The greatest car modification–Car Audio?

So what is the very first thing you would improve on your new vehicle? (New, of course, meaning a broad range of things to a group like us Car Lust folk.) For me, it is the sound system. There are many varied ways in which you can modify and personalize your ride these days. While the sound system may not be my personal favorite mod if money isn’t a concern, the reality is, for me at least, that money is always a concern.

Every vehicle I have had since my very first 1979 Toyota Corolla has received a stereo upgrade shortly after I have acquired the vehicle. In the early days it was a cassette player so I could plug my Discman in to listen to tunes. Then, shortly thereafter, I installed some new speakers. But these weren’t just any speakers, these were home speakers, still in the box. I was broke and looking for more volume, and honestly, I didn’t know any better  I had no clue about impedance and ohms and wire gauge, I just wanted more bump. Of course having speaker boxes sitting in your back seat is inconvenient for carrying passengers; since the speakers weren’t affixed to anything, stopping fast became an adventure in dodge-speaker, the cousin to dodge-ball.

My Frankensteining of vehicles with audio components didn’t stop there.

A few cars later came my beloved 75 Chevy Impala. This started out with a new cassette player, but this time it had RCA outs. I was looking forward to the day where I would be able to afford a sub-woofer and amplifier to make the thing go boom, but in the meantime I worked my way through the car replacing all the speakers and wiring. First, I put an improved speaker in the center of the dash. Then, wanting better stereo sound in front, I added some 5¼ component speakers up front. Then new 6×9’s in the rear deck. Eventually I added a subwoofer & amplifier in the trunk.

Now, you might think I’d stop there, but that wasn’t enough. Here I had one of the largest land barges on the road, with a trunk that could comfortably sleep three. Always being one to experiment, I decided that the whole trunk would be my sound chamber for my sub-woofer. I proceeded to seal any air leaks in the trunk, sprayed everything with sound deadening, and then cut a hole in the rear deck and dropped in a 12-inch sub. Remarkably, it sounded pretty good. It wasn’t until after this project that I bothered to learn about sound dynamics and many other things important to making a stereo sound good. But I was happy; you could hear me rollin’ two blocks away.

The vehicle I have put the most time, money and love into, though, is my 1988 Chevy S-10. I have an extended cab that over the years has held little other than stereo equipment. My truck has seen a half-dozen stereos, ranging from cassette to drop-down CD players (I’ve yet to move up the DVD players). I have run various configurations of multiple subs and amps. I have replaced each and every part many times over–high quality dash speakers, rear pillar speakers wiring, etc. I even removed a jump seat and added sound deadening in the hole that created and built a custom sub enclosure that would extend into this new-found space. You name it, I’ve tried it, to the point where today the dash is falling apart from being taken apart so many times.

But no matter what, when I get a new ride, it gets tunes. And for me, that makes this the single most important upgrade. The truck can run rough and need a tune-up, but the sound will come first. It might need tires, but I need my tunes. The window is cracked? With just a bit more bass we can get it to run all the way across. What’s that you say? I can’t hear you, but I’m turning it up anyhow!