Is Upgrading Your Car Speakers ACTUALLY Worth It?

Jul 27, 2023

Is Upgrading Your Car Speakers ACTUALLY Worth It?

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We are tired of the Miata speakers sounding like our music is playing next to a blender, it sucks! And it’s not fair to our sweet head unit. So we decided it’s time to pair the miata with new speakers and an amp! This is gonna be fun … or will it?

Money Pit is where you get to learn about cars as we work on them. Each ep we’ll breakdown how each component works and then we’ll upgrade it. Join us in our journey to build cool cars, learn about them, and drive the crap out of them!

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Content

0.07 -> - Do you like to jam out in your car but

2.53 -> your speakers kinda sound like they're underwater?

5.216 -> (distorted upbeat music) ('Pop Up Up And Down')

7.7 -> The Miata only has two little door speakers and no roof.

10.94 -> I can't hear the music.

12.13 -> So today, we're gonna install a six set of

14.17 -> JL Audio speakers and amp.

16.57 -> So, I can finally start to hear the music.

18.73 -> We'll talk about how to pick a set of speakers,

20.76 -> how to match an amp to them.

22.46 -> And then finally, of course, how to install 'em.

25.31 -> We'll see if all the time, money,

27.15 -> and effort it takes is worth it.

29.15 -> I have a feeling it's gonna be.

30.74 -> I'm Zach and this is Money Pit,

32.11 -> it's time to hear the music!

34.053 -> (upbeat music)

37.648 -> (thunder cracking)

38.59 -> - Thanks to Omaze for sponsoring today's video.

41.15 -> All my life I've been searching for the ultimate off-roader.

44.21 -> That's why Omaze brought me out here to James's private

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52.292 -> (car engine revving)

54.72 -> - What did I say? I told you we had a TRX.

57.252 -> (high intensity music)

60.3 -> - One of you has the chance to win this Ram 1500 TRX.

64.68 -> Taxes and shipping included,

66.5 -> plus 20,000 dollars cash.

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81.4 -> And it's not just the outside that's impressive.

83.58 -> Pop the hood and you get a 702 horsepower supercharged V8

88.17 -> that gets you from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds.

92.018 -> (car engine revving)

93.834 -> The best of all, every donation helps support Team Rubicon.

97.04 -> A nonprofit organization that utilizes

99.26 -> the skills and experiences

100.92 -> of military veterans to help people prepare,

103.78 -> respond, and recover from disasters.

106.3 -> So for your chance to win this Ram 1500 TRX

109.45 -> go to omaze.com/donutmedia.

112.45 -> If you use promo code RAM150

114.8 -> you'll get 150 additional entries.

117.38 -> That's omaze.com/donutmedia.

121.26 -> Good luck.

122.33 -> - All right, now before we go slam in

123.75 -> new speakers in this thing all willy nilly,

125.96 -> let's get out the old decibello meter

127.92 -> and see how loud the speaker system is now.

130.41 -> So we can see how much we've improved,

132.34 -> in terms of loudness at the end of this.

134.701 -> (inhales)

135.58 -> For that, there's only one song

138.4 -> that we're legally allowed to use.

140.259 -> (distorted upbeat music) ('Pop Up Up And Down')

143.63 -> All right, so with my phone volume maxed out

145.687 -> and the head unit volume at 25,

148.12 -> we maxed out at 87.8 decibels.

151.18 -> Now I'm gonna turn it up and do it again,

153.43 -> uh- but I just wanna get this at kind of a

154.87 -> medium volume and at max volume.

157.65 -> So, let's turn it up.

164.375 -> (distorted upbeat music) ('Pop Up Up And Down')

173.35 -> Well, not only is that not very loud, it sounds terrible.

177.59 -> Oh, that was awful.

178.88 -> Honestly, even if these things don't get any louder

180.88 -> if they just sound better, that would be a win.

183.2 -> But, I think we're gonna be able to handle both.

185.23 -> They're gonna sound a hell of a lot better

187.21 -> and more clear with better bass reproduction,

189.778 -> and they're gonna be way louder than that.

192.37 -> So (laughs) we can only go up from here.

195.31 -> And we'll finally be making good use of our head unit.

197.56 -> You may remember we put this fancy pioneer head unit

200.32 -> in this Miata a while back.

