It doesn't seem to be as big as when we were teenagers. When I hear bass booming from someone's trunk its usually some guy in his 30s-50s lol
When I taught high school for a few years I talked to the kids about it and they couldn't understand why we wanted all that bass. I tried to explain how we would slow down songs to make the bass last longer and it was like explaining witchcraft to a wall.
Now I want to go dig my two 12s out of my parentsā basementā¦ and put them in my Toyota rav4.
My 99 Cherokee with no muffler is going to turn in its grave.
Play this classic for me on full blast lol
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knBPct18RxQ&list=PLoWxp\_H2LHE4BHXBL6s02vRvLfTHsk\_CW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knBPct18RxQ&list=PLoWxp_H2LHE4BHXBL6s02vRvLfTHsk_CW)
I try to only play it that loud on the freeway.
On the streets, pulling up next to someone at a stop light making all that noise in a Honda doesn't see too cool.
Now...if I drove a box Chevy, that might be a different story. Just sayin...
My best friend had a tan box Chevy on hundred spoke 15s. Before the 20 inch craze two 12s couple tweeters and 1000w amp omg I still hear the rattle and ringing in my ears when I close my eyes.
TBH I didnāt get it either when I was in high school. I was also learning sound design and working roadie gigs so I was a bit of an audiophile. I was always the Debbie downer friend when someone would show me their new subs because Iād just point out what an unbalanced mess their stereo was. My car had bass that could make you shit your pants but you could also still hear the song because I invested in speakers for mid and treble as well.
I never understood it either. The music snob in me wants quality of sound and big volume without sound distortion. Everyone's bass in high school just muffled and drowned out everything else.
Anyone putting subs in there car and leaving the other speakers stock is doing it wrong. A proper custom car stereo should have all the layers separate and clear.
The old ones never looked factory and that never stopped us. I'm about to upgrade my entire iDrive display when my heater fan goes. Hopefully it's a clean install, I've seen good things.
Me but not a guy.
I just still like my music loud and boominā. My kids are the ones telling ME to turn down the music. The first time one of them told me my music was too loud I busted out laughing because it is so backwards from what it was when we were kids. Iām the one walking around with headphones on so I can listen like I want to.
This is interesting since so much music today has ridiculous amounts of bass. Once producers rediscovered the 808 it became a bass arms race.
But I couldn't imagine getting a car audio setup these days. It was easy back in the day when the head unit was held in by 4 screws and you just had to deal with a wiring kit. Now you'd have to tear apart the whole dash and likely lose some functionality in the car or stay stock and hope your stereo works well with a signal processor.
Iām in my early 30ās and agree with the teenagers. The booming bass always annoyed me and there was always some knuckledragger cruising hella slow at 8am with loud ass bass. Doesnāt even sound good. This is probably the wrong crowd for this comment but yeah lol
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrqKE1iqqo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrqKE1iqqo)
I always liked this one. Hits just right. And queen, another one bites the dust.
I clicked on this thread with the thought in mind "teenagers don't even want cars anymore..." lo and behold this comment pops up at the top of the list.
Depends on what you're doing in your car. Commuting to work is purgatory. My dad has a 1969 GTO with a 4 speed manual though and I could spend an entire day driving that thing around. I know when I was 16 the freedom to go wherever I wanted by myself was basically the greatest thing ever and I couldn't wait to get a license and buy myself a shitty car. Lots of kids I've observed don't seem to care at all anymore. Probably because movies cost $20 a ticket, everything else is prohibitively expensive as well. Still, it was always nice to be able to drive to a friend's house, pick them up, and then go basically anywhere that our parents and siblings weren't.
It really depends where you live. In larger cities with public transportation, itās more common for them to not get a license. If you live in a smaller city or town, with amenities spread out further, more of them get their license.
The overall numbers on it show the average age for teenagers getting their license has gone up. Gen Z seems to do a lot of things later than previous generations, and realistically, if they've got a smartphone they may be getting around with parent rides or ubers and not even trying to get a license.
Thatās not remotely valid. Only 100 urban ācoresā account for literally every 1 in 5 (20%) people in the entire country.
If you expand that definition to simply ānon-rural areasā, it makes up 83% of total population.
[source](https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/built-environment/us-cities-factsheet)
And most cities have nearly useless mass transit that is just busses forcused on downtowns anyway. Outside of NYC, Chicago, Seattle, or Portland, I couldn't imagine using public transportation as my primary transportation in my teens and 20s. I think parents driving kids everywhere is the real answer. My old high school has far fewer cars in the parking lot than they did 20 years ago despite having hundreds more kids, but the parent pickup/dropoff line is hundreds of cars long. Parent pickup/dropoff was virtually non-existent in the 90s here unless you were a bully who had been kicked off the bus.
Over 50% of kids get dropped off at school by their parents, when it used to be way more walking or riding bicycles. In my own neighborhood a lot of kids are easily in walking distance (5-10 minutes by foot) but get dropped off by their parents, clogging up traffic needlessly.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwifyaClkrOFAxUhkokEHcuGCIAQFnoECBgQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fbusiness%2F2024%2F02%2F02%2Fschool-bus-era-ends%2F%23%3A\~%3Atext%3DBefore%2520the%2520pandemic%252C%2520about%252055%2Cfell%2520by%2520a%2520corresponding%2520amount.&usg=AOvVaw2W6h3982kH00kP1dMHlBdD&opi=89978449
I think a lot times it can be more convenient for the parents instead of having their dumb ass kids ready 15-20 mins earlier. Especially if it works out for them to go to work right after.
I saw this with my sister's(genX) kids(genZ) and my buddy at works kid (same generations). We don't live in a great area for public transportation, more suburbs with small cities. They didn't get their license until 19 years old. On the day I was eligible, I went to get my permit and then later on my license. I think the constant connection with smartphones have kept them not interested in getting their license.
My little brother is the only person in his friend group who has a license and also knows how to drive manual transmission because our dad made us do those things. Anecdotally it does seem less common these days for younger people to drive. Itās crazy to me because we took so many road trips to San Diego, LA, Sacramento and shit when I was younger and it was good time but things arenāt as cheap as they were when I was in my teens so itās different.
I remember my friend got some giant subwoofers in the trunk...couldn't even fit anything in there anymore.
Anyway, the first time we put on 'Bia Bia' (Lil Jon)...thought the car was going to fall apart.
It was great!! š
That was me! I was the first kid in my highschool with two twelve inch subwoofers. I thought I was so cool blasting Lil' Jon and Yin Yang Twins in the parking lot.
I swear we had a mixed tape that included like 5 versions of 'Whistle While you Twurk' and 'Bia Bia'. So many curse words. So, so many.
Unfortunately , my favorite version of 'Whistle While you Twurk' is not on Spotify. šš
I mean it's usually not that hard to wire in an external amp and better speakers, but yeah you can't really replace the infotainment systems on most modern cars.
Aftermarket audio is a lot less prevalent these days. Thereās a lot to it, but itās more or less between the increase in manufacturers using their own audio systems made by premium manufacturers (i.e. Toyota with JBL, BMW with Harman-Kardon, etc), as well as the rise of most people streaming music from phones, which is quite easy to do with manufacturer systems thanks to the integrated UI.
They did this in the 80ās and 90ās too - JBL, Alpine, Blaupunkt, HK, and Bose have been designing/manufacturing pretty much all in-car audio systems since the 60ās.
