Video Creator’s Channel CarAudioFabrication
When Building A Car Audio System, We Usually
only have a certain budget to work with For this reason, many of us will upgrade our car audio system in stages, but this can leave us asking ourselves which upgrade should I get first does upgrading the speakers first make the best improvement or should we first do a radio? What about amplifiers and subwoofers, where do they fit in what’s going on guys. I’m mark welcome to car audio fabrication. The show where together we learn how to master car audio and how to design, build and install our dream car audio system and in this video. I’m going to give you my opinion on what should come first and what should come last. In the beginning of the video, I mentioned the different categories here that I want to rank for you guys We’ve got subs speakers amplifiers the radio and I’m also going to talk a little bit about DsP you’ll notice.
There Are A Couple Things That I Did
not include in our categories here and that’s sound treatment and the wiring in the vehicle. Obviously you need the wiring in order for everything to even work and I do consider sound treatment as something that you should probably do on any type of install. Even if it’s just like a speaker install? For example, any install because it always has a benefit Also please understand this is just my opinion, but I really think that I’ve got a good idea here on what will give you the most bang for your buck When you start out so let’s start with the first category The first thing you should get if you’re on a budget and that is a sub and an amp now you’ll notice that I combined that category a subwoofer with an amplifier, and there’s a reason for that some of you might be thinking. I already have a subwoofer in my vehicle. It’s part of the premium system, but in my opinion, usually those subwoofers really don’t give you a whole lot to work with the mistake that I want those of you that already have a stock subwoofer to avoid.
- speakers
- subwoofers
- subwoofer
- amplifiers
- audio
Is Just Upgrading Only The Subwoofer
and the reason I say that is because the amplifiers that are usually built into the vehicle from factory usually can’t really power an aftermarket subwoofer like they should and a lot of times that space that the Oem subwoofer is in is very very very small and it’s usually not quite optimal for an aftermarket sub now with that said If you do have a factory subwoofer and let’s say that it’s damaged or it’s blown, so it already sounds bad, then yes in that case. Obviously it would be better to get a new subwoofer and swap that out but let’s say your vehicle does not have a factory subwoofer at all that’s why I think the number one upgrade that you should start with is sub plus amp because this combination is definitely going to give you the biggest performance jump. right out of the gate if you are making your first upgrade a subwoofer amplifier Combo you’re going to need a way to take the factory speaker level signal and convert it to line level inputs that you can send a signal to your amplifier and a good way to do that is with a line output converter. This particular loc is the LC2I pro from audio control What makes this loc unique is there are different Oem integration features here that allow us to really make sure that that stock signal coming from our factory radio or the factory premium premium amplifier and make sure that we can fully convert that signal as needed and another really valuable feature on this is the accu base. This is audio controls patented technology here the accubase a lot of times these stock radio systems what they’ll do is as you turn.
Up That Volume Theyll Actually Reduce The
bass that is going to the system and the reason that the stock systems do that is they don’t want you to turn up your music and blow your speakers, But obviously if we’re adding a subwoofer and an aftermarket amp we can handle that added bass. So the accu-base helps to restore that bass back into the signal. I’ve been using audio control for many many years long before I ever started the channel and they are a channel sponsor If you guys want to learn more about this piece. Here check out down in the video description so that was category number one subwoofer and amplifier now for category number two and I think that the second thing you should do is consider upgrading your head unit now obviously upgrading your radio is something that’s going to be vehicle dependent a. of vehicles nowadays will have climate controls and other computer controls that are for the vehicle built into the head unit that is a stock so a lot of times you can’t necessarily swap that out, but if you can swap it out.
One Of The Reasons I Like Making This
your second upgrade is first of all you get a lot more added features. If you have an older car now you can add Android auto and apple carplay easily with the different head units that are on the market, but the other big big reason. I like upgrading your source unit is this sets the foundation for the quality of sound. The digital to analog converters built into these aftermarket head units are often a lot lot better than the stock ones. This helps ensure that we have optimal sound quality coming out of our source unit.
It.
gives us a lot more different interface abilities with our phone or MP3 players that sort of thing and we can play lossless files on a lot of the latest ones. As a side note for this category. Another upgrade to kind of be familiar with is some of these vehicles where you can’t swap out the head unit. There are different integration pieces on the market that will allow you to get a really nice, strong and clean pre-amp signal out of that factory system, which can then be sent to the amplifiers, which is also a solid upgrade.