201.92 -> But the fact is head units don't put out that much power.

204.83 -> They don't put outta bunch of power to your door speakers

207.38 -> so, if you're just relying on your head unit

209.49 -> to power your speakers,

210.8 -> well you're relying on a pretty weak muscle.

212.8 -> That's where an amp comes in.

214.31 -> And that should really take these

215.7 -> speakers to the next level.

216.81 -> It'll power them really nicely, really cleanly.

219.68 -> It'll sound crisp.

221.06 -> The sound overall is gonna sound a lot better

223.86 -> than what this head unit can crank out.

225.37 -> So, I'm excited.

226.56 -> I think this is gonna be a big benefit to the old Miata.

230.27 -> So to fulfill my fantasy of actually hearing music

233.22 -> in the Miata,

234.81 -> here's what I got.

235.87 -> I got JL Audio's entry level set of speakers.

238.74 -> These are their C1's in a six and a half inch,

241.34 -> which is, what you need for the Miata.

243 -> And then I also got their 4 Channel 400 watt amp.

245.873 -> That is gonna be a nice match with these speakers.

249.15 -> And together they should sound great.

251.04 -> JL Audio is probably my favorite audio equipment company,

254.46 -> so I'm really hoping they don't disappoint.

256.58 -> Then of course, to tie it all together,

258.03 -> we've got our amp wiring kit.

259.92 -> This is an important part of any amp and speaker install.

264.35 -> You need to be able to power your amp,

265.93 -> give it a signal from your head unit,

267.63 -> and then send the music signal to your speakers.

269.8 -> So, altogether here, I'm in about 500 dollars.

272.8 -> Which, you can do this for a lot cheaper

275.23 -> but, I'm hoping this stuff is gonna sound really good.

278.23 -> And honestly, being able to hear the music at all

280.63 -> would just be great in the Miata.

282.32 -> A stereo install is really easy and really pretty standard.

286.46 -> It's the same no matter what amp you have,

288.69 -> what speakers you have, or what wiring kit you have.

291.35 -> So everything we do here today you'll be able to use

293.82 -> no matter what kind of amp you got or speakers

296.07 -> so on or so forth 'cause it's all pretty easy.

298.89 -> Now, before we go actually taking anything out of the car

301.53 -> the first thing I wanna do is

303.1 -> decide where I'm gonna mount my new amp.

304.95 -> And then that'll kind of

306.23 -> guide me through the whole installation process

308.47 -> in terms of where I need to route wires and

310.47 -> where things need to go.

311.54 -> So, it should make things go a little bit more

313.44 -> smoothly as long as I kind of have

315.56 -> that guiding light of where everything is gonna go.

318.58 -> Uh- now space is kinda at a premium in the old Miata,

321.83 -> so I think we're gonna have to move to the trunk.

323.91 -> Which is pretty normal.

326.35 -> Okay. So I think that I'm gonna be able to

328.98 -> mount this amp right cheer.

331.38 -> That'll be nice, pretty well tucked out of the way.

333.41 -> Still leave me whatever trunk space I have.

335.81 -> I think that'll be great with the use of some rivnuts,

338.29 -> I'll be able to put some threads in here

340.12 -> and just screw this puppy right to that bulkhead.

342.69 -> So, this is where the amps is gonna go.

344.4 -> So now, as I work from here on out

347.16 -> I'm gonna be working all my wiring to this spot.

350.35 -> The battery happens to be

351.83 -> about a foot and a half from where I'm mounting my amps.

354.07 -> So, that makes things pretty easy.

355.59 -> Now, we're gonna go pull out those old speakers.

359.05 -> Okay. Here's our old speaker an Alpine Type-E.

362.36 -> And these are decent speakers,

363.93 -> even if this one is a little bit beat up.

366.34 -> But, we're replacing it with somethin' a little bit better.

368.38 -> So these speaker wires

369.76 -> run through the cabin and

371.97 -> back to behind the head unit.

373.32 -> But, our speaker signal now

375.68 -> is gonna be coming from the amp,

377.07 -> not from the head unit.

378.47 -> So we would have to intersect these wires

381.54 -> behind the head unit and then wire them to the trunk.

384.18 -> Which would maybe save a little time.

386.45 -> But then we're using this old, crappy,

388.52 -> potentially corroded wire

390.43 -> that's been in here since '94.

