Increase The Output Volume And Measure Again
Now, you know how to measure the output watts of the amplifier. These steps will help you estimate the maximum output that the amp can give. So, find the volume button of the amplifier. This volume button is usually a screw that needs to be tightened and loosened when you want to increase or decrease the volume.
You will have to increase the output volume of the amplifier to get most of it. To increase the volume of the amplifier, take the screw and tighten it more and more until you achieve the full strength of your amplifier.
How Much Wire Do You Need
Its always best to measure to make sure but since many people use speaker wire for almost the same things there are some common lengths that work. In the diagram above you can see some common lengths for speaker wire that should be in the ballpark.
Buying & using speaker wire is definitely one of those cases where the old advice better to have too much than not enough applies! You dont want to run out of wire because of not planning well.
To figure out how much speaker wire you need, my suggestions is to use one of the following:
- A tape measure
- A long length of strength to run
Be sure to try to take curves & bends into account but dont worry about getting it exactly right. Measure the distance and then add a few feet to account for little differences.
A tape measure works well and so does string or rope you can place along the path where the wire will go.
Mark the length, then measure it. I like to add;at least; 1 foot of length for each wire section for home stereo use and 2 feet each for car stereo installations to play it safe.
The Weight Of The Speakers
The weight of the speakers becomes an important factor depending on where you intend to mount them. For instance, speakers for mounting inside door panels need to be lightweight to reduce adding too much weight to the doors. But the weight isnt an issue for speakers for mounting in other parts of the car.
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How To Measure Your Existing Subwoofer:
Step 1: Remove the subwoofer from its enclosure.
The first step involves turning off your sub and removing it from its enclosure or mounting. You might need a screwdriver to remove the mounting holes if your speaker is an enclosure.
Be sure to remove any covers in front of your speaker as well for easy measuring process.
Once you pull out the speaker from its mounting, disconnect any wires attached to it so that its completely detached from the enclosure.
Step 2: Measure the speaker mounting depth.
With the speaker sitting upright, take a ruler or tape measure and use it to measure the mounting depth of your subi.e., the height from the back of your speaker to its mounting frame.
Start measuring from the bottom up to the flat metallic or plastic piece around the cone . Note down the resulting measurement as the subwoofers mounting depth.
Step 3: Now measure the mounting height.
Now, youll need to take the distance from the bottom of your speaker mounting frame all the way up to its highest projection point.
With the speaker sitting upright, place your ruler or tape measure at the bottom of the mounting flange and find the height from this plate to the highest point of the speaker.
You can look at your speaker from the side to get a clear picture of how far it protrudes from the mounting plate.
Ensure you note down this height on a paper as the mounting height.
Step 4: Take the cutout diameter measurement.
Note down the resulting measurement as cut-out diameter.
Measure The Car Speakers Diameter
Have your notepad, pen, transparent ruler, and the metallic measuring tape for this and following steps. Get enough working space and place your speaker in an upright position. The magnet side should be on the surface of the bench and the cone-side facing up. Measure the widest point of the speaker frame from one edge to the other. Most speakers have their diameter/size stated in inches, and hence it would be best to measure in inches.
If the speaker is not round-shaped, please take the measurements of the widest points on every side of the frame. A pro tip here, if the speaker has four mounting holes, the diagonal distance between opposite holes and the frame diameter are equal, and hence you can measure either.
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How Do I Check If A Speaker Wire Is Positive Or Negative
The most common kinds of positive wire markings are shown here as examples. 99% of the time, figuring out which wire is positive is really easy once you know what to look for.
The good news is that once you know what to look for, 99% of the time its very easy to tell which speaker wire is positive and which is negative.
Heres a list of the most common positive speaker indicators:
Of the 5 kinds, imprints can occasionally be a little bit harder to notice so sometimes you need to look very closely under good lighting. Also, positive wires that use a + print can be a little hard to read sometimes, too.
The Type Of Screws For Mounting The Speakers
The type of screws may not matter in selecting matching speakers for your car, but they can save you tons of modification work. Getting exact mounting screws as those of old speakers ensures you dont need to drill new holes. And if you get those that match both in size and shape, the better, as they will fit in the old holes like lock and key and be as tight as required.
