Enough of the anecdotes, on to the real controversy. We have not had a major product comparison test in quite some time. Duh! When I was growing up in Alabama and learning about car audio through reading this very here magazine I had gratitude for the editors who didn't hesitate to provide readers with the editorial lowdown. I want to do the same for the new generation of readers; and I hope by continuing the tradition I can honor my predecessors. The importance of carrying over what has been is crucial. People who pick up this magazine expect a certain kind of information from it that the local retailer may not be able to provide. You have all heard the line, "Son, this is what you need to buy and if so, I will throw this in and you can pay extra for that." Why not just open up your wallet and close your eyes. Get yourself armed with the right info; as they say, "Knowledge is power." Hey, everyone else is getting empowered, why not our readers! Last issue we showed you "budget" head units in the $250-$300 range. Now this month we stay on theme as we compare woofers in the $269-$299 range in the first of our subwoofer comparison tests, the budget edition, if you will. At first our main criterion in order for the manufacturers to take part required that their products have a minimum Xmax of 1.5". Of course that number is part of the big marketing hype right now. The issue is controversial. There are so many ways to measure Xmax and the industry has adopted about 49 of these. There is no absolute standard. In the end it just made more sense to group woofers according to price range and see how they performed against each other. And this way, as we continue the test, readers can see what is best for them in the price group that fits their budgets. We hope readers share our opinion that this was the best way to go. Our techmasters, Vance Dikason and Mike Frost, could have easily thrown me under the bus on this one. So everyone please thank these guys for their work, they deserve it.
Lastly, a note about system diagrams. A lot of readers go to our site in search of the SDs. So we decided to post the diagrams for current car features. Soon enough we will have an extensive library of them for users to peruse and use. This makes it easier for everyone to keep track of and reference the diagrams. So see you online. And thanks to all of you for supporting our magazine. There is more to come, because as you can see, I'm still having fun!