When I was growing up most cars if anything came with only a radio; and that was LW/MW radio at that – FM not being used
for broadcasting. At 17 years old those that were able would have their driving lessons and then scrape together their
Saturday working money and with help from Mum and Dad buy themselves an old banger. The type of car wasn’t so important
as it was to have one. Obviously though a sporty looking car was always better and if that wasn’t possible then a white
go fast stripe was easily added to give you that extra 5 miles an hour but more importantly to look cool.
The one area that was easily addressed back in the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties was the sound system. Any car
would do but what would not do was having the inability to play mix tapes in the car. Back then it wasn’t just a case of
switching out the radio for a radio cassette player, built in amplifiers were incapable of driving the speaker system that
needed to be added. Therefore under dashboard bolt on brackets were purchased and fitted to hold the cassette player and
the separate amplifier. Four speaker systems with a fade between front and back were cool. All these add-ons are
standard now in the all singing radio, CD, Cassette, MP3 with IPod jack built in stereo systems that come as standard in
even the cheapest bog standard car.
Although the standard fitting is far in excess of the separates of the seventies and eighties there are still those that
appreciate good quality sounds in their cars and there is a whole market of purchasable goods in which to upgrade your car
to. When the equivalent of an old banger with a bad spray job and a go fast stripe clatters past me with a booming sound
from the sub woofer in the boot and massive speakers on the back dash I smile to myself as memories of yesteryear are
invoked and I nod knowing that there is a car driver under the age of twenty five that still understands – it ain’t the
car that maketh the man but the sounds the car can play!
So welcome to the Car Stereo Site where we post our views and details on the latest kit to upgrade your car sounds with.
For those just starting out loud is better as it can be acquired quite cheaply, but once you have a bit of cash start
going for quality as loud and good is better still.
Before you enter into the inner pages can I ask you one thing – play a bit more rock music on the stereos, especially that
from the seventies and eighties. Flash cars, loud stereos and rock music were designed to go together – and it sure
pisses the neighbourhood off!
