One of the best ways to get that surround-sound music experience is through your car. There are some people that will purchase a high-end car with an upgraded sound system and there are those that will go out and build their own.
Luckily, there are ways to improving your sound system. We’ve compiled a guide on tips on how to build a great sound system to help you travel to cloud nine through the tunes in your car.
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Tip #1: Figuring Out The What and Why
The first and most important tip, is figuring out the what and why. What are you looking for in a quality sound system? Why do you want it?
The first step towards researching is answering those two questions. Once you have set details on exactly what you’re looking for and finding the reasons justifying it, you’ll have a much clearer roadmap from start to finish.
At the end of the day, your goal is to end up with something you’re happy with at a price point you’re comfortable with. Improving your sound system is not going to be cheap, but it is going to be well worth it if you do it right.
Tip #2: Add a Car Amplifier
It goes without saying that adding a car amplifier to your vehicle will certainly breathe life into the melodies and notes. The truth is, the factory equipment in your car sound system is standard and always has room for improvement. What will add substance and euphoria to your tunes is an amplifier.
For the non-techies, here’s what a car amplifier will do for you: Improved sound quality, juice for your speakers, and more. Imagine working at an office with one computer monitor. Adding a car amplifier is equivalent to turning that boring computer setup into a dual screen setup—It makes it sexy and breathes life into what you’re doing.
Tip #3: Replace Your Car’s Speakers
Car speakers are the last priority on any manufacturer’s agenda. Therefore, you being not impressed with your car’s standard sound system equipment is no surprise. Of course, if you do want something that packs a punch, shelling out a few thousand dollars for that sound system upgrade sounds feasible.
But in many cases, it’s not. Why pay that much more money for something you can do yourself? Also, remember that upgrading your car for a better sound system just means adding more standard factory equipment—why not go beyond standard?
Our advice, take the fast lane and go install a great set of aftermarket speakers. You’ll add clarity and make those melodic beats coming out of your speakers seem more colorful. The general rule of thumb is, car manufacturers are here to make a profit so anything they sell will almost always be more expensive, but not necessarily better.
Tip #4: One Word—Dynamat
Dynamat is a subsidiary brand of Dynamic Control, a company whose mission is to produce and deliver better sound everywhere. Essentially, it’s a quality control product for unwanted vibrations and sounds.
Reducing or eliminating outside interference to your sound system will certainly enhance your experience so everything your ears and bones are absorbing is pure, euphoric sound. Attaching Dynamat to your door panel will help eliminate vibrations coming out of your speakers and stabilizes the environment for the tunes to flow.
What it also does for your sound system is that it also lessens the noises inside your car, therefore saving you the trouble of turning up your music when you’re driving at faster speeds.
Tip #5: Using Higher Quality Music Files—An Oldie But A Goodie
Another useful tip that most likely will not cost you anymore than what you’re paying right now is simply to use higher quality music files. What many people won’t realize is that music often comes in different packages, and that means, different qualities. When music is downloaded, the quality of the file is measured by both how large the file is but also the bitrate.
Bitrate pertains to the amount of data that can be processed over a certain amount of time. Without boring anyone with details, the larger number of bitrates, the more data that is processed. With music, lower quality files uses a lower rate of bitrate, and hence, result in a smaller sized file.
According to Whitson Gordon, an avid writer for LifeHacker, a weblog about life hacks and software, the standard bitrate for high quality tunes is 320bps.
Tip #6: Use A Strong Car Battery
Our final and most overlooked tip is using a strong car battery. This is perhaps one of the most overlooked and most affordable upgrades you can have to your car that would make a significant impact to your sound system.
The purpose of the car battery is to supply the necessary power to all the electronics and systems in your vehicle. Because the car
works like a human body, in the sense that they all connect and function as one, it only makes sense that having a strong battery would increase the effect of your sound system.
Because the life of the car is its engine and motor, the car’s internal systems prioritizes the power distribution between the network of machines. Your sound system is likely at the bottom of its list in case an emergency comes your way. Having a strong car battery would enable your car to have more power than necessary to power everything, therefore, ensuring that your sound system has all the power it needs to operate at optimum levels.
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