392.04 -> So we're gonna completely rewire the speaker wire

394.61 -> which, does take a little bit of time,

396.6 -> but is worth it.

397.83 -> It's gonna give you the best results.

399.644 -> (low tempo jazz music)

401.23 -> So, you do wanna get an Oxygen-Free Copper wiring kit

404.37 -> which is the best at transmitting signal without any loss.

408.09 -> But you also wanna make sure that comes with speaker wire

410.32 -> if you're gonna need speaker wire.

411.84 -> And you're usually gonna need at least some speaker wire.

414.38 -> Otherwise we've got our remote power wire.

416.9 -> This is gonna go from the head unit

418.44 -> to tell the amp to turn on,

420.08 -> when I turn the key on in the car.

421.75 -> And these are our RCAs

422.777 -> and this is what's gonna take the musical signal

425.67 -> from the head unit and send it back to the amp.

427.81 -> These will be wired together from

429.21 -> the head unit back to the amp.

431 -> This will go from the amp to the speakers.

433.54 -> This will go from the battery to the amp.

435.74 -> And then there's our ground wire,

436.89 -> that'll go from the amp to the chassis.

439.29 -> So, these are all the things that we're gonna need to do

441.25 -> to get our new amp up and running.

443.34 -> It's honestly pretty easy and it's pretty standard.

445.54 -> This is what it takes to install any amp.

447.65 -> And it's not that tricky.

449.68 -> Uh- just maybe a little scary 'cause,

451.6 -> wiring stuff is a little weird.

453.54 -> But, it's no big deal. I promise.

456 -> So with that said,

456.95 -> it's time to go chop up some speaker wire.

460.75 -> Okay. So I'm basically just gonna kinda roughly mock this up

463.41 -> to the area where we know we're gonna install our amp.

465.87 -> And uh- I'll leave these a little bit longer than I need 'em

468.7 -> and I'll trim them to size once everything is in place.

471.54 -> But, you obviously don't wanna go too short.

473.95 -> You always gotta kinda plan for the zigzags

475.87 -> you might have to take when you're

477.38 -> finally installing your wire.

478.72 -> So, we'll have to come up and in a little

480.89 -> and we'll go through our little door grommet

483.12 -> and then into the door.

484.16 -> So, this is a little bit longer than I'm gonna need it

486.3 -> but I'm gonna leave that length there and trim it later.

489.21 -> So, cool.

490.043 -> Now I'm gonna cut that speaker wire at the amp end

492.51 -> and do the same thing for the other side.

494.78 -> (upbeat music)

495.68 -> - Okay, really that's about all the wire we got.

498.26 -> So,

500 -> I'm not even gonna trim that for now.

501.51 -> It's a couple of feet too long, but that's just fine.

504.33 -> So now I'm gonna pop this door panel off

506.04 -> get this speaker out and put the speaker wire

508.73 -> into both doors to get ready for our new speakies.

512.078 -> (upbeat music)

514.77 -> So now I just clip those wires and

516.65 -> the ends are kind of exposed.

518.33 -> Now they're just speaker wires,

519.35 -> so it's really not that big of a deal.

520.86 -> But it is good practice,

522.3 -> you know, when you're doing any sort of wiring or

524.52 -> clipping of wires,

525.81 -> that you don't leave any copper exposed

528.16 -> that can touch other wires or touch the ground.

530.65 -> And sometimes it's kinda tricky to cover stuff like that up

533.95 -> in a way that doesn't look terrible.

535.44 -> And for that, I have one of

536.68 -> my favorite things for wiring stuff.

538.55 -> It's Liquid Electrical Tape.

539.93 -> I'm just gonna dab a little bit of this

541.78 -> on the ends of the wires I cut,

543.4 -> just to seal 'em up, just cause it's good practice.

546.5 -> Okay. Now it's time for,

548.55 -> I guess what's probably gonna be

550.1 -> my least favorite part of this.

551.94 -> It's really never that easy.

553.64 -> And for such a silly thing, it can be frustrating.

556.53 -> And that's just getting the speaker wire

558.31 -> from the cabin and into the door.

560.37 -> It means we gotta go through this little grommet guy

562.48 -> and the inside of it's pretty obstructed by the dash.

566.2 -> I do not intend to take the dash out today.

