If you’ve got basic know-how of how equalizers work, and you can tweak your favorite songs and adjust them to sound their best withstanding all the road noises and ambient sounds of your car, then this article is for you.
You’ve probably already tried and failed to improve the mid-bass in your car’s stereo. After several attempts, you’re finally here. Well, sit back, relax, we’re going to take you on a ride exploring all there is to know about mid-bass and how to make the best of it.
What Exactly Is Mid-bass?
For those of you who don’t really know, mid-bass is the audio frequency that ranges between 200Hz and 500Hz. It’s a very tricky frequency range because a whole lot of instruments tend to have their pitches within this range. Almost everything from voice to brass instruments falls within this frequency.
Hence, it’s considered the most critical frequency range by both sound engineers as well as listeners.
Generally speaking, the simplest way to improve your car stereo’s mid-bass performance is by adding separate mid-bass speakers and setting the equalizer to range between 200Hz and 500Hz.
Or, you could just go manual and just soundproof your car’s doors and install speakers on foam baffles. Hold on. I haven’t told you what mid-bass speakers are, have I?
What Makes Speakers Mid-bass?
Mid-bass speakers or woofers are designed so that they can highlight and emphasize certain frequency ranges known as a high pass frequency (200Hz-500Hz). They naturally add more depth to the sound produced by your car’s sound system.
Some folks out there like using subwoofers and mid-range woofers to get sound that has the Mid-bass blended between the two. But that can be tricky. If you can’t manage to set it up properly, the frequency gets spread out and sounds all thin and muffled.
Mid-bass speakers are specifically designed to tackle this problem by toning down the frequencies that are otherwise too high for subwoofers but not high enough for mid-range speakers.
How Do I Improve the Mid-bass in My Car?
As I mentioned before, you can improve the Mid-bass in your car’s stereo by adding Mid-bass speakers to it. But that’s not the only way you can do it.
There are a handful of options with and without using specialized speakers that you can try out to get better performance from your vehicle’s sound system. Yes, this is the ‘going manual’ part I was talking about earlier. Here’s how to do it:
By Sound-Deadening Your Car’s Rear and Front Doors
For a start, you’d have to remove the interior door panel of your car. The process depends a lot on the car’s interior. Thus, is different for every vehicle. But the general idea is to use plastic panel popper tools. As a result, people don’t end up accidentally scratching or damaging the interior.
Look for the areas in the panel that is bolted to the car’s door. After you have carefully removed the panel, you’ll need to remove the factory vapor shield.
The vapor shield is installed in the car to prevent moisture from water or humid weather conditions from getting inside your car. Don’t worry, we’re removing it for now. However, there’s a part of the soundproofing equipment that will substitute for it.
For doing this, you need to install some sound treatment materials into the interior of your car that’d actually serve as padding or cushioning for your car’s audio system.
You’d find this material online or in hardware stores. It’s pretty much like a sheet of foam with a rubber coating on one side and adhesive for sticking it on the other.
You must measure the entire area that you’d be adding the sound deadening mat or padding for soundproofing here. That prevents the chances of adding too much or too little material than what’s needed.
When soundproofing a car’s front door, there are four main areas that you’d need to focus on. First of all, the inside of the cavity of the door. Then comes the sheet metal surface on the inside of the door. Thirdly, and this is the tricky bit, the mechanics of the window-raising installment.
Well, there are actually a couple of different ways of addressing that area, but we’re simply just going to cover the whole area with our sound treatment material. The fourth area of the front door that you’ll need to worry about is the door panel.
You want to sound treat the backside of the door panel so that it doesn’t echo any of the sound coming from the speakers.
For the rear, make sure you cover the flat areas of your car’s interior that have a sheet metal surface on them with an ample amount of soundproofing material. These are the areas that tend to vibrate, ring, and echo loud frequencies a lot.
Little friendly tip here:
If you’re running low on soundproofing items, you can easily leave out relatively curved areas, and it won’t make much of a difference. Once you’ve coated all the flat areas with soundproofing materials, focus on the areas surrounding the place where your speakers are located.
Another thing that produces potential vibration noise while the music is playing other than the sheet metal is wire harnesses. Especially if those are located near the speakers.
To treat the wire harnesses to make them soundproof, just cover them with a sheet of closed-cell foam material. Just wrap it around the wire harness and tape it well. Cloth tape works the best for this.
Using Mid-bass Speakers and an Amp
If you have a good amplifier with a crossover, then the job is pretty simple. Just set the crossover’s settings so that the high pass filters are set to a frequency range that suits your speakers and subwoofers.
Start by setting the high pass filters at 500Hz and then make necessary adjustments to it. Now, you’ll do the same with the low pass filters, only starting by setting the frequency range just below 200Hz.
Whatever frequency you have left in between the two filters is the frequency range of the Mid-bass. Now you’ll need to adjust the crossover of either the high or the low pass filter of your amplifier to extend into that particular frequency range.
Mind noticing if the filters are overlapping, where they are overlapping, and whether they are overlapping where they should. IF you manage to overlap the filters to a specific frequency range, it’ll add more clarity to the sound you’ll be getting.
This happens because the sound is coming equally from both the subwoofer and the midrange speaker.
If your amp does not come with a crossover, then don’t worry. You can still adjust the equalizer frequency of your car’s stereo.
Using Spacers and Gaskets
Adding spacers and gaskets to your door speakers when you install them can also help enhance their Mid-bass performance. These are pieces of foam and rubber ergonomically designed to contour the sound holes of your speakers.
They help channel the sound into your cabin without it getting caught up or bouncing off around the entire interior of your car. In the process, muddying and losing its strength on its way out. You can find these online, or in stores that sell car audio equipment.
By Getting Quality Gear
Quality doesn’t always mean expensive. It’s actually a whole process of planning and choosing every part of your entire audio system so that they are the best match for each other.
I mean, what’s the point of buying a whole lot of expensive gear and have huge gaping holes when it comes to the compatibility between them?
Most people go freakishly crazy about choosing the right subwoofer, but don’t seem to put that much effort into getting a good pair of speakers to go with them.
Then comes the driver. Extracting great Mid-bass from your speakers becomes a piece of cake if you have a high-quality Mid-bass driver. It’s really all about having the perfect balance between all these components that make the perfect sound system.
Pearls of Wisdom
Apart from choosing the right equipment and powering it to a sufficient amount, another thing that makes a huge difference is how your car’s stereo system sound is. It’s the process of the installation itself.
If you installed it yourself, keep looking for ways to improve it by testing and tinkering with it. You’ll find areas where you could work on it, even if you’ve done your best job on it.
It’s highly recommended that if you want someone else to install it for you, you should hire a proper professional. If you want the best results out of something, obviously you need to have the best hands working on it.
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