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I have read lot's about what to mate with what, what amp is the best, what speakers are the best, and tuners and so forth. But it goes much deeper than that. A lesson I learned from my father.
A career military man, he devoted life in the military to the study and mastery of electrical components. As a retired business man, I was amazed and frustrated, at how a stereo system he would install in a customers car, would sound so much cleaner, and crisper than my installs.
My father, is who through wanting to be like him, how I ended up an I&E guy.
But here are the MAJOR criteria to having good clean sound with any stereo system.
1. Today's market offers many good name brand tuners/cd to install in your vehicle. The choice is yours.
2. Same can be said of speakers, again choice is yours.
3. Amps, for those who like for their bones to rattle as they drive down the road are many. Like above. your choice.
Now, we will start with WIRE:
RESISTANCE
Resistance is by far the most important specification of speaker wire. Low-resistance speaker wire allows more of the amplifier's power to energize the loudspeaker's voicecoil. The shorter the cable and the greater the conductor's cross-sectional area, the lower its resistance. Depending on the hearing ability of the listener, this resistance begins to have an audible effect when the resistance exceeds 5% of the speaker's impedance.A speaker wire's impedance takes into account the wire's resistance, the wire's path (coiled wire acts as an inductor), and the dielectric properties of local insulators. The latter two factors also determine the wire's frequency response. The lower the impedance of the speaker, the greater a significance the speaker wire's resistance will have.
WIRE GAUGE
Thicker wires reduce resistance. The resistance of 16-gauge or heavier speaker connection cable has no detectable effect in runs of 50 feet (15 meters) or less in standard domestic loudspeaker connections for a typical 8 ohm speaker. As speaker resistance drops, lower gauge (heavier) wire is needed to prevent degradation to (damping factor)-a measure of the amplifier's control over the position of the voice coil.
SPEAKERS
1.Resonance is the moving system of the loudspeaker (including the cone, cone suspension, spider and the voice coil).
2.Impedance is defined as the frequency domain ratio of the voltage to the current. (In other words, if replacing old worn out speakers, and keeping OEM tuner use speakers of same value....ie 4 ohm- 8ohm). If replacing whole system, get speakers to match the values of your tuner.
Typical nominal impedences are 4,6,8, and 16 ohm speakers.
WATTAGE
This simply put is the measurement of the efficiency of the loudspeaker. The impedence of speakers changes with frequency, which means that if different tones are fed into the speaker at the same voltage, the amount of power used will vary.
With all the above being said, LMAO to summize, to have a good quality sounding stereo system does not mandate 1000 watt amps and speaker boxes that weigh 100 lbs. The human ear can ONLY hear so much, before you just cannot tell the difference anyhow.
I have an Alpine cd player, matched to 8 Bose speakers in the Infiniti.( Not the original speakers that came in it, which were also Bose). Replaced the speaker wire throughout the car. I also made sure when replacing the speakers to remove any vibration before final installation. Replaced the cardboard covers underneath the rear deck with styrofoam insulated wooden ones, made by myself.
Now the true test comes with the actual sitting in the car, turning on the radio, or cd and listening to what comes out. For endorsement of the sound quality, ask my son. In his Ford f150 extended cab, he installed a Kenwood reciever, and 6 of the Kicker speakers, with an 400 watt amp. Ask him which vehicle has the Better, clearer, crisper sound.
What I am trying to say is, don't run out and buy the most expensive, tuner,amp, and speakers. Do some research, and match your components by values, not price. Make sure you have the right size wire for the application from tuner to speaker, and then do the same for amp, and finally to your power source. Would be a shame to hook all this up, and SMOKE it, because you undersized any part of the process. Have a great day everyone.
Dammit man, what a long post. I need to cut down on my coffee intake this time of night. Sorry folks!!!
A career military man, he devoted life in the military to the study and mastery of electrical components. As a retired business man, I was amazed and frustrated, at how a stereo system he would install in a customers car, would sound so much cleaner, and crisper than my installs.
My father, is who through wanting to be like him, how I ended up an I&E guy.
But here are the MAJOR criteria to having good clean sound with any stereo system.
1. Today's market offers many good name brand tuners/cd to install in your vehicle. The choice is yours.
2. Same can be said of speakers, again choice is yours.
3. Amps, for those who like for their bones to rattle as they drive down the road are many. Like above. your choice.
Now, we will start with WIRE:
RESISTANCE
Resistance is by far the most important specification of speaker wire. Low-resistance speaker wire allows more of the amplifier's power to energize the loudspeaker's voicecoil. The shorter the cable and the greater the conductor's cross-sectional area, the lower its resistance. Depending on the hearing ability of the listener, this resistance begins to have an audible effect when the resistance exceeds 5% of the speaker's impedance.A speaker wire's impedance takes into account the wire's resistance, the wire's path (coiled wire acts as an inductor), and the dielectric properties of local insulators. The latter two factors also determine the wire's frequency response. The lower the impedance of the speaker, the greater a significance the speaker wire's resistance will have.
WIRE GAUGE
Thicker wires reduce resistance. The resistance of 16-gauge or heavier speaker connection cable has no detectable effect in runs of 50 feet (15 meters) or less in standard domestic loudspeaker connections for a typical 8 ohm speaker. As speaker resistance drops, lower gauge (heavier) wire is needed to prevent degradation to (damping factor)-a measure of the amplifier's control over the position of the voice coil.
SPEAKERS
1.Resonance is the moving system of the loudspeaker (including the cone, cone suspension, spider and the voice coil).
2.Impedance is defined as the frequency domain ratio of the voltage to the current. (In other words, if replacing old worn out speakers, and keeping OEM tuner use speakers of same value....ie 4 ohm- 8ohm). If replacing whole system, get speakers to match the values of your tuner.
Typical nominal impedences are 4,6,8, and 16 ohm speakers.
WATTAGE
This simply put is the measurement of the efficiency of the loudspeaker. The impedence of speakers changes with frequency, which means that if different tones are fed into the speaker at the same voltage, the amount of power used will vary.
With all the above being said, LMAO to summize, to have a good quality sounding stereo system does not mandate 1000 watt amps and speaker boxes that weigh 100 lbs. The human ear can ONLY hear so much, before you just cannot tell the difference anyhow.
I have an Alpine cd player, matched to 8 Bose speakers in the Infiniti.( Not the original speakers that came in it, which were also Bose). Replaced the speaker wire throughout the car. I also made sure when replacing the speakers to remove any vibration before final installation. Replaced the cardboard covers underneath the rear deck with styrofoam insulated wooden ones, made by myself.
Now the true test comes with the actual sitting in the car, turning on the radio, or cd and listening to what comes out. For endorsement of the sound quality, ask my son. In his Ford f150 extended cab, he installed a Kenwood reciever, and 6 of the Kicker speakers, with an 400 watt amp. Ask him which vehicle has the Better, clearer, crisper sound.
What I am trying to say is, don't run out and buy the most expensive, tuner,amp, and speakers. Do some research, and match your components by values, not price. Make sure you have the right size wire for the application from tuner to speaker, and then do the same for amp, and finally to your power source. Would be a shame to hook all this up, and SMOKE it, because you undersized any part of the process. Have a great day everyone.
Dammit man, what a long post. I need to cut down on my coffee intake this time of night. Sorry folks!!!
