Knowing What Goes Into a Car Stereo System Installation by Edwardo A. Compton

First of all, you want to make sure you find a head unit that is going to match your car. You don't want a pink head unit going into a car with a brown interior, it will just look out of place. If all else fails, just use a silver head unit. Now, the head unit is going to replace the previous stereo you had. You can remove your previous stereo one of two ways, by either opening the spring clips, or undoing the bolts that hold it in place. Either way, you will probably have to remove the dash board around it.

When you are done with your head unit installation, which is generally the easiest part of the entire task, you need to think about three components in the car; the amplifier, the speakers and the subwoofer.

The amplifier, which many people forget about, is what will give the head unit's signal an added bit of power so that it can feed to the speakers, tweeter and subwoofer. You will need an amplifier that is going to be powerful enough to handle going to all your speakers and your subwoofer. If you fail in this task, then you will find the signal quality is quite poor. Typically, people will put the amplifier under a seat if they can to keep it out of the way.

Next, you need to deal with the speakers. This can be very easy or very hard. You may want to have a five-way amp that goes to five speakers. You can connect it to the two in side doors, and then depending on your car's model and year, you may have to add speakers in the dash, on the kick-panel and on the back side doors. Generally, most will choose to have the speakers in the kick-panel and the rear doors. This will involve wiring, changing the structure of the doors interior and more. It may be easier to not have the speakers in the back side doors, and instead have too small speakers on the dash in the corners.

Now we move on to the subwoofer. There are plenty of considerations here. First of which is the enclosure. You can have a sealed enclosure that will give you very precise bass, but not very deep bass. Another option is a ported subwoofer because it allows for much deeper bass due to a small hold that shoots the bass sound out. Both of these are best put under the seats for the top effect. The other option is a free-air subwoofer. This can sit on a board on the kick-panel, or in the trunk. As long as you have the back secured to a surface so that the back sound is not cancelling out the front sound, you should be fine.

When you buy your subwoofer, make sure that it is meant to be a sealed subwoofer, ported subwoofer or free-air subwoofer. Buying the wrong type means your subwoofer sound will suffer.

The most important things to consider when you are putting your car stereo system together is that you take the time to do it right, have the money for what you want and know what you are doing.

You want to turn heads for the right reason (a great system), and not for the wrong systems (a poorly sounding car stereo system).

Cheap Car Stereo Systems - What Will Be Sacrificed? by Edwardo A. Compton

The triangle consumer is effectively what will be sacrificed. In many cases the people will take a greater price for the additional hardware options that they get or will take the lower price for the more simple designs. The third part to this is quality, and this is attributed to a number of factors when one truly is seeking an ideal cheap car stereo.

The first of these factors is the design and the brand that is making the stereo. Some stereos have been shown to be rock bottom in price, yet have a design flaw in them. This has been something that in most cases will not be seen in the short term or possibly in the long term. Sometimes it takes certain cars, trucks, or other machines that will expose the flaw. One of the more common is faulty grounding in the stereo, weak plastic parts, or a design that is not suited for modifications. Small companies have fallen victim to the lack of support and will often show this in ideal cheap car stereo designs that are perfect except in the advances that other brands may offer.

Another factor is stability, as mentioned grounding is one such factor. The suspension in a CD or remote signal feed is another that can cause problems for someone that is going to transverse harsh terrain or spends a large amount of time driving. Sometimes the feeds will be unregulated and this can cause feedbacks to the speakers, hence, creating strain on the sound and hardware.

The last and possibly greatest factor is older and used designs. These are usually cheap car stereos that have been already used or are discontinued. Many of these are in perfect condition and can be easily installed by someone that is knowledgeable in this. A number of these are offered through the manufacturer's website or retail stores (if they have a store), and will be labeled as a number of things. The key thing is that they usually have some small warranty and are not sold "as is" where a number of other places will not offer this.

Some have gone to pawn shops or to used auto part stores for a cheap car stereo, yet these are usually the most risky that someone can get as they are not ensured the be working or that they will not put the rest of the car at risk with any issues that they may have. The one problem that any older car stereo will have is lack of proper documentation that can be offered. This is very common with discontinued stereos.

How to - Make Fiberglass Subwoofer Enclosures by Tyler Horvath

Many people spend thousands of dollars on custom made wood speaker boxes. Most of these people do not know that you can make your own custom speaker enclosure for cheap.

