8 Tips and Tricks to Make Car Speakers Louder without Amp
If you tell someone you are looking to improve the sound quality of your car speakers, the response will unanimously be ‘Get an amplifier!’. But amplifiers can be expensive and tricky to install, not everyone will prefer to buy one.
If you’re wondering how to make the car speakers loud without an amp, you’ve come to the right place. Here are a few handy tricks to increase the volume of your speakers without installing an amplifier:
How to Make Car Speakers Louder without Amp
Get Subwoofers
The simplest way to make your car speakers louder is to add subwoofers. They are much cheaper than an amplifier and will achieve the goal of making your sound system louder.
Placing them strategically in spots where there is little to no disturbance will give you the loudest and best sound quality. Do not place them in tight corners. The vibrations from outside will decrease the overall sound quality.
If you love hard-hitting bass, place your subwoofers in the boot of your car. You can also make small tweaks to the settings to achieve the best sound quality. Make sure the subwoofer is in phase with the rest of the stereo system.
Installing a Subwoofer without an Amp
Subwoofers are usually used in conjunction with an amplifier. Here’s how you can install a subwoofer without an amp:
- First of all, disconnect the car battery. Remove the car speaker from its mounting dock. The wiring must be exposed now.
- Select a good spot for the subwoofer. Reroute the wiring and power supply to where you want to place the subwoofer. If your sound system has a subwoofer outlet, connect it to the subwoofer.
- Connect the subwoofer and mount it. Once it is installed, fine-tune the settings to achieve the best sound.
Damping
Damping is a process where you use sound-absorbing materials in your car to keep road noise and other vibrations to a minimum. The lower the noise levels in your car, the louder the sound from the car speakers will be.
Here are the areas of the car that can be dampened to reduce noise and obtain maximum volume from your car speakers:
Doors
Doors create a lot of vibrations when the car is in motion, especially in old cars. Adding dampening materials to the doors will insulate you from outside noises and make your speakers seem louder.
Trunk
The trunk should be dampened as it often affects the sound quality of subwoofers. If you have installed speakers in your trunk, do dampen it to enjoy hard-hitting bass each time you turn on the speakers.
If you go on a lot of road trips, you already know how much noise the luggage in the trunk can make. Covering it with sound dampening materials will give you a far superior sound quality.
Engine
The noise from the car engine can be minimized by placing a sound dampening mat at the bottom of the hood of the car.
These mats are of high quality and a little pricey, but they are highly effective in stopping vibrations and rattling noises from the engine.
Floor
The floor is the closest to the ground. It absorbs a lot of vibrations from the air, especially when you’re cruising at high speeds.
Dampening the floor of the car will greatly reduce outside noise and make your car speakers a lot louder by comparison.
New Speakers
The speakers that come with your car are of standard quality and not really built for good sound quality. They serve their purpose, but they will not be satisfactory if you love music and care about sound quality.
Replacing the speakers will certainly create a big difference in sound quality. If you invest in quality speakers, the difference in volume, clarity and overall sound quality might amaze you.
Premium car speakers feature hard-hitting bass, clearer sound and increased volume. You will be able to appreciate the smaller details in your favorite tracks.
New Cables
If you’re overlooking the state of your wires and cables, you are making a big mistake. Using cheap, shoddy and undersized cables will affect the flow of power from the head unit to the speakers.
If your speakers don’t receive adequate power output, they will sound weak and distorted. Over time, this can even damage your speakers.
Cables are susceptible to normal wear and tear. They should be replaced from time to time for the smooth functioning of the sound system. Invest in quality cables and you’ll surely hear the difference in sound quality.
Fix Tuning
If you maximized every setting on your sound system to make your car speakers louder, you won’t achieve the desired results.
The audio will sound distorted and uneven if you blindly turn up all the settings. It might sound clear when you’re ailing through the highway, but the sound quality will be very bad once you hear it in an area with good acoustics.
Blasting your speakers on these settings could cause damage to the speakers too. Tuning the sound system correctly will give you louder, clearer audio without compromising the safety of your speakers.
For example, if you want deeper bass, keep the bass boosts small and reduce the mids and highs. You can also make a few EQ presets and try them one by one until you find the one with the loudest audio.
Use Capacitors
Capacitors are electrical components that hold an electrical charge temporarily. They can be added to an audio installation to balance audio signals.
You might have noticed dimming headlights or a drop in your car’s performance each time the bass hits in the track you’re playing.
This is because the subwoofers drain power from the car when you play powerful tracks with a lot of bass. Capacitors store energy temporarily and provide the subwoofers with a burst of electrical energy whenever they need it.
This way, the sound quality is always even and clear and you are not distracted by the dips in your car’s performance.
Get Tweeters
If your car speakers are ‘all about that bass, no treble’, you should consider investing in quality tweeters to add to your sound system.
Tweeters are small speakers that are meant for the upper range of sound which car speakers and subwoofers cannot accurately produce.
They make all the fine details in the track noticeable and produce a crisp, loud and clear sound. Tweeters aren’t that expensive yet they dramatically improve the sound quality of your stereo system.
Play High-Quality Tracks
Lastly, using high-quality tracks will greatly enhance the overall sound quality of the tracks.
Do not use compressed files. Audio tracks lose a lot of details when they are compressed, which makes the sound quality low and dull.
Tracks with a higher bitrate retain all the high frequency and low-frequency information in the tracks, which makes for great sound quality and louder tracks.
If you’re downloading or streaming music from the internet, look for sites that offer high-quality options.
FAQs
Can You Upgrade Car Speakers without Amp?
While amps are the most popular way to improve the sound system of your car, it is possible to upgrade your car speakers without an amp.
It might be a little complicated for you if you are a complete novice, but you can ask someone acquainted with sound systems to help you out.
You can upgrade your car speakers by replacing them or adding subwoofers to improve the sound quality. Here’s how to add subwoofers without an amp:
Disconnect the car battery before you start. You need access to the wiring, so carefully remove the current car speakers from their mounting dock.
Pick a good location for your subwoofer. Route the power supply and stereo cables to this location. Connect them to the subwoofer and mount it. If the sound system in your car has a subwoofer outlet, make sure to connect that too.
How Can I Make My Car Speakers Louder?
There are many methods to make your car speakers louder.
- You can add subwoofers to your sound system to increase the power and volume of the car stereo.
- You can use sound dampening materials on various parts of your car to reduce outside noise and vibrations. This will improve the sound quality inside the car and make it louder too.
- Replacing the speakers and cables is also a good way to make the speakers louder. The preinstalled car speakers are not high quality and the cables deteriorate over time.Replacing them will give a boost to the sound quality of your car’s sound system.
- You can add capacitors and tweeters to make the car speakers louder.
- Playing only uncompressed high-quality audio tracks will also result in a clearer, louder sound.
Parting Thoughts
There are many ways to make your car speakers louder without using an amplifier. If you are prepared to put a little time and money into it, using the methods listed above will give you greater sound quality without making an expensive investment in an amp.
Try a few of these methods and experience the best sound quality you can achieve in your car stereo.
Last Updated on November 7, 2023 by Brian Beasley
