Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Best Car Speakers - What to Look For

Car speakers can be a complicated thing if you don't know what you look for as there are many factors that play into finding the right one for you. First off you want to make sure that you're getting a good deal money wise. Doing the research on this is very important, it can be tempting to snag the first one you think will work but get a good list going of what is compatible and make a decision.

While this article is about finding the best speakers it is important to know that without the correct audio setup to be able to power these speakers. If you're not getting enough power to the speakers they will not function properly and can actually get damaged by insufficient power. The standard units that come with most cars are probably not going to be sufficient.

Assuming you have the correct power output you now have to make sure that the RMS on the speakers and on the amplifier match. They both have to have enough power for each other and without the correct amount the system will eventually fail. It would also be wise to know the peak power of the system to ensure unexpected volume boosts or spikes wont damage it.

Many people simply think installing some new speakers will get them the sound they want. It is a general known in the speaker world that unless speakers are full range they aren't worth much by themselves. Having subwoofers and tweeters will give you that full range sound without the distortion you'd get with just a basic speaker alone. You will get a much cleaner and sharper high/low range instead of a good mid with distorted highs and lows.

The next thing we come to is the size of the speakers. Many cars have many different sized speakers and you're going to want to pull out the old ones or check the owners manual to ensure that their replacements are the correct size. This is important because sizes can vary by a very small margin. Some speakers are 5 inches some are 5.5 inches and some are 5.25 inches so knowing the exact size is very important. Ordering some speakers and uninstalling the old ones just to find out you have the wrong ones is a very, very disappointing time. Along with this make sure that the depth of the speaker is not too much. The old speakers could be small with a low margin of error for room fit with how compact cars are these days. Make sure the new ones aren't very much deeper than the old ones unless there is a lot of leeway. Mounting brackets can also take up space so try to account for those as well.

With this information you should have all the concepts you need to find the correct speakers to fit your needs. Picking the right brand is another topic. Simply check out the more popular brands and check customer reviews to find out their true worth. Cross check certain brand prices and find a happy medium. If they're suspiciously cheap with mediocre reviews, it's probably good to stay away, as well as if they're overpriced with not so good reviews, stay away. Find the happy medium with a decent price and great reviews. They're out there, you just have to look!

Steps on Updating Your BMW Navigation DVD

If you BMW is more than one or two year old, it might be the time to update your BMW navigation DVD, especially for the software. The facts that BMW updates with its software every three months by adding new restaurants, hotels, streets and points of interest. Etc. if your driving are much more depending on the car navigation to guide your around traffic jams, you'd better to update BMW navigation software every year.

To update BMW navigation DVD you will need:
• A newly updated BMW disc
• BMW installation manual - different BMWs have different ways of opening the DVD drive but most cars have the drive right in or behind the radio.

Step 1:
Purchase the BMW navigation software. As we mentioned above, BMW releases a new navigation disc every three months. The discs are updated with such items as tourist information, any road changes (newly opened or recently closed roads), locations of parking lots or garages, restaurants, airports, etc. If you tend to be a homebody and rarely explore outlying areas, you might not need to upgrade your BMW navigation software every year. Older BMW car DVD are CD based while those produced after 2002 are DVD based so make sure you purchase the right media for updating of your GPS system. Regardless, whenever you want to update the GPS, you can obtain the or CD at BMW.com.

Step 2:
Locate your BMW car manual and find out how to open the CD/DVD drive. The CD or DVD navigation discs are stored in a drive behind the radio. There will be a button on the radio for either 'eject' or 'open' which you will need to press in order to load the new disc.


Step 3:
Abandon your oldBMW navigation DVD disc. After the drive is open, eject the old disc (if there is one - the newer cars might have the GPS information stored on a computer drive so there may not be a disc. If there is a disc, eject it, and insert the new CD or DVD disc. That's all there is to updating your BMW navigation DVD!