4 Mistakes that Kill Bass - Car Audio Subwoofer Improvements!

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.230
so you build and install a car audio
00:00:03.260 00:00:03.270 system into a vehicle and you turn it on
00:00:05.329 00:00:05.339 for the first time and you're just not
00:00:08.780 00:00:08.790 impressed the subwoofer bass performance
00:00:10.970 00:00:10.980 is lacking in the mid bass from our
00:00:13.009 00:00:13.019 speakers is just not as punchy as what
00:00:15.950 00:00:15.960 we were hoping for if you've ever been
00:00:17.510 00:00:17.520 in this position it is not a good
00:00:19.130 00:00:19.140 feeling but not to worry my friend
00:00:20.870 00:00:20.880 because in this video we're going to
00:00:22.310 00:00:22.320 talk about four different mistakes that
00:00:24.380 00:00:24.390 are often made that lead to poor bass
00:00:26.839 00:00:26.849 performance and at the end of the video
00:00:28.640 00:00:28.650 I'm also gonna give you some bonus tips
00:00:30.109 00:00:30.119 for how you can add more bass once you
00:00:32.510 00:00:32.520 make sure that you didn't make any of
00:00:34.370 00:00:34.380 those four mistakes hey what's going on
00:00:44.450 00:00:44.460 guys welcome to car audio fabrication my
00:00:46.520 00:00:46.530 name is Mark and I'd like to welcome you
00:00:48.020 00:00:48.030 to this channel where we do car audio
00:00:49.970 00:00:49.980 reviews and build dog videos and lessons
00:00:52.610 00:00:52.620 like this video because I truly believe
00:00:55.069 00:00:55.079 that when we design build and install a
00:00:57.260 00:00:57.270 car audio system the correct way we can
00:01:00.349 00:01:00.359 really experience and feel the music
00:01:03.680 00:01:03.690 rather than just listening to it so
00:01:06.109 00:01:06.119 mistake number one wiring issues it's
00:01:08.810 00:01:08.820 really important that when we're
00:01:09.890 00:01:09.900 finishing up our install and making the
00:01:11.630 00:01:11.640 connections from the wires to the actual
00:01:13.850 00:01:13.860 speakers we want to double check and
00:01:15.830 00:01:15.840 make sure that similar speakers have
00:01:18.499 00:01:18.509 these same polarity in other words let's
00:01:20.630 00:01:20.640 say that we have our six and a half inch
00:01:22.100 00:01:22.110 speakers up front that are gonna be
00:01:23.719 00:01:23.729 providing our mid bass we want to make
00:01:25.700 00:01:25.710 sure that both of those six and a half
00:01:27.499 00:01:27.509 inch speakers on each side have the
00:01:29.810 00:01:29.820 positive wire on the positive terminal
00:01:32.210 00:01:32.220 and negative on the negative terminal
00:01:34.130 00:01:34.140 now the same goes for our subwoofers if
00:01:35.870 00:01:35.880 we have multiple subwoofers we want to
00:01:37.580 00:01:37.590 make sure that they are also wired in
00:01:39.620 00:01:39.630 correct polarity the reason for this is
00:01:41.719 00:01:41.729 if you have one speaker that is going
00:01:44.120 00:01:44.130 out while the other one is coming in the
00:01:47.300 00:01:47.310 speakers are going to be working against
00:01:49.399 00:01:49.409 each other they're not going to be
00:01:51.160 00:01:51.170 compressing air and building upon it to
00:01:54.080 00:01:54.090 create acoustical energy now maybe you
00:01:56.209 00:01:56.219 have poor bass performance and you know
00:01:57.709 00:01:57.719 for a fact that you've connected the
00:01:59.300 00:01:59.310 correct wires to each terminal on the
00:02:01.639 00:02:01.649 speakers something else that you want to