Now We Have Three More Categories To Talk
about here when should we add speakers when should we add speaker amplifiers I’m making it a different category In this case, and I’ll explain why and when should we upgrade DsP so if you’re really on a tight budget and you. want to break it down into different steps. I would actually recommend updating your speaker amplifiers prior to updating the speakers. I know I know this sounds crazy hear me out for a second. Here the reason is a lot of times.
These Stock Speakers In A Vehicle They Have
a very high sensitivity value and a lot of times. These aftermarket speakers they aren’t quite as sensitive and a problem with that can be the fact that your stock system doesn’t have a whole lot of amplifier power. There’s obviously an amplifier either a premium amp or an amplifier built into the radio within your vehicle and they just don’t have a whole lot of power. So when you’re only updating your speakers on the factory system a lot of times they really don’t even sound any better than just the stock speakers did and that’s because the amplifier. Built into your stock system can’t quite power them for that reason.
If You Have To Break Up This
category because you really want to do your build in stages, I think the amplifier is better to do a little bit. First obviously, you’re going to have to be careful of just absolutely ripping it and then tearing up the oem speakers that’s something that you need to account for but I think that you can usually get a little bit better sound by upgrading the amplifier first over adding those aftermarket speakers with that all said I do think that your best bet is to still keep this category combined and upgrade your speakers at the same time as you’re adding an amplifier. I will add one little footnote here again. Yes obviously, if your stock speakers are blown or starting to fall apart. I mean this literally happens.
Stock Speakers Are Known To Deteriorate Over
the years. If that happens then yes obviously, it’s going to be better to upgrade to an aftermarket speaker. Even if you’re still using the stock power, but I still think that it’s better upgrade them in a combination, so what is the last category. We should add to our system DsP now hold up. I know I know guys I’ve said it before on the channel.
Ive Told You Guys That I Think Dsp
should be part of every system. If you’re not familiar with what a DsP is. DsP stands for digital signal processor so what we can do is. We can take our signal coming into this device.
Whether It Be From A Stock
head unit or an aftermarket head unit, and then we can control that signal using a computer or our cell phone depending on the DsP and. The application that connects to it the different features we can control are time alignment crossovers equalization for each of the different channels. If you guys want to learn more about DsP. I do have related videos here on the channel to truly get the best performance out of your system.
You Really Need To Have A Dsp,
but why did I save it for last well that’s because simply it really wouldn’t make sense to add DsP without having all of this other gear. You wouldn’t install a DsP first into the system because you need something to send the signal out to you need something after market and that needs to either be the subwoofer amplifiers or the speaker amps so that’s the only reason I list it last is you need to really build this foundation. You don’t necessarily have to have the radio as part of. The foundation because this can take in speaker level signal for the most part.
- making upgrade subwoofer
- does upgrading speakers make best
- obviously upgrading radio going vehicle
- car audio design
- amplifier reason thinking subwoofer vehicle
Most Dsps On The Market Can But
definitely a great thing to have as part of your system so question the episode for you guys Obviously this video is based on my opinion, but in your opinion what should be the upgrade path I’m curious who out there is still watching at this point in the video, so I’d love to hear from you guys Let me know what you think don’t forget if you’re making that first upgrade of adding a subwoofer amplifier plus the subwoofer definitely get a good line output converter. This is the audio control LC2I pro you guys can learn more about this at the links down in the video description a big thanks to audio control for being a monthly channel sponsor and thank you to Bart Mike ali Jerry. Marcos William and the rest of the Patreon membership team Big thanks to all those guys for making these videos possible thank you for watching.
Summary
When building a car audio system, we usually only have a certain budget to work with For this reason, many of us will upgrade our car . system in stages, but this can leave us asking ourselves which upgrade should I get first? What about amplifiers and subwoofers, where do they fit in what’s going on guys.& I’m mark welcome to car audio fabrication.& The show where together we learn how to master car audio and how to design, build and install our dream car audio . system and in this video, I’m going to give you my opinion on what should come first and what should go last.& In the beginning of the video I mentioned the different categories here that I want to rank for you guys We’ve got subs speakers speakers amplifiers the radio and I’m also going to talk a little bit about DsP you’ll notice. The first thing you should get if you’re on a budget and that is a sub and an amp now…. Click here to read more and watch the full video