Post by storyworm on Jul 10, 2013 21:07:18 GMT -6
What to look out for when buying audio equipment. If you want me to add any information please reply and i'll edit this post
General Terms
Watts- Electrical and acoustic power. When looking at watts, do not pay attention to the MAX watts. It might as well be a made up number the company puts on the box to make it look more powerful. You want to look at the RMS wattage.
amplification- an increase in signal level, amplitude, or magnitude.
dB- decibel. unit of measurement used to indicate the relative intensity of sound
Source (headunit)
one major thing to look out for is the fact that most mobile audio brands are making their headunits cheaper by cutting back on the features that they carry.
What brand should I buy?
The big name brands are usually what i recommend. I worked at best buy so my examples will be from what they sold there
Pioneer
Alpine
Kenwood
JVC
Sony
What should i stay away from?
Dual
Pyle
Eclipse
Power Acoustic
Boss
If you are wanting to add amplifiers to the system be sure you have the correct amount of preouts for the amount of amps you want to run. 1 set of preouts for a mono/2 channel amp. 2 sets of preouts for a 4 channel amp.
Speakers
coaxial speaker- where the tweeter is built into the speaker
Component - Tweeter is separate from the cone of the speaker and either has an inline bass blocker or a crossover in between the speaker and tweeter
I will say this once and only once. ROUND SPEAKERS GIVE YOU BETTER SOUND.
I always had people coming in wanting me to convert their car from a 6.5in speaker to a 6.9. oval speakers distort since it's not a perfect circle. Yes the 6X9 can be louder because they have a bigger surface area and can push more air, this does not mean they sound better.
What I recommend.
Alpine type s and r
Infinity (tend to be treble happy)
Polk Audio
kenwood component speakers, not coaxial
Stay away from:
pyle
sony
kicker (very tinny sounding)
pioneer
kenwood coaxial
I'll add more later
General Terms
Watts- Electrical and acoustic power. When looking at watts, do not pay attention to the MAX watts. It might as well be a made up number the company puts on the box to make it look more powerful. You want to look at the RMS wattage.
amplification- an increase in signal level, amplitude, or magnitude.
dB- decibel. unit of measurement used to indicate the relative intensity of sound
Source (headunit)
one major thing to look out for is the fact that most mobile audio brands are making their headunits cheaper by cutting back on the features that they carry.
What brand should I buy?
The big name brands are usually what i recommend. I worked at best buy so my examples will be from what they sold there
Pioneer
Alpine
Kenwood
JVC
Sony
What should i stay away from?
Dual
Pyle
Eclipse
Power Acoustic
Boss
If you are wanting to add amplifiers to the system be sure you have the correct amount of preouts for the amount of amps you want to run. 1 set of preouts for a mono/2 channel amp. 2 sets of preouts for a 4 channel amp.
Speakers
coaxial speaker- where the tweeter is built into the speaker
Component - Tweeter is separate from the cone of the speaker and either has an inline bass blocker or a crossover in between the speaker and tweeter
I will say this once and only once. ROUND SPEAKERS GIVE YOU BETTER SOUND.
I always had people coming in wanting me to convert their car from a 6.5in speaker to a 6.9. oval speakers distort since it's not a perfect circle. Yes the 6X9 can be louder because they have a bigger surface area and can push more air, this does not mean they sound better.
What I recommend.
Alpine type s and r
Infinity (tend to be treble happy)
Polk Audio
kenwood component speakers, not coaxial
Stay away from:
pyle
sony
kicker (very tinny sounding)
pioneer
kenwood coaxial
I'll add more later