Sound Advice

Upgrading your car stereo can bring you concert hall sound quality. But there's more to it than just new speakers. We look at the ingredients that go in making a good car entertainment system.

Do you spend more time behind the steering wheel than you do watching the television with the family? There's no option but to sit there and sulk wading your way through traffic. There's one thing that you can do to make it less painful. Get a good stereo and enjoy the drive back home (or to that 9 am meeting).

Stereo makers are all too well aware of this and most of them have tied-up with some of the biggest names in car manufacturing to give you top class factory fitted stereo set ups. But even if you don't you can choose to upgrade. The wide variety of choices that you can make for your car stereo is similar to the ones that you have at home now.

Sounds great in every sense, doesn't it. But there's a catch. It's highly unlikely that you'll recoup the extra cost of buying these when its time to resell. So be wise when you get a system installed.

SET YOURSELF A BUDGET

Set a budget. Car stereo systems can get expensive with all of the different parts that comprise a stereo system, so setting a budget for the whole project is an important way to make sure you get the best deal.

You need to bear in mind a few things when setting a budget. Firstly, you need to be honest with yourself how long you will be willing to use your car and what is the extent of usage each day. If you plan to keep it for over two years then it's advisable to invest in a decent set of speakers. Find components that will work for your model of vehicle. Not all head units will fit in every dash and not all speaker systems will be compatible with all makes and models of car. You can check what components are compatible with your car at various dealers to get a good idea about the price range.

You also need to be honest about your musical preferences. If you like to listen to bass music then you'll need to install a powerful amplifier and sub-woofer as well. For pop music though you'll need a system that can reproduce the entire audio spectrum evenly. Keep in mind that certain audio systems require major modification work, which costs extra. Also be honest about how long you

Factor in mind that at the time of resale though your stereo might make the car more appealing it won't increase the value substantially.

DECIDE ON UPGRADING OR REPLACING THE EXISTING SYSTEM

After considering the features you want, determine whether the system should be upgraded or replaced. Many car systems, especially those in newer vehicles can be upgraded with expansion components. The advantages of expansion components make it easy to add almost any feature or component to your car system while leaving the existing system. You may need to talk to an installing dealer to determine if your car stereo system can be upgraded or should be replaced.

HUNT FOR A GOOD HEAD UNIT

Once you've made up your mind to buy a new stereo go searching for a good head unit. The single biggest mistake that most buyers make is to cringe on spending a decent packet of money on a head unit. The head unit or the stereo is the heart of the operation and as important as a good set of speakers.

Today's stereo players are hugely sophisticated components and are nothing like the cassette players that were the norm a couple of years ago. Far from simple tape players with a radio, they are full-blown entertainment units with more functions than you cell phone. After market systems, are more complex than factory units.

Here's what you need to look at when buying a head unit.

Ease of operation - No matter how cool a unit might look, if it's not intuitive to use then stay away. Look for a layout that is simple to use and where the controls will be easily accessible even during the dark. You don't want to be showing off your new hi-fi stereo and reading the manual to play it.

Multi-Disc Changers - Also called CD changers these reduce the bother of storing your CD's or DVDs in the glovebox. Load them into your car's multi-disc changer and keep an entire library of discs ready to enjoy in your car. Prices for these start at around Rs 20,000.

USB Ports - It was just a few years ago that USB ports became standard fare on PCs and laptops, now the front panel of many car entertainment systems have a USB connection. With the USB port you can play your music collection stored on a USB flash drive, or connect an iPod, view its contents on the front panel screen and control it from the front panel of an in-dash receiver.

Hands-Free Cellphone Adaptors - This feature allows you to connect the phone to the system via the USB port and the phone can be controlled on the in-dash receiver's front panel. The phone can be answered by touching a button on the front panel and the contents of the phone's contact list can be viewed on the display. When the phone rings, the audio system automatically goes into mute mode. The phone's signal and battery level appear on the display.

Shock protection - This means that your CD/MP-3 changer has the ability to read ahead and store a reasonable amount of data. If a severe jolt causes the CD to skip then the player plays from the stored data until the data stream is re-established with the CD. A very useful feature on our potholed roads.

ID-3 Tags - A players ability to read ID - 3 tags means that it can give you details like artist's name, track title, track duration and any other related information.

The last consideration is to see that the stereo has a detachable faceplate. This might seem like an unimportant requisite but will avoid any break ins into your car.

VIDEO SYSTEMS

There's more to a car's entertainment system rather then just a music player. The last few years have seen an explosion in new additions like LCD screens, which make cars small theatres. You can add things like GPS, video games or just watch movies on these.

The simplest thing to do is buy a head unit with a built-in DVD player that can go directly in your car's dashboard. There are also separate DVD players that can connect to standalone monitors. Video game systems (PS2, PS3, XBox etc) are quite common and most good installers won't have a problem adapting the system to 12 volt use. More advanced systems can even include computing capabilities.

Typical monitor locations are in-dash, on the headliner, or in the headrests. The possibilities are endless but these are the most common. Obviously, the headrest option will be for your rear seat passengers as will the headliner mounting. Be sure to work with a competent installer, and resist the temptation to install the monitor in the dashboard. What can be more dangerous than a distracted driver looking at the monitor when his eyes should be on the road?