00:02:03.560 00:02:03.570 verify is you want to make sure that
00:02:05.569 00:02:05.579 wherever you're getting that signal from
00:02:07.819 00:02:07.829 that it is wired with the correct
00:02:09.650 00:02:09.660 polarity as well as an example say that
00:02:12.320 00:02:12.330 you installed a line
00:02:13.580 00:02:13.590 output converter and that you tapped in
00:02:15.470 00:02:15.480 to the rear speakers of the vehicle you
00:02:17.869 00:02:17.879 would want to make sure that would that
00:02:19.339 00:02:19.349 line output converter that you connected
00:02:21.589 00:02:21.599 the positive leads to the positive wires
00:02:24.020 00:02:24.030 and didn't have them opposite from the
00:02:26.270 00:02:26.280 left to right side otherwise you could
00:02:28.309 00:02:28.319 have polarity issues let's say that you
00:02:30.470 00:02:30.480 check the speaker terminals you know
00:02:31.970 00:02:31.980 they're correct and you've checked your
00:02:33.589 00:02:33.599 wiring on something like an integration
00:02:35.780 00:02:35.790 piece like a line output converter and
00:02:37.550 00:02:37.560 you know it's correct there's still one
00:02:39.320 00:02:39.330 more thing that could be wrong the
00:02:40.940 00:02:40.950 speaker may be wired incorrectly from
00:02:43.580 00:02:43.590 the factory this seems crazy but I've
00:02:45.380 00:02:45.390 actually seen it happen quite often
00:02:46.970 00:02:46.980 where the terminals the positive and
00:02:49.370 00:02:49.380 negative terminals on the speaker will
00:02:51.199 00:02:51.209 just be labeled incorrectly so
00:02:53.509 00:02:53.519 ultimately the best way to really check
00:02:55.880 00:02:55.890 polarity is you can use a polarity test
00:02:58.580 00:02:58.590 tool this tool that I'm showing on
00:03:00.259 00:03:00.269 screen allows you to simply hold the
00:03:02.000 00:03:02.010 device close to the speakers and it
00:03:03.860 00:03:03.870 fires off a series of pulses so what you
00:03:06.740 00:03:06.750 can do is you can use this little device
00:03:08.509 00:03:08.519 to check all your different speakers and
00:03:11.089 00:03:11.099 make sure that they are all wired
00:03:12.920 00:03:12.930 correctly in the same polarity a link to
00:03:15.470 00:03:15.480 that device is down in the video
00:03:16.759 00:03:16.769 description so let's say that you check
00:03:18.440 00:03:18.450 all that you know that everything is
00:03:19.580 00:03:19.590 good to go polarity wise mistake number
00:03:21.890 00:03:21.900 two that can be made is phase issues a
00:03:24.650 00:03:24.660 common example setup that we can use for
00:03:26.660 00:03:26.670 a car audio system is something where we
00:03:29.150 00:03:29.160 had a subwoofer playing frequencies from
00:03:31.309 00:03:31.319 let's say 20 Hertz all the way up to 80
00:03:34.670 00:03:34.680 Hertz and then let's say from 80 Hertz
00:03:37.160 00:03:37.170 we hand it off to a six and a half inch
00:03:39.770 00:03:39.780 component issues with phase can arise in
00:03:42.319 00:03:42.329 that handoff transition from the
00:03:43.970 00:03:43.980 subwoofer to the speaker this is because
00:03:46.250 00:03:46.260 the subwoofer and the speaker will be
00:03:48.530 00:03:48.540 located in different locations within
00:03:51.050 00:03:51.060 your vehicle let's say that both the
00:03:52.670 00:03:52.680 subwoofer and the speaker are playing 80
00:03:54.440 00:03:54.450 Hertz our goal is to be at a listening
00:03:56.870 00:03:56.880 position that those waves work together
00:03:59.300 00:03:59.310 not that they work against each other
00:04:01.729 00:04:01.739 and cancel each other out so there's a