568.41 -> What I'm gonna try to do is jam a welding rod

571.21 -> through this grommet, from the inside of the door,

573.77 -> to the inside of the cabin,

575.25 -> and then hook my speaker wire on to that welding rod

578.34 -> and then pull it through into the door.

581.66 -> That's our speaker wire through the grommet.

583.38 -> Now we just gotta do that same dang thing over here.

587.237 -> (upbeat music)

588.83 -> All right.

589.663 -> So now we're basically ready for some new speakers.

591.96 -> But before we go slamming 'em in,

593.52 -> let's go look at 'em and talk about 'em.

596.95 -> All right. So like I said, we've got this

598.52 -> pair of JL Audio component speakers

600.79 -> in a six and a half inch size to go in the Miata.

603.43 -> But, how did I land on these?

605.37 -> And then, how do you choose an amp to go with them?

608.27 -> Well the truth is when it comes to buying speakers

609.97 -> you can spend about as little money as you want

611.86 -> and about as much money as you want.

613.58 -> And anything in between.

615.22 -> There's cheap stuff, there's super expensive stuff,

617.79 -> and there's stuff that falls somewhere in the middle.

620.04 -> And these fall somewhere in the middle

621.3 -> at a 120 bucks a pair.

622.86 -> Reviews are a great thing to check obviously to

625.39 -> determine whether or not the speakers you're looking at

627.55 -> actually do sound good.

628.99 -> But for the most part,

630.08 -> most aftermarket speaker companies

631.94 -> are capable of making a speaker that sounds great.

634.27 -> So a lot of it really comes down to personal preference

636.84 -> and how much you wanna spend.

638.17 -> But, then the question is,

639.23 -> once you've chosen a speaker that you like and can afford,

642.11 -> well, how do you pick an amp to go with it?

643.83 -> It seems kinda confusing.

645.28 -> And like there might be math involved.

647.2 -> But it's actually usually not that tricky.

649.34 -> In fact, all you gotta do

650.36 -> is either check the description on

651.73 -> the website you're looking at 'em on,

653.21 -> or if you have access to the boxes, take a look at them.

656.31 -> So let's look at this box right now

657.88 -> and see if these speakers are matched to my amp.

660.16 -> So, specs here,

661.32 -> we've got our continuous power handling at 50 watts,

663.94 -> and then the recommended amp power.

666.13 -> Which says 10 to 75 watts per channel RMS.

669.63 -> So that's what we're looking for.

670.86 -> An amp that can deliver 10 to 75 watts per channel RMS

674.82 -> at 4 ohms.

676.38 -> These speakers are 4 ohms speakers.

678.24 -> So the resistance in your circuit will dictate

681.56 -> uh- how much power is pulled from the amp.

683.33 -> So you wanna make sure that your ohms match

685.57 -> what your we're actually playing with.

687.77 -> Uh- so let's check our amp

690.86 -> and see how it matches up.

692.29 -> We've got our power ratings here

694.15 -> 400 watt, 4 Channel, Class D amplifier.

696.84 -> It says 100 watts at four channels,

699.5 -> but that's at 2 ohms, we're rockin' at 4 ohms.

702.13 -> At 4 ohms, 75 watts per channel.

705.2 -> So, you can see that's a perfect match

707.3 -> to these speakers at the upper limit of

709.17 -> their power handling capabilities.

710.57 -> Which means, they're gonna be as loud

712.27 -> as they're designed to be

713.51 -> and they should sound crispy clear.

715.28 -> And I also think it's pretty obvious that,

717.62 -> you know, companies like JL build their amp

720.08 -> to go with the speakers that they make.

722.16 -> So, there's no secret there.

723.69 -> If you match your sets

725.56 -> between the same company, the same manufacturer,

728.45 -> there's usually gonna be a great option

731.21 -> of things that'll play together nicely.

732.57 -> Like what we've got here, with our speakers and amp.

735.53 -> So now that we know we've got a good match,

738.653 -> time to put 'em in.

740.47 -> Okay, with our speaker wires, wired into the doors,

743.39 -> now it's time to put some terminal ends

745.33 -> on the ends of these wires.

747.79 -> I've got these brass little johnny's right here.

750.66 -> I'm gonna crimp a couple of the female spade connectors

753.89 -> of different sizes to match the speaker

756.09 -> onto my wire with a little heat shrink.

