I wrote this a few months ago for my monthly article in RPM Motoring Monthly and I thought I would post it here as well.I wanted to talk about what’s new in the world of head units (radio’s, CD players, decks, just pic your terminology) but there really hasn’t been anything “new” for quite sometime, so lets talk about what has changed and been improved on.

Almost every car sold now in the world comes with a CD player as a factory feature, so why do people still want to remove them ? They want to get better sound quality and better features then what the OEM is offering. People think that stock systems are now at a all time high as far as sound quality but it just isn’t true. In the 80’s and 90’s we had tapes, that was the standard back then and they sounded OK but nothing special, the fancier systems like “Bose” and other sounds a little better, but nothing to write home about. Today the standard is CD so all the cars have CD players and most people think that because it has a CD player now it’s a much better sound system, but it’s not. It’s the same thing we have always had. Now there are some cars out there like the Acura TL and the new Lexus that have really good sound systems but we all can’t afford those kinds of cars.

In the modern car, is it worth replacing the factory CD player with an aftermarket one? Yes it is and if you choose to do this there are so many options out there for you. With most aftermarket head units you can now expand them so far beyond just a tuner and CD player it isn’t funny.

We live in a portable world, and the portable world is ruled by the Apple iPod. Every head unit company out there has teamed up with Apple to allow you to control your iPod from your head unit just like you could with a CD Changer. Radio is a ever changing world as well, you have your standard AM/FM radio that we have always known but now you have the world of digital quality Satellite radio from Sirius and XM Radio. With hundreds of channels at your finger tips, you will always be able to listen to something that you like, for $12.95 a month. The owners of terrestrial radio stations are losing listeners left right and center to Satellite radio because of it’s higher quality so they got behind the movement of HD (High Definition) radio. Now we have seen radio formats come and go over the years all claiming better sound but the radio stations never got behind it. Now that Clear Channel (the largest terrestrial radio company in the world) has gotten behind the format, it seems to be here to stay.

Navigation has been around for years now, but it has only been in the last year or so that it has become affordable and portable. You can get your head unit with navigation built in or you can have a portable stand alone unit that you mount to your dash or suction cup to the window to guide you to your destination.

Bluetooth is one of those formats that was finally agreed upon by the manufacturers as being a standard of wireless communication between devices. While it is used everywhere these days, the one place that has greatly benefited from it is the automotive world. Bluetooth Hands-free in-car cellular kits will make the roads a much safer place. Back in the 80’s, in-car cellular phones had the hands-free feature with them, well when the world went portable, these were forgotten by most companies. Bluetooth now allows you to wirelessly hook up your cellular phone to a hands-free kit so you can keep your hands on the road and not holding your cell phone while trying to drive (yeah you know who you are). While these are stand alone units, almost all head units have this as a option as well, so not only do you have the safety of hands-free communication, it will also mute your stereo when a call comes in and allows you to control your phone from your radio.

Companies like Harmon Kardon has gone so far as to incorporate iPod, Bluetooth Hands-free and Sirius satellite all into one stand alone unit that can be added to any car.

The stock radios of today’s vehicles are integrated into the dash board more then ever. The simple fact is that in more and more cars the radios simply can not be removed from the vehicle. Auto manufacturers are running more and more vehicle functions thru the radio then they ever have. If you need or want to retain your stock head unit but upgrade your system, there are modules to help you do that, there are also modules so if you remove your factory radio you can retain your steering wheel controls, retain your Onstar system, retain your Bluetooth cellular system, and retain almost anything or add anything.

The year is 1985 and the stereo system in your new vehicle is just not good. It doesn’t sound good, it doesn’t look good and it didn’t have a CD player. Fast forward to the year 2006 and the stereo system in your new vehicle is pretty darn good, or is it?

Factory stereos overall quality in vehicle are at an all time high. With features like a CD player (not even a tape deck anymore), MP3, iPod ready, steering wheel controls, rear mounted controls, satellite ready, navigation and Bluetooth cellular hands free they have all the bells and whistles. Some cars manufacturers have even gone to the aftermarket companies to help them with their factory stereos by even badging them with names like Rockford Fosgate, Alpine, Pioneer, Dynaudio, Infinity and Boston Acoustics. Can you get any better then this? Sure you can, but you have to know a thing or two or three or maybe four for it to sound better then what the factory has provided for you.

The first thing you need to know is about head units, decks, source units. They are all the same thing just pick your terminology. In the modern car, is it worth replacing the factory CD player with an aftermarket one? For 75% of the people that want to improve their sound quality of their vehicle it is not worth replacing their CD player sounds just fine. The stock radios of today’s vehicles are integrated into the dash board more then ever. So why do people do it, well it’s because the general public has been conditioned to think that if it’s stock then it must be no good (remember our step back to 1985). The simple fact is that in more and more cars the radios simply can not be removed from the vehicle. Auto manufacturers are running more and more vehicle functions thru the radio then they ever have. Yes you can buy modules to take care of this but is it really worth it?