00:04:03.800 00:04:03.810 couple quick solutions to see if you're
00:04:05.449 00:04:05.459 having Faye's issues one of the first
00:04:07.580 00:04:07.590 and easiest solutions is to actually
00:04:09.650 00:04:09.660 flip the polarity on the subwoofer or on
00:04:13.069 00:04:13.079 your speakers generally it's going to be
00:04:14.629 00:04:14.639 easier to just flip it on the subwoofer
00:04:16.490 00:04:16.500 because a lot of subwoofer amplifiers
00:04:18.560 00:04:18.570 have what they call a phase switch where
00:04:21.500 00:04:21.510 you can flip it 180 degrees out of phase
00:04:24.380 00:04:24.390 now yes at the beginning of the video I
00:04:26.330 00:04:26.340 talked about having every
00:04:27.320 00:04:27.330 wired in the correct polarity but it's
00:04:29.719 00:04:29.729 only important for like speakers in
00:04:32.390 00:04:32.400 other words the subwoofer and the
00:04:33.619 00:04:33.629 speakers don't necessarily have to be
00:04:35.480 00:04:35.490 wired in the same polarity it's okay to
00:04:38.270 00:04:38.280 have them in different polarity because
00:04:40.399 00:04:40.409 it might help correct your phase issues
00:04:42.800 00:04:42.810 because when you switch the subwoofer
00:04:44.899 00:04:44.909 180 degrees out of phase it might
00:04:47.899 00:04:47.909 correct the issues that you're
00:04:49.010 00:04:49.020 experiencing with lack of the base
00:04:50.719 00:04:50.729 another solution is you can move the
00:04:52.909 00:04:52.919 subwoofer around within the vehicle
00:04:54.800 00:04:54.810 before you permanently install it in
00:04:57.350 00:04:57.360 order to test and make sure that you
00:04:59.330 00:04:59.340 don't have any phase cancellation issues
00:05:01.790 00:05:01.800 ultimately though one of the best
00:05:03.649 00:05:03.659 solutions is to have a digital signal
00:05:05.719 00:05:05.729 processor where you can actually delay
00:05:07.879 00:05:07.889 the front speakers so that the sound
00:05:10.369 00:05:10.379 that is furthest from you at the
00:05:12.050 00:05:12.060 subwoofer when that finally arrives to
00:05:14.659 00:05:14.669 you you can delay the front speakers to
00:05:17.240 00:05:17.250 then deliver that sound from them at the
00:05:20.059 00:05:20.069 same time this functionality of a
00:05:22.399 00:05:22.409 digital signal processor is called time
00:05:24.469 00:05:24.479 alignment and ultimately it's going to
00:05:26.269 00:05:26.279 be the best solution for you but a DSP
00:05:28.730 00:05:28.740 can be expensive so it might be easier
00:05:31.100 00:05:31.110 to try flipping the polarity on the
00:05:33.499 00:05:33.509 subwoofer or moving the subwoofer box
00:05:35.330 00:05:35.340 around first if you'd like to check out
00:05:37.430 00:05:37.440 one of my other videos that I did it
00:05:38.809 00:05:38.819 more in detail on what a DSP is you can
00:05:41.360 00:05:41.370 check out this video here on screen now
00:05:43.249 00:05:43.259 mistake number three subwoofer enclosure
00:05:45.740 00:05:45.750 type and construction along with
00:05:48.640 00:05:48.650 installation of speakers let's say as an
00:05:51.589 00:05:51.599 example that you have a sealed subwoofer
00:05:54.200 00:05:54.210 box installed in your vehicle and you
00:05:56.029 00:05:56.039 find that you're not quite getting
00:05:56.990 00:05:57.000 enough bass you might want to consider
00:05:59.180 00:05:59.190 another subwoofer box type you'll find
00:06:02.119 00:06:02.129 that a ported subwoofer box will
00:06:03.709 00:06:03.719 generally have more output but it's