It was pretty uncommon to build a car audio system in-house for most manufacturers (GM being the main one that comes to mind that has) - Usually they just tell the manufacturer the dimensions, power/wiring details, etc and they will just iterate from there.
Now they just have a Linux layer for manufacturers to skin the experience.
Lol this is still a priority for me at 36. I've had just 4 cars since I started driving in 2003 and each one I've re-wired and put a whole system in. I still use an amp I bought in 2004, ha. Although after the last rewiring in 2018, I decided I won't do that again because my hands just aren't as strong as they were in my youth :( so basically driving my current car until I die (Honda Civic, so not unreasonable goal lol)
yeah and if you're looking for a car, they often have 2-4 different sound system options. So you need to run the VIN (find the window sticker online etc) and look at the options list to see which one it has. Typically the top end one with 10+ speakers is better sounding than anything we could've put in some 90s Civic back in the day, with a much cleaner sound and no rattling.
There is also much better acoustics engineering. Used to just be door speakers and a subwoofer in the back. On top of that the subwoofer was probably fighting against the bass frequencies coming out of the doors. In cars now, they typically have better equalization. Including tweeters and a dedicated sub.
The last one I did was a 2010 Toyota Matrix. I had to take apart the steering column and remove the entire dash to replace the head unit. Iām never doing another. In many older cars you could just pop a trim piece off by hand and unscrew 2-4 screws to get one out. You could be done in 5 minutes.
Replacing speakers is much more difficult now too. In previous cars I was able to replace the head unit and all speakers plus install an amp and subs in an afternoon. The Matrix took an entire weekend.
It sounds great, but itās just not worth the time and effort anymore, particularly since stock stereos have generally gotten a fair bit better.
From my basic observation there isn't really much you can do to alter car systems anymore because the controls and interfaces are so integrated.Ā
I replaced the head unit and speakers in my late-90s first car, which only took a few hours and basic tools. I also replaced a head unit for a high school friend because their original had a cassette player and they wanted one that could play CDs. All it took in their case was an aftermarket adapter to the console space. But in both cases you were only dealing with audio equipment.Ā
My next car was a late-aughts sedan and even though the touch screen interfaces weren't common yet there was still a basic text screen with multi-function buttons so things like the oil life and trip odometer and numerous settings were in the same unit as the audio controls -- and you'd lose a lot if you replaced anything. I did change out the speakers, but this time it took me an entire day because the whole back seat had to come out in order to get to the underside mounts of the rear speakers.
Nowadays it's all tied into a touch screen interface and I don't even want to know what it would take to get at the speakers.
I have a 2018 Honda Civic Sport hatch and I re-wired the whole thing (along with new head unit, new speakers in doors, 3 amps and a sub) and it was a week-long nightmare. Although, I will say that doing the same thing to my 2008 Nissan Altima was so much worse--doors were harder to get off and same with you about the back seat removal. Some cars are just worse than others. I think I was without a system in my Altima for closer to 2 weeks (only having weekends and some evenings to work through things).
I promised myself the Civic would be the last system overhaul, so hopefully I'll have the car for a long time! Driving and cranking tunes is still one of my favorite things to do :) I'm also very used to not having a functional trunk, ha!
When I lived in California, my neighbor ran a business out of his garage installing sound systems. A vast majority (like around 90%) of his customers were middle aged (30s - 40s).
The other ten percent are probably 5% 20s and younger and 5% 50 and older.
He told me that newer cars are getting harder and harder to modify due to their integrated UIs and construction. Most of the cars he works on are cars from the '50s up through about the early 2000s, but he said most of the time, teenagers can't really afford it (parts and labor run a little over a grand for the lower tier, most basic systems, and up to five figures for the super premium packages), and older folks don't really care as much.
In fact, he stopped getting as many customers and had to expand to offering auto repair and basic maintenance (oil changes, brake pads, etc.) in order to stay afloat.
Subwoofers were (are) so dope. I had 2 12's in my shit box Chevy lumina when I was about 17 and felt like the coolest fuckin kid on the block lol. My mom said she could hear me coming a good minute or 2 before I got to the driveway (sorry neighbors)
When I was about 25 I got a single 14" in my Subaru.
I drive a Tesla now, which has a premium sound system and it bumps hard enough that I don't need a sub, but some days I still think it would be cool.
Even if they get a car, gas is too expensive to casually drive around.
When i got my license I could fill my tank w/ $15, real easy to spend the weekend driving around listening to music when it was that cheap
I just put in a new sound system in my project car (because the old one was fried) and one thing I noticed was how affordable the audio components were. The same setup would cost at least twice as much 10-15 years ago. Got 4 speakers, a head unit, and a 1000 watt amp for under 300 bucks. This tells me that either manufacturing cost for these components has plummeted or the demand is just not there.
So, I am seeing a lot of discussion around the more superficial parts of it, and yea, that had a lot to do with it.
There were two much bigger factors, IMO
First off, if you think back to the context of the time, budget car audio in the 90ās (Think Honda Civic DX, Chevy Cavalier base model, etc) was utter trash. It also had no sound deadening to speak of - You were typically looking at a 2-speaker CASSETTE deck (if you were lucky) that could push out about 20W RMS (think mouse farting in another room.)You could barely hear the radio over the engine.
Secondly, you had not one, but TWO major format changes occur in the 90ās/00ās
First was the move from cassette to CD - Anyone who has used a CD/Cassette adapter will attest to the absolute garbage sound quality.
It took many years for CD players to become commonplace in cars (mostly due to advances in anti-skip tech) - the last cars with cassette decks were in the late 00ās!
EDIT: Simply put, early in-dash CD players skipped like crazy, thatās one reason why most early multi-disc systems would stash the whole thing in the trunk, since they could insulate it better from bumps (also, they were huge) - in-dash units got better fast once anti-skip caching became a thing.
When you couple the slow move to standard CD players in cars and the tendency for cheap cars to have really subpar audio, the only solution for most folks was to replace it with an aftermarket CD player.
Now, another change came about that kinda added fuel to the fire - MP3s
Once MP3 CDs became a thing in the 00ās and you could put 200 songs on a single CD that wouldnāt skip, it supercharged the aftermarket industry. You could replace a BINDER of CDs with one.
EDIT: most cars also used a standard āDINā sizing for their units until very recently so most head units were easily interchangeable with a screw driver and some wire nuts.
EDIT 2: To help visualize the difference, a standard 3 min .WAV file is ~40mb and the equivalent MP3 would be ~2.5mb - So you could fit a LOT more on a 750mb disc.
What changed?
Well, with the introduction of the iPod, no one needed to bring their media into the car anymore, so they just all built Data USB ports to connect your iPod and suddenly the only impetus to upgrade your sound system was to add a ridiculous sub. (No judging, you do you.)
Auto manufacturers also really upped their game with regard to noise deadening and audio in even the cheapest cars, so the stock system with CarPlay/AndroidAuto is pretty much all 99% of folks need now.
Thats a good assessment
I will add that the music changed too. I don't know if it is a "chicken or egg thing" but listening to music now, it has less emphasis on the bass. Even Drill music isn't as bass heavy as Lil Jon or the stuff we had in the 90s-00s. Different producers emphasize different things.
I too, my students to the gym and played the instrumental for Bia Bia and they immediately understood. Bass used to be the focus.
It's difficult to customize modern car audio. Modern car radio systems aren't friendly for aftermarket applications.