759.81 -> And then it's time to put the speaker in for real.

763.131 -> (upbeat music)

775.577 -> All right, both of our speakers are in the doors

778.53 -> and fully wired up.

779.67 -> Ready for the door panels to go back on.

782.12 -> But, before I do that kind of stuff we're gonna keep wiring.

784.68 -> Now it's time to pull out the head unit.

787.7 -> So, the back of the head unit there's generally

789.31 -> two things that you need to do.

790.65 -> You need to install your RCA cables into one of these spots.

793.7 -> We'll talk a little bit more about that in a sec.

795.61 -> And you need to wire your remote signal wire.

798.25 -> Now that's the wire that takes 12 volts

800.3 -> from your head unit when it turns on.

802.11 -> When you turn the key on,

803.5 -> takes 12 volts from here and shoots it back,

805.55 -> to the amp to tell it to turn on.

807.7 -> 'Cause the amp is always gonna have its big fat wires

810.38 -> to the battery and to the chassis always powered up.

813.37 -> But you don't want it always on.

815.1 -> You want it to turn on with the ignition.

816.93 -> So that's what the remote wire does.

818.94 -> Now, head unit harness stuff is pretty well standardized.

821.97 -> Your remote wire is always gonna be a blue wire.

824.88 -> Now there might be a couple blue wires

826.56 -> and you might be confused

828.48 -> so you can easily test with a multimeter

831.53 -> switched to volts DC

833.64 -> and you can check with the key off and then with the key on.

836.91 -> With the key off we want 0 volts,

838.56 -> with the key on you want 12.

840.82 -> So we'll just do the second half.

843.87 -> There's my remote wire,

846 -> I think.

848.21 -> And we test it with the 'ol volt meter.

851.72 -> So we've got a whopping 10.8 volts.

853.84 -> Turn the key off,

854.82 -> and you'll see that it goes down to 0 volts.

857.53 -> So that's a quick and easy way to check

859.14 -> for your remote wire.

860.14 -> The only thing we have left to do is the RCAs up here.

862.69 -> You've got your subwoofer out.

864.05 -> You've got your rear speakers, your front speakers,

866.22 -> some video stuff like a reverse camera.

869 -> Uh- so obviously we're gonna go ahead

870.36 -> and hook up to the front right and front left RCAs.

874.057 -> And it's as easy as that.

875.48 -> So I'm gonna get the wires routed from the trunk

877.83 -> up through here under the carpet

879.37 -> and into the backside of the head unit area.

881.95 -> Often times when you're doing a stereo install like this

884.18 -> and you're running your RCAs

885.87 -> you're also gonna be running your main power wire

888.34 -> from the engine bay back to the amp.

891.45 -> And if you are doing that, it's a good idea to

893.97 -> not run your RCAs with your big fat power wire,

897.01 -> or else the amount of power that the amp is pulling

899.77 -> can interfere with the audio signal and your RCAs

902.84 -> and you can get some nasty sounding uh- signal.

906.94 -> So, always separate the RCAs and the power wire.

910.197 -> But this little guy, this little remote wire

912.24 -> that's gonna be just fine.

914.767 -> (upbeat music)

925.08 -> 'Kay. That's back in.

926.51 -> Now it's time to mess around in the trunk a little bit.

928.89 -> All right, so to make this a little bit easier

930.3 -> I'm just gonna transfer the pattern of these

932.81 -> four mounting holes on the amp to this cardboard.

935.95 -> And then I can do a much better job of holding

937.86 -> the cardboard in place or heck I can even

939.44 -> tape it in place to transfer the location of the holes.

942.71 -> 'Kay, now we'll put that in place.

944.89 -> That's way easier.

946.739 -> (upbeat music)

949.28 -> All right, so to put some threads

950.41 -> in the holes that we just marked,

951.63 -> we're gonna drill out and install these rivnuts.

954.23 -> And we've used this on the show before,

955.9 -> and we'll use them on the show again, 'cause they're great.

959.06 -> I'm going with an M4 size

961.15 -> in terms of the hardware that we'll ultimately be using.

963.8 -> But for right now, I need to drill a hole that

966.26 -> the body of this puppy just barely slips into.

970.02 -> And then I can deform it in place

971.51 -> and then it'll be locked there forever

973.66 -> giving me some threads to mount my amp with.

