Tips for Upgrading Your Car Audio

Unless if you plan on putting a boombox in the passenger seat of your vehicle, audio will not work without a car stereo receiver. The stereo for a car relies on the receiver, which is the central component to a car’s stereo system and is connected to the speakers, letting you control what you listen to. When updating your car’s audio, it is recommended that you start by replacing your receiver because a new receiver makes any existing sound system better. There are four main types of car stereo receivers:

• CD receivers
• Digital media receivers
• DVD receivers
• Navigation receivers

There are still a lot of cars around that are installed with CD receivers and DVD receivers, but most modern vehicles feature a combination of the two that are also capable of playing digital media and navigation. Standalone digital media receivers with navigation capabilities are still a popular choice, however, since most audio now lives digitally on your smartphone or other media device. In addition to utilizing both USB and hand-free Bluetooth technology, the majority of modern car stereo receivers also feature:

• High resolution touchscreens
• Android Auto and Apple CarPlay
• Auto EQ and time alignment
• HD radio tuners

There are many more features available depending on what receiver you choose, even the inclusion of satellite radio, but the bottom line is that any new car stereo receiver will vastly improve your car’s audio.

Similar to when you are choosing the best audio system for your home, a lot of emphasis should be put on finding quality speakers when updating your car’s audio. Basic factory speakers that are installed into new vehicles typically don’t last very long and don’t always produce the best sound. Upgrading to new car speakers not only makes them louder and sound much better, but they are also able to detect higher frequencies, playing your favorite music more efficiently.

Component speakers and coaxial speakers are the main speakers in a car, with component speakers becoming the preferable choice in updated vehicles because of a cleaner sound. They produce more bass-heavy tones and carry the bulk of the weight with most functioning car sound systems. Both component and coaxial speakers are usually located inside the car’s doors but can also be placed below the dashboard or on the deck above the back seat.

Component and coaxial speakers sound even better when they are working together with car tweeters. These small, round speakers are typically located above the larger component or coaxial speakers, producing the higher treble sound that compliments the lower bass tone. When upgrading sound systems in cars, getting new car tweeters is usually recommended.

Since so much goes into your car’s speaker setup, professional installation is typically recommended to ensure that everything is properly wired to deliver optimal sound. This also makes upgrading car audio that much easier.

Stereos for cars sound the best with a car amplifier, which takes the signals coming from your car’s receiver and speakers and makes them more powerful. Basically, a car amp boosts your stereo’s sound to not only overcome road noise, but also to improve your audio’s clarity by letting you hear every detail of your music more clearly. There are two basic types of car amplifiers:

• 2-channel amps – used when you only need to add power to a single pair of speakers
• Multi-channel amps – used when you want to add power to each speaker individually, providing fade control options and adding to the dynamic stereo sound

Most auto manufacturers include an amplifier in their cars to help make the factory speakers sound better. However, if you end up replacing the speakers that come with your car and are upgrading to something better, you will also need a new car amp.

Amplifiers do make a huge difference, but some older or damaged vehicles without them are still able to play audio. In these situations, the sound quality is greatly diminished and the dynamic levels of tones and sounds produced by the stereo receiver are completely absent.

A car’s subwoofer dedicates itself to reproducing low-pitched audio frequencies, which means that it specializes in bringing out the bass in a car. A subwoofer is a particular type of speaker that is only able to produce deep bass sounds. This not only makes the music sound fuller and more immersive, but it also saves your regular speakers from producing so much bass, which adds to the life of your speakers.

Car subwoofers function the best when they are nestled inside of an enclosure. Without being encased in a protective barrier, the subwoofer speaker only produces distorted high drive levels at low frequencies, which cancels out the otherwise powerful bass sound and just leaves you with undesirably choppy audio. The compelling dynamics produced by subwoofers and enclosures completely widens the scope of what car stereo systems are capable of.

If you are investing in subwoofers for your vehicle, you may not initially get the perfect sound you anticipate without also installing an equalizer and a processor. Equalizers are essentially volume controls for bass, so a subwoofer will not function at its best without one. A processor improves the sound quality of a car’s stereo system by bringing out mid-range frequencies and delaying the sound arrival from each speaker, allowing the audio to be picked up by your ears all at once.

Throughout life, we spend a lot of time in our cars. Updating your car’s audio with the best receiver, speakers and every other element that goes into creating the perfect sound will undoubtedly make every drive that much better.