From Your Retro-Style Turntable to Your In-Dash Receiver: Music in 2013 Is Great!

Some years just feel less momentous than others as far as music goes. Sure, music is still great. You can mine some classic vinyl or download unheard obscurities you might have missed to keep interest up, but this year has been uniquely fruitful in a wide array of genres.

Whether you are blasting the deeply layered electronic music of Jon Hopkin's Immunity out of Bluetooth speakers or dropping a thick slab of Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires of the City onto a beautiful retro style turntable, the year has been offering an avalanche of unique releases by huge acts and upstarts alike. Most likely the on-demand nature of our entertainment tastes has you moving freely among genres to have the kind of beautiful smorgasbord of sounds that generations previous could only dream of.

Musicians are taking advantage of the anything goes vibe of our modern musical moment and making some fairly boundless albums. Kanye West, never content to be dropped in a box, has unleashed his combative Yeezus album to a mix of fawning praise and confused head scratches. Meanwhile Daft Punk, an iconoclastic cult act for more than a decade, sold 350k copies of their recent album Random Access Memories. They even moved a huge chunk of those records in deluxe LP form perfect for those retro style turntables that have become a huge hit everywhere from college dorm rooms to luxury apartments.

The successful rebirth of the vinyl record business as well as robust business for streaming playlists through stereos, computers and in-dash receivers in cars seems to suggest people are once again interested in investing money into their entertainment experience. This is good news for the music industry and the audio equipment business, but it is also good for consumers. As people put their money into high-quality music like the aforementioned artists in this article, more and more companies will invest in this kind of risk-taking art.

Beyond that, consumers have more and more choices for how to take all of this great music in. Have you ever heard music played perfectly from a pair of easily movable Bluetooth speakers? They have all the impact of gigantic stereo systems of the past with mobility that was heretofore unheard of. Seriously, with all of these perfected speakers, turntables and other equipment, everything sounds good whether you are dancing to Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" or moping around to the latest National album.

Make Your Own Mobile Audio With The New PED02M Electronic Drum Kit

Talk about mobile audio. Imagine the freedom of being able to record without having to drag your entire drum set to the recording studio. Well, now you can!

The new PED02M electronic drum kit comes complete with an MP3 recorder, making it easy to play and record from the confines of your own home. No more angry neighbors or upset roommates -- just plug in your headphones and play your heart out. Everyone knows that practice makes perfect. So now you can practice anytime you want, in the comfort of your own home. Since you can record it, you can listen to it later, mobile audio style in your car!

This compact, all-in-one solution is a drummer’s best friend. Complete with five ultra-responsive drum pads, two natural motion cymbal pads, and both hi-hat and bass pedals, the pads on the PED02M drum kit are so sensitive they feel like real, natural drums.

Including 11 pre-set drum kits with up to four variations, the PED02M’s 16-bit/44.1 kHz 3D sound quality will leave even the most seasoned and serious drummer in awe. The kit comes with a built-in reverb switch and metronome, an A-B looping function, MIDI in and outs, and of course the built in MP3 layer/recorder. The kit even comes with a stereo line-in for a portable MP3 mobile audio device, so you can practice along with any MP3 or CD.

Nice Hydraulics, How's Your Car Audio Woofer?

I love the west coast G style, and I've always dreamed of having a '64 Impala Lowrider. One day, I saw just the right one parked on my street. It belonged to an old man I knew. I pestered him for about a year before he sold it to me. I told him how I was going to soup it up, too, no secrets. He was cool. He even made me promise to get a high quality car audio woofer, so I wouldn't embarrass him when I was riding around. Dude had his rep to consider, like anyone!

When I bought it, I didn't have a ton of money. That car was a labor of love. I started with the superficial: a crazy hydraulic system with some chrome spokes and a sick paint job. So it looked great. But I was going to school, working, paying rent at the time. How was I going to afford a top-notch car audio woofer?

If it weren't for Pyle Sound Around, I would not be listening to the sweet sounds I'm hearing now. In fact, I might not even be driving. I promised I wouldn't embarrass my old friend, but mostly I didn't want to embarrass myself. The system in the car was weak. But I bought this sick car audio woofer from Pyle at a way lower price than the ones I'd been looking at in the store, and everything's been a smooth ride from there.

When I drive down my block, sometimes my buddy is sitting in a chair on his stoop. I slow down right in front of him, bump the bass, bounce the hydraulics, and he gets the biggest grin on his face you ever saw.

