ICE! An introduction.

[srijit]

Never understimate 12 year old kids. The 32B is stretching beyond breaking limits, though.

Can you please give us a list of which speakers to look out for which XXX watt (RMS) setup?
How does one go about selecting the stuff for ones car? Budgetwise / audiowise breadkdown would be nice.

[Mullah Zak]

Never understimate 12 year old kids.

Speaking outta experience, eh??

Can you please give us a list of which speakers to look out for which XXX watt (RMS) setup?

Didnt get it. What do you mean?

How does one go about selecting the stuff for ones car? Budgetwise / audiowise breadkdown would be nice.

Yes, I will soon start a thread on that for people with various budgets, tastes etc..
I will also be posting some short hints in this thread till then, like this: ice-introduction-t77.html#p1337

[srijit]

What I meant was to have a post like, "What ICE for what price".
Also include RMS that can be expected in each setup, if possible.

[harsha742]

What is an Active Setup ???

[WildWeasel]

What is an Active Setup ???

Active Passive Setups..

[harsha742]

thanks

[sx4guy]

such a useful thread this one is. Thank you Mullah Zak

[jaxter]

Why damping is done in cars? What are the uses of it? Is damping necessary for an audio install with bass tube or subwoofer ?

[Mi10]

Need for Damping in cars:

In car audio, installation plays a major role in how your end result will sound. When you visit a store, you will notice they have the speakers in their sound rooms mounted to thick wood baffles. This sturdy, non-resonant mounting surface lets the speakers perform to their best ability. Now, if you buy a set of these speakers and simply mount them to the flimsy sheet metal or soft panel in your door, you will probably be a bit disappointed with the speaker’s response. This is due, in part, to the sheet metal flexing and resonating along with the music...creating speaker panel distortion which reduces the sound quality. The bad news is, the distortion usually gets worse the louder you turn up the volume, due to the increased energy the speaker is inflicting on the panel. However, the good news it that you can almost completely eliminate this speaker panel distortion by properly applying a sound damping material to the door.


Benefits of Damping:

Damping, when done the rightway, helps you notice a fuller and much better sound to your music. A stronger and more defined midbass, few nuances you have been missing all along will all be clearly differentiated. Unwanted and Vibrations of Panelsand a reduction in road noise also contributes to overall better acoustics .All of this adds up to more effective use of available power. You will notice that the music is more balanced at all listening levels.


Where does one apply Damping ?

Typically for all doors (inside out) that has a Speaker / Midbass in it. In case of FiberGlass Pods for Cone Mid Range, it is advisbale to have damping inside it. For all Subs (Sealed / Ported / BandPass / Narrowpass / Bass Tube) damping is needed on the Boot lid and the Boot Floor.


Who needs Damping ?

A Simple system of 4 speakers + Head Unit + Good Quality Damping will have a much much better sound than a 6 speaker system with a Sub and no damping. You will be surprised at impact a proper damping can make to your overall sound dynamics. Personally when it comes to a toss between Damping and Sub, i would pick Damping 10 out of 10 times.

[Mi10]

What is an Amplifier ?
In basic terms, an Amplifier is a device used for increasing the strength of a Signal. The purpose of a car audio amplifier is to take a low level signal from the source unit (head unit, radio, etc.) and change it into a high level signal for driving the loudspeakers.


Features of an Amplifier: Beginner's Read

• Amplifiers range in power from about twenty watts per channel to over one thousand watts per channel.
• The price range can be anywhere from fifty dollars to several thousand dollars depending on features, power output and quality.
• An amplifier may have as little as one channel of output to as many as eight channels at the time of this writing.
• The most common amplifiers are two and four channel models although mono subwoofer amplifiers are also very popular, especially the class D type.
• Extra features are often built into a power amplifier. These features include built-in active crossovers, equalizers, signal processing and speaker level inputs.
• When shopping for an amplifier consider that all power ratings are not created equal. Some of the low-quality brands will exaggerate or outright lie about the power output of their amplifiers. This is a good reason to stick with the well known manufacturers.
• The only true measure of an amplifier's power is its continuous power rating or R.M.S. rating. R.M.S. is an acronym for root mean square and refers to the amplifiers average power output.

Features of an Amplifier - Deep Dive
Some features and aspects that make up amplifiers are:

• Power Output: The rated power output of an amplifier should be given into a four ohm load, all channels driven from twenty to twenty thousand hertz (20Hz-20kHz). Keep in mind that while the low end amplifiers are exaggerated in their power output, many high end amplifiers are under-rated in their power output. These are sometimes called "cheater amps" because they allow a car audio competitor to compete in a lower power class while in reality having a larger amplifier. This under-rating may be three times less than the actual power output. Look for the CEA 2006 standard when comparing amplifier power.
  
