Is aftermarket car stereo going the way of the dinosaur?

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I’ve been noticing a big change between now and just 2-3 year ago. Back then in my travels in and around Houston, or running errands out here in the ’burbs, I’d encounter those thundering wake-the-dead car stereos on a regular basis, passing me on the street, at stop lights, or cruising past my house.

But lately I’ve noticed that I rarely come across one anymore.

What happened to all of them in such a short time? My speculation was that maybe MP3 players and ear buds are replacing them, providing all the sound quality and better convenience for a mere fraction of the cost.

When I first thought about opening this thread a week or so ago I figured I’d just throw out the question and see what came back from you guys, as to if car stereos are fading away, and if so why. But then I Googled car stereo decline and found some articles confirming that the aftermarket car stereos are indeed losing popularity.

A collection of articles I surveyed from that link showed the aftermarket industry had several years of flat sales prior to 2006. Then in 2006 sales declined a staggering 13%. One article dated May of last year noted that sales of CD head units surged 13% in the first quarter of 2007, after a 24% decline in 2006, and amps and speakers increased 22% and 31%. However, a more recent article dated Feb. 2008 noted that sales had tanked by the end of 2007, dropping 4% for head units, 21% for amps, 18% for subs, and 8% for speakers.

I know we have some car stereo buffs around here. I’d be curious to think what some of you think about this, as well as your thoughts on why this is happening. I have a few of my own, that I’ll probably drop in later on.

Regards,
Wayne

[thxgoon]

That's funny Wayne I've been thinking the same thing. Maybe it's just not as cool anymore. Seems like all of the supped up 4 cylinder coupes have gone by the wayside too.

[funky_waves]

I think one big reason is that car manufacurers are putting better and better factory sound systems in. as well as the head units being molded into the dash making it a much bigger job to put an aftermarket head unit in. Many car companies are also offering subwoofer options as well.

Another reason for a decline in "boom cars" may be better enforcement of noise violations, so either fewer poeople aren't bothering to put huge subs in there cars and or they dont turn them up where they might get a ticket.

[salvasol]

Or ..... they're spending that money on HT's

[Sonnie]

For the first time EVER... I have not aftermarket headunit or system in my car. This last car (2008 Sonata) has XM Radio and a 6-Disc in-dash CD system with a sub in the rear deck. It's an Infinity system which is not half bad. Granted it ain't what I normally have, but it does the job good enough.

[Rambo4]

I think most people that were into the car stereo scene like I was for a while, have grown up. It was cool for a while, but again, you had to spend time damping your car, and isolating outside noise. Capacitors, crossovers, eq's, getting the perfect soundstage on your dash...you name it. Even back then, say 12 or so years ago, playing my favorites like AC/DC pumping out of an Alpine and two twelve inch Phoenix Golds, I was feeling a bit old hat. I think the breaking point was when I was walking down the street and two college age guys were pumping out the "Spice Girls" in their fancy new Tracker, that I decided the car stereo industry had finally bit the dust. Or at least good taste and common sense.

On a serious note, I think the audio quality a lot of people have come to expect, since the MP3 generation has resulted a bit in "lowered expectations" and quite a few people are very happy with their car sound system as is. And see no need to upgrade their system to anything other than factory. I personally dislike a lot of factory audio in vehicles as I do most audio quality from places like iTunes. It's all personal preference. If your drive to work is that much worse because of the sound quality and you find it very annoying, I would say upgrade to something decent. If you are just interested in listening to talk radio on your way to work, like me, then save your money and invest it into something greater... like home theater...

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

funky_waves wrote:

I think one big reason is... the head units being molded into the dash making it a much bigger job to put an aftermarket head unit in.

Another reason for a decline in "boom cars" may be better enforcement of noise violations, so either fewer poeople aren't bothering to put huge subs in there cars and or they dont turn them up where they might get a ticket.

Well, I don’t know of any noise regulations where I live. The head units – I think you’re on to something there. Quite frankly, they are abysmal. It’s maddening to have to sift through some menu to get to basic functions like tone and balance, using tiny buttons with illegible labeling. I don’t want to push a button six times to turn the thing up – give me a knob! I honestly wonder if the people who design these things actually use them!

Julian Hirsh mentioned many years ago in a Stereo Review interview that with the advent of affordable digital processing, there was going to be the temptation to pile in all kinds of features and functions whether they were actually useful or not, merely “because we can.” The result was going to be equipment that was more difficult and complicated to operate. He was right.

