If your in-car audio sounds bad, these tips should help you get better audio on your drive.
Your car stereo is more important that you give it credit for.
It’s the first thing you hear when you crank your car up (other than the engine, of course), and it accompanies you on your drive home after work.
However, factory car audio systems rarely sound too exciting, especially if you haven’t plumped for the audio upgrade package.
Sounds come out clear enough, but probably not loud or rich enough for your liking.
You might shrug and say “that’s ok”. However, having good car audio really makes a difference to your driving experience.
With phone mirroring systems like what we detailed here, having a good car stereo means you can enjoy more of your music on the move.
It makes your drive more enjoyable and bearable, especially if you’re constantly stuck in traffic on your commute.
Do I really need great car audio?
Before you start buying more expensive audio components, ask yourself these questions:
- How much are you willing to spend on a new audio system?
- Do you just want to improve your speakers while keeping your factory head unit?
- Do you need more bass?
- At what volume do you normally listen to music at?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you have a list of priorities which you then can translate into what audio components are needed.
Simple tips for better audio
Plugging your phone directly into your car’s headphone jack gives better audio than through Bluetooth.
First, plug in your phone directly to your car’s audio jack.
If you connect your phone via Bluetooth to your car’s head unit, it’s going to be limited by Bluetooth’s transfer rate.
So no matter what quality of music you listen to, you’re still limited by the data transfer rate from your phone to your car’s head unit via Bluetooth.
Using a cable removes that limit and instead plays the music as it was intended.
Second, experiment with the equaliser in your head unit. That’s the software which raises or lowers the bass and/or treble according to a set profile.
That can help massively with how your music sounds. Just increasing the bass could improve your music, as low-frequency sounds are the first to get drowned out at speed.
Also, some cars come with speed-sensitive volume control, which raises the volume as the car’s speed climbs. Turn that on if you have it.
Third, get better music. We’re not saying you need to get rid of your selection of Def Leppard, but instead, improve the quality of the sound.
If you subscribe to Spotify, go into settings and under Music Quality, set the Streaming quality to “Very High”.
Combine that with our first point, and you’re guaranteed a richer music experience.
Fourth, if none of the above satisfy you, consider upgrading your speakers.
Spend within your budget. Speakers can cost anywhere from $100 to thousands of dollars.
Consult your mechanic and ask if he or she can refer you to a reputable audio shop where they can give recommendations on what speakers suit your car best.
Consider switching out your head unit to something like Pioneer’s AVH-Z9250BT that supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and also offers FLAC playback capability, a type of high-quality audio format.
Fifth, if you’re willing to spend more, consider changing out your head unit and adding an amplifier.
The latter provides the power needed to better drive your speakers, making your music sound fuller and richer.
A good set of those will set you back a considerable sum of money.
But if your passion is good audio, that should generate plenty of returns for you.
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