00:06:05.450 00:06:05.460 important to consider that every
00:06:06.860 00:06:06.870 subwoofer has a different range of
00:06:08.809 00:06:08.819 variables that affect how it actually
00:06:11.149 00:06:11.159 responds and plays music as an example
00:06:14.629 00:06:14.639 let's say that we take a ported
00:06:16.519 00:06:16.529 subwoofer enclosure let's just say it's
00:06:18.559 00:06:18.569 one cubic feet tuned to 32 Hertz and
00:06:22.040 00:06:22.050 let's say that we put two different 10
00:06:24.559 00:06:24.569 inch subwoofers in it we know that we're
00:06:27.200 00:06:27.210 gonna get different sound from each of
00:06:29.779 00:06:29.789 these two different subwoofers this is
00:06:31.999 00:06:32.009 why prior to building and installing our
00:06:34.369 00:06:34.379 subwoofer box we should consider what
00:06:36.529 00:06:36.539 the frequency response will look like
00:06:38.570 00:06:38.580 for the subwoofer that will be
00:06:40.250 00:06:40.260 using now it's also very important for
00:06:42.140 00:06:42.150 our base performance to consider the
00:06:44.870 00:06:44.880 volume that is required for a subwoofer
00:06:47.600 00:06:47.610 if you install a large subwoofer into a
00:06:50.270 00:06:50.280 space that is far too small for it the
00:06:52.820 00:06:52.830 subwoofer isn't going to perform to its
00:06:54.800 00:06:54.810 optimal capability and one of my
00:06:56.600 00:06:56.610 previous videos I talked about how you
00:06:57.890 00:06:57.900 can estimate what your box volume will
00:06:59.750 00:06:59.760 actually be after all displacements for
00:07:02.090 00:07:02.100 something like a ported subwoofer box
00:07:03.590 00:07:03.600 you can check that out here on screen
00:07:05.480 00:07:05.490 now let's say that you're confident
00:07:06.770 00:07:06.780 within your subwoofer box type something
00:07:09.320 00:07:09.330 else that you're gonna want to consider
00:07:10.520 00:07:10.530 is the construction of the subwoofer box
00:07:12.890 00:07:12.900 one of the biggest issues that I always
00:07:14.570 00:07:14.580 see is when a subwoofer box isn't sealed
00:07:16.970 00:07:16.980 well and this goes for ported subwoofer
00:07:19.460 00:07:19.470 enclosures also the only way the air
00:07:21.710 00:07:21.720 should be able to come in and out of a
00:07:23.720 00:07:23.730 subwoofer box is through a pore and
00:07:25.550 00:07:25.560 obviously if it's a sealed box it
00:07:27.260 00:07:27.270 shouldn't be able to come in and out at
00:07:28.730 00:07:28.740 all it's really important to make sure
00:07:30.560 00:07:30.570 during the construction phase that all
00:07:32.510 00:07:32.520 of your cuts are extremely straight and
00:07:34.730 00:07:34.740 accurate and if they're not it's
00:07:36.110 00:07:36.120 important that when you're actually
00:07:36.980 00:07:36.990 building the box that you use plenty of
00:07:38.540 00:07:38.550 caulk in order to seal up all of the
00:07:41.030 00:07:41.040 corners next it's important to make sure
00:07:42.890 00:07:42.900 that your box is properly braced if you
00:07:45.440 00:07:45.450 have a very powerful subwoofer but then
00:07:47.300 00:07:47.310 a box where all of the walls of the box
00:07:49.340 00:07:49.350 can easily compress and flex then you're
00:07:52.070 00:07:52.080 going to lose out on a lot of acoustical
00:07:54.020 00:07:54.030 energy and that means that you're losing
00:07:55.970 00:07:55.980 out on output to alleviate this problem
00:07:58.250 00:07:58.260 you should have bracing another
00:08:00.080 00:08:00.090 important thing to verify is more on the
