A short while ago, while testing an amplifier’s maximum power output, we observed how significantly the power increased with higher supply voltage. This observation made us realize that we’ve never thoroughly examined the relationship between a vehicle’s battery voltage and a car audio amplifier’s maximum power output. It’s time to address that. Why Does Battery […]

When 99% of car audio enthusiasts think about a digital signal processor (DSP), they associate it with equalizers, crossovers, and signal delays. In more advanced solutions, a consumer-grade car audio DSP might add the ability to include all-pass filters, an upmixer for a center channel and signal summing. However, at an engineering level, much more […]

Crossovers are an essential part of designing any audio system. From the passive designs used with a bookshelf or floor-standing speaker to three- and four-way electronic designs employed in car audio systems, ensuring signals combine correctly is crucial for delivering great sound. Crossovers can have different frequencies, slopes, and alignments. Understanding how audio signals from […]

Though it might surprise you, human hearing is significantly more sensitive to some frequencies than others. You can think of this phenomenon as our built-in frequency response. However, unlike a speaker or amplifier, variations are not something we want to compensate for in an audio system—at least, not directly. Let’s discuss how human hearing works […]

A reader requested that we compare the sound quality performance of wired and wireless Apple CarPlay. This is a great idea, as very little information is provided about the communication standards used to send audio signals wirelessly to a source unit. So, let’s look at distortion characteristics and frequency response to see if there is […]