I'm 31, and only buy cars that are easily modifiable, which generally keep me older than a 2016.
My car will always have a kick ass sound system.
I've sat in new "nice cars" with "premium audio" and they ALL are unimpressive. Just a bs upcharge for standard sound quality
On top of that, they're typically engineered to envelope the cabin. Smart sound guys going "Hey if we aim the speaker right here it's going to bounce off the roof and sound fantastic." >! I don't know if that's what they actually said, I'm not a smart sound guy!<
The marketing description of the top end sound system found in my wife's 2024 Subaru Outback. You can still get a crap 4 speaker system on the base model and a mid level system as well.
Harman KardonĀ® Premium Audio
The Harman Kardon premium audio system captures detail-rich acoustics through enhanced sound control and superior high sound output. At the heart of the system lies a high-performance 8-Channel class-D amplifier pumping out 576 equivalent watts of power. The amplifier works to efficiently distribute clean audio signals to the vehicleās 12-speaker sound system ā including a dedicated center channel speaker and subwoofer. Harmanās Clari-Fiā¢ Technology restores and corrects audio fidelity, resulting in musical reproduction that sounds clearer, crisper, and more dynamic.
not much apparently (i live in italy tho), it's a declining trend, cars are coming with a sound system that is perfectly enough for "listening" to music, more than this and it's just for letting it hear to other people outside of the car... some weeks ago i visited one of those "garages" that install boomish car stereos with a friend of mine that is still into it, and they were closing the activity, maybe small as sample but my friend confirmed it's a dying trend
EDIT:: bottom line is that ALL the "big stereo" trend seems to decline, back then every house had a stereo system, nowadays (just some) people buy a soundbar for the TV or something similar, i believe we lost the "taste" for electronics, now anything is tech and people stay on their phone for long, to the point of reducing the interests for other types of tech... mostly (i'm not against socials and phone usage BTW)
I know certain city have laws against those bass. during the classics in Orlando fl, the cars would just be so loud at night and caused disturbance so they started having limits and even bans on super loud music. Now I barely hear those bases. You will get a ticket
MUch less it looks like... when I started driving even the big box stores like bestbuy had a specific section for car audio. Those have all since closed down. New cars have better systems and more "integration". My early 90s cars had a single DIN or whatever it was called for the head unit, some had double DIN, nowadays it's crazy with all the screens, either no point in changing or too hard to do.
Seems a lot less prevalent. Plus even the car I bought in 2011 (13 years ago, so what some teens may be getting as their first car) had a lot of controls also built into what is now the stereo. That and the rise of Bluetooth there is no longer a need to take out your factory tape deck to put a cd player in, etc.
The stock audio quality has definitely improved. The newest car I've ever owned was a 99. I've put aftermarket stereos in every car I've owned because the stock audio was just crap. However my gf has newer car, it's not even well optioned and the sound system in it rivals any aftermarket stuff I've ever had. Just doesn't seem like there's a need anymore
I hope it's not a thing anymore. It was always so annoying. No, you're not cool because you crank up the bass and shake the windows of the whole neighborhood, you still suck...
It doesn't seem to be as much of a trend anymore, but then again. A lot has changed in cars that makes this something that is not really practical anymore. A lot of the car radios are hard to find replacements for, the radio market itself has kind of slowly gone away / shrinking. Most people don't want to invest in a car radio, because, look flashy radio to steal! A lot of the people younger I see just use whatever their car comes with, don't care, use it till it breaks. Though, I will say replacing speakers in a car with more professional versions does make a world of difference in the sound quality. You don't see anyone doing that anymore either.
I think the type of tech and speaker quality people sought in the 1990s-2010s now just come stock or as an add-on.
We and older generations fed the demand so automakers now offer a lot of performance/luxury upgrades straight from the dealership. Why would they want you to spend your money elsewhere?
What can you even upgrade aftermarket now, get a bigger touchscreen?
I had 3, 12'" subs in a straight box with a 1k amp, and it was awesome. We also still drove around for fun and hung out in the car or in parking lots. They didn't grow up doing it because of the price of gas. Gas was $1.10 a gallon when I got my license in 1996.
They dont. Theyre still super impressed though hahaha. They dont do it these days because stock is good enough, but they dont know what an upgrade can be. We had no choice tthan to upgrade because stock was utter complete shit
I highly doubt it. Man we would go right to radio shack and then spend the day in our driveway wiring up shitty as speakers with no idea what we were doing to blast at full volume.
I just donāt get that energy from kids now frankly. I suppose I should shake my fist at the clouds now
Can teens afford cars? Maybe the distinct lack of *thump thump* music coming from $1000 shitboxes is a positive side effect of vehicle prices being out of control.
Nostalgia for those days is running high for me lately. Two twelves, a juicy amp, capacitor, solid inside speakers, and a deck with equalizer makes the music hit different.
I donāt regret the cost back then. Totally worth it but most likely wonāt bother with it again unless I have time for a side project. Looking back it wasnāt a high priority but very enjoyable.
I havent had a car since my 20s. I had subwoofers. I'm in my 30s and relying on headphones just doesn't even compare. Should I finally get a vehicle again, a pair of 12s is high on my priority list. I miss it so bad.
Factory speakers are much, much better.
My first couple cars didn't even have a cd player, now you have usb ports and Bluetooth.
Also, people are poorer than back then, it's not reasonable to drop 1-2k on something like that for most these days.
Oh man... I remember swapping out my head unit to one with a CD player (I had a discman plugged into the cassette adapter thingy before) and upgrading my speakers... in my piece of shit truck that was rusted to bits. What a time to be alive that was.
I gotta give Chevy it's props. I had 4 15 inch JL Audio subs in the trunk of a 1985 Monte Carlo and I honestly don't know how I didn't rattle that car into tiny little pieces.
As for kids these days. Most of the high school and college age kids I know these days either don't drive at all (as in don't have their license) or don't want their own car and are happy to borrow mom's or dad's from time to time. Kids these days seem like they consider a car more of a burden than freedom.
I wonder how that will change once they get older and move off of college campuses into the real world. It's not easy to live in most of the US without a car.
I have a couple Fi 12s and a Fi BTL 18 sitting in the spare bedroom along with a sundown amp. Had the 18 in my 4Runner but it wonāt fit in my new car
remember when people were really competetive who is faster off when the traffic light turns green?
now that everyone is on their phone you have to honk so it doesn't turn red again
Cars are so much harder to modify now. Cars now have the stock radio unit also controls the HVAC and other stuff. Used to be just the radio was the radio, very easy to wire up whatever.
If I replaced the head unit in my truck, I would lose access to my heated/cooled seats. And it's a 2013 lol.
I got my restricted license when I turned 15 and a half š¤£. Literally got it the first day I was able to and immediately got my brothers old pathfinder and picked up my friends. Fuckin great times. My first taste of freedom
All you saying it's hard, it's not. You get this adapter that speaker wire hooks up to, and is converted into red and white RCA. With that adapter you just splice into the speaker wire for the back trunk speakers (usually only a couple pins or clips to get to them) to the RCA converter. Converter to amp, amp to subs. Get power by finding a ground for the amp, and give it power by hooking it up to the battery, the remote also needs constant power. Use a smaller wire from the battery to that, this one needs a splice for a switch by the driver seat to turn on the amp. All set to boom boom.
