Basic Principles to Take the Sting Out of Buying
Car Stereo
As the weather gets warmer, thoughts
of hitting the highway become more appealing, and that usually comes with musical
accompaniment. A car without some sort of sound system is as unthinkable these days as one
without rearview mirrors. For most of us, tunes are an indispensable accompaniment to
driving, and there are numerous audio companies out there who are more than willing to
satisfy this need. Picking your way through the maze will not be easy.
Or maybe it will. One thing that has steadily improved over
the years is the nature of the stereo gear that comes with the car, factory installed.
Faced with the audio community's predilection for ditching the supplied radio and buying
elsewhere, the car companies have upgraded their products continually, and have even made
alliances with the "real" audio companies to provide model-specific systems on
upscale vehicles. So it may be that you can avoid the angst and take what comes.
Probably not, however. Aftermarket car audio provides a
much wider range of options in terms of function and quality, and still tends to be the
choice of discriminating listeners. Also, like other areas of audio, car stereo is fun to
shop for and to play with. It can also be frustrating, of course, because there is so much
stuff out there, but knowing what to look for can make the process somewhat easier.
In many ways, it is far harder to achieve a high level of
audio performance in a car than anywhere else. The very environment militates against it,
so in a sense practically everything about the equipment you choose is important. Some
things, however, should be given priority.
First make some basic decisions about what you want the
system to do. Will you want to play both tapes and CDs? And if so, would it be more
convenient to be able to play a number of discs non-stop, or do you prefer to pop them in
the slot one at a time? Do you rely on the FM tuner much of the time, or are there only a
couple of stations in your area and you hate both of them? If so, there are lots of
components that dispense with radio capability, allowing you to apply your budget
elsewhere. Do you want music just up front, or front and back? How about
global-positioning capability? Or video (for the kids in the back, natch)? Or satellite
radio (in the U.S., anyway)?
And it should be obvious, but often isn't, that the best
piece of gear made will be a dud if you can't fit it into your car. So before you consider
buying anything, do a physical survey of your vehicle to determine what you can and can't
accommodate. Does the dash accept three-hole or DIN equipment? Is there any room in the
doors? Are there cutouts for speakers in the rear deck, and what size are they? Where else
can you mount speakers, and how many can you mount? Is there room for extra amps or a CD
changer in the trunk? Is there a trunk? Know all this before you go shopping; it will
narrow the field a lot.
You will inevitably spend at least some time fumbling with
the controls while doing 100 clicks on the freeway, so your equipment had better be simple
and intuitive to use. Check it out in the store -- if things seem awkward or illogical or
difficult, pick something else.
Also experiment with physical stability to make sure your
discs or tapes won't skip or make wobbly noises as you drive over railroad tracks (a
couple of firm raps -- vertical, sideways, and front-to-back -- should tell you what you
need to know). Look for automatic shutoff of the cassette mechanism when the ignition is
off, to protect the pressure roller and minimize flutter. And if you ever want to plug
anything into your head unit (an external CD player, say), or plug it into something else
(a powered subwoofer or a second set of amps), there had better be RCA-style line inputs
and outputs.
Car stereo is, of course, a form of hi-fi, so whatever else
it does, it should sound good. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to predict exactly how
a piece of equipment will stack up until it's been installed, but there are things you can
do to lower the risk of problems.
Tape and CD players are unlikely to contribute
significantly to the overall sound quality, positively or negatively, but you should put
them through their paces and check for speed stability, access time, and such. A spin
around town with the tuner temporarily hooked up to your present antenna will give you
some idea of FM performance, an overall audit of the controls will tell you a lot about
how much you can twiddle with the sound, and buying adequate power should prevent undue
distortion problems.
But, alas, there is no easy way to tell in advance how what
you want to buy will actually sound, which is mostly a product of your speakers, where
they are placed, and how they interact with the interior of your vehicle. A similar system
in another car might give you a clue, and temporarily parking your potential speakers in
your car (if they're surface-mount models) will come fairly close to the final sound. In
the end, you can't go wrong if you make sure your dealer will exchange speakers that prove
to be totally wrong and will work with you to correct matters. The choice of dealer in the
first place is thus of primary importance.
That's particularly true when it comes to actually mounting
the equipment in your car. Installing a car stereo system is one of the most
finicky and frustrating things in audio, and one that you can screw-up with incredible
ease. So do yourself a big favor: Pay the money and have your system put together by a
pro.
When you are shopping for car stereo, you will inevitably
bump into things that seem important to your choice but often aren't. For instance,
autosound companies, like other audio manufacturers, tend to sprinkle the literature
pretty liberally with specifications, but many are meaningless. On the one hand, things
like signal-to-noise ratio and channel separation tend to be irrelevant in the ambient
noise that washes over you even in a quiet vehicle. On the other hand, so many companies
inflate their numbers (by using extremely high distortion figures to pump up wattage
specs, for example) that the results are useless either as a basis of comparison or of
performance generally.
Some numbers really are big, but that doesn't necessarily
mean that the sound is great. 6000W of amplifier power and 48 separate speakers may
impress the dude in the next car, but such overkill will really only make the sound loud
-- louder, probably, than even you can stand. By the same token, you'll never need 50 FM
presets in your tuner; if they add only minimally to the cost, fine, but if you have to
pay extra for more than about a dozen, forget it.
Then there are the devices that let you tinker with the
sound quality itself. It's tempting to think of an equalizer as a magic cure-all for any
audio ill that might arise. It ain't; it's much more likely to ruin your sound than
improve it, so unless you really need equalization and really know how to apply it
properly, save your money.
One absolute must is something to hold your tapes or CDs so
they don't rattle around your car. These come in a wide variety of forms, from padded CD
holders to small suitcase-like boxes with handles. Several companies manufacturer car
caddies that are really designed as coolers to keep things cold (or hot) on longer trips,
but which are ideal for storing CDs, tapes, and small accessories like tape-head cleaners.
Their benefits in car-stereo applications are that they don't look like audio gear and so
may not attract thieves, and that their insulation may protect your recordings from
temperature extremes. Also designed to deter those who would relieve you of your equipment
are cheap-looking false fronts for the head unit, and various removable pieces, from the
control panel to the whole works; either way, some sort of carrying case might come in
handy.
Face it: Somebody out there wants your equipment as much as
you do, and they won't be shy about trying to get it. There is a vast range of anti-theft
systems on the market, from pullout head units to security codes that disable the
equipment if anybody but you tries to use it, to alarms that hurl verbal abuse at anyone
who approaches your car. What you need depends on your circumstances, but you probably do
need some sort of protection so you should include that in your budget from the start.
Car stereo equipment is one of the most active areas of
consumer electronics, which means that the options are vast and not easy to master. But it
also means that what you need really is out there if you have the patience to find it.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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