Car Insurance

Choosing a car stereo can be a complicated and difficult task,
especially for individuals with little knowledge on the subject.
This process requires extensive research in order to determine
you are receiving the best deal possible. Before going to a car
stereo dealer, you may want to review and understand all the
components of a car stereo. This way, you can personally choose
which components you would like for your car. The following is a
list of the basic components of a car stereo:

1. Decks - Car stereos cannot function without a deck. A deck
constitutes any piece of equipment ranging from cassette decks
and CD players to MP3s and mini discs. The deck is considered the
glue that holds the car stereo together. The deck controls the
overall output of the sound and allows you to control the music
being played. All car stereo decks have a minimum 4-channel
output for your speakers. If you want more power than what your
speakers alone can hold, you may want to consider purchasing an
amplifier.

2. Amplifiers – Amplifiers provide the power needed to blast the
music in your car. The more powerful your amplifier is, the
louder the sound system is going to be. An amplifier can have
anywhere from 1 to 7 channels. The number of channels in your
amplifier is the number of speakers you can hookup in a series
circuit.

3. Speakers – Speakers are where the sound from the stereo is
emitted. Different types of speakers are designed to produce
different frequencies. Higher frequencies provide the capacity
for more sound and produce a higher level sound as well. The
efficiency of the speakers is what will determine how far the
sound will travel. If you want the sound to travel far, you will
need speakers with a higher frequency.

4. Subwoofers – Every high-tech car stereo system should have a
subwoofer. Subwoofers complete the sound by providing high
efficiency of low frequencies, through the bass. In other words,
the subwoofer is the piece of equipment which makes the car
vibrate. A subwoofer needs to be enclosed in either a box or
possibly the trunk of your vehicle. Keep this is mind when
budgeting the cost of your stereo system.

Now that you know the basics of how everything operates, you can
ask informed questions as to which components you should have in
your car.

Nowadays, there isn’t a home without a DVD player, but one of the latest and coolest ways to electronically enhance your life is installing one into your car! Car DVD players come in all different varieties and prices, but even the cheapest ones will send you into movie viewer heaven!

Steps:

1. Look for a car DVD player that you can afford. Car DVD players can be simple or very extravagant. Portable units that sit between the seats and plug into the cigarette lighter are generally more reasonable as opposed to a full-blown in-car theater system (from $100 to $3,000 and more).

2. Most people who are looking to add electronics to their vehicle will want to future-proof their purchase by choosing car DVD players. Anything else that is not as advanced will simply be outdated.

3. Inspect your car for the best place to install a car DVD player. You’ll want your car DVD player to take advantage of the best-quality inputs available.

4. Bring a DVD with you when you shop. There are three competing, incompatible formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM. Even if a player says it takes your format, make sure to test it.

5. Buy an all-in-one car DVD player or individual components if your budget is small (under $250) and your needs are simple. An all-in-one unit includes a videocassette player (VCP) or a DVD player, speaker and screen.

6. Component systems tap into your vehicle’s stereo and pipe sound directly to headphones for quiet viewing. Most high-end car stereo retailers carry these systems. Choose a component system ($400 and up) where a single video source can run several screens, usually liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). The car DVD player screens can pop out of the dashboard, drop down from the car’s ceiling or mount in headrests.

7. Make sure any component system is expandable, so you can adjust your system in the future for more or different screens and input devices.

8. A diversity antenna, also known as a dual-antenna, is used for better TV reception when the car is moving and is recommended.

9. Making sure that your vehicle’s electrical system can handle the demands of a mobile entertainment system is very important. You may need a professional installer to determine this for you.

10. Remember that the audio encoding-Dolby Digital or digital theater system (DTS)-on the DVD itself is critical.

Tips: Car DVD players can also play audio CDs. If you burn CDs on your computer, bring along a homemade disc to test it.

-A laptop computer with a DVD drive can serve as an entertainment system for smaller cars with one viewer. Mobile entertainment systems are theft targets. Invest in a good car alarm.

Warnings: Front-seat viewing is illegal, not to mention idiotic while a car is in motion. Make sure to install your car DVD player in a proper place!

As excited consumers buy 2004 model vehicles in the coming months, one of the first things they want from their pride-and-joys is better sound.

And one of the last things they want is to engage in a complicated overhaul of the dashboard area of their new cars.

Here’s good news — the days of that trade-off are long gone. With add-ons such as satellite radio, a multi-disc CD changer, or mobile video, even factory stereos are primed for dramatically improved entertainment options and sound quality.

