Because your car should sound good too

Quite a few years back a friend of mine sent me a picture of the dash panel of a car from Japan. It was meant to make fun of me being into audio more than he thought I should. Wish I could find it to share, nice wood dash with a pair of Telefunkens glowing behind a glass cover and below it a reel to reel open tape machine with reels that looked about 3 or 4 inches across. He thought it was funny, I wanted one!
Cheers

Cwlondon... Unfortunately you are right. Car audio is, for the most part, about gimmicks and accessories now. And neon. Neon! What in the world does neon have to do with car audio?! Kids just want the boom. They don't even care about sound quality. Half the time they don't even have the highs plugged in or running and only the subs are operating. It's the classic "Hey, look at me" and then people like me say... Well, we don't need to get into that.

It's also pretty bad when you start guessing the state license plate by the rattle it makes. And it shouldn't even rattle. But these are the same people who don't understand the concept of dynamat. If only we audiophiles were the primary market. And I've heard the Alpine F1 Status HU and I really don't care for it. Too much processing and too digital sounding. I want a real HU. No gimmicks. Just a high-quality transport that feeds a DAC right below it (double din of course) and a 24/96 capable USB connection on the back of the DAC. That way you can use your iPod too along with your CDs or harddrive. There's a hundred places for that.

Has2be... you must find this picture. ;-) We need to teach these newbs (and by newbs I mean every kid in the car audio scene that hasn't a clue) what car audio really is about. And I have much respect to whoever installed those tubes and the reel-reel deck. Even if it was a complete joke.

Money is tight right now, but I do more hours of listening in my car (Subaru 2004 Outback wagon) than at home, unfortunately. The car's audio is all stock, including an in-dash 6-disc changer, and component 6.5" speakers in the front and rear doors. There is an oval "subwoofer" mounted in the deck, although for the life of me I cannot tell if this woofer does anything, and it is not adjustable separately from the head unit's bass control. I find the in-dash changer is a must. Swapping out CDs while negotiating the curves and high-speed congestion of the Garden State Parkway is too risky (and I got pretty good at it in my previous car, too).

So, since I won't change out the head unit, what do you car-audio gurus suggest I do, one step at a time, to get better sound in the car? Remember, money is very limited.

I know how important quieting the cabin is to better sound. I was assuming that Dynamating the doors and roof would be the first thing to do. Note that most of the noise in this car comes from the road/wheel wells, with some wind noise from the windshield. The engine (the 6-cylinder) is reasonably quiet unless I floor it. Can you Dynamat the wheel wells to reduce road noise?

I will soon need new tires anyway,and General makes a model that seems to be very quiet. Like a true audiophile, I don't care if it hydroplanes or skids at 10 m.p.h., as long as it is quiet! Sooner or later, I'll own Generals.

Circa 2001 I bought a new Porsche, and wanted to upgrade the stock audio system.

Like any self respecting Audiogoner, I would normally get obsessively involved but was busy at the time and therefore deferred to a "high end" car audio guy in CT who recommended new speakers and amps, while keeping the stock head unit which he thought was very good.

Well a couple of thousand bucks later, it seems that the stock head unit did not even have line level out to the amps! So it all sounded absolutely terrible to me, and not even close to my 1978 Nakamichi a/d/s system - I really couldn't believe how bad it was.

For an incremental improvement, I had another dealer install a newer Nakamichi head unit, which was fairly simple, CD+radio, no pimp my ride lights, EQs or DSP - I believe it was a 2002 Nakamichi CD 400 which appears to be available online for < $200.

The simple presence of line level out to the power amps (duh!) made a huge difference.

So could be worth a look, subject to whatever else is available (or not available) from the peddlars of subwoofers and neon.

Others have recommended Butler tube amps, and Dynaudio (?) speakers. There was also a Milbert tube amp, but I never heard one and they were very expensive.

Bondmanp -

If you dynamat and want to do it it correctly, you dynamat everything. From door panels to trunk floor and lid, to roof and floor to wheel wells and firewall. Any panel inside the cabin and trunk that could be removed that has some room under it to place dynamat should be covered. That of course is for best results. And considering your vehicle, you are looking at more than $400 in dynamat to do it right.

Now, instead of removing all the panels more than once you may want the rest of your audio gear you are going to install handy so you can install it at the same time.

Now you said you don't want to remove the HU. I understand completely. However, I have done a few installs where the HU wasn't changed but the speakers were upgraded. Sometimes it actually sounds worse. You could try the higher-end cable route and replace your speaker cables. But I've never done that myself so I can't comment on the improvements on a stock system.

One thing you could do on a stock system to at least get bass you can control is get a splice box that taps off your rear speakers wires and gives you an RCA line-output for an amplifier. Then just make sure you get an amp with a remote level control that you can place in your center console or mount on the dash. Put one nice 10" Alpine Type R or a JL W6 in a sealed box and viola! Bass that won't interfere with your music that you have control of. You may be able to use your subwoofer wires and just disconnect that thing entirely. Up to you.

Total cost of all this would be approximately $1,200 if you install it. But it would be very quiet and great controlled bass. You might not mind your stock stereo after all. I've done a few of these installs before as well and I only received compliments. If you need any other tips you can always send me a message and I'll help out any way I can. Good luck