sumption in a vehicle electrical system, including some of the important steps of testing and evaluating a vehicle before it ever gets disassembled. “One of the first things I do when dis- cussing an audio system or any high current accessories with a customer is to perform a State of Health test of the electrical system,” Meece said. “This way I know what I’m dealing with and what upgrades to recommend, but at the very least what kind of electrical loads will or won’t support.” Meece and co-presenter Mike Abeita brought a host of elec- trical system tools to show attendees from simple Fluke DMMs to full-on Snap-On battery testers and scanners. “It’s only logi- cal that for the kind of work we all do that we should invest in at least some of the tools available to enhance our diagnostic ca- pabilities, because the car dealerships sure are,” Abeita said. THE 30/60/90 MINUTE TUNE Finishing out Sunday’s installation track sessions was an
industry veteran of building sound quality vehicles Mark El- dridge of Mobile Soundstage Engineering in a session called “The 30/60/90 Minute Tune.” Mark’s objectives in this ses- sion were to help installation technicians arrange their time to making the most critical differences in the first 30 minutes of set-up and tuning of an aftermarket audio system. “You need to set your initial crossover points, amplifier sensitivity levels and ensure correct speaker polarity throughout,” Eldridge said.
Mark later presented the next 60 minutes of tuning that in- cluded eliminating major peaks/dips in the initial EQ settings, further adjustment of crossover points, slope and even experi- menting with phase shifting of speakers with great distance from one another. “So many problems that appear as a dip or peak in the frequency response can be attributed to phase changes when speakers are not in close proximity with one an- other, particularly the subwoofer and front midrange/midbass speaker” Eldridge added. From there Eldridge provided some insight into the next 90 minutes and beyond, which included discussions of signal delay, staging and dynamics evaluation and further fine tuning of equalization. The big take away from this session was that you have to train your ears and use them to provide final evaluations, in addition to having the necessary test equipment to get you close.
IDENTIFYING WIRES AND SIGNALS By Monday’s sessions, the installation technician sessions shifted gears from audio to the vehicle electrical wiring and how to measure things in these new and challenging cars. The first was one of last year’s standing room only presentations called “Iden- tifying Wires and Signals,” again delivered by Derek Schmiedl of NAV-TV and Andy Hartshorne of Directed Electronics. Perhaps one of the biggest mysteries that still perpetuates among today’s tech-
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