Whether you know it or not, car speakers can make a huge impact on your car ride experience. Ever tried riding in a car with a bad audio system? Not only is it not enjoyable, it can also make you feel both tired and cranky. Meanwhile, a good audio system can breathe new life into your car and make your next car rides more fun.
Knowing this, you’d certainly want to get the best car speakers that you can for your baby. In this article, we’ll give you a comprehensive guide on how to buy car speakers.
There are a few questions that you must keep in mind before picking out the best car speakers for you.
Parts of a Car Speaker
But before we discuss these questions, first we must talk about the different parts of a car speakers. Unlike what some people may think, car speakers are actually pretty complex, and they too have their own specifications, which depend on their parts. Some important terms when it comes to the topic of car speakers include woofer, subwoofer, tweeter, and crossover.
In layman’s terms, woofers are defined as a loudspeaker designed to produce low frequencies, subwoofers for very low frequencies, and tweeters for high frequencies. Meanwhile, crossovers have the ability to reproduce different ranges of frequencies.
Three Questions To Ask
- What type suits me best?
- Will it fit my system?
- Is it good quality?
What type suits me best?
When answering this question, you first have to know what the different types of car speakers are. There are plenty of them and not all of them can fit in this short article, but just to give a rough guide, here’s the two most common categories: full-range speakers and component speakers.
Coaxial speakers
This type refers to the kind of speakers that has all the components within one compartment or ‘basket’. It’s also the most common and most beginner-friendly speakers. If you’re new to the car speaker scene and would like something ‘easy’ to start out with, you should probably take a look at this type of car speakers. All it takes is to remove your car’s own default speakers and replace it with a new set. Easy, isn’t it? Not to mention, you can find a lot of coaxial or full-range speakers at an affordable and even cheap price, if you’re not yet willing to splurge on a good system.
Component speakers
Component speakers, unlike full-range speakers, have separated parts. This means that the woofers, subwoofers, tweeters, and even crossovers, are independent from one another. This may seem like a hassle to put together, but if you want the loudest, and in many cases the best, sound quality, then component speakers are for you. Another benefit to this setup is that you can actually angle the sound by rearranging the different parts, which can make the sound it produces more realistic for listeners.
Will it fit my system?
Not all car speakers are good for all systems, so you have to consider some things as well before buying. Power-handling and sensitivity are two of the main concerns that you should be looking at.
Power-handling
Power-handling refers to the amount of power that a speaker needs. This is very important when choosing a speaker, because getting one that doesn’t match your system’s power can prove to be futile. For example, if you have a low-power system and you choose high-powered speakers, then that means they’re not a good match. If you have a high-power system, then you can’t choose a low-power speaker since it might not work properly. Make sure to choose something that matches your system’s RMS.
Sensitivity
Sensitivity refers to the ability of the speaker to convert its applied power to sound. It’s measured in decibels or dB. If you’ve got a low-powered speaker, you’ll benefit from a higher sensitivity (92+ dB), since this means the sound will still be loud despite the low power. If you’ve got a high-powered speaker, you can opt to have lower sensitivity (88- dB), the power is high enough to create loud sound despite the low sensitivity.
Is it good quality?
Last but definitely not the least, you also have to ask about the quality of the car speakers that you may want to buy. After all, the quality of the build and materials used on your car speakers can have a big effect on the sound quality itself.
For the woofers, make sure that the component is made out of lightweight albeit strong material. This allows the fullest bass sounds. Woofers also require a good surround, usually made out of rubber or cloth. for a stronger bass.
For the tweeters, soft materials will do the trick. The sound will vary greatly depending on what kind of materials is used, be it silk, ceramics, or PU.
There’s so much to consider when it comes to choosing car speakers that one article isn’t really enough. Nevertheless, we hope our short, but comprehensive, guide helped you make your choice. Happy shopping!