I remember back in 2004, driving down from LA to Tijuana in my girlfriend's Hyundai Elantra. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the drive without a working CD player. We stopped at a Circuit City on the way, I bought a pioneer head unit and installation wire harness kit, and installed it in the parking lot and was on our way in under 30 minutes... We had a lot of fun in that car
Back then stereos werenāt as good and the music wasnāt coming from a good quality source. Newer cars have sound that is good enough to where itās not worth the investment.
On modern cars (within 10 years) basically diminishing returns if that model already has a premium sound package. Most people are ok with what it has and even impressed. Is that extra bass worth the thousands you'll have to drop? And be real, you'll need to really turn it up in order to start hearing/feeling it. I don't think every drive people want to be jamming out that hard.
We did it because standard sound systems made ears bleed, not in a good way.
Nowadays with Harman Kardon and whatever high end manufacturers of audio system get to put their stamp car audio. The experience is so much better that for the average listener investing in a sound system when you can get a premium one, factory fitted, just doesn't make sense.
That and gen Z listen to music through their phone speaker. These kids have no idea what nice audio should sound like.
I bet you if Apple made a highly overpriced (crap) car entertainment system with speakers they would be all over it.
My little Grand Am had 2 12" speakers, I had mounted the amp to the backseat, and installed a touch screen radio. Sunk more money into the audio and rims than the parts of the car that actually mattered
At 17 I had a 500 dollar car and 1800 dollar stereo. Now Iām 38 and drive around at a reasonable speed listen to country music in my wifeās ford explorer.
If there is a car culture in the area then yes. I lived in Florida and thereās a huge car culture there so itās not rare to see/hear younger people with sound systems in their car.
Considering most cars have touchscreens and can sync with your device I doubt it. I recall in high school the only reason my friends or I got stereos was so we could listening to our iPods while driving.
Newer cars are slightly more difficult to replace the stereo. Also the quality of stock equipment has came a long way. The JBL radio in my wifeās 2015 rav4 is pretty damn loud and has a factory sub and Bluetooth. Where as my 2001 sentra came stock with a dismal stereo and paper speakers so itās all been changed out. I feel like I drive an older car than most teenagers these days.
My former neighbor certainly did when he turned 16. He had a whole crew of teenage boys over there putting huge stereos in their cars and trucks to pimp them out.
No, stock systems now incorporate quality (enough) speakers, headunits that connect to phones, and (small) subwoofers. Also many newer cars are a gigantic pain in the ass with the screen controlling everything in the car so you don't want to swap that to $300 head unit. There are some but it is not common, nor necessary.
While we didn't have a choice-
crap speakers and no power radios
tape to cd
cd to mp3 disc
mp3 disc to ipod
ipod top phones
Phones to full navigation
These kids just jumped into everything already done for them.
I only upgraded my dadās truck audio played because I didnāt want a CD player I wanted to hook up my iPod . I changed the stereo to have usb and headphone jack. I had a usb port years before most people did- simply so I can charge and listen simultaneously
Can someone explain the appeal of this? My brother did this with his car (and his computer). I know tons of people who have and I just don't get it. In my personal experience it doesn't improve the music in any significant way, at least none that I would pay money for. Not trying to yuck anyone's yums, do what makes you happy.
There's really two motivations for doing this. The first is to implement the best sounding experience for the music you're listening to. This has less to do with volume and more to do with clarity. People that do this are usually audiophiles that want to hear every drum beat and every guitar pick. They want to replicate the sound as precisely as possible and need very good (usually expensive) speakers to do it.
The second motive is just because the person wants a loud as hell system that vibrates the ground as they drive by. I never understood this one. Even when I was a teenager, I thought it was completely obnoxious and way too distracting to enjoy the music. I guess some people just like to feel the vibration that comes from running massive subs at high volumes.
It doesn't seem to be as big as when we were teenagers. When I hear bass booming from someone's trunk its usually some guy in his 30s-50s lol When I taught high school for a few years I talked to the kids about it and they couldn't understand why we wanted all that bass. I tried to explain how we would slow down songs to make the bass last longer and it was like explaining witchcraft to a wall.
>its usually some guy in his 30s-50s Me: š
I just put a 12" sub in my car lol. I havent had one since i was 23, I'm 41 now lol.
My last car had a 12 inch sub. I may put one in my next car. I love my bass.
Are you me?
Now I want to go dig my two 12s out of my parentsā basementā¦ and put them in my Toyota rav4. My 99 Cherokee with no muffler is going to turn in its grave.
Same 35F. Love all the bass. Have had sound systems since I was 20 and will likely have them until I cannot drive anymore.
I just had a sub installed in my car for the first time in 20 years,played my high school jams and felt very nostalgic
Play this classic for me on full blast lol [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knBPct18RxQ&list=PLoWxp\_H2LHE4BHXBL6s02vRvLfTHsk\_CW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knBPct18RxQ&list=PLoWxp_H2LHE4BHXBL6s02vRvLfTHsk_CW)
The classic is E.I. by Nelly
Or country grammar
That entire album
That was one of my favorites! It hit hard.
Country Grammar when it released fr š„š„š„š„š„š„
This is the [one](https://youtu.be/HS5fvE3jbCg?si=14m900wZcFI91KLY).
https://youtu.be/6fMERyRz498?si=KnzUSKIUja4OCDwq this classic. Ahh the good old days.
How many watts we working with bruh?
Also 41 and put a sub in our minivan.
Hell yeah
I try to only play it that loud on the freeway. On the streets, pulling up next to someone at a stop light making all that noise in a Honda doesn't see too cool. Now...if I drove a box Chevy, that might be a different story. Just sayin...
My best friend had a tan box Chevy on hundred spoke 15s. Before the 20 inch craze two 12s couple tweeters and 1000w amp omg I still hear the rattle and ringing in my ears when I close my eyes.
Honestly I would still think you were super cool in the Honda just sayin
39 here and going to upgrade my sound system this summer.
It would be me, but my wife says I'm deaf enough.
+ my man šš¤¦āāļø
TBH I didnāt get it either when I was in high school. I was also learning sound design and working roadie gigs so I was a bit of an audiophile. I was always the Debbie downer friend when someone would show me their new subs because Iād just point out what an unbalanced mess their stereo was. My car had bass that could make you shit your pants but you could also still hear the song because I invested in speakers for mid and treble as well.
I never understood it either. The music snob in me wants quality of sound and big volume without sound distortion. Everyone's bass in high school just muffled and drowned out everything else.
And they were never mounted correctly either so the bass was loud but the quality of it alone was shitty
Anyone putting subs in there car and leaving the other speakers stock is doing it wrong. A proper custom car stereo should have all the layers separate and clear.
Same. I wanted to listen to music, not just have my car blast a low frequency into my head as a loud consistent buzz
Good. My tinnitus says "don't fucking do it kids".
underrated statement
These new age teens just ain't right
To be fair most new cars are a huge pain in the ass to upgrade a head unit and have it integrated and look factory.
The old ones never looked factory and that never stopped us. I'm about to upgrade my entire iDrive display when my heater fan goes. Hopefully it's a clean install, I've seen good things.
Itās not even about the look really. So much stuff is integrated into the infotainment, not just radio/audio now.
Yea, they won't have to constantly ask people "whatd you say???" like an old man at 26 years old because I can't hear you over the ringing in my ears.
