It seems that every manufacturer has an audio upgrade on offer to its customers. Some are included as you climb the models, some are optional regardless and some have no options at all. Originally the radio was an extra.
The sound was mono and terrible, usually through a single speaker in the middle of the dashboard. But the average car didn’t go over 50mph or drive for more than a few miles so who cared?
The cassette player later became an option on its own, with no radio and still a mono sound. When technology allowed, we had a radio and a cassette player together in one unit. Manufacturers then started to offer factory fitted speakers with the head units still a dealer fitted option, but it wasn’t much of an option.
We then move into the aftermarket which exploded with in car entertainment centres in every town, offering a multitude of brands along with serious (heavy) amplifiers and sub’s, speakers being cut into door cards and rear parcel shelves across the country.
This also brought about a new crime, car radio theft.
If you went to your local Hollywoods (Night Club) car park on a Friday night, chances are it would be robbed when you came back out at 1. You’d talk to your mates, tell them what happened, and they would usually know a Geeza who could get you one the following weekend. There was a high chance that you potentially got the same one back!
Car audio was still a huge theft problem so audio manufacturers started making removable head units with built in handles. You pull the handle, the radio pops out of the dash with all the wires left behind on the separate chassis so you could leave it in the boot. They then had just the face panel which would pop off, much smaller, much lighter. They then came up with the security card which was removable but they were mostly lost or damaged so owners would leave them in the car.
Finally car manufacturers started having head units designed specifically for their cars with a radio code that would need to be entered if the power was disconnected. At college my mate had a ford radio cassette player with a speaker connected and a 12v transformer powering it in his front room. This is when we had the rise of another small pop up industry, radio decoders. For £10 you could have your locked head unit decoded and ready to go into any car you wanted.
Finally, we got car manufacturers having audio units designed and built for them by the likes of Alpine, Pioneer etc and they were shaped to fit the specific make or model. They also started being part of the can bus system, if the information didn’t match it wouldn’t work. They also started introducing high end audio options. I remember a friend of mine bought a 735i SE with individual audio fitted from the factory. The parcel shelf was physically higher to accommodate the speakers, and it had a separate amplifier mounted in the boot.
Now we have Harmon Kardon or Bose audio systems along with Logic 7 or Individual for the purists. Bentley had Linn then Naim, Mercedes went for Burmeister and Rolls Royce went for Bowers and Wilkins, can you see the pattern?
Last year I was on the launch of the new Volvo EX30, arguably the best electric car you’d ever need. The door cards have no speakers, neither does the rear parcel shelf. The sound is created by a sound bar fitted below the windscreen across the width of the dash. It looks and sounds fantastic and is incredibly powerful and efficient.
Remember you heard that first here, because I can see other manufacturers copying this simple idea.
