Improving Your Car's Audio System

For those who own or drive cars or trucks, the audio system is the primary source of in-car entertainment. The only problem is, the stock system that comes standard on many cars is sub-par at best. Luckily, this problem is easily remedied by making a few sequential upgrades to the system.

The changes are easy to make and when made in this order, should net some great results, improving your driving experience and making you more satisfied during the hours you spend behind the wheel.

The head unit (the equipment and display set within the dashboard) is the first item to upgrade.  Changing out the head unit will not only possibly allow for new functionality within the dash board (CD player, CD changer, DVD player and screen, MP3 input) but also it will often amplify the sound, providing more watts than a stock system.  The head unit on the shelves today provides 50 watts for each of 4 channels (less if split to more speakers than the four), much higher than that of most stock systems.  

Many people may think that pushing that much power to the stock speakers may be a problem, but it is not enough wattage to cause a problem for stock systems.  In my experience it only improves the sound, in terms of clarity.  It also provides higher clarity at higher volumes for those who like to turn it up loud!

Also, changing the head unit allows for improvement upon the features of the system.  Most cars today come equipped with CD players and MP3 inputs, but if yours does not (as mine did not) you have the option of adding these, or even a DVD screen to your dash.  This is why I consider the head unit upgrade to be the best upgrade to begin with.

Some newer cars, especially luxury cars, have contoured dashboards which will require special fitting for a new head unit.  Sometimes these results are ugly and ultimately not worth the change.  In order to achieve the desire wattage without changing the head unit in any way, physically, I recommend an amplifier.

Most people may equate car audio amplifiers with massive subwoofers, rattling trunks, and neighborhood nuisances.  Their reputation precedes them and often it is a bit extreme or negative.  This is unfortunate, because amplifiers are one of the easiest ways to improve the sound in your car.

The word "amplifier" tends to mislead people into thinking that all they do is allow for higher volume, but their real benefit is clarity.  More specifically, clarity at volume.  Have you noticed how your sound tends to sound washed out or "blaring" at higher volumes?  An amplifier will fix this easily.

The reason I list this as Step 1a is that I don't consider it to be a necessary upgrade for someone who has already upgraded their head unit for higher wattage.  More watts equals more clarity and more volume capability in every case, but for the purpose of this article, the first upgrade after the stock system is all that is really necessary.

Unless you are driving a car with a name brand sound system (and possibly even if you are) the speakers in your car are of an almost laughable quality.  I remember opening up my nearly new Honda Civic's speaker enclosures to replace them, and finding speakers with dry-rotted paper cones and shredded foam surrounds.  They were definitely in need of replacement and when I changed them out, it improved the sound greatly.

The new speakers were also able to handle more of the sound from the head unit, more accurately projecting it.

At this point, I almost stopped with the upgrades.  I was getting a good amount of bass from my new speakers, and definitely greatly improved clarity and volume from my new head unit.  But something was still missing....

Bass.  An absolute necessity.  Accurately projected bass is something that differentiates audio systems.  It separates the men from the boys, and turns your car into a theater of true sound.

The subwoofer normally resides in the trunk, within a box or enclosure, usually made of wood or fiberglass.  The reason it is housed so far from the passengers is that bass is able to travel through the back seat unmuffled (since it already is muffled at a frequency that low).

Enclosures are one of three types: "closed boxes," "ported boxes" and "bandpass boxes."  Closed boxes are just that, a box that is airtight and totally enclosed, with the subwoofer speaker screwed into the front.  This provides a muffled sound with still enough kick to fill in the sound.  

Ported boxes are the boxes you see with one airhole in them, which often blows wind as the speaker vibrates.  These are slightly louder than enclosed boxes, but still quieter than a bandpass box.  A bandpass box has glass on the front and encloses the air on the front of the speaker.  These boxes are LOUD, and are often the ones you hear from down the street.  

Personally I prefer the closed box for accurate sound representation.  Ported boxes also do well, but the bandpass boxes I have heard are sometimes a bit too much.  If accurate and perfect sound is a goal, a closed box will do just fine.

After picking out your subwoofer, the subwoofer will need power. Most head units are not designed to output power to a subwoofer, so a special subwoofer amp is needed to power this speaker. It is not like the other speakers and needs special attention.

I have found that ~250 watts works well in terms of powering a single ten-inch subwoofer. This is enough power to feel a kick when needed. Also, most subwoofers come with a gain control knob, allowing the amount of kick to be regulated.

Another important feature that your amplifier should have is a crossover. In layman's terms, a crossover is a switch that makes sure that your subwoofer only tries to produce the sound below a certain frequency. This is very important. It sounds terrible when a large, bassy speaker tries to reproduce vocals or a guitar solo. Talk about MUFFLED! Leave these sounds to the tweeters and higher frequency speakers in the cab. Only the true bass should be coming through the subwoofer.

This is a fairly simple setup, but it will forever change the way that you listen to music.  I love listening to music in my car and even HD satellite radio sounds amazing on this system.  CDs and MP3s sound unbelievably clear.

This simple setup had me driving a car well past 200,000 miles simply due to the joy of listening to music in it, and knowing that I would have to do it all over again upon buying another one.  Newer cars will not match up to this kind of aftermarket sound, and this is achievable with relatively little money and very little time.