**Tech Terms for those who don't know** - Corsa Sport - for Vauxhall and Opel Corsa B, Corsa C and Corsa D

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SteveW

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Registered: 15th Jul 02
Location: Up in the clouds
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10th Jan 03 at 18:34

Right then as asked by nova17, here is what i could come up with that might help when reading some of these posts.

SPL- Sound Pressure Level mainly sound off stuff.

SQ- Sound Quality people could spend more time and money on this than most other things.

Sub- Subwoofer, large speaker either 10-34" that uses low bass notes.

Mid- A 5.25-6.5" mini sub, this uses the middle frequency of sound.

Tweeter a 1" speaker that only uses the treble/ high notes of music.

Components- Usually a 2 peice speaker system with a mid and tweeter.

Crossover- a crossover will seperate the frequency of the music you are playing, it will send the mid to mid, high/treble to tweeter and low notes/bass to subs.

Amp- Essential equipment if you are running lots of speakers or a sub, this will increase the signal of the music and the power. In short they power the speakers.

Power cable/ Earth cable- These are needed when building a system, this is what sends the power from your battery to your amp(s). This comes in different thickness, from 8Ga - 0Ga. The thicker the cable the more power can be had.

Ga- Gauge, this is what wire is measured in, for thickness. The smaller the number the thicker the wire.

Distribution blocks- These are used to split the power/earth cables into small Ga, this method is used only when running more than 1 amp. These have fuses within them and can only be split down a Ga. For example you can split a 2Ga into two - four 4Ga. get it?????????

CAP- This stands for capacitor, these are quite complex. They will sit between the amp and the battery. The battery will give them a charge to use. When the Amp needs power the CAP can charge and discharge within mili seconds. These basically try to keep your system running at a high voltage.

Headunit- CD, Tape, Minidisk and now MP3 these are your playing units. They vary in price from around £100 - £2500.

DIN- The size of the headunit is usually 1 DIN you can get 1.5 and 2 DIN. These are the universal fitting size for cars. Corsa's have 1 DIN which means anything can fit into your car.

RCA's- These are the signal cable which give the amps their signal from the headunit so they will replay the signal into the speakers. The better quality you get the better the signal will be.

Remote wire- This is a thin blue wire that connects from the headunit to the amp. These look unimportant but are highly nessesary for your amps to work.

Ported box- This is where your sub box has a tube port cut into it. This will enable more air movement and thus a lower bass note. SPL use only.

Coaxial speakers- This is much the same as the components but they are not seperate. The tweeter cone is mounted onto the mid. These are not as effecient as the components.

6x9's- A large oval shaped speaker with 2-4 speakers mounted within its cast. These can give out all frequencies. high mid and bass. If you are planning to build a large system, avoid using these as you will not hear them over the subs.

Sound stage- Tech wording for the setup of speakers within your car. The best sound stage is components at the front and a sub in the boot. Both of which are run off of amps.

dB- Decibels, this is how loud your system is, the highest in the Uk at the moment is around 170dB. This is very hard to reach. The reason for this is beacause when you go over 154dB every dB louder is classified as twice as loud. For example if someone scores 155dB and the next person 156dB they are twice as loud.

Now a list of the top brands and what they mainly deal with. I am not putting these in order.

JL Audio - speakers subs and amps
Nakamichi - Headunits
Zapco - Amps and subs
DD(Digital Design) - subs
Rockford Fosgate - Everything under the sun.
Eclipse- headunits subs speakers
Fusion - Everthing under the sun
Lightning Audio - Amps speakers subs
Diamond Audio - Amps speakers subs
Genesis - Amps

To check out some good sites with nice price tags visit.

www.cel-direct.co.uk
www.thezeb.com

Thank you for your time.