These days everything is done with a module. If you remove your factory radio you can get a module to retain your steering wheel controls, retain your Onstar system, retain your Bluetooth cellular system, and retain almost anything or add anything.

We asked if it was going to sound better, the simple matter of the truth is that the CD players provided in a KIA sounds no better or worse then the CD player found in a Lexus and most aftermarket decks are not going to sound any better either. And with the crazy flashy cosmetics of most aftermarket decks is it even going to look good in the dash board of your car. If you fall into that 25% that really want that higher sound quality, your going to have to be prepared to spend some good money on a higher end unit.

People will say “well the stock deck doesn’t have RCA’s on it, how do I plug my amplifiers into it. We have a module, several in fact to take care of that.

The simple fact of the matter is, if you want better sound spend your money on speakers, amplifiers and subwoofers.

The second thing you need to know about is speakers. A speaker is the most important part of a stereo system; after all it is what you hear the music coming from. If you have good speakers you will have good sound, bad speakers and you will have bad sound (back to 1985 again). Well what is a good speaker you ask? Ask 10 salesmen and you will get 12 opinions. Go online and ask 10 people on a forum and you will get 30 people responding with just as many opinions. The best sounding speaker is, are you ready for it? It’s the one that sounds the best. Brands, models, wattage, color, looks and opinions aside the only speaker worth buying is the one your ears like and the only way to tell this is to listen to them. Go into a store, tell the sales people to stop talking and listen to the speakers. The best sounding ones that you can afford are the ones you should leave with.

Not every speaker will fit into every car so you want to make sure you are listening to the type of speaker that may be installed in your vehicle. Any reputable shop will be able to custom mount most speakers into any car but you want to make sure they have the capabilities.

The third thing that you need to know about is amplifiers. Amplifiers do just that, they amplify the music coming out of your radio. Just like speakers, people ask “well what is a good amplifier”. This is a little trickier to explain then speakers because if a cheap pair of speakers sounds good to a person then that is ok. With amps there are as many cheap amps as there are good amps, and by cheap we mean poor quality. The market is flooded with cheap crap in every corner of the world. To sort this out you need to do a little research and find a good reputable shop or person to help you thru this mass confusion that can and will be brought on by the hundreds of options out there. Matching up the power ratings of the amp with the speaker is a good thing but it not written in stone; for the most part you can never have too much power when it comes to speakers. You will always do more damage to a speaker by under powering it then you will over powering it. It’s like having a 4 cylinder motor or an 8 cylinder motor. When you’re driving fast the four cylinders simply has no more and tops out, well then a speaker “tops” out it will keep trying to play louder and that is when distortion happens and that kills more speaker then anything else. With the 8 cylinder you can just keep going and going (yes you will also run out of power at some point, but as quick).

The fourth thing that you need to know about is subwoofers. Most people think that if they add a subwoofer they are now one of those annoying “ground pounders” that drive around and piss everyone off. Adding a subwoofer means nothing of the sort, in fact it simply means that you want to have a complete and enjoyable sound in your car. Subwoofers come in all sizes and even shapes and finding one to suit your car and your needs is as simple as talking to your qualified shop about what you need.

The last thing and the most important things is installation. This is an area where everyone says they can do what you want and how you want it but few are actually capable of doing a quality and professional job. Some things to look for and know when it comes to who you are going to get to work on your vehicle and what to expect when having a installation done.

