Looking for quality Car Audio Equalizer? You may find in here what you are looking for to make your car audio system more complete. With all the road noise, wind noise and engine noise plus the limited space, the car interior is one hostile environment for high quality sound. Hence, audio equalizers for cars have gained popularity for people who like to hear their favorite music while on a trip. It runs audio outs from the car’s VCRs or TVs to amplify the sound for a clearer tone amid the noise around. It is a high fidelity sound control that can make you shift from one frequency band to another resulting to a more soothing effect than the traditional treble and bass controls.
Understanding more about car audio equalizers can help you decide in choosing the best one that suits you requirements.
How does a Car Audio Equalizer works?
There are few things that we need to understand to have a clear grasp of how an equalizer functions. Equalizers increase or decrease the range of an audio signal within a band of frequencies. Some models have several fixed frequencies while others offer a variable center frequency. This range of frequencies is known as the bandwidth and the extent to which the frequencies are affected by an adjustment is known as the Q factor. The lower the Q factor the wider the range of frequencies it can affect.
On the other hand, an octave is the interval between two musical tones spaced half or twice the frequency of the other. This is where the designs of equalizers are based. Some sophisticated Car Audio Equalizer types are called one third octave because their bands are spaced 1/3 of an octave and hence allow a more precise adjustment than those that are designed one or more octaves apart.
Types of Car Audio Equalizers
The most commonly used equalizers for cars are of three types, the graphic, parametric and quasi-parametric equalizers.
Graphic Car Audio Equalizers
Considered as the simplest of the equalizers, graphic equalizers are designed for the slider’s movement to imitate the increase or decrease of its center frequency.
Graphic equalizers are built with multiple sliders to control audio frequencies for better sound clarity. A five band graphic equalizer has five corresponding sliders that controls the following fixed frequencies: 30Hz (low bass), 100Hz (mid-bass), 1kHz (mid-range), 10kHz (upper mid-range) and 20kHz (treble or high-frequency). The frequencies can be adjusted within the +/- 6dB or perhaps +/- 12dB range, depending on the model features. There are models that have more than 5 sliders to allow for a greater tone control.
Parametric Car Audio Equalizers
Parametric equalizers are more complicated in design than graphic equalizers. It controls more elements of each frequency. It can vary the primary frequency and the bandwidth of each resulting adjustments. These kinds of adjustments can also make the Q factor variable.
Aside from having the same adjustment range as that of the graphic equalizer which is at +/- 6dB or +/- 12dB range, parametric equalizers can also adjust the primary frequency setting at certain range. A graphic equalizer has a fixed center at 30Hz while some parametric equalizer can adjust this frequency to a +/-5Hz range to allow for a far better music control to suit your needs. It can further adjust the range of this newly shifted center frequency to +/-10Hz for some models.
Quasi-parametric Car Audio Equalizers
These equalizers allow varying the center frequency but not the Q factor.
Generally, a parametric equalizer costs higher than a quasi-parametric or a graphic equalizer because it allows a finer adjustment of your settings to have a wider range of music tone variations for a more satisfying ride.
Having described the types of equalization, Car Audio Equalizers are further categorized according to its placement in the car. Some are designed to be placed in the dashboard or in the car’s trunk.