Steve.
143.3dB corsa

[Edited on 10-01-2003 by snowy]

[Edited on 09-03-2003 by snowy]

sxi

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Registered: 1st Mar 01
Location: Essex
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10th Jan 03 at 22:39

not bad mate but it is every 3 Db that represents a doubling of volume not every 1

SteveW

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Registered: 15th Jul 02
Location: Up in the clouds
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11th Jan 03 at 16:37

Well i cant be correct all the time..... LOL.

corb

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Registered: 24th Apr 02
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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11th Jan 03 at 18:34

quote:
Originally posted by sxi
not bad mate but it is every 3 Db that represents a doubling of volume not every 1

it depends how loud the 1st score is, 143dB is twice as loud as 140dB, but 177.8dB is shedloads louder than 177.7dB's. Its kinda a sliding scale, if u were to draw a graph, the line plotted would be a curved one.

corb

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Registered: 24th Apr 02
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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11th Jan 03 at 18:37

and for SQ, Focal make AMAZING speakers, matched well with Audison amps. and alpine mak really high sq headunits.

ultim8DTM5

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Registered: 18th Jun 02
Location: Sydney, Oz
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12th Jan 03 at 05:37

Nakamichi also make amplifiers, speakers and subwoofers.
Digital Designs (DD) also make amplifers.

btw SQ= Sound Quality whereas SQL=mix of SQ and SPL, normally a SQ system that can hit above 148-150dB.

quote:
Sound stage- Tech wording for the setup of speakers within your car. The best sound stage is components at the front and a sub in the boot. Both of which are run off of amps.

This is VERY GENERALISED. A sound stage can best be described that you are sitting in the audience of a theatre or concert with the sound coming from in front of you, meaning that the ideal placement is in the dash (which is why Focal made 5 inch subwoofers... and why time alignment was invented.) Further they do not need to be run off seperate amps, I have heard IASCA winning SQ systems run off the single 4,5,6, and in some cases 7 and 8 channel amplifier.

More definitions for SQ:

Imaging: how sharp and vivid the placement of the instruments appear on the soundstage. Ideally they should not be blurred or lacking focus. Eg: playing a live recording, we should be able to hear the precise position of each instrument as if we were listening to the actual performance..

Staging: the accuracy of the soundstage, concerning width, depth and height. A good staging system will convince the listener that the players in the band are placed correctly playing across the windscreen and possibly outside the physical limits of the car. The listener should believe that the vocalist is in front and the drummer is behind them. Hard to achieve but what is aimed for.

Deadening: layering the interior of the car to provide better acoustics such as in areas of the inner door skins and in extreme cases, the roof lining and floor. This absorbs sound and cancels reverberation, as well as outside noise (such as rattles, road noise etc.) Brands such as Focal Plain Chant, Dynamat and Brown Bread are examples.

[Edited on 12-01-2003 by ultim8DTM5]

Trotty

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Registered: 22nd Feb 01
Location: Bristol
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12th Jan 03 at 11:21

Good thread folks!

Ian

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SteveW

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Registered: 15th Jul 02
Location: Up in the clouds
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12th Jan 03 at 16:46

Cheers for that guys. In general it is pretty informative. I aint no ICE god, but i do try.

CorsaSRi16v

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Registered: 2nd Nov 01
Location: Staffordshire Drives: Honda Accord Type-R
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16th Jan 03 at 17:45

quote:
Originally posted by snowy

Now a list of the top brands and what they mainly deal with. I am not putting these in order.

JL Audio - speakers subs and amps
Nakamichi - Headunits
Zapco - Amps and subs
DD(Digital Design) - subs
Rockford Fosgate - Everything under the sun.
Eclipse- headunits subs speakers
Fusion - Everthing under the sun
Lightning Audio - Amps speakers subs
Diamond Audio - Amps speakers subs
Genesis - Amps

What about Phoenix Gold? (Amps, Signal processors etc..)

Also can someone do an explanation of RTA?

I find it hard to describe to people.

[Edited on 16-01-2003 by CorsaSRi16v]

corb

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Registered: 24th Apr 02
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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16th Jan 03 at 20:42

this is a bit basic, cos i have basic knowledge on these!!

RTA - Real Time Analyser

Can be used to find a cars resonate frequency(the frequency which performs loudest in a vehicle). This is done by playing a frequency sweep, from around 20Hz - 100Hz. Then the loudest one is shown on a graph produced by the RTA.

