Newest Sony Models at Car Audio Centre

Hey all,

Well, it seems Sony enjyos releasing new car stereoes...but not making enough of them so that the whole of UK are unable to get any!

Car Audio Centre will of course try to get as many as possible as we have ordered 500 of each so we hope to have them in stock soon, and be the first to get them out to you all.

Look forward to giving you all good news soon.

Car Audio Centre.

Car Audio Centre : Car Subwoofers

Car Audio Centre (http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk) is UK's Number 1 car audio retailer, with stores nationwide and stocking over 3000 product lines so you can be sure you are in safe hands.

Subwoofers are larger drivers that are used to create the frequencies around and below 100Hz. Ordinary loudspeakers are unable to effectively produce frequencies in this range due to size limitations of the driver. Subwoofers are generally considered speakers of 8" or larger and will require more amplifier power than coaxial or component loudspeakers due to their larger size. Subwoofers will also require an enclosure to produce these lower frequencies effectively. Sometimes the enclosure can be as simple as the trunk of a Ford or as complex as an isobarically loaded series-tuned dual-reflex band pass enclosure. The cone size and enclosure required will be two very important factors when deciding on a subwoofer for your system.

There are several manufacturers that offer non-typical subwoofer applications. Examples are the tube type subwoofer and the vehicle specific subwoofer system. Tube subwoofers are cylinders (tubes) with one end containing the subwoofer and the other end sealed. These are a fairly common way of adding a subwoofer to a limited space application or a leased vehicle and come in self-amplified varieties as well.

Vehicle specific subwoofer systems are usually built from wood and fiberglass and are designed to fit snugly into a factory void or pocket. Because they are specific to one vehicle they are more expensive then either a standard box or tube configuration. However they can’t be beat for fit and use of space.

One final note when purchasing a subwoofer. Determine how much space you are willing to give up and then decide which subwoofer you want. You do not want to decide you want two 15” woofers and then realize they will not fit in your Mini after you're out of the store. Be realistic about your goals for the system and the space you are willing to sacrifice to achieve those goals. If you want strong bass but have limited space, add more power to your subwoofer system.

Some of the aspects and features that need to be considered when purchasing subwoofers are:

Enclosure Type: This is the type of box or enclosure your subwoofer will be mounted in. The main types are infinite baffle, sealed, vented (ported), and bandpass.

Power Handling: This is the amount of power a speaker can withstand before failing after a given amount of time. The most important number is the speakers continuous or RMS power handling. Peak power handling means virtually nothing.

Sensitivity: This is a reference measure of how loud a speaker will be with a certain amount of power at a certain distance. The standard is one watt at one meter. By halving the distance an increase of six decibels will be realized and doubling the power will increase the output by another three decibels. This is a trick used by some companies to make their speakers appear more efficient than they are. Most loudspeakers will be in the ninety decibel range. Keep in mind that a difference of three decibels is equivalent to a doubling of the amplifier power.

As always, with such a large range of stock available, you can always view what you are after at http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk before you do any measurements at all, take your time and enjoy our extensive catalog.

Car Audio Centre : Car Audio Amplifiers

Car Audio Centre (http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk) is UK's Number 1 car audio retailer, with stores nationwide and stocking over 3000 product lines so you can be sure you are in safe hands.

The purpose of a car audio amplifier is to take a low level signal from the source unit and change it into a high level signal for driving the loudspeakers. Amplifiers range in power from about twenty watts per channel to over one thousand watts per channel. The price range can be anywhere from £50 to several thousand pounds 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.

Amplifier Power Ratings

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 even 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.

One thing to note is that doubling the amplifier power does not double the sound output. A doubling of system power adds only 3dB of SPL (volume) to the output. SPL works on a logarithmic scale so it takes a 10dB increase for the sound to be "doubled". This works out to a little over three "doublings" of power. So if you have 100 watts of power you would need to double that to 200 watts, double that to 400 watts and then double that to 800 watts. That would give you a 9dB increase. To truly get the 10dB increase you would need 1,000 watts or a ten fold increase in power.