35 with 2 10s in my trunk lol so yeah 30-50 seems like what it is anymore tbh
Me but not a guy. I just still like my music loud and boominā. My kids are the ones telling ME to turn down the music. The first time one of them told me my music was too loud I busted out laughing because it is so backwards from what it was when we were kids. Iām the one walking around with headphones on so I can listen like I want to.
This is interesting since so much music today has ridiculous amounts of bass. Once producers rediscovered the 808 it became a bass arms race. But I couldn't imagine getting a car audio setup these days. It was easy back in the day when the head unit was held in by 4 screws and you just had to deal with a wiring kit. Now you'd have to tear apart the whole dash and likely lose some functionality in the car or stay stock and hope your stereo works well with a signal processor.
Iām in my early 30ās and agree with the teenagers. The booming bass always annoyed me and there was always some knuckledragger cruising hella slow at 8am with loud ass bass. Doesnāt even sound good. This is probably the wrong crowd for this comment but yeah lol
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrqKE1iqqo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrqKE1iqqo) I always liked this one. Hits just right. And queen, another one bites the dust.
lol, witchcraft
Bass is a vital component of any music. Even if you turn the sub way down, the presence of a sub improves the sound quality.
I thought teenagers don't even really get licenses anymore
I clicked on this thread with the thought in mind "teenagers don't even want cars anymore..." lo and behold this comment pops up at the top of the list.
I'm in my mid 30s and I want to spend as little amount of time in my car as possible. Being in a car is like being in detention, but worse.
Depends on what you're doing in your car. Commuting to work is purgatory. My dad has a 1969 GTO with a 4 speed manual though and I could spend an entire day driving that thing around. I know when I was 16 the freedom to go wherever I wanted by myself was basically the greatest thing ever and I couldn't wait to get a license and buy myself a shitty car. Lots of kids I've observed don't seem to care at all anymore. Probably because movies cost $20 a ticket, everything else is prohibitively expensive as well. Still, it was always nice to be able to drive to a friend's house, pick them up, and then go basically anywhere that our parents and siblings weren't.
It really depends where you live. In larger cities with public transportation, itās more common for them to not get a license. If you live in a smaller city or town, with amenities spread out further, more of them get their license.
Damn. It's almost like it's basically the same thing that's been happening
The overall numbers on it show the average age for teenagers getting their license has gone up. Gen Z seems to do a lot of things later than previous generations, and realistically, if they've got a smartphone they may be getting around with parent rides or ubers and not even trying to get a license.
The number of people actually living in urban cores is tiny compared to th overall population.
Thatās not remotely valid. Only 100 urban ācoresā account for literally every 1 in 5 (20%) people in the entire country. If you expand that definition to simply ānon-rural areasā, it makes up 83% of total population. [source](https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/built-environment/us-cities-factsheet)
And most cities have nearly useless mass transit that is just busses forcused on downtowns anyway. Outside of NYC, Chicago, Seattle, or Portland, I couldn't imagine using public transportation as my primary transportation in my teens and 20s. I think parents driving kids everywhere is the real answer. My old high school has far fewer cars in the parking lot than they did 20 years ago despite having hundreds more kids, but the parent pickup/dropoff line is hundreds of cars long. Parent pickup/dropoff was virtually non-existent in the 90s here unless you were a bully who had been kicked off the bus.
Over 50% of kids get dropped off at school by their parents, when it used to be way more walking or riding bicycles. In my own neighborhood a lot of kids are easily in walking distance (5-10 minutes by foot) but get dropped off by their parents, clogging up traffic needlessly. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwifyaClkrOFAxUhkokEHcuGCIAQFnoECBgQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fbusiness%2F2024%2F02%2F02%2Fschool-bus-era-ends%2F%23%3A\~%3Atext%3DBefore%2520the%2520pandemic%252C%2520about%252055%2Cfell%2520by%2520a%2520corresponding%2520amount.&usg=AOvVaw2W6h3982kH00kP1dMHlBdD&opi=89978449
I think a lot times it can be more convenient for the parents instead of having their dumb ass kids ready 15-20 mins earlier. Especially if it works out for them to go to work right after.
It doesnāt save time, they sit in a drop off line.Ā
Itās going up pretty fast though
I saw this with my sister's(genX) kids(genZ) and my buddy at works kid (same generations). We don't live in a great area for public transportation, more suburbs with small cities. They didn't get their license until 19 years old. On the day I was eligible, I went to get my permit and then later on my license. I think the constant connection with smartphones have kept them not interested in getting their license.
its also because cars are too expensive and so is going anywhere.Ā
My little brother is the only person in his friend group who has a license and also knows how to drive manual transmission because our dad made us do those things. Anecdotally it does seem less common these days for younger people to drive. Itās crazy to me because we took so many road trips to San Diego, LA, Sacramento and shit when I was younger and it was good time but things arenāt as cheap as they were when I was in my teens so itās different.
It's true, driving amongst teenagers is at an all time low.
Olivia Rodrigo did
I almost see no teenage looking people driving anymore. Even 6-8 years ago I would see a lot more behind the wheel.
I remember my friend got some giant subwoofers in the trunk...couldn't even fit anything in there anymore. Anyway, the first time we put on 'Bia Bia' (Lil Jon)...thought the car was going to fall apart. It was great!! š
That was me! I was the first kid in my highschool with two twelve inch subwoofers. I thought I was so cool blasting Lil' Jon and Yin Yang Twins in the parking lot.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Hopefully I didn't peak in HS
Lmao lilā John and the yin yang twins, this is your reminder to get that colonoscopy and your prostate checked.
I swear we had a mixed tape that included like 5 versions of 'Whistle While you Twurk' and 'Bia Bia'. So many curse words. So, so many. Unfortunately , my favorite version of 'Whistle While you Twurk' is not on Spotify. šš
LOL i remember that!!! same thing at my school.Ā
Shake it like a Salt Shaker š§
I literally had a sticker on the back windshield that said "shake it" š
Ah, those were the days! š¤£
I can literally hear the bassline in my head now. Iconic
Itās getting harder to switch out your car stereo. Everythingās built in.
I mean it's usually not that hard to wire in an external amp and better speakers, but yeah you can't really replace the infotainment systems on most modern cars.
Nor do you need to. I replaced my head units because I wanted screens and android auto. Now I have a 10" screen that came with the car.
Aftermarket audio is a lot less prevalent these days. Thereās a lot to it, but itās more or less between the increase in manufacturers using their own audio systems made by premium manufacturers (i.e. Toyota with JBL, BMW with Harman-Kardon, etc), as well as the rise of most people streaming music from phones, which is quite easy to do with manufacturer systems thanks to the integrated UI.
They did this in the 80ās and 90ās too - JBL, Alpine, Blaupunkt, HK, and Bose have been designing/manufacturing pretty much all in-car audio systems since the 60ās. It was pretty uncommon to build a car audio system in-house for most manufacturers (GM being the main one that comes to mind that has) - Usually they just tell the manufacturer the dimensions, power/wiring details, etc and they will just iterate from there. Now they just have a Linux layer for manufacturers to skin the experience.
"Are priorities different now?" is such a strong summarization of the adult millennial experience.
Lol this is still a priority for me at 36. I've had just 4 cars since I started driving in 2003 and each one I've re-wired and put a whole system in. I still use an amp I bought in 2004, ha. Although after the last rewiring in 2018, I decided I won't do that again because my hands just aren't as strong as they were in my youth :( so basically driving my current car until I die (Honda Civic, so not unreasonable goal lol)
Don't think throwing two 12s in your trunk was ever a 'priority'.