Not to mention - late-model head units are just plain garish and make no attempt to visually integrate into a car. It’s to the point that the only head units I would consider would be from Nakamichi, and even then because they look like a piece of stereo equipment, not because they have knobs! But I expect that even the Nak’s days are numbered, as they are primarily a SQ brand, and one of the links I found in the “car stereo decline” search in my opening post noted a severe decline in the number of SQ competitors. One guy noted his trophy was a hollow victory, as he was the only competitor in the class!

Regards,
Wayne

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

funky_waves wrote:

I think one big reason is that car manufacurers are putting better and better factory sound systems in. Many car companies are also offering subwoofer options as well.

Sonnie wrote:

For the first time EVER... I have not aftermarket headunit or system in my car. This last car (2008 Sonata) has XM Radio and a 6-Disc in-dash CD system with a sub in the rear deck. It's an Infinity system which is not half bad. Granted it ain't what I normally have, but it does the job good enough.

Yup. Most of the few late-model car systems I’ve heard in recent years, including my sister’s Lincoln Mark VIII and 2003 Mercury Maurader, sound pretty decent. The system in my buddy’s Acura TL is very impressive, as was the one in a Volvo S40 we rented a couple of years ago. Even the system in the 1996 Buick Roadmaster we recently bought sounds very good.

Surveying the Best New Car Sound Systems

It all adds up to “diminishing return.” When cars had horrible systems, you got some serious “bang for the buck” with a full-blown upgrade. Now, you’d be spending the same amount of money for maybe a 30% improvement, maybe only 10% or less with some of the systems in the link above. I have a $700 set of a/d/s/ component speakers that has been sitting in my garage for 5 years or more. Our Buick system doesn’t sound as good as my buddy’s Acura, but it’s good enough that it’s going to be hard to get motivated to install them, along with the Soundstream Rubicon amp I’ve had sitting out there nearly as long...

Regardless, the Buick head unit is a keeper – large buttons with legible labeling, and knobs for all tone and balance controls! If I do do any car stereo upgrades in the future, that’s what my MO is going to be – tagging it on to the user-friendly stock head unit.

Regards,
Wayne

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Rambo4 wrote:

I think most people that were into the car stereo scene like I was for a while, have grown up. I think the audio quality a lot of people have come to expect, since the MP3 generation has resulted a bit in "lowered expectations" and quite a few people are very happy with their car sound system as is. And see no need to upgrade their system to anything other than factory. ...Save your money and invest it into something greater... like home theater...

I would think the ones growing up would be replaced by the ones coming up behind them, but I think you nailed it with the “MP3 generation.” Aside from the “lowered expectations” issue, most of them have few CDs to begin with, so why buy a head unit when it isn’t terribly compatible with their Zune or iPod? Indeed, I expect a good many of them are perfectly happy using their ear buds in the car, another disincentive to spring for a car stereo.

I expect that car stereos are also competing for the youth dollar with fancy cell phones, video game consoles, computers and software, etc. There is only so much money to go around... I expect that if there is a hope for car stereos, it’s going to lie in head units with hard drives that you can download MP3’s directly into them, with easy-to-navigate controls like the iPod.

Regards,
Wayne

[Ricci]

Well I still have an aftermarket system in my ride. JL stealthbox with a TC1000 10" in it, Infinity Kappa speakers, Alpine PDX amps. But I use a modded factory head unit and unless you look very closely you cannot tell that I have anything non factory. I was never into the flashy, booming half-way down the block kind of auto sound. Just good, clean and low profile.

I think thievery is another factor in the decline of its popularity. I myself have had numerous systems stolen. Basically anyone I know who had a decent car stereo had their stuff ganked at some point. Hence the attention to keeping everything looking factory.

[tonyvdb]

I agree with Josh, I think a big deterant is theft of non factory head units and amps. The big thing with todays vehicles particularly GM is that the OnStar system is integrated into the head unit and if it is removed and there is no power to it for more then a few seconds it will not work again unless its brought back to a GM dealer to be unlocked. This also makes it difficult to upgrade to an after market unit because things like OnStar and the hands free phone capabilities will not work without the factory unit.

[superchad]

I think its in part many factory units are in general acceptable also growing up is a big factor and when you get involved in home audio and HT you quickly (atleast I did) realize music in the car is just background and if you think abut it that is the way it should be for safety reasons. Then almost always when I see some thump box driving down the road or hear a shrill loud ear bleeding sound from a passing car I hope to heck I didnt look like that when I was a kid......its embarasing.

