that use even TWO 1000 watt monobloc amplifiers with our speakers. A speaker will only take the power it requires from the amplifier--that's what a volume control is for. And volume controls raise the power very gradually. The first 1/4 movement of your volume control--even with 1200 watt amplifiers--will probably only cover a few watts. We call these 'exponential' volume controls. They add power very slowly, at first. And many power amplifiers--even though they are Class A/B--will actually operate in pure Class A, for the first few watts. So you may get much higher quality reproduction, from your amplifier, with our speakers. 3. Our speakers are rated at 8 ohms and I know that many car audio amps are rated for 4 ohms. But don't worry. Amplifiers can be damaged by lower ohm speakers than they're rated for. But higher ohms are fine. A higher ohm rated speaker (say, our Audio Nirvana 8 ohm speakers operating with your 4 ohm amp) will require more power to play as loud as a 4 ohm speaker would. But since Audio Nirvana only require 1/10 of watt--for normal listening--requiring twice the power is irrelevant. 4. On our website, at www.commonsenseaudio.com, there is a tab at the top labeled 'more info'. If you click on this, you will see a link to driver specifications. Specifications are really not important, but there are diagrams with dimensional drawings of our speakers. This will help you decide if the Audio Nirvana will fit in your mounting location. Why are specs not important? Because (you'll be surprised to learn) there are no fixed industry standards for testing speakers. Yes, that's right. No standard test temperature, humidity, test baffle, or anechoic chamber. So, the numbers you see are approximations at best. 5. Hookup wire. Because Audio Nirvanas use so little power, even the smallest wiring in your car will be adequate. You don't need fire hose thick speaker wires for our speakers. 6. We have two main lines of speaker cones in our Audio Nirvana speakers. The 'Classic' series use a dust cap only. The 'Super' series uses a 'whizzer' or inner cone. This is really a tweeter glued to the main cone. The Classics give a bit better sound overall--more coherent, less distortion, more detail--but they don't have as wide dispersion as the 'Super' series does, in the larger 6.5, 8, 10, 12, and 15 inch sizes. In 3, 4, and 5 inches, there is not a lot of difference between the two. I'm guessing that in car applications, the wider dispersion of the Super series will be better--in 6.5 and larger sizes--because of where the speakers are located.