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The following is a list of tools the Sound Connection uses on a regular basis when performing installations and tuning systems. These are a must have for any high caliber audio shop. Installation and tuning are probably the most important aspects for achieving great audio but often the most overlooked. We see it all the time, someone comes in and buys the most expensive equipment they can afford then have their cousin, buddy, uncle or local enthusiast attempt to install it for them. You can have the best equipment in the world but if it isn’t installed and tuned properly it can sound worse than a factory system and chances are you will be blowing stuff up on a regular basis. Bottom line, you won’t be happy and will have wasted a ton of money, so do yourself a favor and budget for professional installation and tuning when purchasing equipment.
Digital multimeter – this is an absolute must have for any shop. If the shop your having your work done at doesn’t have one of these run away as fast as you can. Most shops use them for finding power and ground but they have many more uses than that. They can be used for finding target voltages when setting gains, looking for alternating current, draw testing batteries, checking the amount of resistance on a factory speaker, and the list goes on.
AC clamp – Another tool Sound Connection techs use very often, this is a great tool for checking the available output of an alternator to determine weather or not you can install a bigger amplifier without either doing damage to the factory system or having to replace or upgrade the charging system. It has many other uses but this is the big one.
Charging system tester with thermal printer – This is a great tool that we use on every install. It will check your battery and charging system state of health as well as give you a print out, vital information when installing high current electronics. Also it’s nice to replace a battery before you are stranded somewhere with a dead one.
Phase tester – This is a must have for making sure your speakers are in phase. Out of phase speakers will sound tiny and hollow. You can have the most expensive speakers and subwoofers and they will sound terrible if out of phase. This tool makes it very easy to quickly identify speaker polarity and is extremely useful when integrating with factory audio systems. You’re sure to get all the sound you paid for because the experts at Sound Connection phase test every audio system that goes out the door.
Oscilloscope – This is a extremely important tool and yet hardly any shops own one. Without this it would be impossible to tell when your radio or amplifier clips. If the shop doing your installation doesn’t have one of these they are just tuning by ear and there is no way to tell if you’re getting all of what you paid for. Every installation done at Sound Connection gets tuned using an oscilloscope so you can be sure your getting the most safe, clean, unclipped power out of every piece of equipment and that everything is matched to work together perfectly.
Real Time Analyzer – This is a well know tool to help set up sound quality stereo systems and it works great for that. The bigger reason we believe is for integrating with your factory stereo system. Most vehicle manufactures do really crazy things with their factory stereos and the signals they put out so in order to get the best sound possible, or sometimes any sound you need a RTA to see what signals are doing. When you know what the signals are doing it makes interfacing very straight forward but without this tool you would be completely lost and doing nothing but guessing and wasting time.
Software and test CD – We have invested loads of time and money into our equipment and learning the proper ways to use it. We also have the latest in automotive wiring diagram software to help guide us in the right direction and all the corresponding CD’s to use things like the RTA, Phase tester, Oscilloscope and DMM.
There are lots of other tools used in making a system sound great but these are the biggies, and the most important part of a tool is that it gets used. Sound Connection techs use these all day every day on every system we install, it comes with the installation and is just another way we go above and beyond the norm to help our customers get the best sound possible.