00:08:02.300 00:08:02.310 installation side of subwoofer boxes you
00:08:05.000 00:08:05.010 want to make sure that they are fully
00:08:07.060 00:08:07.070 secured within the vehicle properly
00:08:09.830 00:08:09.840 securing the box to the vehicle makes
00:08:12.020 00:08:12.030 the box much more stout and it makes it
00:08:14.390 00:08:14.400 so that you're not losing any of that
00:08:16.130 00:08:16.140 acoustic energy which means again more
00:08:18.770 00:08:18.780 output now I'm the speaker side of
00:08:20.660 00:08:20.670 things and getting good mid bass it's
00:08:22.280 00:08:22.290 also equally important that we consider
00:08:24.290 00:08:24.300 our installation something else that's
00:08:26.150 00:08:26.160 really nice to add is these foam rings
00:08:28.310 00:08:28.320 these rings help to bridge the gap so
00:08:30.800 00:08:30.810 that it directs all of the sound through
00:08:33.200 00:08:33.210 the hole within your door panel the
00:08:35.480 00:08:35.490 reason that's important is if you have
00:08:36.980 00:08:36.990 the sound bouncing around inside the
00:08:39.110 00:08:39.120 door panel it can actually cancel out a
00:08:41.000 00:08:41.010 lot of your mid bass performance for a
00:08:43.159 00:08:43.169 full video about that and making custom
00:08:45.110 00:08:45.120 speaker adapters in order to make sure
00:08:46.880 00:08:46.890 that you get the best mid bass
00:08:48.140 00:08:48.150 performance again video on screen now
00:08:51.770 00:08:51.780 finally mistake number four
00:08:53.550 00:08:53.560 poor system design it's really important
00:08:55.980 00:08:55.990 that when we select all the different
00:08:57.119 00:08:57.129 gear for our car audio build that we
00:08:59.309 00:08:59.319 properly match the different items your
00:09:01.769 00:09:01.779 amplifiers output power and watts RMS
00:09:04.470 00:09:04.480 should closely match the capability of
00:09:07.139 00:09:07.149 the subwoofer that you're purchasing as
00:09:09.119 00:09:09.129 an example let's say that you're using a
00:09:11.400 00:09:11.410 subwoofer that is super beefy it's super
00:09:14.100 00:09:14.110 strong I can handle a ton of power and
00:09:15.840 00:09:15.850 you're using just a moderately powered
00:09:18.809 00:09:18.819 amplifier you're not going to be
00:09:20.670 00:09:20.680 powering that subwoofer to its full
00:09:22.559 00:09:22.569 potential and actually the amplifier is
00:09:24.360 00:09:24.370 gonna have a hard time moving this big
00:09:26.939 00:09:26.949 beefy subwoofer so you're gonna have
00:09:29.040 00:09:29.050 reduced performance compared to if you
00:09:31.410 00:09:31.420 just had a matching subwoofer now let's
00:09:33.869 00:09:33.879 say you have an amplifier that's much
00:09:35.639 00:09:35.649 more powerful than what the subwoofer
00:09:37.470 00:09:37.480 can handle although you're gonna be able
00:09:38.819 00:09:38.829 to power the subwoofer to its full
00:09:41.069 00:09:41.079 potential
00:09:41.850 00:09:41.860 you're leaving opportunity within your
00:09:44.069 00:09:44.079 amplifier you could have had more output
00:09:46.710 00:09:46.720 something else that often gets ignored
00:09:48.629 00:09:48.639 is you have to remember that it takes
00:09:50.699 00:09:50.709 power to make power you can't buy a
00:09:54.090 00:09:54.100 10,000 watt RMS amplifier and install it
00:09:57.660 00:09:57.670 into a little car something like a Honda
00:10:00.869 00:10:00.879 Civic without upgrading the electrical
00:10:03.389 00:10:03.399 system it's important to have a big
00:10:05.189 00:10:05.199 enough power plant within your system
