The advances in sound technoloy are a WOW!

[W1GUH]

So I updated my car stereo last week and I"m blown away by how improved the sound is. The new radio has twice the power and that helps, of course, but I didn't expect to hear THAT much of a difference, but I sure do. I've got Infinity speakers in the back and they sure use that power effectively. Only changed the head unit, the speakers were unchanged.

The radio has a "Rear Bass Enhancement" which simulates having front speakers and a sub-woofer in the back. Wow! Now I can put on Hip-Hop and make it go boomba-boomba! That is, if I want to destroy even more celia in my inner ear.

Incidentally, the more I hear the real rap and hip hop the more I'm liking it, FWIW.

One thing that's noticeable is that the radio is set up to really blast the bass. What I need to do is get the equalizer (7 band) set up to deal with that. The default settings really, really blast it. Guess that's the latest popular way to listen, with ball-rattling bass on everything? Gonna be a lot of people with burnt out bass celia in the future?

The main motivations for upgrading were to have XM radio built-in -- I'd grown tired of always messing with my portable and all the wires that means. Secondly, I wanted a USB input. Much more convenient to carry around an SD card in a reader than a stack of CD's. Might be that CD's are about to go the way of hissettes. The mechanism on the radio is kind of an afterthought. It's there for when you need it, but there's no changer controls or all that stuff. Who needs it with a USB port?

AND, thanks to China, this stuff is CHEAP!!! The radio has all the latest bells and whistles for a price of $120 + $20 (after one of those obnoxious MIR's) for the XM tuner. Cheesh! The tuner is obviously a loss leader - XM gets more from me now.

[KG4NEL]

Just FWIW, higher frequencies do a lot more damage than sub-80Hz ;)

Are you using an external amplifier? I never thought I'd hear the difference in dynamic range, but even the 100x2 amp I've been using for the past several years was a huge improvement. Head unit internal amps tend to be hopelessly optimistic, even after CEA-2006 was supposed to level the playing field somewhat...

[kf0rt]

Whatd'ja get, Paul?

Just put one of these in the XYL's Blazer a month or so ago. No XM, but everything else. Sounds better than the factory thing, but still using the factory speakers. $150 delivered from Crutchfield (included all the extra parts and pieces).

001-IMG_0879.jpg

[W1GUH]

This is the one I got... Crutchfield Write-up


No amp. Rear speakers are 18 year old Infinity Kappa 5 1/4's....front speakers are '92 Celica stock with tweeters in the door wings.

Just in case someone doesn't know this, Crutchfield is, IMHO, the only place to get car sound stuff. You always get adapters so the new radio can plug directly into the car's harness. Installation is trivial -- the hardest part is taking the dash or console apart.

That radio's $119.95.

[n2ize]

The radio has a "Rear Bass Enhancement" which simulates having front speakers and a sub-woofer in the back. Wow! Now I can put on Hip-Hop and make it go boomba-boomba! That is, if I want to destroy even more celia in my inner ear.

Sounds awesome.

Incidentally, the more I hear the real rap and hip hop the more I'm liking it, FWIW.

Rap and hip hop are great. It's sad that not enough people give them a chance. I think hip hop is the best stuff to come out in ages. Blows away most of the old stuff.

One thing that's noticeable is that the radio is set up to really blast the bass. What I need to do is get the equalizer (7 band) set up to deal with that. The default settings really, really blast it. Guess that's the latest popular way to listen, with ball-rattling bass on everything? Gonna be a lot of people with burnt out bass celia in the future?

When you're in the car you don;t just want to hear music, you want to "feel it". That's where clear solid pounding bass + lots of volume come in. Friend of mine has a system that literally shakes every car on the road within 1000' of him when he cranks it. And man, he does crank it...often. That earth shattering bass really kicks some serious ass.

The main motivations for upgrading were to have XM radio built-in -- I'd grown tired of always messing with my portable and all the wires that means. Secondly, I wanted a USB input. Much more convenient to carry around an SD card in a reader than a stack of CD's. Might be that CD's are about to go the way of hissettes. The mechanism on the radio is kind of an afterthought. It's there for when you need it, but there's no changer controls or all that stuff. Who needs it with a USB port?

CD's are obsolete as far as I am concerned. DVD's are out as well. Only use I have for DVD devices is to rip out the guts and use the innards to make small lasers.

AND, thanks to China, this stuff is CHEAP!!! The radio has all the latest bells and whistles for a price of $120 + $20 (after one of those obnoxious MIR's) for the XM tuner. Cheesh! The tuner is obviously a loss leader - XM gets more from me now.

I'm loving it. I can;t think of how many items I have bought, quality stuff made in China that performs outstanding and outperforms a lot of the crap that was made here in the USA. Plus with the very low Chinese prices I rarely hesitate to buy stuff these days.

[W1GUH]

Forgot the single most important convenience of the new radio. It has a knob! Now it's easy to play with...don't have to find a tiny button.

[WØTKX]

I upgraded the Miata door speakers a few months ago with some Polk units. Wow.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o03_s00_i01

[W1GUH]

Been wondering if upgrading the stock in-dash speakers is worthwhile. The major impediment would be taking the dash apart without damaging it and it's not clear that would happen. The speakers that are there now are handling the add'l power without ill effects plus the tweeters in the wings do a great job.

Anyone remember when a mid-seventies Crutchfield catalog sold something like a "Hi-Fi improvement kit" that did a good job of "spreading the highs around the room?" One of the items in that kit was an alligator clip but I never knew what that was for. I'll have to ask about that next time I call them up!

[KG4NEL]

Just in case someone doesn't know this, Crutchfield is, IMHO, the only place to get car sound stuff. You always get adapters so the new radio can plug directly into the car's harness. Installation is trivial -- the hardest part is taking the dash or console apart.

That radio's $119.95.

Crutchfield's hard to beat for their head unit integration, but for other components (amps, speakers, wiring kits), their prices aren't very competitive.

[KG4NEL]

Been wondering if upgrading the stock in-dash speakers is worthwhile. The major impediment would be taking the dash apart without damaging it and it's not clear that would happen. The speakers that are there now are handling the add'l power without ill effects plus the tweeters in the wings do a great job.

IMO, unless you have an external amp, I wouldn't.