It’s hard to imagine long drives (or short ones) without listening to music. And, for a premium audio experience, you’ll want your car speakers and receiver to sound great.
Audio suppliers like Harman work with automakers during a vehicle’s development to ensure a good sounding stereo when it goes into production. You’ll need to remove your door panels or unscrew a section of your dash to upgrade your factory system.
Since the first horseless carriage hit the road, people have wanted to listen to music while driving. They might have used a gramophone and a wire or a boombox with an antenna, but today there are many more options for car audio. Even late-model cars typically have a good quality sound system, but if yours doesn’t, an aftermarket upgrade can improve the sound.
The three main components of a stereo system are the head unit, amplifier, and speakers. The head unit provides the audio signal, the amplifier boosts it, and the speakers produce the actual sound.
A new car stereo with Bluetooth technology can connect to your mobile phone wirelessly and play your favorite songs and podcasts through the stereo’s speakers. This feature is especially useful for hands-free calling while you drive, as it can keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Bluetooth is a short-distance radio transmission that uses spread spectrum frequency hopping to ensure it doesn’t interfere with other nearby devices.
If you choose a Bluetooth stereo that supports the object push profile (OPP), it can also send contact information from your paired smartphone to the head unit for use in hands-free calling and navigation. If you’re using the more advanced Phonebook Access Profile (PBAP), the head unit can pull this data from your cellular phone at any time, making it easy to update contacts in both the head unit and your smartphone.
Another important feature to look for in a Bluetooth stereo is its voice recognition capabilities. This is important because you need to be able to control the stereo with your voice, rather than having to take your hands off the wheel and look at a screen. The best systems will be able to recognize your voice even in a noisy environment, such as when you’re driving in traffic.
The most popular features in Bluetooth stereos are Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which offer road-going smartphone interfaces that can run your favorite apps as you drive. They can give you turn-by-turn navigation, streaming music, news, audible and voice-texting, and much more.
Navigation Stereo
Car stereos are a great way to enjoy music and other audio in your vehicle, but they can do much more than that. Many newer models offer a variety of non-music functions, such as navigation and phone control, that can help make your commute or road trip more pleasant. Some stereos even feature flashing lights to match the beat of the music. A good quality system will have a clear display, intuitive controls and a layout that matches your dashboard.
The heart of any car stereo is the head unit, also known as a radio receiver or stereo. The head unit receives the audio signal from your source, such as an AM or FM radio, CD player or mobile phone and sends it to the speakers via the built-in amplifier. It has buttons and a screen for system controls, and some have auxiliary inputs so you can connect other devices like iPod(tm) players or thumb drives.
Speakers are the last of the three main components that comprise your basic car audio system. They convert the electrical signal from the head unit into physical movements that create sound waves in your cabin. Most standard systems come with a set of full-range speakers that combine the duties of a subwoofer, mid-range and tweeter in one convenient package to save space. If you’re looking to upgrade your stock system, look for separate woofer and tweeter components that can provide superior sound performance and be easily mounted in the vehicle.
Some aftermarket stereos have features that make them more than just entertainment devices, such as built-in GPS or the ability to control your smartphone, tablet or other media device through a high-quality Bluetooth(r) connection. You can also find models that have a USB or AUX(tm) port to let you play music directly from a portable device.
A good quality stereo will have a built-in equalizer that lets you adjust the shape of your output sound, raising or lowering specific frequencies to suit your taste. It will also have a high efficiency rating that means it can power the speakers without adding too much distortion.
DVD Player Stereo
A DVD player is one of the more sophisticated types of media receivers available. Unlike a car stereo that simply plays CDs or AM/FM radio, a car DVD player can also play music from your digital media devices. Some come with an auxiliary input so you can plug in a thumb drive or other portable music player. You can also find models that support Bluetooth(tm) streaming for wireless music playback.
Depending on the model, you might be able to connect your DVD player to an amplifier via an optical (Tos-link) or coaxial digital cable. These types of connections offer high-quality, lossless digital audio transfer. If your DVD player supports 5.1-channel Dolby Digital or DTS audio, you can connect it directly to an amp that is “Dolby Digital ready” and has built-in decoders.
Most aftermarket car stereos now come with a DVD player. Those that don’t, can be fitted with an add-on DVD player. When selecting a DVD player, look for one that has an efficient power supply to avoid having to use too much energy to drive your speakers. Look for a high sensitivity rating, which measures the unit’s ability to produce sound when given only a small amount of power.
The first car stereos were phonographs that used 7-inch records to play your favorite songs. They weren’t very practical though as they would skip while the vehicle was in motion. In the early sixties, Earl Muntz created a technology called the Stereo-Pak that solved this issue by using special cartridges that would hold 7-inch records that wouldn’t skip while the car was in motion.
In the 80s, CD players took over from cassettes as the preferred method of transporting music in your vehicle. The quality of the CD was superior to that of the cassette, and a properly cared for CD wouldn’t degrade over time. As technology progressed, most CD players came with multiple CD changers so you could switch between your favorites at will.
High-Tech Stereo
A high-end stereo system can be designed to sound like a concert hall. Such systems are known as “Hi-fi” and often win best-stereo trophies. They also can add a lot of comfort to a vehicle. Leather seating surfaces are poised to trickle down into less expensive vehicles, and heated and cooled seats will be available in more models.
Continental and Sennheiser have developed a car audio system that eliminates speakers altogether, instead sending vibrations directly to parts of the vehicle to create sound, much as an acoustic guitar vibrates when a string is plucked. This system takes up 90 percent less space, which can be repurposed for storage or other equipment.
Hi-Tech Car Audio is a clean store with well-arranged audio/stereo model displays. The shop has a large installation center in the back and can install navigation, alarm and remote start systems within a day. The company also has a mobile service to work on customers’ cars.