976.61 -> (upbeat music)

984.42 -> All right, the amp is (knocks)

986.17 -> mounted.

987.003 -> And it doesn't look too bad if I do say so myself.

989.8 -> So, now we can go ahead and plug our RCAs

992.62 -> and our remote wire into the amp.

994.7 -> Uh- we can also plug our speaker wires into the amp.

997.29 -> And then all we gotta do is get our

999.85 -> big ground and our big power into the amp.

1002.45 -> And this thing should be making some music.

1004.54 -> I'm also gonna clean up what I got going on here.

1007.38 -> Uh- this has been a bit of a mess since forever.

1009.81 -> And I don't like it.

1011.17 -> Uh- not to mention that the factory ground

1014.24 -> on the battery is just the tiniest little thing ever.

1017.76 -> You know, we're adding things that are gonna be

1019.34 -> pulling more power that are gonna be taxing

1021.28 -> the whole electrical system more.

1023.36 -> So, I wanna clean this up add a fatter ground and

1026.74 -> just make this a little bit more usable.

1029.33 -> (upbeat music)

1038.16 -> Ten snips. Good for more than just ten.

1041.407 -> (upbeat music)

1046.92 -> Okay. So I'm about to crimp this big fat ring terminal

1050.04 -> onto our factory positive wires here,

1052.85 -> so this can go under our new battery terminal.

1054.92 -> Now these are big, bad things, and they're hard to crimp

1058.08 -> unless you have hydraulic crimpers.

1059.78 -> I'll show you how nice of a crimp we get.

1062.256 -> (upbeat music)

1064.76 -> 'Kay. That's loaded in real nice.

1068.71 -> Let's jam our wires in.

1070.905 -> (upbeat music)

1079.462 -> (Zack screams)

1080.865 -> (laughs) I knew I was gonna do that some point.

1083.193 -> (upbeat music)

1088.65 -> All right. So our ground is effectively beefed up.

1091.17 -> Uh- I beefed up the cable that goes

1092.93 -> from the battery to the chassis.

1094.33 -> And then I added another cable uh-

1096.92 -> that just goes from the chassis here

1098.74 -> to the chassis down here where it's a little more solid.

1102.2 -> So our ground is sorted out.

1104.59 -> Now it's time to actually start wiring up the amp.

1107.18 -> I'm gonna wire power from the amp around here

1110.11 -> to where the junction will be.

1112.21 -> And, then I'm gonna round the amp to

1113.95 -> somewhere nice on that chassis.

1117.86 -> You know, with all of these loose strands of copper,

1120.18 -> it can get frayed and bent and you end up,

1122.6 -> you know, with a stray wire potentially

1124.17 -> touching the ground terminal.

1125.84 -> What we can do to avoid that

1127.9 -> is use what's called a wire ferrule

1129.46 -> and it just slips over the tip

1131.38 -> bunches them all up into one.

1133.03 -> And it's just thin tins, so you can crimp this into place.

1135.74 -> That makes uh- in and out a lot easier on the amp.

1138.56 -> You don't fray your cable and it looks good too.

1142.084 -> (upbeat music)

1145.32 -> So, ultimately I may trim a little bit

1147.07 -> more of that power wire off

1148.33 -> just to get my fitment a little bit better,

1150.04 -> but with any of this kinda stuff

1151.75 -> leave it long until you know you're ready to trim.

1154.06 -> So I'll leave this a little long.

1155.67 -> I might clean it up later.

1157.01 -> Also might not.

1158.73 -> Uh- so, let's keep going.

1160.273 -> (upbeat music)

1162.06 -> All right, so power and ground are plugged into the amp.

1164.79 -> Now I'm gonna ahead and plug in the remote wire

1166.9 -> and the speaker wires

1168.49 -> and that'll complete all the stuff we need to do

1170.45 -> on this side of the amp.

1172.054 -> (upbeat music)

1180.98 -> And with that, this amplifier should work.

1184.08 -> So on an amp, you're gonna have control

1186 -> over how much power it really uses.

1187.66 -> You can use too big of an amp

1189.57 -> on speakers that are too small.

1191.07 -> All you gotta do really is turn the amp way down.

1193.28 -> So, with that said, we kind of have control over

1196.12 -> how loud our music is at different volumes

1198.95 -> with the use of an amp.