[solid7]

I think that with

A) Gas at $3.50+ per gallon
B) So much other crap to spend money on

There is little $ leftover for today's youth. We are in a tech savvy generation, where the cost of every little trinket and video game adds up. And let's face it, people aren't exactly getting any more ambitious to do work. Those who are, are usually mature enough not to cruise around booming degenerate music at insane levels, which is where those high end head units used to be so common place.

Less time in car tends to equal less $ invested...

[yourgrandma]

I have to agree that MP3 has something to do with it.

There is a lack of clean looking stuff out there as well. The style in cars now is the clean, understated look. Well, that's what I like anyway. Tough to pull off with most of the equipment out there now.

Crazy gas prices sounds like a reasonable cause as well.

[lcaillo]

This is my big complaint about most of the products. I recently had to replace the stock radios in two of my vehicles. The result looks like a boom box display in each. Hideous. The products actually perform quite well. The displays and the user interface are absurd.

[yourgrandma]

Very true. I'm all for features, but a little more thought should be put into the UI. For example, my Alpine deck with iPod controls is a freakin danger to the road going public. Search wont let you skip by letter, so you have to sit there spinning the wheel (I'm pretty good at it, too) for miles until you get to the file you want.

[Bailman]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

I have a $700 set of a/d/s/ component speakers that has been sitting in my garage for 5 years or more. Our Buick system doesn’t sound as good as my buddy’s Acura, but it’s good enough that it’s going to be hard to get motivated to install them, along with the Soundstream Rubicon amp I’ve had sitting out there nearly as long...

Regards,
Wayne

Ah Wayne. I too have a set of 5.5 ADS speakers and Soundstream SS 5.5 sitting in my basement along with a Soundstream Pure Class A 3.0 and 604. It is true that I haven't installed at least the Amps b/c the 300C I have does have acceptable sound with a balanced frequency response with digital EQ'ing from the OE manufacturer...who slips my mind.

Some one had put this OE stuff on a RTA and it was flat by IASCA standards and allegedly the EQ only kicked in when the volume got turned up. I have some pant flapping bass from my doors with the paper 6X9's but I do miss the old days of dynamat and 120 db's of pure class A sound and bass driving down the highway.

I judge my HT by what my auto used to sound like. That must be why I had two SVS 2+/2 and two HSU 3.3's in my 3200cu ft area.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

tonyvdb wrote:

The big thing with todays vehicles particularly GM is that the OnStar system is integrated into the head unit and if it is removed and there is no power to it for more then a few seconds it will not work again unless its brought back to a GM dealer to be unlocked. This also makes it difficult to upgrade to an after market unit because things like OnStar and the hands free phone capabilities will not work without the factory unit.

I could have sworn the aftermarket manufacturers sued the car companies many years ago to prevent them from doing this kind of stuff, that made it difficult to impossible to change out the factory head unit with one of their products. And I thought the aftermarket manufacturers won. How are they getting around this now?

Bailman wrote:

Ah Wayne. I too have a set of 5.5 ADS speakers and Soundstream SS 5.5 sitting in my basement along with a Soundstream Pure Class A 3.0 and 604. It is true that I haven't installed at least the Amps b/c the 300C I have does have acceptable sound with a balanced frequency response with digital EQ'ing from the OE manufacturer...who slips my mind.

Ah - sounds like that "diminishing return" factor has kicked in!

lcaillo wrote:

This is my big complaint about most of the products. I recently had to replace the stock radios in two of my vehicles. The result looks like a boom box display in each. Hideous.

Any of these Nakamichi head units float your boat? Nice looking stuff, IMO, even if the 700 appears to be the only one with real knobs...

Nakamichi 300 a.JPG

Nakamichi 400 a.JPG

Nakamichi 500 a.JPG

Nakamichi 700 a.JPG

Regards,
Wayne

[tonyvdb]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

I could have sworn the aftermarket manufacturers sued the car companies many years ago to prevent them from doing this kind of stuff, that made it difficult to impossible to change out the factory head unit with one of their products. And I thought the aftermarket manufacturers won. How are they getting around this now?

maybe so but my 2005 Chev uplander is that way and it would cost me $270 just for an adapter to maintain the functionality of the OnStar/hands free and then I would still have to buy a new Stereo. I want to be able to use my mp3 player with my system so I have looked into this allot.

[SQCherokee]

nakamachi has always made great sounding decks...but they are notorius for having loading mechanisim problems.

I have had a pretty extensive system in every vehicle I have owned except my current jeep. I have a stealth box for it and replaced the front woofers. It has the infinity gold system in it which sucks but I may just add some new tweeters and call it good. I'm just not into it any more.

I honestly would rather have a home theater...when my wife and I buy a house.
Also with Gas being so expensive I need the money for other things.