The good news is that you don’t have to dismantle your sound system if you want more than your in-dash receiver can offer,? said Dan Hodgson, vice president for business development at Crutchfield Corporation, the leading Internet and catalog retailer of consumer electronics.

These products are ideal if you want to keep your factory radio, drive a leased vehicle, or just don’t want the hassle of a complicated installation, Hodgson said.

Adding satellite radio

One of the most popular additions to factory systems is satellite radio and little wonder why. Once you’ve had an earful of satellite radio’s 100 channels of crystal-clear music, news, sports, and entertainment, you’ll find it hard to go back to terrestrial signals.

Delphi and Kenwood have satellite radio tuners that connect to your existing system with a cassette adapter and a cigarette lighter power adapter. The Delphi SKYFi delivers XM satellite radio signals. Kenwood’s Here2Anywhere offers SIRIUS programming. These are great products because you also can buy a kit to connect them to your home receiver. That way, you can enjoy satellite radio at home and in the car, Hodgson said. Satellite radio requires a small monthly subscription fee.

Mobile video

Even the most bland factory stereo system can be spruced up with add-on DVD or VHS players. The Fahrenheit DVD-5 plays DVDs (and CDs), and can be stowed in a hideaway location. Add a custom Vizualogic headrest with a built-in monitor that slides into your factory openings without cutting or splicing, and you can enjoy movies in your car without overhauling your vehicle’s interior.

Add an amp or a sub

For great clarity and definition, and richer bass, an amplifier/subwoofer combination is definitely the way to go. An amp will add fuller sound to the interior of your car — this can make a fantastic difference in roomy SUVs.

Most of today’s amplifiers have inputs that can be connected directly to the speaker wires in your existing or factory system.

Power a subwoofer from the amp to hear previously unrevealed bass notes. Some subwoofers, like Amplified Bazooka Tubes have a convenient built-in amp, so you don’t need a separate power source.

Play multiple CDs

Tired of fumbling for single discs on (or under) the seat to put in your CD receiver? Then add a multi-disc changer for hours of listening enjoyment. An FM-modulated CD changer sends a signal from the changer to an unused band on your FM dial.

That means any vehicle with an FM radio is ready for a CD changer upgrade. Some even play MP3-encoded CDs.

Some manufacturers, like USA SPEC, even make CD changer/adapter packages for particular makes and models of vehicles, so that you don’t have to pay dealer mark-up.

Car Audio at Home

Car Audio at home you ask? Why the hell would you want that? Number one reason, bragging rights! Actually it’s not a bad idea if you require a test bench.

Reasons:

A couple of applications for doing this are:
1. Testbench for Parts
2. Cheap Home Stereo (Gets pretty loud)
3. MP3 Stereo (When hooked to Computer)
4. Great for Movies
5. Vast selection of parts.

Running car audio at home is good if you have a few spare parts lying around. It does come with disadvantages. The first is not having all the channels that Dolby Home units boast. I suppose with a digital input, and RF 5.1 car audio system, it can be done. The second is, how do you power the gear, that 12V shaver adapter is not going to cut it for a 50 AMP amplifier.

Ratings:

If you notice I never refer to amplifiers or head units using their Wattage Output. The reason is pretty well known. I don’t call liquid nitro-freezing MOSFETS and driving transistors into over-voltage under one hundred percent laboratory control a fair test. Neither is measuring amplifier output power using a 20Hz single tone signal.

Thus, I use the amp rating. It’s a no-brainer that a 1000W Orion HCCA with 100AMPs worth of fuses is going to push more power than a 1000W Pyramid Amplifier that has a single 25AMP fuse. For car audio, power is generated by the transistors or tubes using DC electricity. Since components are voltage sensitive, the input voltage to 12V electronics has regulators that clip the voltage to certain values. So the other method is to push current like a bat out of hell. What do I mean? Think about it, SPL vehicles have multiple alternators, and stacks of batteries. What’s their system voltage? 130VDC? No, there voltage hovers around 14.4V, with some variance. But they can dish enough current to arc weld I-Beams if you short their supplies.

Home Power Source:

There’s a couple of ways to come up with a stiff 12V power source:
1. Make one (Huge Thyristors, Diodes, Heat Sinks, Transformers, Ripple Filters, Brown Out Caps, voltage regulators)
2. Use a Car Charger and Car Battery.
3. Buy a 14.4VDC wall Supply

I did the latter two choices. I weighed the options, the money to build a 12V high current supply would kill me just buying a massive transformer, and trying to stuff my Home Improvement project into a big box, all this to say, ‘hey guys look what I made.’