First off, you need to draw out a sample of what you are looking to make. Get the demensions of your trunk to make sure that your box will fit correctly. Next you can use your measurements and samples to figure out about how much fiberglass and matting you need to make your box.

We will just assume that we are going to make a one 12 inch subwoofer box that fits into the rear trunk panel. Make sure that you look at the specs on the subwoofer to make sure that the volume of the box will measure out correctly.

Next you can get your fiberglass and matting. Any auto parts store should have what you need. You need to get about a gallon of fiberglass resin and about 5-6 packs of fiberglass mat. Dont forget to make sure that the fiberglass resin comes with hardner.

Now we can set up how we what our box to fit in. Lay down painters tape in your trunk where you want the box to fit into. Make sure you go a little farther than you will actually make it so you don't get any resin on your carpet. Go ahead and mix your resin with your hardner and use a paint brush to paint on the resin over the tape to create the back of the subwoofer box. Cut out your fiberglass mat and lay it down over the resin. Paint another layer of resin over the newly laid down fiberglass mat.

Now you just wait a couple hours until the fiberglass has hardened. Pull out the back of the enclosure you have just made. It should fit snuggly into the trunk panel. Now you need to add 3-4 more layers of fiberglass matting to the inside of the back of the enclosure. This is to reinforce it, so it doesn't crack when the subs hit.

Now that you have made the back of your subwoofer enclosure, we can start to make the front where the sub will go. For this part, you will need some 1/2 inch mdf, some dowel rods, glue, and some panty hose. Lay your sub face down on the mdf and draw a line around it. Cut out the circle with a jigsaw. Now you need to measure the inside of the sub ring, so you will make a ring that the subwoofer will fit into. Usually, subwoofers come with a measure ring you can use to make this.

Now you can position the ring however you want the subwoofer to go. Cut your dowel rods so they keep the ring in place, where you want it to be. Glue the dowel rods to the inside of the back of the sub enclosure that fits into your trunk panel. Glue the other end to the ring. Now you should have a structure of what your sub box should look like.

Now grab the panty hose and stretch them over the ring to the outside of the back of the box. This should make the box become enclosed. Staple or glue the panties hose so it stays in place. Paint a layer of resin over the panty hose and let it dry. You should now have a subwoofer enclosure that fits into your rear trunk panel. Now you need to cut out the inside ring where the subwoofer will go. Layer the inside of the enclosure with about 3-4 more layers of fiberglass mat and resin.

Your sub box should be complete. Now you can drill some small holes in the back of the enclosure for your speaker wires. You can also grab some carpet (color of your choice) and lay the carpet over the front of the box, so it looks like it was suppose to be in your trunk.
This is how to make a custom subwoofer enclosure. You can also lay bondo down over the fiberglass and sand it to down to paint it.

Car Amplifier Basics by Grayson Bell

What are amplifiers really?

Well, amplifiers are devices that increase the voltage, current, or amplitude of the signal produced by a main unit. The main unit can be a stereo or any kind of player that produces signal because usually, amplifiers are for boosting audio and creating a sense-surround quality sound.

The main use of a car amplifier is the make the sound produced by your ordinary player crisper and louder since it increases the signal voltage from milli-voltrange up to 1-4 volts or higher because usually, ordinary players produce extremely low signal. These signals may vary. Some produce 5 hz up to 40 khz, while some systems produce 20 hz to 20 khz. What happens is that the signal is connected from the RCA cables to the inputs of the amplifier. The amplifier then gives this wave very high amplitude.

But then, as we have said earlier, an amplifier eats a lot of voltage thus needing a big amount of voltage from your car battery. This means that having a good car battery is of course better.

Now, placing the amplifier is another thing. You can always place it anywhere as long as your wires are long but there are always better places. Setting up the amplifier near the battery is always a pro since it eats a lot of energy; you dont want to drag a long stretch wire to the back if its not necessary. And since it is nearer to the battery, there is a minimum voltage drop. Thus, it is always recommended to put the amplifier underneath the passengers seat. But amplifiers are a no-no to heat because it uses loads of energy and less air flow, so watch out.

The tip is, the amplifier needs to be close to the battery as much as possible, it needs a considerate amount of breathing room, and it should be safe of course. Another better option is the trunk of the car since it is spacey, but you give up the wiring part and the danger of having it damaged when loading and unloading things from the trunk.