1. Do they have examples of the type of work you want to have done? Everyone can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk.
2. Do they have a car in the shop at the time that shows the quality of work they do, and it doesn’t have to be the same type of work you’re asking for?
3. What does their shop look like? Is it a mess, as in a bomb went off or is it a working mess but in general is a clean shop. This can tell a lot about a shop.
4. What does their showroom look like? The pride and detail a person or business takes in their showroom and shop can tell you a lot about the type of work they turn out.
5. Knowledge, do some prior research regarding potential issues with your vehicle and or type of install and test their knowledge. No person will know everything about every car or product but how they answer will tell you a lot about them. Maybe your research was off and they will correct you.
6. Quality Control, ask them if you can see the work as they are working on the car. Most shops won’t let you hang out in the bay for safety and security reasons but most good shops shouldn’t object to you coming into the shop, with permission and escorted just to see what things look like when it’s all apart. If they don’t want to do that then I would question having them work on your car.
7. Parts, your going to need parts no matter how big or small the job is and knowing what all of these parts are before you start is sometimes hard but make sure you ask what the parts are and what they do if you don’t understand them. Don’t just pay for it and be uncomfortable about it after the fact.
8. Appointments, plan on the job taking longer then expected so it is usually good to just make plans to drop the car off in the morning and pick it up later in the day or at the end of the day. This way you’re not rushing around if there was a delay during the installation, and the installer won’t rush to get the job done in the expected time frame. Not to say that every job is that way but there can be unforeseen circumstances that are out of our control. Ever wonder why it takes the dealership 4 hours to do a oil change? It’s better to under promise and over deliver then over promise and under deliver.
9. New cars, if you drive a new car or even a car that is a few years old there is always the chance that their may be a unforeseen complication. These days it is really hard to have all the information about ever vehicle ahead of time. A lot of information and knowledge an installer has is actually from working on the actual cars. Things like wrong speaker size, factory amp or no factory amp, antenna adaptor or no antenna adaptor are just a few examples of unforeseen complications we run into all the time. The hardest part is, there are so many different options and sub models of every model car that it is impossible to know everything. A good example is the Ford Aerostar from several years ago. To put a aftermarket radio into one, it requires rewiring the speakers because of a headphone module in the rear side panel. I personally know of 6 different ways that Ford wired these vans, and I don’t think the Aerostar was on the market much more then 6 years. These different wiring configurations were different based on trim levels, options and even which plant it was built in.
10. Warranty and extended warranty, do your research on this. A vehicles environment is one of the roughest out there. It’s hot, cold, damp, dusty and then there is coke and kids. Know how long your product is covered and what it is covered for. Some extended warranties are great, some are a cash cow for companies.
11. Satellite radio, is Sirius better then XM Radio or is XM better then Sirius. I have heard them both with excellent sound quality and poor sound quality. I have seen excellent reception from both and poor reception from both. Just like everything, ask 10 people get 10 opinions. Most aftermarket and OEM radio companies allow you to use either on their radio’s now. The difference in my opinion is the content. You have to decide what you want to listen to. The 60 odd music channels are all going to be the same, it’s the other 40 or channels that sets each one apart from one another. The only thing that is a for sure thing, is a direct plug in option is always going to sound better then one that plays thru the FM modular.
12. MP3’s, iPod and downloading music. They are only as good as how they are downloaded and what they are downloaded from. 99% of the time a bad sounding song is the download, not the radio it’s being played thru.
13. Radio Pricing. Is a $399.99 radio that much better then a $199.99 one? Not generally, as the price goes up, quality of parts goes up a bit but it’s mostly just features and cosmetics.
14. If you buy a radio for $399.99, by the time you pay for all the parts and labor needed you may be well over $500 and it isn’t going to actually physically sound better. Spend that $500 on 2 or 4 new speakers and a amplifier, maybe at a small subwoofer. All of these kinds of options is guaranteed to improve your listening experience.

Is this all of it ? Not even close, it would take a few dozen of these magazines to even come close. It really comes down to finding the right person and shop to deal with. Service is everything, everyone will give you the “lowest price guarantee” but can they give you service over and over again. There is never a dumb question so if you ever have a question please email us at info@hzemall.com

Remember, “a fool and his money will soon be parted” so do some research and ask some questions.

A little while back I wrote, “Getting a Deal?” and I want to expand on this a little. You see I really do not understand why people do the things they do to “save” money, as I stated in the article. NOW, with that said what really blows me away is that the customer, dealership or Insurance company will question a person who fixes the issue more than the person who claims to have fixed the issue. A little confusing you say??? Well here is how it’s works. Customer has an issue with the car; in most cases they bring the car back to the Dealership where for some reason the Dealership cannot find the issue…. IF the car has any aftermarket product installed it is then sent back to the shop where the product was install with breakdown explaining that the Aftermarket product is now the cause of the issue but with no proof. This will most likely cost the customer a few hundred dollars and the added bonus of the car still having the issue. Ok, the car now shows up and the Aftermarket Installer takes a look at the car, and time after time in my own personal experience I have found that the issue has nothing to do with the aftermarket product installed and is a warranty issue and the Dealership should have taken care of it. Now before we fix the car, if possible, we show the customer what the issue is and then bill out for time spent in properly diagnosing the issue. If the car is older and out of warranty the customer is even more upset when they get a bill. My question is to everyone out there is: WHY ARE YOU MAD AT THE GUY WHO FIXED YOUR CAR????? I would think you would be upset at the person who billed you out to tell you the obvious issue with your car that you knew before coming in, in fact that is why you came into the shop in the first place.

Example: Customer has an older out of warranty car, the Battery keeps dying, the customer brings the car back to the dealership where he bought it new, they tell him the battery needs to be replaced, bills him and sends him on his way. Few day later the battery is dead again, so now the dealership tell the customer the Alternator needs to be replaced, bills him and sends him on his way, few days later the battery is dead again, the dealership now tells him they have no idea what is the issue and it will take a few days for them to hunt down the issue. It is fair to say now that the car is completely OEM (Which means no aftermarket product install ever). The customer who has now spent a lot of money and still has the same issue he had in the beginning now brings us the car to have a look. We had the car for about an hour and started to look over the car to see what could cause the battery to drain, turns out in the end it was a faulty trunk switch keeping the trunk light on, we unplug the light and now the car’s battery doesn’t die. The Customer is kind of pissed that we billed him an hour and show him what we found, BUT we fixed his car and he knows it…but he never goes back to the Dealership to question them in why he needed to buy an alternator and battery and yet still have the issue…. my favorite is when the Dealership tells the customer that there is no way the light could killed the battery and that they will not refund him any money and show him the door. Where is the customer service in that???

Claudio Piccolo