Where do I start?

You are planning to upgrade your car audio setup. There are a staggering number of choices out in the market. Where do you start? Start making a list of choices out of your requirements. You may consider asking yourself few questions:

What is your budget?

You may choose to build your ideal system step by step. This way you can choose best components, at your financial convenience. And also, it is fun observing and analyzing audio improvement made by each new piece of equipment you add. If you want to have complete system setup done at once, plan 50% of you budget for receiver & remaining for four speakers. Remember that, with more budgets, you can avoid those cheap all-in-one blues. In some cases, your car size itself helps reduce your budget!

Want to retain your factory stereo?

If you think that your stereo already provides the expected functionality, controls & audio features, just replace your factory speakers with better set of aftermarket ones. Good speakers will have a big impact on the system. Your car audio will find a big improvement. You have got a library of songs in your iPod, but your factory stereo is not iPod ready? There are many FM transmitters available in the market (for as less as Rs. 2500/-), that takes your MP3 Player’s output and converts it as FM signals, that your receiver can tune into.

You don’t like your factory stereo?

If you don’t like the display, you can buy a stereo with multi-color display. Want better sound staging controls? Go for the one having 7-band equalizer, fader & SRS WOW etc. Do you want to power up your speaker with amp and also want to add an amplifier powered subwoofer? Buy a stereo that has front, rear & sub pre-output, built-in frequency filters. You can even buy the one with iPod connectivity that allows you to browse the tracks in your iPod on the stereo display panel.

Are you a bass freak?

If you feel that, your stereo and speakers are just fine and adding a subwoofer will make your ideal system complete, buy a “powered subwoofer” or buy an amplifier & a subwoofer. Note that, to add an amplifier and subwoofer, you need to buy a good power cable and subwoofer cable.

You want louder music?

Consider adding matching amplifiers to pump more power into your speakers. Generally, your receiver’s output (RMS) will be in the range of 17 Watts – 22 Watts, whereas a normal speaker’s power handling on a continuous basis will be more than 35 Watts. So, it is always recommended to power your speakers with matching amplifier.

1. Factory fitted Car audio system
2. Aftermarket Car Audio
3. Your favorite song sounds different?
4. Where do I start?
5. Do you hear the rattling sound?