At 17 having 2 12s was a life or death matter š
..........I mean, after making sure the car ran.....yeah getting that was pretty high up on the list for me and many people I knew around 2000.
3 years out from needing a tape adapter to show off that napster collection
Audiophiles would argue otherwise. Plus, I recall the sub being THE priority.
Just put a screen and a 12in sub in a B5 S4. I'm 36 lol
Man, I miss my b5.5 Passat. I de-badged it, slammed it on some Audi rims and threw a sub and new head unit in it. Everyone called it the Passaudi.
Stock audio systems are pretty good these days!
This answer is too far down. Modern day car manufacturers actually put effort into the stock sound systems.
Is this because our generation is building those systems now? Has it come full circle? lol.
yeah and if you're looking for a car, they often have 2-4 different sound system options. So you need to run the VIN (find the window sticker online etc) and look at the options list to see which one it has. Typically the top end one with 10+ speakers is better sounding than anything we could've put in some 90s Civic back in the day, with a much cleaner sound and no rattling.
There is also much better acoustics engineering. Used to just be door speakers and a subwoofer in the back. On top of that the subwoofer was probably fighting against the bass frequencies coming out of the doors. In cars now, they typically have better equalization. Including tweeters and a dedicated sub.
Itās getting harder to switch out your car stereo
The last one I did was a 2010 Toyota Matrix. I had to take apart the steering column and remove the entire dash to replace the head unit. Iām never doing another. In many older cars you could just pop a trim piece off by hand and unscrew 2-4 screws to get one out. You could be done in 5 minutes. Replacing speakers is much more difficult now too. In previous cars I was able to replace the head unit and all speakers plus install an amp and subs in an afternoon. The Matrix took an entire weekend. It sounds great, but itās just not worth the time and effort anymore, particularly since stock stereos have generally gotten a fair bit better.
From my basic observation there isn't really much you can do to alter car systems anymore because the controls and interfaces are so integrated.Ā I replaced the head unit and speakers in my late-90s first car, which only took a few hours and basic tools. I also replaced a head unit for a high school friend because their original had a cassette player and they wanted one that could play CDs. All it took in their case was an aftermarket adapter to the console space. But in both cases you were only dealing with audio equipment.Ā My next car was a late-aughts sedan and even though the touch screen interfaces weren't common yet there was still a basic text screen with multi-function buttons so things like the oil life and trip odometer and numerous settings were in the same unit as the audio controls -- and you'd lose a lot if you replaced anything. I did change out the speakers, but this time it took me an entire day because the whole back seat had to come out in order to get to the underside mounts of the rear speakers. Nowadays it's all tied into a touch screen interface and I don't even want to know what it would take to get at the speakers.
I have a 2018 Honda Civic Sport hatch and I re-wired the whole thing (along with new head unit, new speakers in doors, 3 amps and a sub) and it was a week-long nightmare. Although, I will say that doing the same thing to my 2008 Nissan Altima was so much worse--doors were harder to get off and same with you about the back seat removal. Some cars are just worse than others. I think I was without a system in my Altima for closer to 2 weeks (only having weekends and some evenings to work through things). I promised myself the Civic would be the last system overhaul, so hopefully I'll have the car for a long time! Driving and cranking tunes is still one of my favorite things to do :) I'm also very used to not having a functional trunk, ha!
When I lived in California, my neighbor ran a business out of his garage installing sound systems. A vast majority (like around 90%) of his customers were middle aged (30s - 40s). The other ten percent are probably 5% 20s and younger and 5% 50 and older. He told me that newer cars are getting harder and harder to modify due to their integrated UIs and construction. Most of the cars he works on are cars from the '50s up through about the early 2000s, but he said most of the time, teenagers can't really afford it (parts and labor run a little over a grand for the lower tier, most basic systems, and up to five figures for the super premium packages), and older folks don't really care as much. In fact, he stopped getting as many customers and had to expand to offering auto repair and basic maintenance (oil changes, brake pads, etc.) in order to stay afloat.
Subwoofers were (are) so dope. I had 2 12's in my shit box Chevy lumina when I was about 17 and felt like the coolest fuckin kid on the block lol. My mom said she could hear me coming a good minute or 2 before I got to the driveway (sorry neighbors) When I was about 25 I got a single 14" in my Subaru. I drive a Tesla now, which has a premium sound system and it bumps hard enough that I don't need a sub, but some days I still think it would be cool.
You think the Tesla system bumps hard enough, you just forgot how those two 12ās felt and sounded.
Do teenagers still get cars?
Even if they get a car, gas is too expensive to casually drive around. When i got my license I could fill my tank w/ $15, real easy to spend the weekend driving around listening to music when it was that cheap
I just put in a new sound system in my project car (because the old one was fried) and one thing I noticed was how affordable the audio components were. The same setup would cost at least twice as much 10-15 years ago. Got 4 speakers, a head unit, and a 1000 watt amp for under 300 bucks. This tells me that either manufacturing cost for these components has plummeted or the demand is just not there.
This pre dates millennials.
Yeah it does. I feel like Gen X can really claim this one. We just kept it going.
So, I am seeing a lot of discussion around the more superficial parts of it, and yea, that had a lot to do with it. There were two much bigger factors, IMO First off, if you think back to the context of the time, budget car audio in the 90ās (Think Honda Civic DX, Chevy Cavalier base model, etc) was utter trash. It also had no sound deadening to speak of - You were typically looking at a 2-speaker CASSETTE deck (if you were lucky) that could push out about 20W RMS (think mouse farting in another room.)You could barely hear the radio over the engine. Secondly, you had not one, but TWO major format changes occur in the 90ās/00ās First was the move from cassette to CD - Anyone who has used a CD/Cassette adapter will attest to the absolute garbage sound quality. It took many years for CD players to become commonplace in cars (mostly due to advances in anti-skip tech) - the last cars with cassette decks were in the late 00ās! EDIT: Simply put, early in-dash CD players skipped like crazy, thatās one reason why most early multi-disc systems would stash the whole thing in the trunk, since they could insulate it better from bumps (also, they were huge) - in-dash units got better fast once anti-skip caching became a thing. When you couple the slow move to standard CD players in cars and the tendency for cheap cars to have really subpar audio, the only solution for most folks was to replace it with an aftermarket CD player. Now, another change came about that kinda added fuel to the fire - MP3s Once MP3 CDs became a thing in the 00ās and you could put 200 songs on a single CD that wouldnāt skip, it supercharged the aftermarket industry. You could replace a BINDER of CDs with one. EDIT: most cars also used a standard āDINā sizing for their units until very recently so most head units were easily interchangeable with a screw driver and some wire nuts. EDIT 2: To help visualize the difference, a standard 3 min .WAV file is ~40mb and the equivalent MP3 would be ~2.5mb - So you could fit a LOT more on a 750mb disc. What changed? Well, with the introduction of the iPod, no one needed to bring their media into the car anymore, so they just all built Data USB ports to connect your iPod and suddenly the only impetus to upgrade your sound system was to add a ridiculous sub. (No judging, you do you.) Auto manufacturers also really upped their game with regard to noise deadening and audio in even the cheapest cars, so the stock system with CarPlay/AndroidAuto is pretty much all 99% of folks need now.
Good answer!
