Should I retrofit my car’s audio?

First day of vacation with all the children. A romantic getaway through a scenic route. A lonesome drive to think about life. Or a simply ride back home after an extenuating day. Those are only a few scenarios where driving and music make a great pair. You may not be able to say names of the best songs or artists to match each one right now, but you can surely feel them all. Everyone does.

While it is easy to think of the right car for every occasion, even if you are not an enthusiast, most people underestimate the role of the audio system in that dream car. The truth is that having the appropriate stereo for your car model and for the use you intend to make may bring out notes you had not even known your go-to songs had. Fortunately, finding that stereo is not that difficult.

The best solution in this regard is to rely on the system options provided by the automaker. They were created specifically for each car model, which is an important factor for quality even if we are talking about an entry-level one, whose items must be cheap. However, there are some ways to circumvent that notion without having to getting a different car or, you know, going bankrupt.

How can I tell my car audio’s quality?

The very first step is assessing whether you effectively need to change anything. Sometimes, the issue may come from the music source, like when you listen to the radio on a highway or when you play low-quality files — remember when people would load flash drives or CD-ROMs with MP3 files to take everywhere? For the purpose of this article, let’s assume those matters are not applicable.

You can test your audio system by sitting in the car with doors and windows closed and listening to music a little louder than your usual volume. Pay attention to details such as clarity, depth, and fidelity as much as possible. You should also locate the system’s equalizer settings, if available, and fiddle with them a little to understand how much they can do to improve your car’s sound quality.

If you notice that your audio system’s quality doesn’t live up to your wishes, even being helped by the available settings, it may be time to plan an upgrade. In that case, pretty much everything is a variable worth analyzing: what is the specific purpose of the change, what components to change, in which order to do it and last, but not least, how much do you plan to spend in such a venture.

How can I keep my retrofit affordable?

Upgrading selected components is the simplest way to go and, as a consequence, the ideal solution for people who don’t want to invest a lot. Replacing the front speakers with premium ones is a sure way to improve overall quality without too many changes. It is advisable to choose a model which also fits the rear doors, so you can move it to them if you ever buy a better front set in the future.

The next recommendable step would be to install an amplifier, since it can maximize the potential of the existing equipment — it is particularly suitable to people who like high volumes because it is possible to minimize distortions. Finally, a subwoofer is an addition to consider in case you are looking for a richer-sounding bass. Those are the basic steps to upgrade the car’s audio system.

Going any further on that would imply building a whole new system. While that would give the car a new life in this aspect, it is also a much more complex operation; you would need advice from an audio specialist and a larger investment. Besides, as previously mentioned, it is necessary to keep in mind that only stock audio systems were designed specifically for the car model you own.

Most common components

What is a head unit?

It is the main connection between you and the effective sound. Replacing the stock head unit paves the way for big increases in overall quality, but it is expensive: an investment you should only make if you seek big changes and/or want your stereo to have more functions, such as satellite radio.

What are speakers and tweeters?

These components determine the sound’s clarity and smoothness. Whenever choosing a new set of either one, you have to take into account the size of the openings made for them on the car’s door panel. Otherwise, you would have to rebuild the entire panel to fit them and make costs skyrocket.

What are amplifiers?

As their name suggests, they allow the rest of the audio system to reach its full potential. However, it may be difficult to choose an appropriate unit because of its very strict technical specifications such as how many channels it has and the RMS power of the other parts it is going to work with.

What is a subwoofer?

These are special speakers dedicated to the lower frequencies of the music; they come in three fixed sizes. When installed correctly and paired to a good set of the other components, such as head units and premium amplifiers, they can give your music depth and realism.

Can I build a whole new audio system?

Of course you can; projects like that usually start with getting a more powerful head unit and some premium speakers and amplifier. However, there are so many options of components and technical specifications that the operation would need more planning: it would be appropriate to start with a study of what exactly you would need from the system, which is too much work for most people.

“Too much work” because you would need to learn a lot about all those components and/or having an audio specialist help you. In that case, truly good projects will take into account the shape of the car’s cabin, where to place each component, and what level of performance to demand from each one. As you can imagine, such a project would be much more expensive than the other alternative.

Now, you need to be careful even if you go back to the idea of upgrading the original audio system. Buying components and/or installing them without any type of professional advice is a sure way to spend a lot of money on a project which will not reach the expected level of performance and will even be likely to have problems. It is definitely not worth the few bucks you would have saved.

If you truly enjoy driving with music on, retrofitting your car’s audio system is an interesting project to start: it may be difficult to browse through so many options, but smart thinking will surely take you to nice results without demanding too much money. Have you had any experiences with that? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions using the comment button below!