Info on Car audio ??

[cherrington17]

Originally Posted by rida125

Ok so lets see if i can explain an amp, so what an amp does is take power from the battery of the car, and sends it through many different steps which ideally make that 12 volts from the battery source and makes more power to power the subs?

all speakers run on AC current. an amplifier is taking a moderate amount of DC power, and running it through a circuit to ramp it up to a ridiculous amount of AC power, in order to move the speaker forward and backward, at the times indicated by the signal wires (RCAs)

[rida125]

ok so if an amp did not have a Potentiometer that means that the volume knob on your HU would like have no control over the subs. Like its main job is to keep the volume of the subs at the same level as the rest of the speakers in the car?

Ok and so when you talk about AC power that just means that the power is able to change from low amounts of power to higher amounts of power, for when the subs are hitting then?

[cherrington17]

no... the volume knob on the radio, will adjust the signal voltage on the RCAs.

so... at 0, your sending like... 0.01V to the amp. enough to say its on, but not enough to tell it to do much. at 50% you might be sending 1.5V, and at full 3.0V (numbers are totally subjective here)

[rida125]

Ok so i have re-read this again, to i think it is refering to the actually gain switch as a Potentiometer?


So what exactly is the Potentiometer doing.

http://www.bcae1.com/

[cherrington17]

that "pot" they are referring to... is the volume knob on the headunit.

a potentiometer is a variable resistor (of sorts) it moves a contact along a metal mesh, the farther from origin, the more resistance... more resistance, less voltage.

[rida125]

So the Potentiometer is actually just an adjustable resistor then, used for like changing volumes or other things like that?

Ok so this might be a more dumb question but here it goes, So in a car there is the ground which is going to be the negative terminal on the battery. That line on the battery goes from the terminal to just the metal part of the car.

Then the positive terminal goes from the battery to the fuse box in the engine, and from there it goes throughout the car.

Does that sound about right?

[jayson_waltz]

Basically yes it is

[rida125]

Does anybody think they could explain the amp and what is going on on the inside in a little bit more depth, like i did a very basic version but I was hoping that somebody would be able to include all the pieces like resistors, and semi conductors, and explain all of those, and what exactly they are doing? I have looked it up, but it was very confusing. Ok so here is what I was talking about being very confusing. So if somebody could please explain the following for me so that i would get it.


Electronic Elements
The component at the heart of most amplifiers is the transistor. The main elements in a transistor are semiconductors, materials with varying ability to conduct electric current. Typically, a semiconductor is made of a poor conductor, such as silicon, that has had impurities (atoms of another material) added to it. The process of adding impurities is called doping.
In pure silicon, all of the silicon atoms bond perfectly to their neighbors, leaving no free electrons to conduct electric current. In doped silicon, additional atoms change the balance, either adding free electrons or creating holes where electrons can go. Electrical charge moves when electrons move from hole to hole, so either one of these additions will make the material more conductive. (See How Semiconductors Work for a full explanation.)

N-type semiconductors are characterized by extra electrons (which have a negative charge). P-type semiconductors have an abundance of extra holes (which have a positive charge).

Let's look at an amplifier built around a basic bipolar-junction transistor. This sort of transistor consists of three semiconductor layers -- in this case, a p-type semiconductor sandwiched between two n-type semiconductors. This structure is best represented as a bar, as shown in the diagram below (the actual design of modern transistors is a little different).



A standard bipolar transistor
This is the link to the picture
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...transistor.gif


The first n-type layer is called the emitter, the p-type layer is called the base and the second n-type layer is called the collector. The output circuit (the circuit that drives the speaker) is connected to electrodes at the transistor's emitter and collector. The input circuit connects to the emitter and the base.

