Technical Info & How To's

As those of you who know me know, I like to do a bit of research before spending any money. In the case of building up my shop supplies, I have diligently compiled a list of tools that will stay the course and provide you with years of service. I thought it might prove beneficial to some of you. Note, I haven

As most of you know, I do measurements for a living. So I have a few pet peeves about how things are done in this industry. Nothing is standardized and the accuracy of everything is questionable and typically quite subjective. In this thread, I would like to address something I would like to see standardized and that is the sensitivity of loudspeakers. There are a lot of you car audio nuts that are afraid to run home audio drivers in your car due to the fact they are 8ohms, but you really shouldn

So you designed and built a box and think you know what it is tuned to, but there are a lot of reasons to verify that you are right. Some of these are: 1) To make sure you understand the math behind designing the box 2) To check up on the person that did the design for you 3) To check on your building skills 4) To verify where you are so that when you redesign to deal with an acoustic difficulty that you found you are able to. Whatever the reason, there is a simple way to do this. You will need the following equipment: 1) Your system installed in your vehicle. 2) A CD with a variety of low frequency tones on it, I

I have read many places different ways to determine the output of your amplifier as it is in your car, but none have given me the information I need to do this myself. I will be auditioning several amps in the next few weeks, and would like to have real numbers as they pertain to what my subs will really get. Can anyone break it down to where I can mess it up, as far as how to go about this, what equipment I will need, and the approximate cost of the equipment? I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to do this, and this will allow me to give accurate results and power output when I'm testing the amps. Thanks in advance.

Have you ever completed an enclosure that was a touch too small? Your low end sounds cramped but you don't want to or can't build a brand new enclosure. You throw in some polyfill and are blown away by the improvements. Then you go online to talk about it and everything gets confusing. You don't know why it works or what it really did, but you know that it sounds better. Maybe it's time you learned more about it! Firstly, there are a few primary types of fill that are used. This includes polyester fiberfill, fiberglass insulation, and long-fiber wool. Of these three, polyester fiberfill is perhaps the best option, and also the origination of the term "polyfill". T…

Excursion is a large contributor to high output in any driver on the market. Typically, larger excursion (seen visually as how far the cone moves in and out) means more sonic output. However, with excursion come challenges. As the driver moves outward, the voice coil begins to move out of the gap. This causes a drop in the magnetic force (or BL) and results in a few negative effects, including a large theile/small parameter shift, lower efficiency (magnetic flux decreases), less control over the voice coil (transient response increases, making the driver sound sloppy), and introduces distortion into the output. Knowing these effects, there was a need to design a parameter…

Power compression is a topic that is rarely discussed, but always important. When you hear someone call various theile/small parameters a

I was asked by Denim to repost this for our SSA family. Original post is here: http://customizeyourvehicle.org/viewtopic.6481.html but anyways, here we go. I'm gonna seperate the sections to make it easier to read. If you have anything to add please do so. I am going to break it down into seperate post just to make things easier to read. What is the advantage of dual voice coils? The primary advantage of the dual voice coil speaker is wiring flexibility. A single dual voice coil driver offers the user three hookup choices...parallel, series and independent. In a parallel hook-up the drivers impedance will be half that of each individual coil (a dual 4 ohm speaker would…

Good Amp read Switching Amplifiers: The Technology and the Issues

This is a good read!! Dampening Factor Write up

Figured I'd post some stuff up seeing as how it has been a hot topic as of late. The biggest problem with rewinding a stock alternator is the fact that most winders do nothing more than rewind the stator for additional output. This does nothing but increase upper RPM output and decreases the cut-in RPM. This is the RPM in which the alternator begins charging. This can be controlled with a lower cut-in regulator, but that is just a band-aid. The alternator will still produce nothing more than stock output at a low RPM. When looking for a GOOD unit, make sure to ask the manufacturer how the alternator was built. You want to look for one that has had a rewound rotor a…

I've moved my forum to http://www.subwoofertools.com/forum/ Calculator can be found here: http://www.subwoofertools.com/forum/ported-box.asp I'm working on a new improved calc. It currently only does response curves: http://www.subwoofertools.com/boxprogram.asp www.accelerator-pedal.com should be returning my custom 404 page directing you to subwoofertools. It's not. Stupid GoDaddy hosting. :mad:

Alarm Install Primer: http://www.subwoofertools.com/downloads/al...hsPrepDocV1.pdf Free Ported Subwoofer Plans: http://www.subwoofertools.com/forum/ported-box.asp Custom Enclosure Design: http://www.subwoofertools.com/boxprogram.asp 1/3 Octave Test Tones (wav format): http://www.subwoofertools.com/downloads/tones/default.asp Subwoofer Wiring Guide: http://www.cardomain.com/shop/wooferwizard...dance_of_subs=4 ohms Mastersheet (2005 Ford Mustang) http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/graphics/...ple_0190011.pdf Updated: 05/17/2006

ok so i have the pio 760mp and i was wondering if turning the loud feature on my deck is bad??...the guy at the audio place here told me that but it sounds alot better when i have it on.Is there a way to make up for this its off???...he said it would mess up my speakers alot faster if i leave it on.