Car Amplifier Quality

Also keep in mind the quality of the amplifier. A generally good indication of quality build and the power output is the size and the weight of the amplifier itself. Better quality amplifiers will usually have a heavier and larger heatsink versus a low quality amplifier of the same power rating. Do not accept size as a definite indication though. I bought an amplifier at a garage sale for £5 that was two feet long, eight inches wide and two inches tall that had a five inch square circuit board inside of it. This amplifier was so poorly built that I could actually hear the music I was playing coming from the circuit board itself. However there are many top quality amplifiers that do not follow this rule. The ever growing Class D (and its variants) amplifier is much more efficient and therefore does not produce as much heat or use as much power. This means a smaller power supply and a smaller heatsink. Because of the high efficiency design of those amplifiers a heavy heatsink is not required.

Another good indication of an amplifier's true output is the size of the fuse used. True 200 watt amplifiers do not use a ten amp fuse. Use your head when buying and keep in mind the brand's reputation for quality. A quick and dirty way to check the true power output of an amplifier is to take the fuse value of the amplifier (or the sum for multiple fuses) and multiply it by 6 for class A/B amps or 10 for class D amps (higher efficiency). This is by no means an accurate way to judge power but it will tell you if your amp is even close to it's specifications. For example, if a class A/B "1,200 watt" amplifier has a fuse value of 25 amps then you can take 25*6 and get 150. So this "1,200 watt" amplifier is more in the range of 150 watts.

If you find yourself on a budget or lack space for many components then the economical thing to do is buy a multi-channel amplifier with the built in features and processors that you desire. This can save a lot of room and several hundred dollars in added component and installation cost. The quality will be a little less as compared to outboard processors but will probably not be noticed. Also, by minimizing the number of components the chance of noise entering into the system is lessened.

Some features and aspects of amplifiers to consider are:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tube Amplifiers: These are the least common amplifiers and are also the most expensive. Rather than the traditional solid state components they use old fashioned vacuum tubes. They are said to produce a warmer sound and a smoother midrange than solid state designs. For most systems the standard design will be more desirable. You are unlikely to run across tube designs if ever.

As always, http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk will always be fully stocked up with the newest and best at affordable prices.

May Holidays Confirmed!

Hey all,

It has been confirmed that we will indeed be closed on the 4th and the 25th of May, 2009. Both are Mondays so it will be a long weekend and a short week for all our customers.

We will be open as usual 9.30am-6.00pm during our business days so don't worry, we'll still be here to get your order out as soon as possible.

Thanks for your attention.

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk

May Holidays!

Hey all,

We may be getting the 5th AND 24th May off due to public holidays then.

We shall update you as soon as it has been confirmed.

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk

Its a short week!

Well, we at Car Audio Centre are open 4 days this week as we were closed on Easter Monday.

We are back to normal and this is just a reminder that there will be another May Day holiday soon.

Car Audio Centre : Car CD Players

This is an introduction to CD Car Stereos before you decide to install or purchase anything yourself. CarAudioCentre.co.uk is UK's Number 1 car audio retailer, with stores nationwide and stocking over 3000 product lines so you can be sure you are in safe hands.

With car mp3 players and many other car audio formats now available, you need to pay more attention when purchasing a CD player. When shopping for a CD player there are some basics to look for. The most important is the company’s reputation for building quality product. Purchasing a CD player at a flea market is usually not a wise decision. Security is also an important factor that should be considered. Most decent CD players will have a detachable faceplate. I would not recommend purchasing one that did not as these are usually the lowest models offered by a company.