Tis The Season For Car Audio Speakers

It's summertime, which if you're anything like me, means two things:

1. Roll the windows down.
2. Turn the stereo up!

Last summer I embarrassed myself pretty good, blowing out my car audio speakers at a stoplight. There were some extremely good-looking girls on the corner, and I was jammin in the car, my seat leaned back just a little, not too much, and they were smiling at me, which I considered a signal to give them just a little more of my tunes, so I bumped the volume a notch or two and...boom. Fizzle. Quiet. They laughed.

They laughed, so it's all good, right? But how much better would it be if they were laughing with me, not at me, say, across the table at Mickey D's, drinking shakes and eating fries? What I really wish is that we still had drive-ins, like in the 50s. I'd leave the car audio speakers loud, so we had to shout over each other, just for fun, sharing fries and ketchup across the console. Sweet.

Obviously this year, I needed new car audio speakers. I wanted top of the line equipment, and I wanted the works. Not just speakers, but amps, subwoofers, the whole nine. Now I don't make a ton of money, so I had to find quality hardware at discount prices. I guess you know where I found it all, since you're reading this blog, too.

And if you happen to be one of those lovely ladies from my neighborhood, keep an ear out. Here I come.

2 Cool Mobile Audio Items

In terms of mobile audio, there are literally thousands of parts you can add to your kit, which can make deciding what you need a little hard—there’s just too much to choose from! If you talk to many mobile audio enthusiasts, they will all probably tell you one thing, adding cool parts to your system is addictive. One you start, you are always looking for the next best thing you can add to complete the total package. If you find yourself in this camp and are looking for the ultimate parts to add to your car, here are 2 cool items from Pyle Audio:

1) Wireless 50 Game Mobile Video Gaming System:
This self-contained mobile video gaming system had a handheld controller that wirelessly transmits to the video monitor in your car. You have the choice of 50 games, which can leave even the most restless passenger entertained for hours.

2) 3.5” TFT Touch Screen DVD/CD/MP3 Player with Built in GPS:
This awesome price of machinery streamlines all of your car needs. With DVD, Mp3 and GPS capabilities, including USA, Mexico and Canada maps, you’re sure to find a million and one instances when this thing helps you out.

Road Trippin'? Give Your Car a Mobile Audio Upgrade This Summer

The most entertaining thing that was around when I was a kid taking road trips, were those mini Milton Bradley games that were cool in theory but way too small to play unless you had midget hands. You practically needed tweezers to play Connect Four, what a rip! Now there's stuff like Pyle Audio's in-dash monitors and CD changers to keep you and your passengers sane and entertained.

If you’re planning on taking a road trip during these hot summer months, why not give your car audio the coolest upgrade and keep your passengers entertained (and keep them from annoying you)? The 7'' Motorized In-Dash TFT-LCD Monitor w/AM/FM TV Tuner & CD Changer Control is the perfect addition to your mobile audio this summer and will make getting there much more fun.

This system is truly an audio visual wonder. It features a motorized eject/flip-up LCD monitor, a TV/AV switch for easy switching between sources, a fully functional remote control, RCA jacks for easy hook-up of external video sources, an AM/FM receiver, and a CD changer controller. That’s right: the old days of cranky passengers in the back seat asking “are we there yet?” and making you want to wreck the car are over! Everyone can be entertained when you upgrade your mobile audio to this sweet system.

What Are Car Audio Crossovers?

A crossover is a filtering device which limits the frequencies that pass through a speaker. It works by splitting a music signal into a few separate frequency ranges. It then sends them to speakers that are designed to best reproduce each frequency range. Sounds complicated, we know. But if you remember our tutorials on car audio subwoofers and tweeters, you can get the hand of a crossover. For instance, the crossover lets only high frequencies transmit to your tweeters, midrange to your mid range speakers, and lows to your subwoofer. So in a way, it’s like the crossing guard of the sound waves, making sure everyone gets where they need to go, safely.

There are two types of crossovers: passive and active.

The passive crossover is very commonly used. It's basically a capacitor or coil installed on the speaker leads, between amplifier and speaker that stops certain unwanted frequencies from reaching a speaker. It's popular probably because it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to install.

But for your car stereo system to be as efficient as possible and all in all, perform better, an active crossover (sometimes called an electric crossover) will be your best bet. It is installed between your equalizer and your amps and works by sending the proper frequency ranges to each amplifier. One big difference from passive crossovers, is that active crossovers are almost infinitely adjustable. You can vary the crossover points and adjust the level of separate speakers to achieve the best, most crisp overall sound in your car audio system.