They do more than this, as you would expect for something which can cost as much as £3000 or so.

Anyone with a better explanation, please enlighten me as this is something i dont know much about!! Jamie, Mario, UltimateDTM5 etc.??

maddog

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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: st helens
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17th Jan 03 at 01:25

MISSED OUT A FEW THERE MATE,

ORION,
PLANET AUDIO
CERWIN VEGA
STROKER(ALSO MADE BY CERWIN VEGA)

corb

Member

Registered: 24th Apr 02
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
User status: Offline

17th Jan 03 at 01:41

quote:
Originally posted by maddog
MISSED OUT A FEW THERE MATE,

ORION,
PLANET AUDIO
CERWIN VEGA
STROKER(ALSO MADE BY CERWIN VEGA)

the list could go on forever, but it has to be limited to a certain degree: brahma, treo, audiocontrol etc.etc.

AndyW

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Registered: 28th Oct 02
Location: Greater London
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19th Jan 03 at 17:30

wats clipping??

mariomb

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Registered: 8th Aug 02
Location: Mexico
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20th Jan 03 at 09:57

Regarding RTA:

I'll refer to a previous post of mine:

"RTA, or Real Time Analysis is a measurement of your system's frequency response in your car. It accounts for speaker placement, speaker quality, and amplifier power, and equalisation.

The sound is analysed in Real Time, playing test tones and music. The frequency response graph should be "flat", with no peaks in bass, midrange or treble response.

If there's a peak, it can be compensated for with equalisation, and better speaker placement.

By the way, a new CD player, no matter how expensive, will have no effect whatsoever on frequency response. Trust me on this.

You're better off investing on quality speakers. But most of all, you should experiment with speaker placement. Speaker placement has the greatest impact on frequency response.

Equalisation only works with a high-end EQ, with more than 15 bands.

But anyway, a perfectly "flat" system will sound a bit thin for most people, so this is more suited to competition systems, where accuracy is key.

But as I've said, the only real improvements will come from speaker placement, so there's little need to spend on expensive CD players and EQs."

The test signal used for the analysis is "pink noise", which has an uniform level across all frequencies. It's similar to FM radio inter-station "hiss". Then, any peak caused by the car's interior will show up on the RTA graph. Peaks at 60 Hz. are common, which is good, because it reinforces bass response from subwoofers. Peaks at the midrange frequencies are usual, too, around 1000 Hz. or so. These peaks make the sound "honky" or "tinny". That why you feel the need to turn the center band in an graphic equaliser down a bit.

An experienced ICE enthusiast can usually "tweak" a system just by ear, with fairly good results. RTA is really a concern for competition systems. A LOT of people don't like the sound of a "perfect" RTA curve, myself included. It's just too flat for me. No bass, and a lot of midrange. In a parked car, with the engine off, it can be impressive, though.

There are PC programs which can turn your soundcard into an RTA, so you can perform roughly accurate tests. You need, however, to invest in a quality microphone.

CopyWrite

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Registered: 16th Apr 02
Location: South Walez
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27th Jan 03 at 21:12

Clipping is when you have the gain on the amp turned up too much n the volume n u work the amp into over-drive, although this can be easily ignore because it's not easy to tell....untill it cud be too late.

G_Sleigh

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Registered: 28th Jan 03
Location: Nottingham
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28th Jan 03 at 21:21

that is one damm good little feature explaining all the tech terms. we dont have that on SSC

TOMAS

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Registered: 7th Aug 02
Location: Nottinghamshire
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2nd Feb 03 at 13:12

Why read that when I live 2mins away and can explain all this gaz LOL

CRB 553

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Registered: 5th Apr 02
Location: NE Drives: Punto GT
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28th Feb 03 at 12:35

db is about loudness...u carnt say that a certain increment = twice as loud... without going into details its basically a measurment of air pressure or a resonant value...as sum1 said b4 its a curved line, rectangular hyperbola i think...

AndyW

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Registered: 28th Oct 02
Location: Greater London
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8th Mar 03 at 10:53