Boss Audio

Cheap Car Audio - Choosing the Right Car Subwoofers

Car subwoofers allow you to enjoy bass. Without them, you simply won't generate enough bass waves for your car's audio system to be enjoyable, if bass is what you're into. You'll notice that many systems today consist of two subs, or a pair. The reason it's good to have a pair of subs is because two subwoofers move twice as much air as one sub. This means you'll be creating twice as much bass waves. If you have some decent speakers playing loud and are being driven off of an amplifier, adding a decent amount of bass will balance things out quite nicely.

The most common sizes are 10", 12" and 15". When deciding which size subwoofers you'll need, consider this: 10" subwoofers will hit harder but may not provide sufficient low end bass. 12" subs will still hit hard and accurate, but will also provide the low end bass extensions. Simply put, 12" subs are a really great choice for diversity in tunes. 15" subwoofers may not be as accurate when it comes to hard hitting bass music, such as alternative music, but will provide the deepest bass possible for all the "bassy" tunes you listen to. If you're not really into fast paced music like alternative or rock and you're more into hip hop/rap, a 15 inch sub is the way to go.

If you want your cheap car audio system to produce a lot of bass, you'll generally need at least 250 watts of continuous power handling from each sub. This will give you a total of 500 watts of continuous bass waves. This should be plenty to satisfy your needs. The higher power handling you go, and the more money you'll be investing. Not only on the subs, but a more powerful amplifier to drive them as well.

There are a decent amount of brands to choose from when it comes to car subwoofers. Some of these brands are Pyle Audio, Boss Audio, Kicker, Power Acoustik, DB Bass Inferno and more. All of these brands are widely used and are a great choice. You should expect to pay as little as $40 and up to $400 or more depending on the brand and power handling. A lot of lesser known brands that tend to cost less will still play just as loud as the more expensive brands.

There are a few different ways to choose your cheap car subwoofers set-up. You can buy separate car subwoofers and house them in a separate box yourself. You can also buy a subwoofer package that includes a box and the subwoofers are pre-installed. Or you can buy a subwoofer package that not only includes a box with the cheap car audio subs installed, but also an amplifier. sometimes it's easiest to buy subs that are alredy pre-installed into an enclosure. This it takes away one step and most times the box is specifically designed for the subs.

Nissan 350 Z Modification

Nissan has long been a favorite with the modified car fraternity. The performance potential of street cars like the Datsun 510 and the Datsun 240 Z and the iconic Nissan Skyline GT-R saw tuners attempting to eke out the last bit for horsepower from these cars. Today, modified Nissan cars are quite common at the show car events.

elow are some of the hottest modified and custom Nissan cars from various car shows...

Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI)

If there's one thing that's critical in a high performance engine, then it's fuel control. Think about it: the whole objective of adding a turbocharger, of installing NOS, even of installing a free flow exhaust system, is to improve fuel delivery into the combustion chamber. It is also events in the combustion chamber that can and will destroy a high performance race engine if it's not controlled properly. Here we're talking about controlling the combustion process. Now I've heard many arguments as to why sidedraft carburetors provide better performance than fuel injection and engine management, and vice versa but I always say: it's not about performance, it's about reliability and there's no better system for fuel control than electronic fuel injection. Any endurance race car from INDY Car Racing, to Formula 1, to the World Rally Championship, to the Le Mans Series uses electronic fuel injection (EFI) systems, not just for reliability but because ensuring that the correct amount of fuel is delivered under every condition, will provide the best performance.

FI is central to engine management. It relies on an engine control unit (ECU) which processes a number of inputs from various sensors on the engine to deliver the correct amount of fuel at a particular RPM and air-flow rate/air density combination. The fuel is delivered through an injector, which is an electronically actuated solenoid valve. The amount of fuel that is delivered is dependent on the fuel pressure, which is usually a constant 30 psi above intake manifold pressure, and the pulse duration of the injector, i.e., the length of time the injector is held open.

ost EFI systems have a standard set of sensors. These include:

The Barometric Pressure (BARO) Sensor, which provides the ECU with the atmospheric air pressure reading.

The Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) Sensor, which provides the ECU with the engine's current operating temperature. This is important because fuel vaporization varies for different engine temperatures. A cold engine requires more fuel while a hot engine requires less.

The Intake Air Temperature (IAT) Sensor, which the ECU needs to take into account when determining pulse duration.

The Mass Air Flow (MAF) Sensor, which is a tube positioned after the air filter in the air intake duct. The MAF sensor has a fine platinum wire that spans across the tube. The wire is heated by electrical current to maintain a constant temperature above ambient. The air flow past the wire cools the wire and more current is required to maintain the constant temperature. Thus, the amount of current required to maintain the constant temperature indicates the air flow rate. The air flow rate is divided by RPM to determine the pulse duration.

The Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) Sensor, which uses manifold vacuum to measure engine load. An EFI system that uses a MAP sensor does not require a MAF sensor as it can use the input from the MAP sensor to determine the required pulse duration.

The Oxygen Sensor (O2S), which is used to measure the amount of oxygen that is not consumed during combustion. This is important for the correct operation of the catalyst converter and is used for emissions control rather than performance or economy. The O2S is located in the exhaust system and is an after-the-fact measure of the air/fuel ratio. Too much unburnt fuel in the exhaust indicates a lean mixture while too little oxygen indicates a rich mixture.

The Crankshaft Position (CKP) Sensor, which is important for timing purposes as it tells the ECU which spark plug to fire and which injector to open at any given point in the Otto cycle.

The Throttle Position (TP) Sensor, which is another important sensor as the throttle position and the rate of change in the throttle position indicates the what the diver wants the car to do.