Car audio fans had cause for celebration the day CD players moved from the home into the dashboard. Until that day, drivers were stuck with a choice between the radio, a cassette player, or (heaven forbid) eight-track cassettes. Needless to say, the sound quality of those three options was pretty abysmal. CD brought digital quality out onto the open road.
We’ve come a long way since the AM radio and the 8-track cartridge first let us take our entertainment on the road. These days automotive audiophiles have almost unlimited choice in custom sound equipment, from sweet-sounding stereos to “doof-doof” boxes that’ll make your ears bleed. Here’s how to make some sound decisions about your in-car audio system.
Whether you spent $1000 or $10,000 on a set of speakers, if they are not properly installed, they would not sound as they should. Even though it may seem that the best position for most speakers are in the stock housing’s that came with the car e.g. on the door panel near your feet, this is just not so.
Building a car stereo system can be a challenging project because speakers and components are designed for specific vehicles. Working in tight spaces can also be difficult. You can rebuild the entire system or replace components in stages starting with speakers, the most important part of a good system. This article provides product and installation resources for building a car stereo system.
Accessories don’t come cheap in new cars. Some auto dealers nick you $750 for satellite radio. You can tune in the same music for $50-$100 with an add-on receiver from Sirius or XM. On the one hand, convenience, a high price tag, and it’s part of the monthly payment; on the other, affordability, clutter and extra wires in the cockpit, and possibly mixed audio quality.
Although factory fitted in-car entertainment systems have become more advanced, there’s just as much scope for adding and improving as there was ten years ago. It’s inevitable that car manufacturers have one eye on the final price tag of the vehicle and so, while incorporating some kind of an in-car system is a must for the car’s sales features list, don’t expect too much.
If you have the knack for it, you can install your new head unit by yourself. For wires, you will notice that they have color coding which if looked up closely can be understood logically.
Most people do not really have problems with it when it comes to connecting the wires. The real problem comes in the mounting process. There are head units that need to be adjusted since they are not always universal when it come to size.
If you are in doubt then you can seek the help of specialists. You just have to avoid the problems when you want a nicely installed car radio.
Automobiles are highest on our list of objects of desire – they thrill, excite and get our pulse racing… unless of course you’re cooling your heels in a traffic jam. No set of wheels, no matter how quick, sleek or sexy, is any fun when you’re caged inside, inching forwards at three Ks an hour.
In deciding what car audio system to get, one of the things you need to define is your needs. You may simply prefer a simple, basic audio set up or a high quality system. Remember that high quality systems are much more expensive, and the really high end systems even take up a loot of your space in the trunk, greatly reducing your storage space. You may also prefer a basic system if you do not have the time of simply do not want to learn the more complicated controls and functions of a high end system. If even you want to go for a high end system, you should also invest in a good amplifier which should be able to match the requirements of your system. You should also ask an audio specialist if he can recommend a particular set-up that’s compatible with you budget.
Seems crazy, but most automakers are adding the feature that allows the interfacing of today’s iPods to the car’s audio system resulting in clear and crisp digital audio output. It all began when the digital media player became so prevalent that everybody had it, the only thing needed was a way to get the car’s audio to get the audio signal from the player so they built in ports and access pods where you can easily dock your music players sending the output to your car’s audio system.
There were some aftermarket gadgets that allowed them through primitive methods on older car stereo models (the cassette tape with a plug that has a jack you plug into the earphone jack), but they are now widely available allowing even novice users to install them through the car stereo’s auxiliary input jacks. More advanced and thus expensive stereo models even had blue tooth options, allowing them to communicate with your cellphone, tuning the audio down when you take/make a call or to send audio through a bluetooth enabled digital player. The iPodization of cars will continue as these small yet powerful media players continue to grow in popularity really allowing you to take your music, where ever you go.