00:10:07.049 00:10:07.059 and in this case that's the alternator
00:10:09.480 00:10:09.490 we want to look into something like an
00:10:11.460 00:10:11.470 upgraded aftermarket alternator if we're
00:10:13.829 00:10:13.839 going to be using a huge amplifier we
00:10:16.199 00:10:16.209 also want to make sure that our power
00:10:17.519 00:10:17.529 delivery system the wires is also
00:10:20.400 00:10:20.410 upgraded in order to handle this
00:10:22.139 00:10:22.149 increased power I want to go into more
00:10:23.910 00:10:23.920 detail on this in a future video so if
00:10:26.100 00:10:26.110 that's something you're interested in
00:10:27.150 00:10:27.160 let me know so that's the four mistakes
00:10:29.129 00:10:29.139 but what are a couple of easy ways that
00:10:31.379 00:10:31.389 if we check all those off the list we
00:10:33.150 00:10:33.160 make sure everything is good what's a
00:10:34.439 00:10:34.449 couple other ways that we can add bass
00:10:36.540 00:10:36.550 if we're just not impressed with what we
00:10:38.970 00:10:38.980 have well in my opinion one of the most
00:10:40.889 00:10:40.899 efficient ways to add more bass is to
00:10:43.379 00:10:43.389 add more cone area as an example let's
00:10:46.169 00:10:46.179 say that you have a 10 inch subwoofer
00:10:47.490 00:10:47.500 and it's just not performing to what you
00:10:49.619 00:10:49.629 would hope it would be and you have the
00:10:51.749 00:10:51.759 room to potentially add a second 10 inch
00:10:54.239 00:10:54.249 subwoofer well that's gonna be more cone
00:10:56.970 00:10:56.980 area so you're gonna have more bass so
00:10:59.939 00:10:59.949 as long as you have more room and you
00:11:01.650 00:11:01.660 can also power that second speaker
00:11:03.720 00:11:03.730 you're going to have
00:11:04.990 00:11:05.000 more bass now let's say that you only
00:11:06.790 00:11:06.800 have enough room for 1/10 what could you
00:11:09.640 00:11:09.650 do
00:11:10.030 00:11:10.040 well you're gonna want to look for more
00:11:11.730 00:11:11.740 excursion excursion is how far a
00:11:14.260 00:11:14.270 subwoofer or speaker actually moves in
00:11:16.720 00:11:16.730 and out if we get an upgraded subwoofer
00:11:19.750 00:11:19.760 that's still a 10-inch but it has more
00:11:21.490 00:11:21.500 excursion we're going to get more bass
00:11:24.040 00:11:24.050 also for upgrading that subwoofer we're
00:11:26.200 00:11:26.210 probably gonna have more power handling
00:11:28.450 00:11:28.460 capability within the subwoofer we can
00:11:30.640 00:11:30.650 feed it more power we can have more bass
00:11:33.070 00:11:33.080 so there we have it I'm wondering how
00:11:35.170 00:11:35.180 many of you guys actually make it all
00:11:36.850 00:11:36.860 the way to the end of these videos I
00:11:38.290 00:11:38.300 know that this stuff can seem a little
00:11:39.850 00:11:39.860 bit monotonous but it is super-important
00:11:42.430 00:11:42.440 for really getting the best performance
00:11:44.440 00:11:44.450 out of your car audio system a special
00:11:46.690 00:11:46.700 thanks goes out to John Bryan Ally Jerry
00:11:49.150 00:11:49.160 EJ Emmanuel Truman James and Colin along
00:11:52.930 00:11:52.940 with the rest of the patreon support
00:11:54.430 00:11:54.440 team a huge thanks to those guys for
00:11:56.440 00:11:56.450 helping contribute and crowd fund the
00:11:58.570 00:11:58.580 making of these videos more videos on
00:12:00.940 00:12:00.950 screen as always thank you for watching
00:12:03.190 00:12:03.200 you guys Rock I'll talk to you soon
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