The ABCs of Car Audio

Our Car Stereo Experts Know a Thing or Two About Car Audio in New Orleans

A valued customer told us, “When I get a car audio installation near me, I choose Mobile One Auto Sound because they are the most knowledgeable about car audio near me.” We want everyone in New Orleans to get the best from their car audio, and to do that it’s essential to know specific terms often used in car stereo installation.

Below are the most important terms you’ll hear when shopping for professional car audio in New Orleans.

Amplifier - An electronic device that boosts a weak power signal into a stronger one. Amplifiers are required in car audio systems to increase the weak power sent from the head unit to power capable of powering a set of speakers.

Amp wiring kit - Everything you need to hook up an amp to a car stereo system.

Crossover - A device that takes one audio input and splits it into multiple frequency bands so you can route them to different speakers.

Decibel - The ratio of change in sound level. Decibels use a logarithmic scale, so a 5dB system is twice as loud as a 4dB system and uses two times the power.

DIN - The space into which a typical head unit in a car fits. DIN is a 2-inch x 8-inch space. Double DIN is a 4-inch by 8-inch area.

Dual voice coil - A speaker with two voice coils so you can output two inputs through a single speaker. Dual voice coils are mostly used to allow a subwoofer to output both channels of a stereo signal.

Distortion - Any sound output that’s been deformed from its original input. We typically want music to come through clean and accurate, so distortion is a negative effect we want to reduce.

Equalizer - Also known as EQ, an equalizer isolates specific frequency ranges and allows you to boost or reduce them. Equalizers will enable you to add or remove more bass or treble, for example.

Enclosure - The case by which a speaker is surrounded. Sealed enclosures use trapped air in an entirely sealed-off box for rich sounds at low frequencies. Ported and vented enclosures don’t completely enclose the air, resulting in less accurate results than sealed enclosures.

Frequency - See Hertz.

Frequency response - The range of frequencies an audio component can output. Wider frequency response is typically better for most applications.