All posts by xtrevolution

The Crux of “Audiophile” Sound Quality

I’ve spent a bit of time in the DIY audio world; designing and building home theater speakers, and designing and installing car audio systems that strive for high levels of sound quality. I’ve designed and built countless sound quality-oriented subwoofer enclosures, tuned active and passive crossovers, and worked with some fantastic equipment. While not proclaiming that I’m an expert in all fiends – I’m still always learning from those who have far more experience than I – I’ve come to the realization that there’s a crux when designing an audio system. That is, a decisive point of difficulty. It’s probably not what you think though…

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What to Expect – The 2014 Chevy Cruze Diesel

I recently had the opportunity to interview two chief GM engineers directly responsible for the Chevrolet Cruze Diesel during the 2013 Chicago Auto Show on media day. There are plenty of generic publications floating out on the internet and blogosphere, so I’m here to bring you some insider knowledge from GM’s lead engineers to give you an idea of what to expect if you are planning on buying or are interested in buying a Chevrolet Cruze Diesel.

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Behind the Wheel of the Chevy Cruze

Grab some popcorn and a soda, because this one long review. A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to review a 2012 Chevy Cruze LTZ for a week. GM dropped this off at my door as a courtesy so I could get some behind the wheel time with another Cruze. As some of you know, I’ve had a 2012 Chevy Cruze ECO since early January of 2012. I’ll be covering both of these cars in this review. I currently have 17,000 miles driven on this car, and as the Super Moderator of CruzeTalk.com, this is about as genuine and thorough of a review as you’ll find. This review will cover both my own Chevrolet Cruze Eco, and the Chevrolet Cruze LTZ that GM sent me.

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Audio 101 – Crossovers

In the last few articles, I talked about frequency response, on/off axis response, and the various types of drivers you’ll come across when designing speaker systems. Today, I bring some of that together and talk about crossovers. Crossovers are a critical part of a system design, and being able to understand the different types of crossovers as well as the functions they serve will be pivotal to your ability to create a solid system.

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Audio 101 – Types of Speaker Drivers

Today, I’m going to get down to the basics, as I need to cover a few fundamentals before we move on to our next topic. In this article, I’m going to briefly discuss the basic differences between the types of speaker drivers commonly available; tweeters, mids, woofers, subwoofers, and full-range drivers. Each of these serves a specific purpose in reproducing parts of the frequency range.

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Winter is coming! Check your tire pressure!

Cold weather is upon us in the Northern half of the United States, and we’re just over a month away from the official start of Winter. For many of us, that means freezing cold temperatures, but that also means “winterizing” our vehicles. While making preparations for the cold weather, we sometimes forget to check some of the more basic things, like tire pressure. Here’s why it’s important.

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Audio 101 – On/Off Axis Response

Last week, we started the Audio 101 series by explaining frequency response and how it relates to the music that we hear. This week, we’ll build on that and discuss on-axis and off-axis response. It will be important to understand the nature of axis response if we are to design a car or home audio system that will sound good to us. If you have not yet read the article on frequency response, it is recommended that you start there.

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Audio 101 – Frequency Response

This article begins my series on understanding audio systems. This seems to be a bit of an advanced topic for many people, and I’ve had a lot of people ask me questions about it throughout the last couple of years. I’ve also come to realize that more advanced articles may be difficult to understand without a fundamental understanding of technical concepts. The understanding of a few of these technical and fundamental concepts related to audio will help you make more intelligent and informed purchasing and design decisions for both home and car audio. It is assumed that you already have a basic understanding of sound waves.  Today, we’ll start with frequency response.

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How to Get Better Fuel Economy

My Chevrolet Cruze is rated for 28MPG city and 42MPG highway, yet I average 39.5MPG with 73% city driving and get over 50-55mpg fuel economy on the highway. I’ve made no significant modifications to my vehicle, and my car is not a hybrid! Let’s talk about how to get better fuel economy. This article will share my tips, techniques, and tricks for improving fuel economy that anyone can use. These are all practical and simple techniques that don’t require any significant mechanical modification or extra expense on your part.

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