A complete guide to choosing and installing car audio

Before you decide to install a car audio system, it is best to learn some common sense, which will definitely be beneficial to you.

Purchase

For drivers, it is very difficult to choose a high-quality car audio system. At present, the car audio market is very profitable, and many roadside shops have technicians who have not received professional installation training. The installed car audio systems often have various faults, which poses a great threat to driving safety. So, how to choose a reliable car audio system and install it scientifically and maintain it effectively? Recently, the reporter visited some car audio stores and industry insiders, who reminded everyone to start with three chapters, and you will easily have a satisfactory car audio system.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the dazzling array of speakers of various brands on the market, but there are actually some basic rules to follow when choosing speakers.

1. It depends on your taste and financial ability

Be clear about the specific cost of this item, because good audio equipment naturally has a good price. High-end luxury cars generally have more professional high-end audio equipment, among which European and American products are the best, and their sound quality and timbre are more professional than Japanese products. However, some well-known Japanese car audio brands have also launched some fever brands to compete with Europe and the United States. Although the performance is good, the price is really amazing. It is absolutely genuine, and its indicators can reach the values ​​listed on the brand and can be used continuously for a long time. If you choose mid-range audio equipment, it must be Japanese products. Its brand accounts for 2/3 of professional car audio equipment. The price and performance ratio is worth the money, and in terms of completeness of functions and appearance, decoration and excellent craftsmanship, it is unmatched by European and American products.

2. Make sure it is a genuine brand

There are many car audio equipment merchants in the market now. In order to avoid buying a set of counterfeit and inferior products, it is best to check whether the merchant has a designated agent license authorized by the manufacturer of the brand of audio equipment, whether it has after-sales service capabilities and quality three guarantees. No matter how excellent the product is, it cannot guarantee that there will be no problems during operation. In order to solve the maintenance and troubleshooting problems of car audio, when purchasing audio, pay attention to whether the selected audio brand has a professionally certified after-sales service repair station in the local area. Only audio brands with perfect after-sales service can ensure that your car audio will receive professional and convenient repair services in case of failure.

3. Consider the power amplifier capability of the host

Try to choose an amplifier that is larger than the indicated power of the speaker. A small amplifier is easy to burn out when used at high power for a long time, which can also cause poor sound quality, distortion and other faults. For example, if the total indicated power of all speakers is 100 watts, the power of the amplifier should be between 100-150 watts to achieve a good match.

4. Understand the performance of the speaker

The performance difference between mid-range and high-end consoles is not that big, but the difference between speakers is amazing. A speaker is often marked with a power of several hundred watts, which confuses many experts. If you try many speakers for a few minutes at 1/10 of the marked power, they will probably emit white smoke.

5. Listen to the sound quality and timbre effects

When auditioning, it is best to find a few CDs of representative songs, music, percussion instruments, etc., to identify the fidelity of various sound effects, and then decide whether to purchase.

6. Keep the product invoice and maintenance certificate

In order to avoid unnecessary disputes and protect your own rights, please keep the product invoice and maintenance certificate.

Installation

4 key points to remember

It is important to pay attention to the correct installation of car audio. Car audio is not like home audio, which will not be moved after being placed. The road conditions of the car are ever-changing. The strong vibration during driving will cause the body to shake, making the laser head unable to scan normally, causing jumpers or even damage to the laser head. Therefore, it is very important to choose a sound store for scientific installation. Industry insiders suggest: It is best to buy and install car audio in the same store, so that problems are relatively easy to solve.

1. Choose a large-scale professional store

Try to choose a large car audio store. Generally, powerful car audio stores have many brands. Well-known car audio brand companies generally choose powerful and large-scale stores as designated sales points for their products. Here, the display of audio equipment is standardized and orderly, and you can choose by yourself.

2. Must have audio-visual equipment

If you have basically chosen a car audio store, you should now find out whether there are professional audition equipment or audition cars. This is very important because before installing the car audio, only by auditioning it through professional audition equipment can you determine the quality of the selected audio.

