As a lot of people are getting to know now, we at ABTEC have been doing a lot of dB SPL Testing using Entry Level Sub-Woofers. We have tried testing Entry Level Sub-Woofers from Sony, JBL, Digital Designs and this time around we decided to try four of the Pioneer TSW-309-D4 Sub-Woofers. Over this time ABTEC3 has been taking a bit of a beating from the Sound Pressure Levels but I’m sure the little Vitz will continue to happily put up with a lot more for quite some time too. I went through my usual check list as I do...
I though I’d start the year off a little different with a Product Review, your most likely sitting there thinking “whats so different about that?” or “You do Product Reviews all the time!”. Well this time round I will writing the Product Review as I run the Sub-Woofer in and as the SoundQubed Sub-Woofers are new to ABTEC and I am actually very interested how it will sound when it is run in! Out of the box I must say the SQ HDC318-D1 surely looks the part, the weave of the Cone is just thing of beauty and I keep...
Since we get a lot of questions regarding Car Audio Sound Systems Set-up’s we thought it would be a good idea to put up this basic guideline for you all to read through & also to shed some light on the subject at the same time… Use A Sound level Meter: If you are serious about Car Audio, use, borrow or buy a sound level meter. A sound level meter can save you lots of money in the long run. The reason for using a sound level meter is because once you have your system complete, it may take a big...
Being the end of the year it was time for the ABTEC dB Drag Soundoff & Sounds Alive Grand Final. It had already been an interesting year for the Car-Audio/Sound-Off Scene with people continuing to beat their personal bests and a lot of these people had also been doing some very impressive upgrades to their systems. Which is always good to see since sometimes the smallest of upgrades can make a massive difference. As competitors turned up Darryl fired up the BBQ and as the next hour went on you could tell everyone had a good feed as we were...
Since the last dB Drag Event for the year has just past and we had a slight improvement with our results in ABTEC3 I thought I’d do a little Update… As a lot of you know or maybe not know (I can’t be to sure if this is or isn’t your first time to read my blogs) we at ABTEC have had a little project of getting Entry Level Sub-Woofers into 150+dB SPL range in our Toyota Vitz RS. It started with some Sony 10″ Sub-Woofers, then some JBL 12″ Sub-Woofers but then we ran with the DD-512-D4’s and to...
Its that time of the year again, Christmas season is in full force again and all the masses are out and about doing their last minute shopping. So in the spirit of the silly season Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell went out and brought a Santa suit for one of us to dress up in… As you can see as soon as the Santa suit went on the camera came out and started shooting and everyone had a few laughs along the way. I think Santa is pointing out what he wants to give everyone for Christmas here! I’m not sure...
As the year has been going by we have seen quite a few upgrades in Head-Unit models and with no exceptions when it come to Pioneer either, in the last couple month’s they have released over four NEW upgraded Head-Units including the DEH-4450BT being superseded by the NEW Pioneer DEH-X6550BT. The display is very functional and easy to read just like the DEH-4450BT was but this time round you have the option of changing both the display and key button illumination. With 210,000 x 210,000 colour combinations to choose from, it has to be more than enough colours for even the most...
In today’s age of digital music formats (MP3, WMA, etc.) the need for CD-Mech Head-Units seems to be dropping everywhere, this seems to be happening so fast that it wouldn’t surprise me if CD’s were obsolete in the next 5 years or even less. Pioneer have made the MVH Series of Head-Units with this in mind, making them capable of playing most if not nearly every audio format available via the USB/iPod, AUX and Bluetooth functions on the NEW MVH-355BT. As usual with Pioneer the display is simple but very functional making it easy to read both at day and night,...
Sometimes when you put a Single-Din Head-Unit into a car it can still look slightly odd or even out of place even though you have the correct fitting kit, but at the same time can’t justify having a Double-Din DVD Player at the extra cost can become a little annoying. Sony have solved this problem by releasing a Double-Din Head-Unit with more features than you could shake a stick at and at a very affordable price, this Head-Unit is the Sony WX-GT80UI. When I first saw the WX-GT80UI I thought this is a very appealing Head-Unit to the eyes, it has that...
Its not very often that I get excited about an accessory for a Head-Unit but just yesterday I found a small black box next to the messy pile of paper I call a desk, this little black box had Digital Designs’ New DD logo on it which straight away grabbed my attention. At this moment my curiosity had taken over so I had to find out what this little unit was, to my surprise it was a Bluetooth Audio Receiver! The Digital Designs DD-S-LINK is a very cool little unit and it made perfect sense to why Digital Designs would add a Bluetooth Audio...