SPEAKERS

This is the most important ingredient in getting the best music inside the car. You can buy the best head units, amps, etc - but a mediocre pair of speakers can really spoil the mood. A good speaker's job is to do its work without changing the original sound of the audio signal. Ideally, only one speaker per side is enough to reproduce the entire audio spectrum. However, a speaker that can produce low frequencies has too much mass to be able to produce the higher frequencies. So, if you want your music to have a lot of bass, add a sub-woofer to your set-up.

The simplest way of choosing the right speaker for your car is by listening to them before you buy. Ask the salesman to put them in your car and hear them out with and without the windows rolled up and the engine started. Take a CD which you usually listen to as it will help you get a better idea as to how the speaker will produce sounds that you are familiar with.

Poor quality speakers will have an exaggerated high and low end. Adjust the bass and treble levels that will comfortably suit you.

If you are a bass lover then you can add a subwoofer to the set-up. The main reason subwoofers are used is to take all the bass out of the smaller, typical car speakers. The smaller speakers cannot handle bass like the large subwoofer, so when you crank your stereo in an average car, the speakers start getting distorted, and could potentially get damaged from trying to put out the low frequencies. With the subwoofer installed, it takes away all the work the smaller speakers would have to do. Now, the whole stereo can get louder without the degradation of the car speakers. Subwoofers are generally considered speakers of eight inches or larger and will require more amplifier power than coaxial or component loudspeakers due to their larger size. Subwoofers will also require an enclosure to produce these lower frequencies effectively. Sometimes the enclosure can be as simple as the boot of a saloon or as complex as a series-tuned dual-reflex band pass enclosure. The cone size and enclosure required will be two very important factors when deciding on a subwoofer for your system.
When shopping for subwoofers don't go overboard trying to stuff your car with subwoofers. Consider how much room your car has and how much of it you are willing to sacrifice to achieve the low end. This will determine size as well as enclosure type for the woofers you choose. Also, using a subwoofer, the overall sound quality is enhanced. It's like going from a cheap radio to a movie hall type sound.

The least expensive and most common type of car speakers is the coaxial. It consists of a midrange/woofer with a tweeter placed over the cone, either on a bridge or on a pole that extends from the middle of the cone. These speakers are made in sizes that will exactly fit most brands of vehicles. Advantages of this design include low cost and ease of installation. You need to remember to check two primary things when buying co-axials. First the mounting depth - the distance that a speaker needs behind its mounting surface for its basket and magnet structure. This can be very important when speakers are being installed in the rear deck of automobile that has torsion bars in the trunk or door speakers with window clearance problems. Then the power figures are critical as well. This is the amount of power a speaker can withstand before failing after a given amount of time. The most important number is the speakers continuous or RMS (root mean square) power handling. The higher this figure the better the speaker will be.

You can also use Component Speakers. A component loudspeaker is a single driver designed to reproduce frequencies in a given range. Component speakers are used in tandem with other component speakers to reproduce the entire audio spectrum. As few as two and as many as four or more different size drivers can be used to create a component set. These speakers must be placed very near each other. However, this is not always done in practice. Sometimes a midrange/woofer will be placed in a door while the tweeter may be placed in the front corner of the front window (sail panel) or on the pillar that separates the windshield from the door frame (A-pillar). This is done to raise the apparent position of the musicians on an imaginary stage in the front of the vehicle. The advantages of this design are generally better sound and more options for installation. Disadvantages are added cost, more complex installation, and possible problems with time alignment.

SPEAKER PLACEMENT

Most owners pay little attention to the placement of their speakers. The parcel shelf in hatchbacks is the most common place where dealers place speakers. To get the best out of your car audio speaker placement is highly imperative. Most cars come from the factory with slots to place speakers in. The most common locations for installing car speakers are the dash, the doors and the rear shelf. These will be adequate for almost everybody and are good choices for simple speaker upgrades. The custom location of choice is usually the kickpanel, which is the area under the dash in the far left and far right corners of the car's interior.

Sounds absurd. After all, how can having speakers at your feet be the best choice for car speaker placement? The answer has to do with time alignment. Think of how your home stereo is set up. Do you sit in front of the screen with one speaker placed ten feet away and the other 15 feet away. No. When you sit in front of your speakers, they are probably both located at an equal distance from you while you sit in the middle. This gives you perfect balance. Similarly in a car with the factory car speaker placement in the dash or doors, you are always at an unequal distance from the front left door speaker, the rear door speaker and the right rear door speaker.

Speakers in the kickpanels will be closer to the balanced ideal of your home stereo system. The soundstage will be placed more in the centre of your listening area instead being skewed to one side thus delivering greater sound.

TERMINOLOGY -

DIN - DIN connector is a connector that was originally standardized by the Deutsches Institutfur Normung(DIN). The German national standards organization.

Divx - DivX is a brand name of products created by DixX Inc (formerly DivXNetworks, Inc.), including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.

MOSFET - The metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, MOS-FET, or MOS FET) is a device used to amplify or switch electronic signals. They add outstanding character for audio power amplifier applications.

RCA - a specific type of connector generally used for pre-amplifier audio and video connections.

OFC: An abbreviation for oxygen-free copper. This is the most desirable wire to buy.

CDR/CDRW Compatibility: While most CD changers can read CD recordable discs, not all can read CD Re-Writable discs. This may be important if you burn your own CDs.