3. Be sure to get professional tuning

There is a saying in the industry: car audio effects are not bought, but designed, installed and debugged. It can be seen that design, installation and debugging are important in the audio installation process. The same host, several speakers, and several wires will have very different effects when installed by different installers. In order to improve the listening environment of car owners, professional stores will carry out scientific installation design for the vehicle, and use professional testing equipment to tune the sound after installation to maximize the effects of all audio equipment.

4. The installer must have a qualification certificate

Installers of internationally renowned car audio brands such as Sony must undergo an assessment and obtain a "Car Audio Installation Qualification Certificate" before they can take up their posts. Unqualified installers will not only fail to make the equipment work as it should, but may even damage the original car's related equipment.

Maintenance

5 important measures not to forget

After purchasing and installing your car stereo, you can enjoy pleasant music in your car! When you are stuck in traffic, the high-quality CD surround sound and the rhythmic sound of a series of notes will immediately dissipate your impatience. However, the dirt and dust in the city are the biggest enemies of your car stereo, so you should pay attention to cleaning and maintaining your car stereo regularly.

1. Wipe frequently with a damp cotton swab

The pressure roller of the cassette player and the magnetic head of the CD player are places where dust easily accumulates. The most important part of the CD player is the laser head, which is a vulnerable part and relatively expensive, so it should be maintained with emphasis. Although some car audio systems now take dust prevention into consideration during the design process, protective measures are still necessary. You can often use a damp cotton swab to wipe the cassette, the cassette box, the CD player's disc slot, and the panel of the audio system. The correct way is to gently suck the dust off with a damp cloth. As for cleaning the buttons and knobs, you can use the cotton swab again.

2. Use cleaning tools to clean tapes and discs

In addition to keeping the main unit of the audio system clean, the tapes and CDs must also be kept clean. Dirt on the tapes and CDs will not only affect the sound quality of the playback, but may even damage the audio system. When the CD head is running at high speed, if it encounters dust, it will deviate from the original laser track, causing sound distortion and damage to the head. It is understood that cleaning tools for tapes and CDs can be purchased in most audio and video stores.

3. Check the tightness of the tape frequently

The speaker cannot be ignored. Its grille is a place where dust easily accumulates, which will reduce the volume of the speaker. Before listening to music, it is best to check the tightness of the tape. If it is loose, use a pen to tighten it; if it is tight, rewind it to loosen it. If the tape is not used for a long time or turned off, it is best to eject the tape, as it may cause the pinch roller to deform over time.

4. Play the disc slowly and change the disc less often

Winter is the peak season for car audio laser heads to be damaged because of the dry climate, which easily generates static electricity. When inserting a disc, it is best not to touch it directly with your hands, do not hold it in the middle, put it in slowly, try not to change the disc frequently, and try to be gentle when inserting the disc.

5. Don’t turn up the volume suddenly

When using the audio system, avoid suddenly turning up the volume to the maximum, as this will burn the speaker coil and affect the amplifier. A sudden increase in amplitude may also burn the amplifier.

After you have a comprehensive understanding of the above audio equipment from purchase, installation to maintenance, do you feel more at ease? Of course, in the specific implementation process, specific problems must be analyzed specifically. Only in this way can you truly have a satisfactory audio equipment and make the boring driving journey romantic and colorful.

Five major minefields to beware of

Audio modification has gradually become an extremely important part of car modification. Visiting several car decoration shops in Beijing, almost all of them, regardless of size, can provide audio modification services. In order to save money or trouble, many people just find a shop to "modify it", but most of the audio installations are not "good". What is the problem? Let's listen to the advice of professionals:

1. Installing inferior equipment

There are many fake brand-name audio equipment on the market, and there are also many domestic brand-name audio equipment that have neither passed technical appraisal nor met national quality standards. The technical indicators of such equipment are very low and the quality is very poor. Some machines make noise when turned on and have background noise when playing music. This is a poor signal-to-noise ratio caused by inferior circuits, and there are also safety hazards.

