Do you care about car audio?

I've been into both home and car stereo for a very long time. I'm a bit surprised how many don't seem to care much about car stereo. Maybe that is because I do more long drives than your average Joe. I have probably listened to more music in my car than anywhere else.

When I buy a car I always look for the most basic stereo option. Then aftermarket upgrades are simpler. Many of the modern OEM upgrades are tougher to remove and IMO nearly every one sounds pretty poor. They use poor components, underpowered amps, and too many drivers. I've heard various Harmon Kardon and a few Mark Levinson OEM upgrades and while the latter ones were decent not nearly as good what a couple grand spent in an aftermarket system can provide. 

For maybe $1,500 one can easily upgrade the amp and front speakers to get a huge improvement. I usually spend a tad more to do a bit of sound deadening, high quality 2 or 3 ways drivers, and a sub when I am feeling rich. Given how much music I listen to when driving it is a great use of $$ for me. Imaging is always tough of course (mainly due to available front tweeter positioning) and the fidelity in a car is very different (and not nearly as good) as what one can get at home. 

Not a bit.  I have a few 70s cars.  All the radios failed in the end.
I bought blanking plates.

I mostly listen to the radio in my modern car.  Occasionally a CD, usually I take a pile of them for long continental trips.

Good post.  In my daily driver, Corolla, I am finding that at 14 years old, the stock system is getting noisy, etc.  I am thinking of replacing it.  Issue is the speakers.  Even 14 years ago you had to take the entire car apart to replace the factory stuff...pain in the butt.  The head unit comes out in about 2 minutes...nutty.

In my C-2, my daughter wanted to play her music through the sound system.  I bought a VERY expensive head unit that fits the car and has built-in amps.  I put some speakers in the back, but the ones that supposedly fit the front do not.  SO, I contacted the company, who I did business with in the 1980's, and found that the owner's daughter is now running it.  We had a nice exchange, but she is doing nothing to fix the problems with her gear.  SO, I took it upon myself as a former dealer and sometimes car stereo installer to see what I could do.  

Today, I have the only factory A/C C-2 with front speakers that are where they should be, fit fine, sound fine (my daughter likes it; I don't always listen as I enjoy the sound of the car), and everything looks factory.  Also, everything can be removed easily (for a C-2, anyway) and put back to factory in a very short time.

Best of both worlds, and was not all that hard to do once I figured out how to get those front speakers to fit correctly.  Now, I have it if I want it, and the off knob works just fine as well.

As for the Corolla, well, we shall see...

Cheers!

Remember in the 80's one of dad's clients was a car audio installer in a posh commuter area- as a kid I was knocked out by his Porshe 911 with speakers in the headrests and being allowed to sit in it and rev the motor; still gives me a kick thinking about it.

Still running my 1999 BMW E36 coupe which had a Pioneer KEH-P9700R head unit with 12x multi disc changer in the boot, top pioneer speakers and crossovers; when the power amp died I added an Alpine V12 power amp in the boot and the separate DAB unit with a roof aerial- absolutely awesome sound at the time. Had a mic to attach to headrest and auto set up EQ and 2 remotes! Wouldn't swap it for anything 'modern'

When Jazz FM moved to DAB+ put a Kenwood in and sent the Pioneer off for repair- it's still sitting in the garage waiting poss to go in the campervan as it still sounds great and no evil touch screens like all modern cars seem to be cursed with

Got me looking at those very thick battery cables....could the sound of my car audio be improved?