Its amazing how far we've come in terms of sound systems. There's the time i remember the first generation Sony "Walkman". They were big, bulky and heavy. Though, that time, they were the only portable (cassette) player. Then, comes the generation of "CD-Man" or "CD Walkman". Again, they were still big, bulky and a little lighter than the Walkman but with quality sound due to digital technology compact disc. Today, we have a myriad of solid state MP3 players that come in sizes from small to miniscule and they can all play more songs than ever.
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| Touch Screen Head Unit |
With the popularity of the MP3 format, even the automobile head units got in the game. Head units such as Sony, Pioneer, Blaupunkt, Clarion, Kenwood, JVC to name a few, have interfaces for all kinds of MP3 players in the market with the most prominent being the ever popular iPod. The same goes with the recently introduced tablet (pc) platform of different brands that initiated by the Apple iPad. (I saw three cars interfaced all together in one iPad as source of MP3 music in an auto show. All three cars are playing the same music from the iPad. That's how amazing music technology gadget nowadays!)
Amplifiers have also gone through tremendous changes as well. They offer much cleaner signals than ever before as well as being much more resilient to heat and vibrations not to mention high capacity wattages. Though, they still require quite a bit of steady power so having deep cycle of batteries, large capacitors and good grounding connections are still requisite items.
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| Amplifier |
Speakers on the other hand also made leaps and bounds in improvements. All kinds of synthetic plastics (instead of paper used as materials before) are now being used in their designs. It comes in high wattage for ear deafening car music enthusiast to "show-off" their stuffs in streets or in car shows. The speakers of today offer more precise control in their movement and deliver much more realistic sounds.
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| Speaker Set-up |
A trend that is much more apparent lies in the presentation of all these products. They not only offer better sound qualities and are more durable, but also they look so much better! The amps, head units, speakers, MP3 players and even the wires all look like show pieces! Its no wonder that installations in cars are looking much more "show-y" because who would want to hide these gems?
With all these changes currently happening, i can't wait to see what will come up next!
