I only found out yesterday that Sony makes a $60,000 set of home theatre speakers! After getting all the info sent to me from Sony NZ I have found I am some what obsessing with the Sony SS-AR1’s! And just look at them! They just scream class with the piano black finish! When a lot of people think of Sony they think of low to mid level car audio, what they tend to forget is that Sony has been a big part of the Movie, Entertainment and Music Industries for quite sometime and had established itself as a company in...
In the last year Sony have really lifted their game when it comes to their Head-Units and with the GS Range there is no exception either! At first glance the Sony CDXGS500R looks like any other Sony Head-Unit but I assure you it is not! The Sony CDXGS500R like all Sony units have the same simple but effective display/design which makes upgrading from the GT Range to the GS Range simpler for the end user, the display has more than enough colour options to match your cars gauge cluster or even to set to a custom colour if you are...
The Digital Designs CM600 is Digital Designs‘ entry level Mono-Block Amplifier and I use the term “entry level” loosely, 350w RMS @ 4ohm & 600w RMS @ 2ohm may be entry level for Digital Designs but for some other (that I will not name due to respect) car audio brands 600w RMS is a monstrous amount of power for their factory made subwoofers. As usual with the Digital Designs amplifiers the CM600 has nice and simple design with the casing which is a good thing in my opinion, the nice and sleek black anodised aluminium casing makes for a...
After doing the SPL tests with the four Digital Designs DD-512-D4’s it was brought to my attention by Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell that we have not yet tested two of them for a comparison. This got the brain ticking over and after a long conversation (Ask anyone that knows us, Ashley and I can talk!) with Ashley the decision was made to run with the same design that was netting us results with the four DD-512-D4’s, but this time with only half the box. As I do I setup the car the way I always do before testing, checking and double checking...
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...
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...
When it comes to SPL (Sound Pressure Level) results, anything over the 150dB mark is a phenomenal result no matter how you look at it and getting a result above 150dB requires a lot of time, testing and in some cases money. In most cases people go out and buy high-end Sub-Woofers designed for SPL that usually net good results but come at a high cost to your pocket! We at ABTEC set a little challenge to ourselves, this challenge was to prove that you can get results over the 150dB mark with Entry-Level Sub-Woofers! It took a lot of testing with different...
Its not very often we do cone replacement’s on Digital Designs Sub-Woofers yet alone on a DD-Z18! So when Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell told me that he was going to cut up the DD-Z18 my heart nearly stopped, I had a head full of questions and starting ranting on like some sort of madman looking for any excuse for Ashley not to cut up the Z18. After what felt like a four hour conversation/debate Ashley convinced me that what he was going to do was for the greater good of the Z18 and reassured me that he hadn’t become a sick...
About two weeks ago I had a request for a Sub-Woofer box to be made for a Nissan Stagea, this seemed like a very easy request at the time until I had the measurements text messaged to me. Being one who likes a challenge I got right onto it, first ringing our box builder and seeing if he could work with the dimensions provided already knowing he would have a drawing right quick! Since the box profile could only be so tall the Sub-Woofer choice was quite slim, so after a few conversations the choice was a DD-512-D4. The DD-512-D4 is Digital Designs entry...
What is the difference between SQ (Sound Quality) and SPL (Sound Pressure Levels) ? What is better? And what do you as a music lover prefer? These are questions I get asked all the time and in the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference. In this blog I am going to try explain it as well as I possibly can and also give my own personal opinion on this subject! First of all, SQ (Sound Quality) is about having clarity and fidelity while being able to hear every single frequency of the song nice and clear....
