Archive for the ‘Ask Dave’ Category

Amplifier Size; Is bigger the Better? Yes.

That is, the more power an amp can produce, the better the sound quality will be, all other things being equal. The physical size of an amp, however, will not tell you much about how much usable power it can produce. In fact it is quite common for cheaper, lower quality [...]

Speaker Size – is bigger always better?

No. In fact most all people agree that smaller drivers sound better since they can react to the changes in the music faster. Larger cones have significantly more mass and it is very hard to get them to stop moving at one speed and start moving at another speed, which is what [...]

Do I really need “midbass” drivers?

“Midbass” drivers in a car audio system are ones that only play a narrow band of frequencies typically between 70 and 2or300hz. They usually are in the form of a pair of 6″drivers shoe-horned into the front doors. There needs to be a midrange speaker to play above 300 hz. and [...]

What is “impedance” and “bridging”?

Amps are designed to “see” or “be hooked up to” a specific electrical resistive load called “impedance”. This impedance rating of speakers is measured in ohms, and will always be written on the speaker. And so, amps are rated as being able to produce a certain amount of power AT a [...]

Typical 5th Order enclosure vs. The Small Sub Solution

Recently, some audio engineers working on noise cancellation technology, made a major breakthrough in small enclosure/speaker designs. This technology represents the most dramatic development in small-sized subwoofer engineering since the emergence of band pass enclosures in the 1980s and is fully implemented for the first time in the form of [...]

“Why do I need a 4 channel amp”

“What the heck is Bi-amping?”
It’s very important to understand the need to “bi-amp” your vehicles’ sound system. That is, to make sure you have a power amp for your door speakers as well as one for your subwoofer. If you don’t, and you use the little, “BTL, IC chip” amp that is in your radio [...]

Dave’s Top Ten reasons NOT to get a SubSolutions subwoofer:

10. Having a sub box that takes up all of my cargo room means that my wife can’t ask me to run errands.
9. I don’t need to hear full, deep, linear bass. Just “one-note” bass is fine for me.
8. My gas mileage is too good, so, having an extremely heavy sub box helps me waste [...]