Stereo Interconnects (RCA's) RCA's were invented in 1972 by the famous audio engineer Richard Clark, as a stable replacement for previous connectors (hence RCA : an acronym for 'Richard Clark Audio', the company under which Richard Clark first released these connectors to the world). The point of the RCA interconnect was simple : to allow connections to be made simply and securely between amplifiers, CD players, tuners, speakers, power sockets, etc, without risk of electrical shorting or loose wires. RCA's quickly caught on, and are now the connector of choice for the pro audio industry, and hence the car audio industry as well. They are somewhat rarer in home audio circl…

Subwoofer placement in a trunked vehicle Now, you have two good, and two "OK" options: Good 1. Install the subwoofer in the rear side panel (or in between the taillights and the strut tower). This is called corner loading. Since the subwoofer is as far back as possible in the vehicle, there will be no rear sound wave that can interfere. As well, you will have hard boundaries to the rear, and sides. 2. Install the subwoofer in an enclosure facing the very rear of the vehicle. Optimally, within a foot. This allows for the rear wave to exit through into the cabin of the vehicle, as well as the front wave to reflect off of the rear of the vehicle, and be reinforced by the r…

I want to thank Polecat for researching this for me even though he is very busy. I was curioius about the figures since they were not posted on their website. here is what he just emailed me with: KX 100.2 141 KX 150.2 370 KX 200.2 401 KX 250.2 225 KX 350.2 359 KX 450.2 245 KX 550.2 539 KX 850.2 303 KX 200.4 223 KX 350.4 148 KX 650.4 140 KX 550.3 132/ 97 KX 700.5 110/ 174 KX 400.1 105 KX 600.1 70 KX 1200.1 72 KX 2500.1 60 SX 400.2 210 SX 500.2 140 SX 600.2 158 SX 900.2 …

Kent asked for this a while ago... I dug up some links. Enjoy. http://audioforum.termpro.com/cgi-bin/ubb/...ic;f=8;t=021625 http://forum.soundillusions.net/showthread.php?t=45647 http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/pfric.html Good reading, good points, easy read. -Nick

I've been meaning to write this up and post it here for sometime... thankfully Aaron pushed me a little. A couple of quick comments: I've tried to make this as straight forward and digestible as possible; I've explained these things to the best of my knowledge... bear in mind, I am no Electrical Engineer. What follows is the result of monthss of research and hours of playing / testing my own equipment. Lastly - I'll leave this locked until Denim gets a look at it. -Nick

click link>>> http://www.team-bio.com/RE_rebuild.htm

I just found this link, you guys should check them out if you get a chance, lots of cool differnt tones and sweeps Test Tones Link

Before installing a power amplifier in your system you should take into consideration the vehicle

i am writeing this to try and help people understand what the specs of there amps mean. i'm not a expert on amps but i know enough to write this. when chooseing a amp theres many thing to look at like class a/b or class d and if you need a 2ch, 4ch or mono amp it go's on and on. ....so here it go's.... (in random order) you will need to know if you need a class a/b. class d ect ect. they are many types of class's like a, b, , c, a/b, d, t, x but the one's you see more in car audio is a/b and d. now there are more and more class t amps comming out because the price to build them are going down. CLASS A: these amps have an output device that never turns off, so they are a…

Inside the Daily Grill in Los Angeles, legendary radio disc jockey

i found this, so im passing it on..... Car Batteries What you need to know about your vehicle's battery. Most of us don't think much about the battery in our vehicle; we simply turn the key and expect the engine to start. We expect the battery to be reliable, long-lasting and maintenance-free. Once it fails, however, odds are you'll have to replace it, and knowing which type and size battery you need is important. Will it be conventional, maintenance-free or recombination? Conventional Batteries A 12-volt automotive battery has six compartments or cells. Each cell has a series of alternating positive and negative plates separated by isolators. All negative plates in th…