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Consider Mounting Holes For The New Speakers
Detect The Mounting Holeâs Outer Diameters
Itâs essential to find the widest part of the mounting hole and put the ruler through the hole. You start calculating the distance from one holeâs edge to the opposite one.
Thus, you’ll determine the maximum size for the new speakers. A thing to remember is to note down the measurement. The outer diameter is always equal to or slightly larger than the size of the speaker’s mounting frame. In the case of the non-round mounting hole, you must measure the largest point on every side.
Measure The Hole’s Inner Diameter
After measuring the outer diameter, you need to measure the inner diameter of the speaker hole. Some speaker boxes have a tiny recessed lip around the inner of the hole.
On one recessed holeâs side, you put the ruler and measure across to the other holeâs side. If your speaker includes a recessed lip, the cutout diameter has to be slightly smaller than or equal to its size. Otherwise, it will not fit the hole.
Measure The Space To Put The Speaker In The Hole
The next thing to do is to know the available space to put the speaker in the hole. You stick the ruler in the mounting hole and force it as far back as it can.
Once you canât force the ruler further, get the measurement to decide the maximum depth for your speaker. Please make sure that you will have a new speaker with a shorter mounting height than what youâve measured.
Know The Screw Pattern
There Are 3 Things To Measure About Your Car Speakers
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How To Measure A Subwoofer Easiest Way To Do It
So your current subwoofer went out or youre planning to upgrade to a new model? In that case, youd want to save some cash by using the existing enclosure instead of buying a new one.
This brings in the need to measure the subwoofer. You want to know the exact measurements of your old speaker so that you can replace it with a model of the same size that easily fits in the excising enclosure.
Read on to discover how to measure a subwoofer correctly
Connect The Subwoofer To The Amplifier
To begin measuring the wattage of the amplifier, you should connect the subwoofer to the amplifier first. The subwoofer that you are using must have two wires which are always connected at the output ports of the amplifier.
You will join the positive wire of the subwoofer to the positive output terminal, whereas the negative wire with the negative terminal.
The wires of the subwoofers are often in red and black. The red wire will go to the positive port, and the black wire will go to the negative port of the amplifier. Before connecting the amplifier to the subwoofer. You must check that the amplifier is turned off to prevent yourself from getting an electric shock.
Insert the red wire in the positive port of the amplifier after disconnecting the amplifier from the power source and then tighten the screws of the port. Do the same for the black wire, and the subwoofer is connected to the amplifier.
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Important Measurements To Consider When Determining Your Cars Speaker Size
Probably you want to upgrade your pioneer car speakers; the act of changing the speakers is not just something you would do with your eyes closed. For instance, if your cars stereo system previously had 6*9 car speakers, then you do not want to get an upgrade that is anything more or less than that in measurements.
Start with getting information on your cars existing stereo system. You will have to connect your speakers to your stereo system, and so this will help you to get speakers which are compatible with your stereo system.
How To Measure Speaker Mounting Height
To measure speaker mounting height, place the speaker with the cone facing up.
The height of the speaker that stays above the mounting area can be measured using two rulers. Place one ruler horizontally on top of either speaker surrounding or the tweeter in coaxial speakers, ensuring parallel position against the mounting area.
The second ruler place in a vertical position across the top ruler and bottom of the mounting frame. The measurement you take is the distance between both surfaces.
When buying new speakers, make sure they are not too tall that could cause damage when in contact with other objects, like plastic door panels.
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Access And Remove The Old Car Speakers From Their Housing
Youll need the panel removing tools and a screwdriver for this step. A word of caution here, switch off your car to ensure no power is flowing to the speakers for apparent reasons. Remove any cover or grill in front of the speaker by either unscrewing or popping them out.
You should be able to access the speaker mounting screws once the covers are out of the way. Unscrew them. Carefully pull the speaker out of the mounting hole, and disconnect the wires attached to it.
How To Measure Car Speakers Screw Pattern
Screw pattern is the easiest dimension to be measured with no difference for the round, oval, or square speakers. Use a tape measure or a ruler to measure it correctly, and take your measurements for the speaker holes across from each other.
The more difficult it is to measure the screw pattern in the speakers with a nonsymmetrical shape or uneven mounting holes.
However, these are specific cases, and when replacing such speakers, it is better to use adaptor rings fitting the original location in the car.
