Car audio advice

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by metallicat

Isn’t he crowd funding for the wrap? Money can’t be too much of an object for the guy if he’s also upgrading his speaker system.

For what an automotive wrap costs, you could put so many speakers and subwoofers in a Grand Caravan that it would qualify as a two-seater.

[Sliver]

I wonder what people are spending money on for car audio?

In the 90s and early 2000s, all my friends had aftermarket head units and many had upgraded speakers, amps and subs. It seems that's a totally dead thing, now. I've gotta be the only guy I know with a sub in his trunk. Remember when Future Shop and all the electronics stores had the car audio section where you could press little red buttons to hear different combinations of speakers/subs/decks? Those rooms don't exist anymore.

So what are people buying that is showing that segment is growing? I'm not seeing it as a growth industry.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I wonder what people are spending money on for car audio?

In the 90s and early 2000s, all my friends had aftermarket head units and many had upgraded speakers, amps and subs. It seems that's a totally dead thing, now. I've gotta be the only guy I know with a sub in his trunk. Remember when Future Shop and all the electronics stores had the car audio section where you could press little red buttons to hear different combinations of speakers/subs/decks? Those rooms don't exist anymore.

So what are people buying that is showing that segment is growing? I'm not seeing it as a growth industry.

Yeah I'm curious too. Now that we don't need to upgrade the headunit to get mp3/ipod/bluetooth/whatever compatibility, I'm curious where all the money is getting spent that's making it grow so much.

[TorqueDog]

Head-units are probably not where people are putting their money except for older cars. For modern vehicles, you're still likely able to tap into the audio feed from the factory DSP, run it to an aftermarket amp, and power aftermarket speakers and subs that way. I don't think you'd want to spend the money on aftermarket speakers just to use the factory amps unless it's actually a good amp from the factory.

[DownInFlames]

I’d like to see some stats before I believe car audio is a growing industry. I don’t know anyone who has updated their stereo lately, and you don’t seem to hear cars with annoying pounding bass as much.

I’ve thought about getting a new head unit for my work van to get CarPlay but it’s not worth paying $1200 since the current system works well enough. My next vehicle will have it for sure.

[surferguy]

My current upgraded system consists of my phone stuck in the cup holder to act as a amplifier.

[afc wimbledon]

This thread made me wonder if bluetooth cell phone use is what will kill car audio, my kids spend all their car journeys talking on the phone via bluetooth making a loud stereo in a car for them all but pointless

[chedder]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

This thread made me wonder if bluetooth cell phone use is what will kill car audio, my kids spend all their car journeys talking on the phone via bluetooth making a loud stereo in a car for them all but pointless

They talk on their phones? My kids only snapchat etc. And they listen to music a lot in their cars.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Head-units are probably not where people are putting their money except for older cars. For modern vehicles, you're still likely able to tap into the audio feed from the factory DSP, run it to an aftermarket amp, and power aftermarket speakers and subs that way. I don't think you'd want to spend the money on aftermarket speakers just to use the factory amps unless it's actually a good amp from the factory.

Looking at my current truck I have no idea how you would upgrade the head unit, the stock stereo/system control is a huge sprawling thing that takes up most of the counsol, what the hell would fill all of that space?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Looking at my current truck I have no idea how you would upgrade the head unit, the stock stereo/system control is a huge sprawling thing that takes up most of the counsol, what the hell would fill all of that space?

Don't know what truck you have, but you'd be surprised at the variety of aftermarket fitment kits they have for double DIN head-units these days. Some of them can look damn near factory.

The big thing is making sure you aren't losing vehicle functionality now that they're doing stupid sh-t like putting the heated seat controls into the goddamn factory displays.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Looking at my current truck I have no idea how you would upgrade the head unit, the stock stereo/system control is a huge sprawling thing that takes up most of the counsol, what the hell would fill all of that space?

Go to crutchfield.ca and you'll see all the dash kits for whatever car you have based on the head unit you want. Usually just, like, a little cubby or something.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by chedder

They talk on their phones? My kids only snapchat etc. And they listen to music a lot in their cars.

I mean when my kids are driving the car

[chedder]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

I mean when my kids are driving the car

Me too. When they drive they listen to music and don't talk on their phones. I don't think car stereos are going away.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Yeah I'm curious too. Now that we don't need to upgrade the headunit to get mp3/ipod/bluetooth/whatever compatibility, I'm curious where all the money is getting spent that's making it grow so much.

I wonder if stereo "upgrades" from factory with new purchases count? Cause yeah, anecdotally I'm not seeing it either.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I wonder what people are spending money on for car audio?

In the 90s and early 2000s, all my friends had aftermarket head units and many had upgraded speakers, amps and subs. It seems that's a totally dead thing, now. I've gotta be the only guy I know with a sub in his trunk. Remember when Future Shop and all the electronics stores had the car audio section where you could press little red buttons to hear different combinations of speakers/subs/decks? Those rooms don't exist anymore.

So what are people buying that is showing that segment is growing? I'm not seeing it as a growth industry.

I agree that newer cars the industry is shrinking rather than growing.

I also wonder if it's totally different types of stuff being purchased than before. For instance, I can totally see those easy to install $100-600 Android units shoved into older cars with Bluetooth and Apple car play being the major growth. How often did people blow that type of money back then on average? Individuals might have spent more per project, but now there's more people in general shoving these things into their older cars. This instead of major overhauls to the existing speakers, subs and amps in the cars?

Heck, even bizarre blended "smart" units might fall into these categories and be counted. Like those Amazon Echo for your car and other items which is basically the tape deck to 3.5mm jack to plug into your phone/mp3 player.

The thing is, while you can easily bluetooth to many cars, many people want more than that. They want voice commands. They want the text message to come up on the screen so they can read or their unit can read it back to them with easy commands vs the phone constantly being like, "Sorry, I didn't get that." or wrong command being executed. I could see this being the reason for "car audio" growth while it also being a completely different "car audio" that most of you are thinking about?

[blankall]

About 3 years ago, I had my factory deck and front speakers replaced. I had a Sony deck with bluetooth, Android Auto, etc... put into a 2010 vehicle.

Apparently this was a very popular purchase.

[chubeyr1]

The average age of people on CP is we are old.

Car audio is alive and thriving.

We just got old.

I wish the op would respond.

Tell us what you have.

I mean at one time I had 12 inch home stereo speakers in my car from kmart.

They sucked.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

You're pimpin' up a minivan??

Wait till you see the furry dice!

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by chubeyr1

The average age of people on CP is we are old.

Car audio is alive and thriving.

We just got old.

I wish the op would respond.

Tell us what you have.

I mean at one time I had 12 inch home stereo speakers in my car from kmart.

They sucked.

He said he has a Dodge Grand Caravan.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

He said he has a Dodge Grand Caravan.

Yes and lets be honest that's not a something you repeat