1200.5 -> Because I can turn it up and down.

1202.42 -> So, the fact is our volume at

1205.1 -> 25 and at max

1206.64 -> is kind of up to me,

1208.5 -> ultimately limited by the power of the amp.

1210.57 -> Now let's play this thing at 25 and then at max volume

1214.5 -> and just see what kinda decibels we get.

1216.61 -> I'm sure we've improved some

1218.395 -> ('Pop Up Up And Down')

1225.53 -> Okay. So the first time around we had

1227.19 -> 87.8 decibels at

1229.07 -> 25 clicks a volume.

1231.32 -> Now we've got 97 decibels.

1233.51 -> Heck, that's almost 10 decibels of increase,

1237.24 -> not bad.

1238.3 -> Now let's see what it sounds like at full volume.

1240.65 -> And now keep in mind the only boon here,

1243.52 -> isn't just the decibels.

1245.28 -> It's also the clarity in how this sounds.

1248.25 -> If you remember the first time around at max volume.

1251.152 -> (distorted upbeat music) ('Pop Up Up And Down')

1255.98 -> I couldn't really imagine anything that sounded worse.

1258.71 -> It sounded awful.

1260.35 -> So, hopefully here at max volume, it will be louder

1263.67 -> and much clearer, much more crisp,

1265.97 -> much more listen-toable.

1268.21 -> You know? Let's find out.

1269.973 -> ('Pop Up Up And Down')

1282.033 -> All right, we came up to 104.8 decibels

1285.07 -> and that's a pickup of about 5 decibels.

1287.783 -> I think we were just over a hundred

1290.46 -> uh- the first time around.

1291.97 -> And things sound a lot better.

1293.78 -> Now you may notice, and also you may not,

1295.9 -> it's kinda tough to tell this sort of thing

1297.99 -> through video and then through your speakers.

1300.58 -> But these speakers are still being tasked with uh-

1303.37 -> some low notes, especially in this bop of a song.

1306.89 -> There's some low notes that these speakers

1308.93 -> just aren't equipped to handle.

1310.3 -> They're not big enough.

1311.18 -> They're not woofers.

1312.013 -> This- these are not subwoofers.

1313.81 -> So, uh- to make these things sound even a little bit better

1316.93 -> what I can do with the amp,

1318.24 -> one of the freedoms it gives you

1319.8 -> is I can use what's called a high pass or a low pass filter.

1322.88 -> And in this case, I want to kinda block out

1325.66 -> some of those low frequencies that

1327.73 -> really can only be reproduced by an appropriate subwoofer.

1330.9 -> So by blocking out some of those lower frequencies

1333.5 -> I can make sure that these speakers focus on the

1336.51 -> noises and the frequencies that they're capable of hitting

1339.48 -> and then they'll sound as good as they possibly can.

1342.07 -> Which is another reason that

1343.4 -> doing a custom setup like this is worth it.

1346.28 -> Because you, you end up

1347.7 -> with a lot of control at your fingertips.

1349.42 -> You can crank the power up and down.

1351.16 -> You can add speakers, you can add a subwoofer.

1353.58 -> If you maybe wanna reproduce those low frequencies.

1356.18 -> So, I think that this is an absolutely worth it mod to do.

1360.3 -> It's not that hard.

1361.72 -> It's kind of fun.

1362.77 -> It's a really good way to get

1364.05 -> into electrical stuff in general.

1365.87 -> And at the end of it,

1367.2 -> you come out of it with some skills and

1369.94 -> get to listen to music and it gets to sound good finally.

1374.01 -> And in my opinion,

1375.92 -> that's one of the most important things in life.

1377.72 -> So, I hope you guys learned a thing or two

1379.19 -> watching this video.

1380.13 -> I hope you had a good time.

1381.59 -> Uh- I sure had a blast.

1382.96 -> And now I've got a Miata that makes some actual music.

1386.52 -> So, if you did have a good time and learn some stuff

1388.92 -> like this video, subscribe to the channel,

1390.75 -> follow me on Instagram @zachjobe.

1393.18 -> Follow Donut @donutmedia.

1394.95 -> And I'll see you cool cats next Wednesday.

1397.72 -> For now, I got a Miata to put back together.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADFOAAN9SIA