The History of Car Audio

Car audio is one of those modern conveniences that we often take for granted. Hopping in the car and listening to some tunes is relaxing and fun. But it wasn’t always that way.

It all started back in the 1930’s when the Galvin brothers invented the first commercial car radio. It sold for about $110 which is the equivalent today, to about $1700.

In the 50’s, the seek button was invented using a Town and Country mode. While in town, you could seek for the strongest signals only, and in the country, the sensitivity of the radio allowed you to pick up more distant signals.

The 60’s and 70’s saw the introduction of record players into cars due to higher power voltages. Unfortunately, this players were large and never gained mass popularity. In 1964 Philips invented the cassette tape and the 8 track followed.

In the 80’s home speakers were used in cars, but were ill suited to the extreme temperatures and vibrations of the road. The focus switched to volume and sound quality, with importance placed on the car audio subwoofer, car audio amplifiers, and the car audio speaker.

Today, car audio continues to improve in terms of power and quality. If you want to see what I mean, visit www.PyleAudio.com.

The Importance of Car Audio

Mobile audio is defined by car audio amplifiers, a car audio speaker that can move a full glass of water, and a car audio subwoofer that you can hear for a half mile radius when turned up all the way. Car audio is a modern phenomenon that allows music to become the focus of your driving experience.

And why shouldn’t it be? There’s nothing sweeter than to be cruising to a friend’s house or a party with your favorite tunes pumping in the summertime sun. You sing along and pat the beat on your steering wheel with the palms of your hands. The sun shines and you’ve got your windows down to let the breeze blow in, and pedestrians look at you and some show dismay at how loud your car audio is and some show enthusiasm that you’re enjoying yourself so much, and they wish secretly that they were with you, in the car, head nodding along to your favorite song, and the light changes, and you zoom off and the music dopplers away, and they’re left standing there, walking, without any car audio.

It’s so much better to have mobile audio that allows you to look forward to driving, rather than sitting in your car with a weak stereo that you can’t even crank, or even worse, driving in silence.

Balance Is Crucial To Car Audio

Mobile audio is important. You have probably experienced a car audio speaker that has blown out. The result is ghastly. How can anyone deal with that for any longer, you probably asked yourself, and rightly so.

Of course speakers are important, but that’s not it. Car audio amplifiers are also especially necessary to having top of the line mobile audio. Amps make the sound louder, literally. They modify the tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing specific frequencies. This makes your speakers able to produce louder tunes, and then it comes down to how capable your speakers are.

A car audio woofer is important too. Bass can lend a lot to many kinds of music and fill out the sound of whatever it is you’re listening to. If you have crazy amps and speakers, but lack a car audio woofer, your sound will be hollow and empty. In other words, you’ll be missing out on your fullest car audio capabilities.
So don’t go all out when it comes to just speakers or amps or a car audio woofer, it’s important to have car audio that’s balanced. If you really want to invest in one of the three aspects, think about the speakers, they allow you to enjoy the quality of your music to the fullest.

Car Audio Tips: How to Tune an Amplifier

After the installation process, it is very important that your tune your amplifier. An improperly tuned amp can really interfere with your sound quality and produce annoying distortion when you’re trying to play music from your system. All in all, not tuning your amp correctly can end up being a huge hassle to deal with. Fortunately, tuning car audio amplifiers is very simple and can be done by following these easy steps.

1) Turn the amplifier down low.

2) Turn the radio up to at least ¾ volume.

3) Last, you want to turn the amplifier up until it sounds the way you want it sound.

Your goal is to get loud, clear bass that doesn’t clip and out sound muddy or distorted. Remember that once the system is set where you want it, don’t toy around with it. Leave the levels on the head unit and the amp alone, or you could risk blowing out your speakers.

If you’re a more visual learner, here is a really helpful video made by a stereo system designer that goes over how to properly tune car audio amplifiers.

End Stolen Car Audio: Get an In-Dash CD Receiver

I love my car, and apparently, so do thieves. In the past year, my car has been broken into four times. After the first break-in all of my CD’s were gone. I was mad at first, but then I realized I was kind of asking for it by leaving them on the seat with the window slightly down. I vowed to be more careful and put my stuff away.

I got an iPod and when I went in to work, I would leave it in my locked glove compartment. Well my locked glove compartment was no match for the second burglar. Upon breaking into my car, he cracked the lock and was probably elated to find a perfectly good iPod. I was furious and installed an alarm system on my car, but it was so sensitive that even a paper bag blowing by would cause it to go off. My neighbor’s complained about it sounding off at all hours of the night, so I had it removed.

Bad move. The third time my car got broken into, the burglar was especially heartless. He completely ripped out my car audio system in my dash, leaving a gaping hole where my CD player once was. I was pretty upset, but knew there had to be a practical car audio solution that was safe from thieves.

Once I saved up the money, I got an In-Dash receiver with a detachable face. I love the security of being able to just pop off the face and carry it in with me wherever I go.
My car hasn’t been broken into again since my last incident, but if it does happen, there’s no way they’re getting my car audio!

3 Things You Need to Get Optimal Car Audio

Most drivers can’t live without music during their commutes. Music has a sort of calming effect by distracting us from the bad traffic, slow drivers, or the exceedingly long trip to work every morning. It put us at ease when our road rage starts to boil up and give us something else to focus on when we can’t stop thinking about how much we hate driving.

So because music is so important to many drivers, it’s important that they have quality car audio. There are many components that makes a good sound system, but here are 3 crucial things you need to take your sound to the next level.

Car audio subwoofers. Subwoofers are the key to a solid sound system. Sounds are multi-dimensional and subwoofers really augment the lowest, highest, and every thing in between creating a more full sound.

Car audio amplifiers. Amps are what the subwoofers plug into to deliver the sound. They work together to produce the full booming sound many looking to update their systems want.

Car audio speakers. The speakers installed in your car at the factory just don’t hold a candle to the quality level of speakers you can get by going to Pyle Audio. If you’re getting new woofers and amps, you’re going to need a tough pair of speakers to handle the sound.

For Larger Than Life Sound Get a Car Audio Subwoofer

I recently got a new car and at first, was perfectly content with everything, and didn’t bat an eye at the car audio quality. Actually, perfectly content doesn’t do it justice, I was THRILLED. Being that my former car was a ’92 Civic with a bad transmission and no air conditioning, I would take anything that didn’t leave me stranded on a regular basis.

So when my friend asked me how the sound system was, I said it was incredible! And it was, compared to my other car, which didn’t even have a radio, let alone working speakers. I’m a huge music buff, so I definitely wanted a car with an awesome sound system.

When I picked him up for lunch to show it off, he put on some tunes to test out the speakers and I was shocked when he burst out in laughter at how puny the sound was. He suggested that if I wanted a larger than life sound that amplified the lowest and loudest booms in my music I needed to upgrade my system and get a car audio subwoofer.

I have a long commute to work everyday, and music is pretty much the only thing that keeps me sane in rush hour. So for me, it was crucial that I had the best sound system possible. I went to pyleaudio.com and ordered the perfect car audio woofer for my car. I now have sound quality that will blow your hair back!