  
• Channels: A channel is one power (speaker) output of an amplifier. The more channels an amplifier has the greater the installation flexibility it will have. Especially in terms of options, future add-ons and upgrades.
  
  
• Class: This refers to the way the amplifier operates. The three types that are most likely to be encountered are A, A/B, and D. Class A amplifiers are the least efficient in terms of power consumption, staying on continually, but also have better sound in general than A/B amplifiers. They are very, very rare in car audio. Some argue non-existent but in any case don't expect to see any. Class A/B amplifiers are more efficient than the class A design and are the most common type. Almost all amplifiers in the car audio market are of the A/B design. Class D amplifiers are usually reserved for high power subwoofer amplifiers and can reach efficiencies in the 80%+ range. This design can therefore be smaller, uses less current and produces less heat than the other classes. However there are some full range Class D amplifiers available.
  
  
• Crossover/Filter: A built in crossover can be useful, especially if it is many frequencies of adjustment. A filter is a crossover that only affects one channel, not actually splitting frequencies but simply reducing a range of them. Most amplifiers that have built in filters will have the option for either Low Pass (LP) or High Pass (HP). If you see AP on the filter that means "all pass" which basically means the filter is turned off and passes all frequencies.
  
  
• Bridgeable: This feature allows a pair of amplifier power channels to be combined into one channel of greater power. This is usually used for driving a subwoofer although it will work with any other type of speaker as well.
  
  
• Power Supply: The two most common types are the IC chip and the MOSFET supply. The IC chip is what is used in most source units (head units) and are only capable of producing about eighteen watts per channel. MOSFET is the more common design and has a smoother sound than the chip design.
  
  
• Pre-amp Inputs: This is a set of jacks (usually RCA jacks) that will accept a low level pre-amp signal from a source or processing unit.
  
  
• Pre-amp Outputs: This is a set of jacks (usually RCA jacks) that pass on a low level pre-amp signal to another amplifier or processing unit. These will sometimes be filtered outputs.
  
  
• Speaker Level Inputs: For source units that do not have pre-amp level RCA outputs this feature may be used to take the signal from the speaker leads of the source unit. The signal will not be as clean as a pre-amp level output but will be adequate for most factory upgrade applications.
  
  
• Connectors: This is the method of attachment used for wires that are connected to the amplifier, including speaker and power wires. The most common kind is the screw terminal strip. This is a series of screw connectors that can be removed and replaced without compromising the amplifier. The other main type of attachment is the "Molex" type connector. This method involves a wire harness that plugs into the amplifier after the power and speaker connections have been made with a crimp or solder connection. If the amplifier is installed in more than one system these wires can get pretty short over time and become more difficult and even dangerous to work with. Virtually all amplifiers use the screw terminal strip though many older amplifiers used the Molex or straight wire connections.
  
  
• Separate Gain Controls: This allows the gain of each channel of the amplifier to be set independently of the other(s). This allows you to more evenly match the amplifiers channels.
  
  
• Distortion: This is often given as T.H.D. or total harmonic distortion. It is the measure of how much an amplifier will change a signal from the input signal it is given. Figures below 0.1% are negligible and will probably not be heard. Usually the figure can be in the 3% range without being heard but virtually all high quality amplifiers will have a T.H.D. below 0.1%.
  
  
• Efficiency: This is the ratio of of power input (from the battery) to power output (to the speakers). A 100 watt amplifier with an efficiency of 50% would take in 200 watts of power from the battery and output 100 watts of power to the speakers. The other 100 watts of power would be wasted as heat. The higher the efficiency of an amplifier the better. Most class A/B amplifiers are around 50-60% efficient and Class D around 80%. Amplifiers are generally less efficient at low power and more efficient at full power so this number varies in actual use.
  
  
• Stability: The measure of how low of an impedance load an amplifier can handle (in ohms). Any good quality amplifier will be two ohm stable while a rare few will go as low as a quarter of an ohm. Ideally an amplifier should double its power each time the load is halved. For example, a one hundred watt amplifier (into a four ohm load) should produce two hundred watts into a two ohm load and so on. This is most useful when running multiple speakers off of a single amplifier or in sound off competitions that are classed by total power output.
  
  
• Tri-Mode (aka Mixed Mono) Output: This feature is available under different names but is the ability of an amplifier to run a stereo pair of speakers and a mono subwoofer (or center channel) from only two channels of the amplifier. Personally, I would not recommend doing this. Instead buy a good quality four channel amplifier and bridge two of the channels for the subwoofer. Otherwise you will need to use power robbing passive crossover components in the setup. With a four channel amplifier you can usually get built in crossovers that are a much better option.