The last major item to consider is whether the unit will fit in your dash. In addition to depth considerations, the face style is also important. Models with flat faces look more modern but aren't much good to you if you have a car with a shaft style opening that you don't want to cut. You will also want to make sure that the depth of the unit will allow installation in your dash. Look for a control layout that you are comfortable with. Usually a simple layout is better for finding buttons quickly. Also, a crowded and busy display looks great in the showroom but can be confusing as well as dangerous when driving down the road at highway speeds. Beyond these basics you need only worry about which features you wish to have. The more you want, the more you will likely have to pay. Some of the more common features available in most major brands are:

Audible Search: With this feature you will be able to hear the music that you are searching through which can be a very desirable feature.

Auxillary Input : In addition to iPod controls you may also find units that have an auxillary input. Generally these are 3.5mm jacks on the front of the unit that you can use to connect virtually any audio device with a headphone output.

Changer Controls: This is the ability of a receiver to control an external CD, MiniDisc or MP3 player through its front panel controls. With this option a digital source may be used in conjunction with an in dash cassette or CD receiver.

Dual Illumination: This is a receiver’s ability to change the color of its display between two or more colors, usually amber and green. This is a nice feature to have if you go through a lot of vehicles and are never sure of your next vehicles dash color. Some units have a much wider color selection in addition to these two basic colors.

Frequency Response: This is the portion of the audio spectrum a piece of equipment can produce. The average human can hear sounds in the range of 20Hz-20kHz. Most good CD players can produce this entire range.

Line Output Voltage: This is the output voltage that a deck can deliver, in volts, through its pre-amp line outputs. The higher than number the less chance that noise will be delivered to the next piece of equipment in the chain. Most lower to mid priced decks have an output of 500 mV (0.5 volts) while some higher end units have 4 volts or more.

iPod Control: This is the ability of a receiver to control an iPod or at the very least, accept the music output of an iPod into the unit. Look for units that can directly control the iPod. Some have the ability built in while others require special adapters or cables. The more control you have of the iPod from the head unit the better.

Loudness Control: This is a feature that boosts the lower and sometimes the very upper frequencies to compensate for the human ear's insensitivity at low volume.

MP3/WMA capability: Some of the newer CD head units have the ability to play MP3/WMA encoded discs. This can be a real benefit if you have a CD burner and a collection of MP3s on your computer as it eliminates the need to have additional equipment to play your MP3 collection in your automobile.
Power Output: This is the amount of power, in watts, that your receiver should be able to deliver to the speakers. The number printed on the face of the receiver is usually a large exaggeration. Most receivers actually have between three and fifteen watts RMS per channel. Keep in mind that the sound will become quite distorted at this level because of the size and current limitations of your receiver. The best sound is always found in dedicated external amplifiers.

Pre-amp Outputs (RCA jacks): These are the most common connectors used for external power amplifiers. If you plan to add amplifiers to your system I strongly suggest that you purchase a receiver with these outputs. More than one set of outputs are available on some of the better units and are handy for retaining front/rear/subwoofer fading capabilities.

Remote Control: Most people laugh at the idea of having a remote control for an in dash receiver but it is actually much safer to use when on the road. Models are available in large TV sized remotes, handheld remotes, credit card remotes and even steering wheel mounted remotes.

Skip Protection: Some receivers have a built in memory buffer, usually between three and ten seconds, that will continue to play the music skip free even when the player is actually mis-tracking. This is a great feature if you drive on a lot of bumpy roads.

Station Presets: These are the areas of memory in which your receiver stores radio station frequencies. The more the better here. Some units even allow you to assign names to the various presets.
Seek/Scan: These functions are used to seek for the next station that is available and scan through your preset stations respectively.

Tuner Sensitivity: This is the ability of the tuner in your receiver to pull in weak stations. It is measured in dbf and the lower the number the better. Eight is about the best you will likely see and thirteen is about average.

USB Input : Usually a front panel USB jack that will accept direct connection of a USB thumb drive or a similar USB storage unit. This allows you to plug in a small thumb drive and access the compatible digital music you have stored there. This can be more convenient than burning a CD everytime you want to change the MP3s you take with you.

You can find everything you need from us at http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk