Car Audio, to hear Bass better

Hey guys,

I have an interesting question in regards to Car Audio. May or may not be the right forum but I figured it’s worth a shot. I am looking to get some speakers for my car so I can hear the bass guitar better but I don’t know where to start. I’m not sure if I should get a subwoofer, or if I should just get some speakers that pick up mids real well.

I’m not necessarily looking for the loudest speakers that set off alarms. I just want to be able to hear the bass guitar very clearly. I’m looking for clean, over loud, in other words.

As far as frequencies go, a subwoofer seems it would be better to pick up really low bass frequencies, which I don’t think is what I’m looking for, but I don’t know if a smaller one in a sealed box may pick up mids better. Literally don’t even know where to start, any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Welcome to the forum.
I don’t have any useful advice for you, but I am sure somebody will come along and give you an answer soon.

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Welcome to the forums @Koraha.
If you fancy it, introduce yourself here: Introduce Yourself! Nice question, sure it’s the right place. It’s bass related! Well then…

Bass is a low sound, so mid speaker will only help partly. If you want to overall boost the basstone in car audio, let’s start first with remembering, that every recording is different. So one recording could sound on the same (car)audio as a good bass, when another will give you on a different sound. And that depends on several different sources: the recording itself, is it on air, is it on cd is it on mp3, is it on a phone in for example acc format, what kind of car audio do you have, how spacy is you car, what’s the sound dampening of your car interieur, to name just a few.

Knowing all those questions, first use a decent recording: meaning don’t plugin you phone as audio source, use cd or a full mp3 player. Might even use tape if you want to. Phone recordings (for example using itunes and iphones, but it’s the same on androide) are extra compressed, so only if you sure it’s an mp3 being played then you have a full range of the source sound.
(As info: on the phone most compression is done to save space, it’s done by, in part, removing the low sound range, yes where bass sounds are. As most folks listen through small plugin headphone which aren’t able to deliver a deep bass sound. Yet because those are inears, most people believe they still hear all the bass. It’s a lot of fun to let people experience the differences between headphone, hifi audio sets and studiorecordong listened to in the recordingstudio itself. It’s very different, even without) in general if you a good recording format like mp3 you will have more bass available to listen go.

Second, any (car) audio can be improved by using a equaliser that way you can boost the low and mid range giving you more bass sound to enjoy.
If you have done that, then add a subwoofer: those are meant to play the low range in a recording. (Read, the play the bass tones the best from your speakers) you experience the bass sounds easier. (So yes you could argue that the space in a car isn’t the best place to play bass loud as most carparts will start to resonate. But your asking not for loudness, you ask for a more clear bass sound)

What might seam a different approach is to look at something like https://bassprogo.com/products/jbl-basspro-go?variant=38176210682054
It has basicly all the above meant features allready built in. So connecting this to your caraudio system will give a low range sound boost or to say it in general: let you experience the bass in a good bass-included recording better.
Hopes this helps, if you want more indept answering of any part, just ask. I’ll do my best to explain it in a readible and simple form.
Cheers, Remco

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Thanks for the responses.

To address some of the questions, here’s what I got:

I have a 2016 Nissan Altima Base model with a stock head unit with very little EQ options available. The speaker system itself, is stock and there is no OEM amp. The music will be played in both CD and via Spotify over Bluetooth. As for dampening, it’s just a base model and I don’t think the dampening is very good lol, so that’s one reason why I don’t really want something too loud, just clear. Without a doubt this car will fall apart with something too loud.

A good song to represent the sound I’m looking to hear more clearly would be bass lines in The Pot by Tool, or Got the life by Korn when he’s slapping. The reason why I’m thinking component speakers over sub is because part of the sound that I’m looking to hear, is the pick or fingers hitting the strings, which isn’t a low note necessarily that a subwoofer would pick up. That sounds like EQ could help on that too.

As far as the JBL Basspro, I think it would do a really good job for what I’m looking for, but I was looking for a less portable solution, like maybe replacing my rear speakers with something bassier, or leaving those alone and adding a small sub in it’s own enclosure in the trunk. I do really like the concept though. Do you know of anything like this that isn’t Bluetooth enabled that you just leave in your trunk and wire directly to your head unit? Like a prebuilt system just like that? When I look at the JBL Basspro for what it is, it looks like maybe a 4 inch woofer with some tweeters.

When I asked the question, I was unsure of getting a subwoofer (what size, for my intended use) or something like this https://www.amazon.com/Infinity-KAPPA-90CSX-Component-Switchable-Crossover/dp/B075ZZJ418/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=6x9+component+speakers&qid=1620906052&sr=8-5#customerReviews

Now I’m also wondering if I should get a head unit too that has an EQ.

P.S. Please forgive me for not being able to clarify this very well. I’m new to learning Bass guitar and I’m unable to communicate what I’m looking for with the language of music lol.

I wish I could just have this in my car lol Tool - The Pot tested on speakers at convention - YouTube

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Yep, you want different sounds to be more clear in order to pick them out of the total sound.
That’s the most easily done with EQ.

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Yes, that exist: you have to look at car hifi audio for that. See for example https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/helix/

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I think you’re looking more and more at a total different car audio system than just an upgrade of speakers.
It’s the same for bass, we call that: GAS
(Look it up in the forum :shushing_face:)

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No need to appologise: we all started to learn about these things at some point in time.
I’ve had my share of asking and learning and still don’t know everything on the subject.

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You might be better of to start from scratch, then: To pick an audio system you would like to have if money or knowledge wouldn’t be an issue?
Then kind of reverse-engineering back to what you have and then what to upgrade first.

You car is at a standard level, in regards to sound handling from any audio system.
You got your source, all you basicly need is an amp, EQ and speakers.
Therefor I still would look at adding an EQ first: you got soeakers and an amp. (Radio)
That’s the better option because you want to filter out / pick up different sound ranges.
Only an ‘audiofreak’ will hear the extra differences between speakers in a car if you use EQ properly. (In a house stereo situation more people will here the differences, without the use of an EQ)
An extra amp gives you more option what kind of carspeakers you want. More clear sound would include more powerfull speakers needed, very quickly you’re then looking for an amp on top of you current caraudio system as well.

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Thanks, that’s the route i’m going to go, amp/speakers/head unit and if the bass is really lacking maybe one of those under the seat subs. I appreciate your responses!

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Nice, keep us posted. :loud_sound:

The folks at Crutchfield specialize in car audio and would be able to answer any questions you may have. You can also enter the make, year and model of your car to find out what fits.

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