So since the price of building a supply died, I pulled out the car trickle charger, and a spare car battery. I think the battery had 600CCA, and was pretty big. At full charge (10 hours plus), it can run two amplifiers, over 7 speakers, including a subwoofer for six hours at a room shaking level. This includes a head unit.

What you need is to build an enclosure that looks like an electronics store display to house a set of components, a battery, amplifiers etc etc, whatever you want to install. Charge, Fuse, Wire, and you’re good to go.

Later I replaced the car battery with a 14.4VDC – 50AMP, 120VAC supply made by Tripplite (They make UPS supplies, ,Part: PR-50). The supply is CSA approved, cost $350 CAD, and pushes alot of power. The specifications say I can start a car with it, and also charge battery banks. To make the power switch more convenient, I purchased a remote outlet from the local hardware store. I can turn the supply on and off using a remote control across the room.

Wiring:
Everything is the same as if it were in a car. The only difference is if you decide to use a different input source other than a head unit, like the TV or computer, you do a wiring mod on the amplifiers. The remote pin should be tied to +12V to trick the amp’s power relay. That’s it. Everything should still be fused, because at 50 AMPs DC from a wall supply, wires will singe.

Using an old Fosgate Parametric Controller, I control the volume via a wired remote. This allows full volume control over the amps.

Test Bench:

The system is great when it’s too hot or cold outside when you need to test equipment. On a regular occurrence I test amplifiers, subwoofers, head-units, and sub enclosures in my basement. it’s hard to rewire your car just to test one sub, or another amp, so maximum access, is two thumbs up.

Testing Subwoofers:

I test these for damage and performance. Having the audio source being a computer I can run tone generators and fully control test wave magnitudes, and frequency. Can’t really do that with a head-unit in your car can you?

I first run a couple songs into the sub (crossed-over for protection) to listen for an obvious problem. I then go to the tone generator, and range a low magnitude wave into the sub from 2 Hz to 100 Hz. At 6 Hz or so, I can watch the sub go into full excursion very slowly, and rhythmically. If the coil is messed up, you can move the sub around like on it’s side to hear if the coil scratches the internals etc, etc.

Testing for blown coils is a pretty simple too, since indoors, you have access to the speaker posts, so for DVC subs, you can switch leads pretty easy, and test for failed coils.

Testing Amplifiers:

Again with the tone generator, I can test the performance of cross-overs in amps, and whether or not the amp has problems. Same goes for head units

Head Units:

You can completely test a head-unit on the power supply. Access to the twelve volts is clean and easy to get at. This is good if you want to map the harness. Power is pretty simple to pick out, but speaker outs, and speaker phasing is a little trickier. It’s much easier to do this with the use of a test bench in a warm indoor environment rather than in the car during the winter, when your hands are crippled, and your sitting on a screwdriver, balancing the deck in your lap, holding ten wires, nursing a leg that fell asleep, and trying to hold two wires together while turning up the volume with your tongue.

Future Improvements:

The lack of channels sucks for DVDs. However, when I muster the cash to go Home Audio, I’ll have an 11 speaker center channel.

The number one reason to do this for home audio purposes is if you wire in a volume controller to you amplifier inputs, you can run any Car Audio Subwoofer you can afford for Sub Bass instead of the limited selection of Home Audio Subwoofers. There is no way a Home Audio sub could out perform Car Audio SPL equipment in your basement. This is also your only chance to run JL/Vega Strokers/Soundstream Subs etc etc for Home Audio Subs.

A lot of people think that they can just buy whatever size amplifier and electronics they want to, and stuff in in the car, and it will all work out.

not true

well, for example, you just put a 1200 watt amplifier into your car, your car’s charging system has to be able to power it.
To find out how much power(or current) is required, divide the RMS of the amplifier by the voltage of the electrical system(with efficiency factored in) which would be about 12v. 1200/12 would be an extra 100 amps of current that your alternator needs to accomodate for on top of the every day electrical needs of the car.
To find out if your alternator is adequate for your system, look at the hot rating on the alternator, if you can find it. if you cannot find it, contact the dealer and find out.

a common mistake in this area is buying a 50 farad or whatever cap, this will not help if you are underpowered.

If you find out that you only need about 10-12 extra amps of current and do not want to buy a new alternator, you could get a new, larger battery(optima yellow top) and a stiffening cap (1 or 2 farad) this should get the job done, but that will not solve everyones problems.

a proper charging system makes all the difference