Some car owners install a set of audio equipment at a relatively low price. It seems that there are many equipment installed, but they are basically counterfeit products. Such equipment generally has no technical indicators, some do not have the origin and manufacturer, and some pretend to be famous brands in the United States and Japan. The audio system using these products must have noise and the music signal will also be distorted. Moreover, these products have poor frequency response and will definitely have defects when playing music. It is impossible to fully express the music, especially when an active subwoofer is installed, which makes the overall music feel confused or even unclear. The sound quality of a good audio system should have clear layers of high, medium and low frequencies, like a clear and transparent pool of water.

How to identify counterfeit audio equipment? 1. Check whether the packaging has detailed instructions, origin, manufacturer, specifications, etc.; 2. Check whether there is a distribution authorization letter; 3. The key is whether the sound quality meets the equipment's specifications; 4. Check the sound effect of the combined system.

2. The installed equipment is low-end products

Although they are famous brand products, each brand has low, medium and high-end equipment. Generally, the low-end equipment is very cheap. For example, a low-end single-disc CD player plus two pairs of low-end speakers only costs more than 1,000 yuan. It seems that they are all famous brand products and are easy to accept, but this is often a loophole for some merchants. Customers only see the famous brand products and do not know that they are low-end products, nor do they know that the equipment does not match. In particular, some low-end speakers do not even have tweeters. They are generally used to match low-power tape machines. They have low power and high sensitivity. When the volume is slightly turned up, distortion will occur. It is difficult to show the good sound quality when used to match CD players. The main reason is that the treble performance is worse, hoarse and harsh, the mid-bass control is poor, and sometimes there will be "fire", and the sound is "puff, puff". Therefore, consumers must comprehensively examine the various indicators of the sound when purchasing.

3. The installed equipment does not match

Not all brand-name equipment can produce good results. A customer installed all brand-name equipment, including twelve speakers, three subwoofers and three amplifiers. The volume was not loud enough and there was noise. The design and size calculation of the subwoofers were also inaccurate. The main reason was that the equipment was not matched properly, the equipment was not used properly, and the installation and debugging techniques were poor. It was these reasons that caused the overall system to fail to work. After re-matching and re-installation, although the original equipment was basically used, the sound effect was completely new.

A good sound system configuration is not just a simple match, but more importantly, it is to give full play to the role of each equipment and tap the potential of the equipment. Some people think that it is good to use the same brand of equipment. By the way, what is "fever"? It is not to use the best equipment, but to use some good quality equipment, but the price is not necessarily expensive. Through reasonable matching, professional installation, and careful debugging, the equipment can play the best effect, exceed the value of the equipment itself, and even be comparable to the effect of brand-name equipment. This is "fever".

4. Poor installation technology and workmanship

Car audio is a semi-finished product. It needs to be installed by personnel who have received professional training in car audio to ensure the quality of the audio. Some stores use untrained personnel. Generally, the installation is just a simple connection of the equipment. The sound field positioning is wrong, the phase is wrong, and the power amplifier is installed without installing fuses, which will cause fire. The installation is fast, the process is not carried out according to the standard, the wires used are poor, and the workmanship is rough. The result is poor sound quality, high failure rate, and short service life of the equipment. The consequence of being greedy for cheapness is cutting corners during installation.

5. Poor debugging skills

Generally, people engaged in the car audio industry have a low level of education and even less theoretical knowledge of car audio. Most people think that installing car audio is a simple matter, but in fact, it is not. To install a good audio system, he must have comprehensive qualities and theories, including knowledge of automobile circuits, electrical principles, acoustic principles, installation technology and music theory. As the saying goes, "experts listen to the doorway, while laymen listen to the excitement." Some people think that the sound is loud and the bass is heavy. A truly good sound should not be distorted at high volume, and the sound should be transparent and layered, and the bass should be solid and not scattered. Some installers can't even read the instructions for the equipment, can't use the equipment, and have never heard the sound of real musical instruments such as symphonies. How to correct the timbre? How can you hear the problem? How can you make the sound system produce good results? This requires the debugger to be an audio enthusiast, and only when tuning can the sound system be adjusted to the best state. Therefore, debugging is the last important link in installing the sound system.