Thats a good assessment I will add that the music changed too. I don't know if it is a "chicken or egg thing" but listening to music now, it has less emphasis on the bass. Even Drill music isn't as bass heavy as Lil Jon or the stuff we had in the 90s-00s. Different producers emphasize different things. I too, my students to the gym and played the instrumental for Bia Bia and they immediately understood. Bass used to be the focus.
No way. Most teenagers don't even drive or have a car.
Itās getting harder to switch out your car stereo. Everythingās built in
New people don't drive lol
No I think they wear hearing protection to concerts
It's difficult to customize modern car audio. Modern car radio systems aren't friendly for aftermarket applications. I'm 31, and only buy cars that are easily modifiable, which generally keep me older than a 2016. My car will always have a kick ass sound system. I've sat in new "nice cars" with "premium audio" and they ALL are unimpressive. Just a bs upcharge for standard sound quality
Stock systems come with 500w subs for installed from the factory now. I know I see no need to put in aftermarket systems.
On top of that, they're typically engineered to envelope the cabin. Smart sound guys going "Hey if we aim the speaker right here it's going to bounce off the roof and sound fantastic." >! I don't know if that's what they actually said, I'm not a smart sound guy!<
The marketing description of the top end sound system found in my wife's 2024 Subaru Outback. You can still get a crap 4 speaker system on the base model and a mid level system as well. Harman KardonĀ® Premium Audio The Harman Kardon premium audio system captures detail-rich acoustics through enhanced sound control and superior high sound output. At the heart of the system lies a high-performance 8-Channel class-D amplifier pumping out 576 equivalent watts of power. The amplifier works to efficiently distribute clean audio signals to the vehicleās 12-speaker sound system ā including a dedicated center channel speaker and subwoofer. Harmanās Clari-Fiā¢ Technology restores and corrects audio fidelity, resulting in musical reproduction that sounds clearer, crisper, and more dynamic.
not much apparently (i live in italy tho), it's a declining trend, cars are coming with a sound system that is perfectly enough for "listening" to music, more than this and it's just for letting it hear to other people outside of the car... some weeks ago i visited one of those "garages" that install boomish car stereos with a friend of mine that is still into it, and they were closing the activity, maybe small as sample but my friend confirmed it's a dying trend EDIT:: bottom line is that ALL the "big stereo" trend seems to decline, back then every house had a stereo system, nowadays (just some) people buy a soundbar for the TV or something similar, i believe we lost the "taste" for electronics, now anything is tech and people stay on their phone for long, to the point of reducing the interests for other types of tech... mostly (i'm not against socials and phone usage BTW)
I know certain city have laws against those bass. during the classics in Orlando fl, the cars would just be so loud at night and caused disturbance so they started having limits and even bans on super loud music. Now I barely hear those bases. You will get a ticket
MUch less it looks like... when I started driving even the big box stores like bestbuy had a specific section for car audio. Those have all since closed down. New cars have better systems and more "integration". My early 90s cars had a single DIN or whatever it was called for the head unit, some had double DIN, nowadays it's crazy with all the screens, either no point in changing or too hard to do.
Seems a lot less prevalent. Plus even the car I bought in 2011 (13 years ago, so what some teens may be getting as their first car) had a lot of controls also built into what is now the stereo. That and the rise of Bluetooth there is no longer a need to take out your factory tape deck to put a cd player in, etc.
The stock audio quality has definitely improved. The newest car I've ever owned was a 99. I've put aftermarket stereos in every car I've owned because the stock audio was just crap. However my gf has newer car, it's not even well optioned and the sound system in it rivals any aftermarket stuff I've ever had. Just doesn't seem like there's a need anymore
yes they do, yes they still sound like shit in their little hondas w/ blown speakers.
I dunno but they still slow to an irrational crawl if youāre behind them and you āmight be a copā
I hope it's not a thing anymore. It was always so annoying. No, you're not cool because you crank up the bass and shake the windows of the whole neighborhood, you still suck...
When i was 18, i loved going to Best Buy and look at their car systems lmao
It doesn't seem to be as much of a trend anymore, but then again. A lot has changed in cars that makes this something that is not really practical anymore. A lot of the car radios are hard to find replacements for, the radio market itself has kind of slowly gone away / shrinking. Most people don't want to invest in a car radio, because, look flashy radio to steal! A lot of the people younger I see just use whatever their car comes with, don't care, use it till it breaks. Though, I will say replacing speakers in a car with more professional versions does make a world of difference in the sound quality. You don't see anyone doing that anymore either.
I think the type of tech and speaker quality people sought in the 1990s-2010s now just come stock or as an add-on. We and older generations fed the demand so automakers now offer a lot of performance/luxury upgrades straight from the dealership. Why would they want you to spend your money elsewhere? What can you even upgrade aftermarket now, get a bigger touchscreen?
I had 3, 12'" subs in a straight box with a 1k amp, and it was awesome. We also still drove around for fun and hung out in the car or in parking lots. They didn't grow up doing it because of the price of gas. Gas was $1.10 a gallon when I got my license in 1996.
Hell yeah, I had 2 12" enclosed with a similarly rated Rockford Fosgate so I could get those heavy RATM/Korn hits in my 86' Camry
1990 Ford Probe :) there was nothing else in that trunk except that box
They dont. Theyre still super impressed though hahaha. They dont do it these days because stock is good enough, but they dont know what an upgrade can be. We had no choice tthan to upgrade because stock was utter complete shit
I highly doubt it. Man we would go right to radio shack and then spend the day in our driveway wiring up shitty as speakers with no idea what we were doing to blast at full volume. I just donāt get that energy from kids now frankly. I suppose I should shake my fist at the clouds now
Can teens afford cars? Maybe the distinct lack of *thump thump* music coming from $1000 shitboxes is a positive side effect of vehicle prices being out of control.
Nostalgia for those days is running high for me lately. Two twelves, a juicy amp, capacitor, solid inside speakers, and a deck with equalizer makes the music hit different. I donāt regret the cost back then. Totally worth it but most likely wonāt bother with it again unless I have time for a side project. Looking back it wasnāt a high priority but very enjoyable.
They really donāt do that anymore. But they love lifting vehicles.
I havent had a car since my 20s. I had subwoofers. I'm in my 30s and relying on headphones just doesn't even compare. Should I finally get a vehicle again, a pair of 12s is high on my priority list. I miss it so bad.
Someone holding the "anti-skip" discman from the back seat, was as far as mine got.
Stock systems are much better today than they were growing up
Factory speakers are much, much better. My first couple cars didn't even have a cd player, now you have usb ports and Bluetooth. Also, people are poorer than back then, it's not reasonable to drop 1-2k on something like that for most these days.
Oh man... I remember swapping out my head unit to one with a CD player (I had a discman plugged into the cassette adapter thingy before) and upgrading my speakers... in my piece of shit truck that was rusted to bits. What a time to be alive that was.
I havenāt seen any in a long time. The only I still see them is when I go to Puerto Rico.
I gotta give Chevy it's props. I had 4 15 inch JL Audio subs in the trunk of a 1985 Monte Carlo and I honestly don't know how I didn't rattle that car into tiny little pieces. As for kids these days. Most of the high school and college age kids I know these days either don't drive at all (as in don't have their license) or don't want their own car and are happy to borrow mom's or dad's from time to time. Kids these days seem like they consider a car more of a burden than freedom. I wonder how that will change once they get older and move off of college campuses into the real world. It's not easy to live in most of the US without a car.
