How to Adjust Car Stereo for Best Sound – Maximise your Tunes

Car stereo knob

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Even if you have bought the best stereo on the market, small mistakes while installing it can result in bad output. If you are lucky, just some tuning can give you a better experience. 

The stereos have equalizers in their settings. When you open the equalizer, there are various options like treble, bass, etc.

You can adjust these functions depending on your requirement. Once you are satisfied with the sound, you can easily close the equalizer and enjoy the music.

To do all that, you need to have some basic knowledge about stereos. Let’s have a look at some of the basic terms:

Gain

In your equalizer, the volume is often called gain. Increasing or decreasing the gain results in a higher or lower volume or frequency of your music system.

Treble

The word “treble” describes tones with a high frequency or pitch, between 6 kHz and 20 kHz, which are too high for people to hear.

Bass

Bass are tones of frequencies ranging from approximately 20 Hz to 60 Hz. Various instrument families have them. 

Adjust car stereo - display screen
Car stereo adjustment options | Make Life Click

Woofer

This is made to handle the lower frequencies coming from the music. There are very common in most cars and shouldn’t be confused with Subwoofers.

Tweeter

This is the driver that handles the high-frequency sound fitted in the car for the ambiance of the music played.

Midrange

It is a driver which handles the frequency in between the frequency of the woofer and the tweeter.

Subwoofer

This is the driver, which is also referred to as a sub, and handles the bass frequencies.

Equalizer

An equalizer is a feature in your stereo that boosts your sound system’s quality by adjusting the different frequencies required to be changed. It can even help you with fulfilling demand to get a desired type of sound out of your music.

For example, if you’re in your car playing music and suddenly notice areas where some sounds dominate, other sounds have no role. In that case, you can adjust the sound or area you think is not coming from your speakers.

How to Tune Your Equalizer

There are various types of equalizers in the market. Some are more advanced than others, and some only have two custom features, such as bass and treble. 

When I talk about adjusting the equalizer, I mean amplifying the diffrent frequencies. When you customize the bass or boost it, it will amplify your low-range frequencies. Similarly, customizing the treble would take care of high-range ones.

To tune the equalizer, open it in your stereo. Depending on your stereo model, you can locate the equalizer setting under the audio settings.

Next, play your favorite song from your phone or any other media source. Now start adjusting the frequencies:

Bass

It is important to start with low frequencies. We all love how the bass hits in hip-hop. Nonetheless, it’s also evident that we don’t like the crackling boom, where it feels like the speaker is dead. 

So, adjust the bass to the limit where it doesn’t rattle. In other words, increase it to the point where your speakers can handle it.

Lower-mids

Who doesn’t love long drives with their favorite songs? Many people, including myself, might say that the lower midrange, which ranges from 250 to 500 Hz, is the most pleasant sound on long trips. 

Moreover, you need to slightly increase the frequency to improve the pleasant tones in your music because many songs might sound muddy.

Car stereo- adjustment options
Equalizer options | Make Life Click

Mids

This bad frequency range can tire your ears if boosted and even ruin your mood during long drives. It is advisable to keep it flat while adjusting it in your equalizer setting. 

Upper-mids

This frequency range is not good for your ears when boosted high. If you listen to this frequency for longer times, it might result in some hearing problems. 

Therefore, do not increase it a lot for your good. The gain of this frequency is usually lowered, but a perfect upper mid can give you a very resonant sound.

Highs

Whatever goes in the background of a music track is given by this frequency range. I have noticed that keeping the gain of this setting to the lower part makes the music bad. Increasing the frequency of this setting is advisable to give your music some depth. 

Can Upgrading the Car Stereo Help Improve Sound Quality?

It feels odd to hear that upgrading the car stereo to a double din can improve the sound quality. In reality, it does because the reason behind this is the extra features and setting it provides. 

For example, a cheap car stereo wouldn’t have so many settings. But a double din smart car stereo will have all the equalizer functions to adjust and improve your sound. 

Will Sound-Dampening Material Help Improve Sound Quality?

When you go out on a drive, there is always a road noise inside your car. This sound messes with the sound quality of your stereo, which can be fixed easily by using sound-dampening material in your car.

The trick behind adding these is the location. If you know the right location where these need to be added, you will surely improve the sound quality of your car.

Car stereo button
Car stereo volume button | Make Life Click

Conclusion

So, this is it. I hope you have learned how to adjust the car stereo for the best sound. There were so many settings I mentioned above that you could adjust to make your sound better. 

Overall, remember that there is no perfect equalizer setting available. It all depends on your taste.

A passion for writing and ongoing research projects gives Catherine an incredibly broad knowledge of all things. She has authored an incredible number of articles and can be found in the wilderness when not attached to technology or listening to podcasts.


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