The free electrons in the n-type layers naturally want to fill the holes in the p-type layer. There are many more free electrons than holes, so the holes fill up very quickly. This creates depletion zones at the boundaries between n-type material and p-type material. In a depletion zone, the semiconductor material is returned to its original insulating state -- all the holes are filled, so there are no free electrons or empty spaces for electrons, and charge can't flow. When the depletion zones are thick, very little charge can move from the emitter to the collector, even though there is a strong voltage difference between the two electrodes.

[rida125]

So i am bumping this back up to the top again , so is anybody able to explain that all to us?

[cherrington17]

just PM questions to ryan, or google them.

[Ryan from Ohio]

Im going to murder your soul in your sleep Dr Cherry.

[cherrington17]

Originally Posted by Ryan from Ohio

Im going to murder your soul in your sleep Dr Cherry.

if you find one... let me know its there, before you kill it... cuz i have my doubts.

[rida125]

Ok so does anybody have any other questions on this topic right now that i might have missed?

[AleroDrime]

Originally Posted by Ryan from Ohio

Im going to murder your soul in your sleep Dr Cherry.

he traded it for LED's

[rida125]

Ok so also I have seen a few times on here the mentioning of different kinds of subs, like mid range subs. How many different types of subs are there out there and what exactly are they for?

[Ryan from Ohio]

http://www.parts-express.com/speakers.cfm

[BeeMain]

Your amp takes a whisper from your headunit and turns it into a shout for your speakers.

headunit sends information via "RCA" cables to the amplifier. The amplifier, amplifies this low power signal into a high powered signal that can power your speakers. some amps have processors that change or filter in headunit signal but in the end it just amplifies it. Low power in, high out, that's why it's connected directly to the battery.

Do expect to understand the electronics

Originally Posted by rida125

Does anybody think they could explain the amp and what is going on on the inside in a little bit more depth, like i did a very basic version but I was hoping that somebody would be able to include all the pieces like resistors, and semi conductors, and explain all of those, and what exactly they are doing? I have looked it up, but it was very confusing. Ok so here is what I was talking about being very confusing. So if somebody could please explain the following for me so that i would get it.


Electronic Elements
The component at the heart of most amplifiers is the transistor. The main elements in a transistor are semiconductors, materials with varying ability to conduct electric current. Typically, a semiconductor is made of a poor conductor, such as silicon, that has had impurities (atoms of another material) added to it. The process of adding impurities is called doping.
In pure silicon, all of the silicon atoms bond perfectly to their neighbors, leaving no free electrons to conduct electric current. In doped silicon, additional atoms change the balance, either adding free electrons or creating holes where electrons can go. Electrical charge moves when electrons move from hole to hole, so either one of these additions will make the material more conductive. (See How Semiconductors Work for a full explanation.)

N-type semiconductors are characterized by extra electrons (which have a negative charge). P-type semiconductors have an abundance of extra holes (which have a positive charge).

Let's look at an amplifier built around a basic bipolar-junction transistor. This sort of transistor consists of three semiconductor layers -- in this case, a p-type semiconductor sandwiched between two n-type semiconductors. This structure is best represented as a bar, as shown in the diagram below (the actual design of modern transistors is a little different).



A standard bipolar transistor
This is the link to the picture
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...transistor.gif


The first n-type layer is called the emitter, the p-type layer is called the base and the second n-type layer is called the collector. The output circuit (the circuit that drives the speaker) is connected to electrodes at the transistor's emitter and collector. The input circuit connects to the emitter and the base.

The free electrons in the n-type layers naturally want to fill the holes in the p-type layer. There are many more free electrons than holes, so the holes fill up very quickly. This creates depletion zones at the boundaries between n-type material and p-type material. In a depletion zone, the semiconductor material is returned to its original insulating state -- all the holes are filled, so there are no free electrons or empty spaces for electrons, and charge can't flow. When the depletion zones are thick, very little charge can move from the emitter to the collector, even though there is a strong voltage difference between the two electrodes.

[cherrington17]

Originally Posted by AleroDrime

he traded it for LED's

no way... i traded it LONG before i got good with leds.