Car Audio moving forward. A reflection.

[Quad Linda]

...con't from post #34...

80's:
Concord AM/FM/Cass & HPQ 90 dbx II

A quantum leap from what I owned before. Before car CD players were available, this was the way to play a CD in the car: a dbx tape dub.

90's:
Alpine AM/FM/CD head w/trunk mounted 6 CD changer, 2 Alpine 4ch amps (amplifying 5 channels w/1 amp bridged), JL 12" sub, Infinity speakers

 

[DuncanS]

I got an Audi A5 in July. If I'd waited until the end of November or early December I could have gone for the B&O Surround System option but I wasn't prepared to wait and have to pay out for the huge 5 year service on my A4 (only done 45k miles though!). So the A5 S-Line S-tronic with the Technical pack only comes with a single slot CD/DVD player (no multi-changer option anymore) hidden in the glove box for 'convenience'! along with the SD card slots. I'm also not certain the speakers are as good as the ones I had in the A4. The system will play mp3 & 2.0 FLAC 48kHz, and a few other formats I'm not interested in, for the last few months its been mp3 I've listened to. So last week I transferred my Led Zep 2.0 FLAC downloads from the crazy Box Sets to an SDCard and it all played, but, I realised the Led Zep FLACs are 96kHz sample rate so either it is playing at the right speed or its down-sampling! Either way we're back to the old days of copying to listen in the car but to SDCard instead of tape.

 

[JonUrban]

I got an Audi A5 in July. If I'd waited until the end of November or early December I could have gone for the B&O Surround System option but I wasn't prepared to wait and have to pay out for the huge 5 year service on my A4 (only done 45k miles though!). So the A5 S-Line S-tronic with the Technical pack only comes with a single slot CD/DVD player (no multi-changer option anymore) hidden in the glove box for 'convenience'! along with the SD card slots. I'm also not certain the speakers are as good as the ones I had in the A4. The system will play mp3 & 2.0 FLAC 48kHz, and a few other formats I'm not interested in, for the last few months its been mp3 I've listened to. So last week I transferred my Led Zep 2.0 FLAC downloads from the crazy Box Sets to an SDCard and it all played, but, I realised the Led Zep FLACs are 96kHz sample rate so either it is playing at the right speed or its down-sampling! Either way we're back to the old days of copying to listen in the car but to SDCard instead of tape.

I can relate. I really do miss my disc player. It was nice to be able to feel like hearing something, grab the disc, and head off on the road. Now you have to rip the disc, create a compatible file and format, then copy to a stick/chip.

This really puts a kabosh on the "impulse listen in the car"....

 

[johnrd]

I wish someone would make an Oppo-like portable that would fit in the center console and connect via HDMI to an in-dash factory head unit enabling discrete surround and the playback of all our legacy formats.

 

[Beefalo]

I wasted quite a bit of money trying various car stereo installation shops. The work was always sloppy.
Finally hitched up with a high end shop and made friends with the owner/install guru. The install shop was a place to hangout and discuss systems/brag.
Oh the lovely smell of fresh fiberglass...
Ended up with a 15K system that was worth every penny. Dynaudio speakers. Active crossovers and multiple amps. Took out the spare tire in the trunk and made a massive subwoofer cabinet.
I really didn't know about surround then. I had a judge of quality though. We knew that some CD's were dynamic and could be played loud. Alot of the new ones sounded harsh & distorted at high volume.
This story has a sad ending:
I drifted apart from my friend at the shop until one day I needed some work done. I went by the shop and it was closed. I looked up my friend in the phone book and called him. His mother answered the phone. My friend had passed away due to undiagnosed high blood pressure.

 

[jefe1]

Thank you Beefalo for that story.
I am now taking high blood pressure medication daily. Sorry for your friend. This is a timely reminder to get your BP checked and get on the meds if you need them. This problem kills more people than you think and there are no warnings.
Here's to a longer life and more surround listening!

 

[Beefalo]

Thank you for that.
Mike was fit and in his 40's. Did not smoke but did enjoy his beer.
Once he needed extra time to finish a lengthy install.
He loaned me his daughters car for a week. I somehow ended up keeping a spare set of keys to the car.
Every now and then I find the keys laying around and I remember all the good times with my friend.

 

[DuncanS]

Thank you Beefalo for that story.
I am now taking high blood pressure medication daily. Sorry for your friend. This is a timely reminder to get your BP checked and get on the meds if you need them. This problem kills more people than you think and there are no warnings.
Here's to a longer life and more surround listening!

About 9 years ago I had gone to see the Doctor about an irritating ingrowing hair, they also decided to measure my BP, it was 184/120 (I had noticed I was always tired), now with medication its 120->140/80 - I'd inherited my mother's family problem, initially hers was so high it was off the scale. So have your BP checked fellow QQers.

 

[Dillydipper]

My first car audio memory was my Dad grousing when he helped me by my first car (1965 Mercury Comet, in 1975)...a week later there was a detachable Pioneer cassette deck in there, and he was walking around like I'd betrayed him or something!

My best memory is, walking out of a radio production studio at my station, having spent the evening making segues and beat-mixes into single-artist megamixes. I would assemble all the CD's, bonus and import CD's as well, custom mixes from reel tape and 12" vinyl, and rehearse them until I could achieve a whole 45-minute mix onto a side of an SA C-90 in one go! Best driving mixes I ever made! Adobe Audition makes those possible for a CD-R now, and I've done a few at the home studio.

Moving forward: I know I'll never purchase a car expensive enough for a built-in surround option; buying small and ecological is my focus now. But this is where I come to find possible auto options for a system with hard drive and multichannel as an aftermarket investment. Whenever the surround discs eventually go into the home NAS, they're all going to copied in compatible FLAC form as well, so SACD, DVD-A, DVD-V and blu-ray sources can co-mingle. And, that's going to be plenty of work right there, without even considering road mixes involving 5.1-channel segues! Only so many hours in the day...

 

[hobie1dog]

i remember hanging out at the various car stereo shops back in the 80's and 90's. A co-worker had (2) Phillips 15" woofers mounted on a plate right behind the rear seat powered by a Sanyo amp and we had great fun listening to our cassettes we made at home. The group Dixie Dregs came out with a new Lp and the first song was killer:


Recently though my son concentrated on making audiophile quality car stereo components for the SQ competitors and we would go to events and listen to as many guys systems as we could. He has 2 demo cars. First one is a Passat wagon that has his tweeters, mids, 6.5 mid-bass drivers, and (2) 12" shallow subs all in custom enclosures.

 

[hobie1dog]

This is the Passat. This is the rest of that install, so car audiophile upgrades are still out there.

the 12" woofers behind plexiglass

The Zapco amps have been replaced with his new Stereo Integrity amplifiers.

 

[hobie1dog]

this is the rear of his Audi wagon which has over 200K on it. The car stereo will be twice as much money as the car is worth. It is getting one of his 24" Infinite Baffle drivers put into a steel well, and a water barrier but breathable fabric will be installed at the bottom so that the woofer sees an infinite amount of air.

Amps are next

 

[hobie1dog]

He will have most of his amps in there too:

Car stereo is alive and well