Is car audio dying?

[tacomaguy1]

I don't even want to know how much I've spent on audio.over the years

[Azzazel_99]

more and more people just going with factory amplified systems because they dont wanna hassle with coughing up the dough later on. They think its better to just finance in the price with the car. I worked in a 12volt car audio shop for many moons and it was still slowly declining when i left there. There will always be us audiophiles but they arent around much anymore.

[BEEMDUB]

Where I live every single car has to have a state mandated setup that surpasses at least 144 dbs, every vehicle including state issued public transportation has a 4th order with an SMD sticker on the rear windshield..

lol...yea where I live sucks we have two shops in our area and one is ran by a fat fuck who buys things way below cost and charges 2X more than anyone and the other is ran by these damn RETARDS who know absolutely close to nothing. Last week I walked in there to see what they we're doing to this dodge charger, and I hear the ass clown working on the car looking under the hood say "wheres the battery, did you take it out?"

[perryrc14]

Car audio has died around my area. 9 people out of the 17000 have a system in their vehicle now and no stereo shop for 30 miles. 20 years ago had a stereo shop right in my town with over 2000 customers from my town with a population of 11000 and some change people. So yeah kinda a big difference here.

well most of the younger generations just think everything is disposable and cant be upgraded or are too lazy to research how to do the work. no offence to anyone my age or near it.

[wccfan12]

I have to agree with alot of the above. The economy to me played the biggest role in the decline of car audio and any type of car customization for that matter, but I think part of it is law enforcement and part of it is people themselves. Car audio gets a bad name constantly from stupid high school kids who think its cool to blast it late at night/stop signs/ etc then the states pass more laws preventing loud setups and more and more police are told to look out for it, it's a vicious cycle. Also people are so easily annoyed by music these days that most people feel it's a waste of money for car audio because you cant play it the way you want to. Sure you can roll your windows up but once you start breaking 150's and above it's hard to keep noise in. I'm only doing 147 db and people still here me coming with my windows rolled up. Another reason I think car audio is slowing down is because people are too lazy to save up for stuff. I'm only 19 and I'm in college full time and working for my future, but I also work a part time job between 25-40 hours a week simply for the sake of my build and have been doing it my whole freshman year. It can be done and u can still make good grades but you gotta sacrifice at it which most people don't want to do. I think less and less people are becoming super passionate about car audio like myself and 100's of members on here and other forums because society in general is getting lazier and careless about stuff, just my two cents.

[Kevin M]

It has seen a decline since the 90's but I think it has more less hit a plateau The advent of better systems from the factory is doing it's damage. It's great that this is happening but it is also shrinking market share. This means less customers which means less innovation. There will always be nuts like us that continue to experiment, fabricate, etc. but the numbers are alot smaller than they use to be. Economic recession and increasing oil prices aren't helping the matter any either. I remember being in high school and bitching that gas was over $1.25 a gallon. Look at it now. I would kill to find it under $3. lol

I can tell you that we have received some large advancements in the last 20 years though. Processors and amps that put out cheap power are abundant. The dollar a watt days are gone.

[Krakin]

In my town of 15,000 (counting the students at our university), I would say that there is a general interest in car audio. Everyone wants to be loud but has no idea of how to make themselves loud at all. We have one shop in our town that from what I have seen does great installs. They have told me that they charge a flat fee for whatever they install. This is because of the difficulty ranges so much from car to car and every client wants it done in an hour and won't allow them to keep their car at an extended time for a good fully custom install. This could easily be because that person has things they need to get done, and when it takes 20 mins to get from one side of town to the other not having your car can be a huge inconvenience.

I will say that even though our shop only carries the normal store bought brands (kicker, JL, Kenwood, ect...) that the installers that I have talked to have tried to have the owner get some better brands in like RF and Sundown. But the owners reply is that they are making great money on what they have and why change it if it is selling?

But the main reason that I see for all these companies taking over is that the consumers are too lazy to even know how any part of their system works. About 90% of them don't even think the type of box effects the sub other than being ported or not.

[jhmeg2]

There are different levels of car audio... There are the true audiophiles of the yesteryear, that only strive for true live sound reproduction. There are the people that want great sound, but don't see that getting better equipment will make that big a deal. There are people that want better sound than stock. There are people that just want to add a bit of bass. There are people that don't care how it sounds as long as it goes BOOM BOOM. There are people that have nothing in their cars but subs. There are people that don't know any better and just try to buy the cheapest they can, and turn it up as loud as it goes until it starts on fire. Back in 2005, I searched and searched for a 30 band 1/3 EQ. The market has shifted to where we want quantity over quality, for the lowest price we can pay. Is car audio dying... The fundamental aspects of car audio are dying. It used to be get the best realistic sound you can inside of your car, to its gotz to be loud yo, and can you hear me from a block away/ can I rattle or flex more than you? When you say you are into car audio, some people look at you strange, thinking your a (don't be offended) dumb high school kid with his radio turned up at a street light, not a sound engineer for a company such as Bang and Olufsen.

[Need Bass]

There are different levels of car audio... There are the true audiophiles of the yesteryear, that only strive for true live sound reproduction. There are the people that want great sound, but don't see that getting better equipment will make that big a deal. There are people that want better sound than stock. There are people that just want to add a bit of bass. There are people that don't care how it sounds as long as it goes BOOM BOOM. There are people that have nothing in their cars but subs. There are people that don't know any better and just try to buy the cheapest they can, and turn it up as loud as it goes until it starts on fire. Back in 2005, I searched and searched for a 30 band 1/3 EQ. The market has shifted to where we want quantity over quality, for the lowest price we can pay. Is car audio dying... The fundamental aspects of car audio are dying. It used to be get the best realistic sound you can inside of your car, to its gotz to be loud yo, and can you hear me from a block away/ can I rattle or flex more than you? When you say you are into car audio, some people look at you strange, thinking your a (don't be offended) dumb high school kid with his radio turned up at a street light, not a sound engineer for a company such as Bang and Olufsen.

Yea, I'm in the "There are people that don't know any better and just try to buy the cheapest they can, and turn it up as loud as it goes until it starts on fire." class, but I know what I'm doing and wont turn it up until it starts on fire. I have, however, spent a grand total of $176 on my entire car audio setup (2 Sony Xplods, 2 Dual Ds652 2-Way 6.5"s, jensen hd5112 head unit, Pyramid PB717X 1,000-Watt amp, and walmart wiring). I think it sounds pretty good, but I have never heard anything more powerful than about 1500 watts, so me saying it sounds pretty good is worthless. I just have to spend my money on other things, such as my college loans. I agree it does seem like it's dying, but I think the main reason is because people seem to be applying their extra money toward other, more necessary things.

[jhmeg2]

ha ha... ^^^ he said EXTRA money... lol I didn't know there was such a thing.