Make Your Car Audio more Equalizing, Processing, and Crossing Over

In This Chapter

► Tweaking with equalizers and processors

► Using processors for OEM integration

► Understanding crossovers

► Installing equalizers and crossovers

The Interior of a vehicle is one of the worst possible places in which to achieve good sound reproduction. Vehicle occupants sit too close to some speakers and too far away from others. A car’s interior is made of hard surfaces, like glass, that reflect sound and soft surfaces, like upholstery, that absorb it. Add to that road noise, wind noise, and engine noise, and you have an environment that is downright hostile to high-quality sound.

Although it’s possible to design a system that helps compensate for these enemies of hi-fi — by pumping up the bass to mask low-frequency road noise or locating speakers so that they don’t bounce off glass, for example — the best way to alleviate if not eliminate these anomalies is by using car audio equalizers and signal processors.

Included in the category of car audio equalizers and signal processors — quite literally since they are sometimes built in — are crossovers, which direct specific frequencies to specific speakers. Crossovers can either be active or passive, and many times a high-end car audio system uses both.

Finally, a recent trend in car audio is OEM integration, which means upgrading a stock stereo system with aftermarket components. Some car owners want to keep the factory look and functionality along with their stock head unit. And because stock head units have become more sophisticated and more integrated into the dash, you can no longer simply remove a head unit and start your installation from scratch. And simply taking the high-level or amplified signal out of a head unit isn’t always straightforward. That’s where the latest generation of OEM-integration processors come in.