Conventional sized aftermarket speakers have a wide choice of different models to choose from, so you can select a speaker to fit your needs.
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The Differences Between Speaker Sizes
When looking at the speakers we sell, multiple dimensions and details about the manufacturer are considered when deciding whether they match in different cars. The classification of the size is closest to the diagonal measurement and hole orientation of the frame. It’s not just about the cone diameter or the speaker’s cutout diameter, which is a common misconception.
How To Measure For A Replacement Speaker
So you just blew a speaker or are gonna be upgrading soon but you’re not sure what size speaker your gonna need. There are a few things to keep in mind before you assume you know what size to buy and this video will show you what to look for.
Don’t put yourself in that position, trying to stick your brand new speaker that just arrived into your enclosure only to find out, IT DOESN’T FIT?!?!
Let us help!
*There are many factors that go into choosing the right speaker for a replacement or upgrade. This video is only to meant to be a guide on measuring for speaker size
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Coaxial Vs Component Systems
Coaxial speakers refer to a type of speaker that has a woofer and a tweeter built into it. Usually, the woofer covers up a large surface area of the speaker while the tweeter pokes through the middle. Component systems, on the other hand, are single tweeters that are separate from the woofer.
Coaxial speakers are more comfortable to install as it will replace the factory speaker in the central factory opening in your doors, dash, or rear deck. Meanwhile, component systems, especially those containing tweeters separate from the woofer, are more complicated. This is because it includes many circuitries to ensure that the sound is separated from the tweeter and the woofer. It is worth mentioning that because of this intricate process, the audio quality and imaging from a component system is a lot better compared to its coaxial counterpart.
All in all, it depends on what type of speaker youre going to install into your car and how willing you are to really up the sound performance of your speaker replacements. To best know how to measure car speakers, look out for which type of speaker you want to be installed.
How To Measure Depth Of The Speaker Mounting Hole
Mounting hole depth is critical to fit the speaker without the risk of the magnets contact with the interior door panel.
To measure it right, place the ruler inside the mounting hole and push it as far back as it can go, and check the value.
When measuring depth, you have to check several points across the diameter and in the center of the hole if the bottom surface of the mounting hole is uneven.
When you have several different measurements from the various points, your maximum depth is the smallest value you have found.
When buying new speakers, make sure their depth is smaller than the minimum measured depth of the mounting hole. Otherwise, the speaker will not sit flat on the mounting surface, or installation may not be possible at all.
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Which Car Speaker Size Is Right For You
You are just about to give your car a fresh breed of sound with the best fitting speakers. As promised, we go with you all the way. Here are a few pointers we thought you would find useful. They are more or less conclusions for what youve been reading for the last four and a half minutes.
- Check whats already in the car. If you have, say, 6 X 8 speakers, you wont go wrong choosing a new pair of the same size. But
- You can install a different size with a few adjustments. There are professional car speaker installers who create bigger holes and customize the available space to accommodate the speaker size you want.
- If you are in need of bass and are also basing your decision on the available trunk space, you have to consider the maximum box size for the speaker you choose. Again, a professional installer can offer great help in deciding how big the box should be and by extension the appropriate size of speaker.
- Small speakers are a better choice for high frequencies and fast changes in frequencies and volumes. Larger speakers are more efficient at producing low frequencies.
- DONT FORGET that a poorly made speaker will produce poor sound regardless of its size. So, pay attention to the speakers structure and the materials that have been used to make it.
How To Measure Car Speakers
Measuring car speakers is straightforward but can sometimes get tricky, especially if youre new to car speakers. Something to note here is that there may be some confusion in the standard measure for car speaker sizes at times among manufacturers. And as we discussed earlier, some manufactures will give screw holes diameter as the speaker size, and in some extreme cases, the cutout diameter is confused with speaker diameter. And some car manufacturers will even use non-standard speaker sizes that better fit with the dimensions of the car model.
Many car speakers manufacturers and retailers have extensive databases for ideal speaker sizes and types for specific car models. Even so, youll need to know the actual specifics of your speaker mounts to get the best fit. Besides, the absence of an industry standard for car speakers means there can be a big difference between listed dimensions and what can fit in your car. Below are the steps of how to measure car speakers:
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