Audio Guide

Some of today's most exciting automotive innovations aren't under the hood, they're in your dashboard. Digital signal processing (DSP), MP3 players and especially Satellite Radio offer audio capabilities that blow away your traditional notion of car stereo.

Satellite Radio is the hot topic these days. Millions of people have signed up for XM Satellite radio, and the service has acquired big-time broadcast rights from Major League Baseball and top NCAA Basketball conferences. SIRIUS Satellite Radio has made waves signing deals with Howard Stern and the NFL. The race to add prime satellite content comes as regular radio stations sound increasingly alike and boring, so CarsDirect predicts that satellite radio will just continue to boom.

What is Satellite Radio?

Traditional radio signals reached your car from terrestrial radio transmitters. Satellite radio comes from a higher authority: satellites hovering above North America. XM programming, for example, gets beamed from their studio up to two satellites positioned to maximize coverage across the country. The satellites bounce the signals back down to more than 800 "repeaters" which reach locations that might otherwise be blocked by hills or tall buildings.

Don't think of XM or SIRIUS like a radio station; they're more like entire radio dials of stations. They multiply your listening options the way cable TV multiplied your viewing options back in your living room. With either company, you'll find 120+ different channels - ranging from talk radio to sports to mainstream radio on down to whatever music niche it is that you crank up in the privacy of your own car. Between MLB innings on XM, for example, you can listen to Ngoma, a channel dedicated to "the sound of Africa". Most channels come without any commercials other than quick plugs for the satellite service itself.

Satellite programming is beamed to one radio unit for a monthly fee in the $10-13 range (around $7/month for each additional radio). As with cable TV, there is also some premium content offered for a higher fee.

To get satellite radio, you can either buy a car that offers it, or have it installed in your existing car. Some new cars come with satellite radio as a standard or optional feature (meaning it was installed on the car assembly line). Others offer it as a dealer-installed option. Both XM and SIRIUS provide an online list of car manufacturers they work with:

• XM:http://www.xmradio.com/cars/
• SIRIUS: Go to homepage, click on Partners link at bottom of page, then click on Vehicle Partners.

Installing a satellite radio unit yourself isn't out of the question - XM and SIRIUS offer manuals on their web sites - but you can also go to electronics stores or car audio specialists to get the job done.

Both Sirius and XM even manufacture portable units that can be used at home, on your work PC or in your car so you never have to leave your tunes behind.

MP3 Players

MP3 technology allows hundreds to thousands of music files to be compressed and stored in digital format, thereby allowing listeners to expand their musical horizons far beyond the limitations of CDs. PhatNoise's PhatBox Digital Media Player can store hundreds of CDs worth of music on a miniature cartridge that you can stash in the trunk of your car. The device connects directly to your car stereo, putting all of your favorite albums at your fingertips every time you get behind the wheel.

Other Audio Options

Audio has become a battleground in the car market, so manufacturers are improving the quality of radios across the board. Even some compact cars come with excellent stereo add-ons (including MP3 players).

Companies that make the best home stereos often offer car stereos, as well, including Pioneer, Bose, JBL, Mark Levinson, Harman-Kardon and Infinity. They usually come as options on luxury cars or the more expensive trims of more mainstream vehicles. Looking for surround sound? Some models offer up to 12 speakers as standard equipment on their vehicles. For example, Volvo uses Dolby Pro-Logic technology in its factory sound system, a technology that enhances the sound of music above and beyond the highest home audio standards. And Volkswagen offers the critically acclaimed Monsoon stereo system as an option on most of its vehicles, available with six to ten speakers to envelope all occupants in its richly textured sounds.

Top 5 Car Audio Questions

CarsDirect gets a lot of questions about car stereos, and here are some of the most frequent:

1. Are those fancy-pants optional audio systems worth the money?

   Depends on how important it is to you to have top-notch sound. Next time you test-drive a car, ask to drive that model with and without the optional high-end stereo. Let your ears be your guide.




2. I know I want a better system, but I'm trying to decide between buying it from the manufacturer or having it done after I buy the car.

   Optional audio systems on new cars often seem expensive compared with the stereos you see advertised in newspapers and magazines. But you should also factor in the time it'll take you to find a good aftermarket shop, the cost of both the installation and unit for a post-purchase installation and the fact that many dealers won't touch a stereo not installed by them or the manufacturer.




3. What a pain that there are two different satellite companies. It's like VHS and Betamax all over again. Which one is better?

   The SIRIUS vs. XM decision isn't a technical one: it's unlikely you'll be stuck with an obsolete system the way Betamax customers were back in the early days of video recorders. The decision here is increasingly about programming: check out each company's offerings on their web site to see what you like best. Price is a factor (XM costs less), but it's not a big difference at the moment and pricing may change over time.




4. Do expensive car stereos make it more likely my car will be broken into or stolen?

   Not necessarily. The easiest stolen radios to fence are usually the most popular ones. The Honda Accord is stolen more than any other car in the U.S., so its components - including radios - are equally tempting to thieves. Car theft experts (including thieves) will tell you that the keys to avoiding theft are to use a car alarm, don't tint your windows (screams "I have nice equipment in here!") and avoid leaving your remote-activation key-fob with anyone you don't trust (they can easily copy the signal code). One nice thing about satellite radio, by the way, is that it's hard to steal; someone can steal the unit, but they don't get the service because you just stop payment on your original account.




5. What's a good "beginner's" upgrade where I get the most bang for my buck?

   Sub-woofers usually only cost a couple hundred bucks, and they can really boost your stereo's performance. That's because they optimize the bass sounds coming out of your speakers, and it's precisely those lower sounds that standard stereos struggle with the most.