No Tapes, No Discs, No Top-10 Limit
By J. D. BIERSDORFER
AKING control over what you listen to — and for how long — is a tremendous power bequeathed by today's car audio systems. For example, there's the cross-country trip. Not long ago, drivers traveling coast-to-coast used to risk being trapped in an AM radio world of hog reports and local bank commercials between Dave Dudley's trucker songs. Needless to say, things have improved. Computer hard drives have melded with car stereos and even the humble radio has joined the space age.
Imagine a single compact disc with enough music to let you drive from New York to Ohio without hearing the same song twice. CD's recorded with music encoded in PC-friendly digital audio file formats like MP3 or Windows Media Audio can hold 10 to 20 hours of tunes on one disc.
But not all dashboard CD players can play these types of discs, which can be easily created with a CD recorder and music-management software on a computer. Now several manufacturers — including Alpine, Kenwood, Sony, Pioneer and Panasonic — are offering one or more dashboard console receivers (referred to as head units) that can play traditional CD's, MP3 CD's — and even satellite radio — for less than $300.
And some high-priced head units add more sonic gizmos — even pictures in some cases: the Sony MEX-5DI CD/MP3 receiver (about $1,000; www.xplodsony.com) has a full-color flat screen that displays still or moving images and also sports a Memory Stick (Sony's own pocket-size memory card) slot so the driver can upload personal favorite pictures from a digital camera or computer to the CD tuner.
A regular CD can hold 700 megabytes of music, but if a mere 10 or 20 hours of continuous tunes are just not enough, there are other options that offer 500 hours in a row (or more) of music. Last fall, a company called PhatNoise released its own PhatNoise Car Audio System (about $800; www.phatnoise.com), a digital audio jukebox designed to work with many existing head units already installed in the car. PhatNoise also provides customized versions of its product for other audio companies like Kenwood's Music Keg.
PhatNoise-based systems can provide at least 500 hours of MP3 music (and even more in the Windows Media Audio format) on palm-size 20-gigabyte cartridges. The cartridges, which also come in 30- and 40-gigabyte sizes, can be taken out of the PhatNoise car system and connected to a computer with a U.S.B. cable. PhatNoise also provides music-manager software, which offers a guide to converting audio tracks from CD's into MP3 or Windows Media Audio files and to designing customized playlists. In addition, the company recently announced a deal with Audible.com to provide subscriptions for audiobooks and other types of spoken-word content to PhatNoise owners.
The Neo Car Jukebox by SSI America (www.ssiamerica.com) is another variation in the hard-drive-based car stereo MP3 player category, although in this case the whole unit slides out from under the dashboard and can be attached to a home stereo system, Windows-based PC or Macintosh computer. The Neo Car Jukebox comes in three storage capacities: 20 gigabytes (about $400), 40 gigabytes (about $480) and a whopping 80 gigabytes (about $530) and are respectively capable of holding 400, 800 and 1,600 albums in the MP3 format.
Long before MP3 playlists or even Beatles/Stones-mix tapes, radio ruled the road. One of the first affordable car radios was the 5T71 model by the Galvin Manufacturing Company. The 5T71, which cost about $120 at the time, was introduced around 1930. (While the product name was not memorable, the company soon came up with a brand name that better combined the notions of motion and sound: Motorola.)
Because AM and FM radio signals are broadcast from land-based towers, they have a limited range. A satellite radio system, on the other hand, beams its signal to the ground from space — which means that a driver could travel from Boston to San Francisco without having to change the station. The two main content providers are XM Satellite Radio (www.xmradio.com) and Sirius Satellite Radio (www.siriusradio.com), which charge a small subscription fee for monthly service.
THE fee includes access to dozens of commercial-free music channels in a variety of genres, but to get the signals a car needs a satellite radio antenna and a receiver. Many satellite-radio-ready head units are already available, and Alpine Electronics (www.alpine-usa.com) recently released its XMA-T200RF Universal XM Satellite Radio Package (about $300), which can also add XM radio to existing automobile sound systems.
Head unit prices generally do not include speakers, amplifiers or antennas, which can increase the overall cost by several hundred dollars. For neophytes wanting to price a system, the Car Audio and Video link on the Crutchfield Web site (www.crutchfield.com) provides a wealth of information. The site even offers an interactive questionnaire for the prospective buyer to find stereo systems available for a specific make and model of a car.
Although the new technology in car audio systems may seem overwhelming at first, the options abound. Any of these systems allows you to have more control over what is streaming through the speakers; best of all, you may never have to hear another low-budget mattress commercial again
Copyright The New York Times Company
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