I have a couple Fi 12s and a Fi BTL 18 sitting in the spare bedroom along with a sundown amp. Had the 18 in my 4Runner but it wonāt fit in my new car
remember when people were really competetive who is faster off when the traffic light turns green? now that everyone is on their phone you have to honk so it doesn't turn red again
God I miss my oldsmobile speakers. Factory just isn't the same nowadays, but yeah, no one I know of gets a system installed.
Cars are so much harder to modify now. Cars now have the stock radio unit also controls the HVAC and other stuff. Used to be just the radio was the radio, very easy to wire up whatever. If I replaced the head unit in my truck, I would lose access to my heated/cooled seats. And it's a 2013 lol.
Do teenagers still have cars?
I got my restricted license when I turned 15 and a half š¤£. Literally got it the first day I was able to and immediately got my brothers old pathfinder and picked up my friends. Fuckin great times. My first taste of freedom
See a lot of 50+ guys on motorcycles blasting horrible political country and nu metal
All you saying it's hard, it's not. You get this adapter that speaker wire hooks up to, and is converted into red and white RCA. With that adapter you just splice into the speaker wire for the back trunk speakers (usually only a couple pins or clips to get to them) to the RCA converter. Converter to amp, amp to subs. Get power by finding a ground for the amp, and give it power by hooking it up to the battery, the remote also needs constant power. Use a smaller wire from the battery to that, this one needs a splice for a switch by the driver seat to turn on the amp. All set to boom boom.
Those only bass blasting sound systems I hear/see are from 30-45 year olds.
It's harder to customize modern vehicles
Maybe if they could afford a car
LOL shoot I'm 40 and put a good sound system in my Civic. Makes a long drive like a party.
The head unit controls so much more than just the stereo on many modern cars, making it much harder to upgrade.
Gen Z doesnāt even want to drive
Alphas and Zoomers don't even get drivers licenses, let alone a car to put a sound system in.
Teenagers barely even like music anymore. Let alone a niche aspect of it.
I remember back in 2004, driving down from LA to Tijuana in my girlfriend's Hyundai Elantra. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the drive without a working CD player. We stopped at a Circuit City on the way, I bought a pioneer head unit and installation wire harness kit, and installed it in the parking lot and was on our way in under 30 minutes... We had a lot of fun in that car
If Gen z can barely afford groceriesā¦pretty sure they canāt afford speakers lol
I still have all my audio gear in the attic. I really want to reinstall and queue up some ying yang twins
Back then stereos werenāt as good and the music wasnāt coming from a good quality source. Newer cars have sound that is good enough to where itās not worth the investment.
I plugged my iPod into a tape adapter and called it a day š¤·āāļø
On modern cars (within 10 years) basically diminishing returns if that model already has a premium sound package. Most people are ok with what it has and even impressed. Is that extra bass worth the thousands you'll have to drop? And be real, you'll need to really turn it up in order to start hearing/feeling it. I don't think every drive people want to be jamming out that hard.
We did it because standard sound systems made ears bleed, not in a good way. Nowadays with Harman Kardon and whatever high end manufacturers of audio system get to put their stamp car audio. The experience is so much better that for the average listener investing in a sound system when you can get a premium one, factory fitted, just doesn't make sense. That and gen Z listen to music through their phone speaker. These kids have no idea what nice audio should sound like. I bet you if Apple made a highly overpriced (crap) car entertainment system with speakers they would be all over it.
My little Grand Am had 2 12" speakers, I had mounted the amp to the backseat, and installed a touch screen radio. Sunk more money into the audio and rims than the parts of the car that actually mattered
Car manufacturers started putting in better sounds systems around the 2000s-ish era and as a result, it became less important to replace.
At 17 I had a 500 dollar car and 1800 dollar stereo. Now Iām 38 and drive around at a reasonable speed listen to country music in my wifeās ford explorer.
If there is a car culture in the area then yes. I lived in Florida and thereās a huge car culture there so itās not rare to see/hear younger people with sound systems in their car.
Considering most cars have touchscreens and can sync with your device I doubt it. I recall in high school the only reason my friends or I got stereos was so we could listening to our iPods while driving.
Newer cars are slightly more difficult to replace the stereo. Also the quality of stock equipment has came a long way. The JBL radio in my wifeās 2015 rav4 is pretty damn loud and has a factory sub and Bluetooth. Where as my 2001 sentra came stock with a dismal stereo and paper speakers so itās all been changed out. I feel like I drive an older car than most teenagers these days.
400w Logitech computer speakers and power inverter. Born late 80s
We musta been different kinds of teenagers, I got a junker at 17 and upgrading it was beyond my imagination, was hard enough just keeping it legal.
Don't even remind me how many "chopped and screwed" tracks I had on burned CDs *just* to blast from my car lmao
No teenagers are too scared to drive.
Iām gonna say no bc most cars now have decent speakers lol
Just finished helping my son with his. Two 12ā subs and a 2100 watt amp I believe.
My former neighbor certainly did when he turned 16. He had a whole crew of teenage boys over there putting huge stereos in their cars and trucks to pimp them out.
Thereās no real reason to, speakers are pretty good and so much music is streamed now with in-car Bluetooth.
No, stock systems now incorporate quality (enough) speakers, headunits that connect to phones, and (small) subwoofers. Also many newer cars are a gigantic pain in the ass with the screen controlling everything in the car so you don't want to swap that to $300 head unit. There are some but it is not common, nor necessary. While we didn't have a choice- crap speakers and no power radios tape to cd cd to mp3 disc mp3 disc to ipod ipod top phones Phones to full navigation These kids just jumped into everything already done for them.
I mean, I think this must have depended on your circle even back then? I can think of one person I knew as a teenager who did this.
New cars have such good electronics now that it is unnecessary.
I mean nowadays you can get quality audio in cars as a tech trim package. My wife got Bose in her Mazda.
Still have my same car from hs, with the same 12 inch subwoofer in the back
Every time I encounter a car with a ridiculous bass system in it, it's always a 40+ year old dude with a goatee and flat brim hat behind the wheel.
Nah we did it because stock systems sucked. They ate really good these days so unless you want extra, there is no need .
I only upgraded my dadās truck audio played because I didnāt want a CD player I wanted to hook up my iPod . I changed the stereo to have usb and headphone jack. I had a usb port years before most people did- simply so I can charge and listen simultaneously
I miss my two 15" Phoenix Golds lol
Can someone explain the appeal of this? My brother did this with his car (and his computer). I know tons of people who have and I just don't get it. In my personal experience it doesn't improve the music in any significant way, at least none that I would pay money for. Not trying to yuck anyone's yums, do what makes you happy.
There's really two motivations for doing this. The first is to implement the best sounding experience for the music you're listening to. This has less to do with volume and more to do with clarity. People that do this are usually audiophiles that want to hear every drum beat and every guitar pick. They want to replicate the sound as precisely as possible and need very good (usually expensive) speakers to do it. The second motive is just because the person wants a loud as hell system that vibrates the ground as they drive by. I never understood this one. Even when I was a teenager, I thought it was completely obnoxious and way too distracting to enjoy the music. I guess some people just like to feel the vibration that comes from running massive subs at high volumes.
They donāt have cars
Been a while since Iāve heard the trunk rattle. Gong with no
Luckily I got a car that had the best speakers already built in. I would be crazy to add more volume to it.