Showing posts with label car audio equipment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car audio equipment. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Differences Between Car Radio and Car Audio...




From the start of the auto era, if anybody knew how to put a home radio into their car it was pretty much the only option. These were usually DIY and tweaked versions of home radios, home stereos, that the typical tinkerer might have come up with. Rarely, if ever, was anything actually included in the initial manufacturing build of those older automobiles any time before the 50s/60s (it is difficult to find an exact date/model car that first shipped with a radio factory installed).

Toyota car audio
Toyota Car Audio

It's fascinating to think about how far and fast car radio technology has evolved.



You can't even really just call it "car radio" anymore, because it includes so much more than that. In the 60s there were reel-to-reel players which quickly evolved into 8-track cartridges, which then in turn also quickly evolved into cassette tapes by the late 70s. 1985 saw the first car CD player - now 28 years ago! After CDs arrived, it became clear that digital was the way to go and we soon saw car technology following the path of the computer system. Many of the same technologies have been used, and the trend of shrinking data down to the smallest phsyical units was very beneficial for car audio as portability was such a primary factor of consideration.