The Hindu Business Line : Music on the move

But to be able to experience good music on the move, your vehicle must have a good music component system, which will clearly be rated as the most important accessory that you may want to install for enhanced driving experience. Also, with holidays around the corner, keeping the children engaged at the rear seat during a long trip will also be easier if the car has a good stereo or mobile entertainment system.

The mind-blowing choices available make selecting a good car stereo a confusing task. However, going by a few key parameters can lead you to a well thought-out choice that will not only suit your car, but also match your expectations.

To zero-in in on the right car stereo, one of the first parameters to consider is your shopping budget and your expectations in terms of fidelity and system features.

Once you have a fix on the price that you are willing to fork out, you may have to put down on paper a few measurements that will be needed before you get a hold of the kind of in-dash player and speakers that will fit your car and pump out your kind of music. The points to be considered are:

Check to see if your car already comes with factory-fitted speakers. Some car manufacturers provide between two to four speakers in the car, though a player or a basic music system may not have been provided as part of the car's package.

Hyundai and GM India, for instance, offer just a set of speakers in cars such as the Accent and the Opel Corsa Sail. If the car's trim includes speakers, you should check their rating and type to find out if they will satisfy your requirements or will need to be supplemented with additional speakers.

Remember to check the depth of the well or cavity provided for mounting the speaker in order to verify whether the new speakers that you have located at the store will fit your car's slots. This is an important point to note in order to avoid any incompatibility, especially if you plan to buy the head unit and the speakers separately. Taking note of the car's make and model year may also help if you are able to locate an informed car stereo salesperson or mechanic.

You want to get the best out of the car's new music system and the player-speakers package will have to be capable of playing your kind of music. So, take along cassettes and compact discs with the kind of music you listen to most when you go scouting for a car stereo. Play your music in the store's demo units before you take a decision. If possible play the music in a component system, which has been installed in a car that is in the same size classification as yours.

Hearing your kind of music is important for selecting the car stereo. The one on display at the store and in which the salesperson played a Michael Jackson number may sound impressive, but may not be suitable for extracting every nuance of a Meera bhajan sung by M. S. Subbalakshmi.

The mismatch could be worse if the dealer is offering the player and the speakers as a preset package.

Generally speaking, music that is dominated by vocals and very few instruments, as in the case of Carnatic or Hindustani vocal, would, by and large, need only need mid-range speakers. Carnatic or Hindustani instrumental music will, in addition to mid-range speakers, also require tweeters to highlight the high-end frequencies that instruments produce.

On the contrary, new age music, rock, Indian film music and, to some extent, western classical, will need the whole complement of speakers including woofers. Rock and new age music may also sound richer if an amplifier-sub-woofer combo is chosen, in addition to the pairs of tweeters and mid-range speakers.

To put it another way, low range frequencies (such as from percussion instruments) are best highlighted by a woofer or powered sub-woofer, mid-range frequencies such as voice are best reproduced in mid-range speakers and high-end frequencies such as from stringed instruments will need the assistance of tweeters.

If you select two-way speakers as part of the complement, then a separate set of tweeters may be dispensed with. The two-way speaker already incorporates a tweeter on top of a paper cone speaker as part of the package.

After these basics are sorted out, you can then settle down to choosing the package either as a preset option that the manufacturer/ dealer offers or by putting together the different parts individually to suit your budget and tastes. A car audio system's various components could include the head unit, deck or player, an amplifier, signal processors, tweeters, mid-range speakers, woofers and/or sub-woofers and even a separate equalizer unit.

For the majority of us though, a basic set-up of a cassette or CD deck with an integrated pre-amplifier and a set of speakers will be more than enough to reproduce our kind of music.

For those who like their mobile music system to be as rich as their home theatre systems, a sub-woofer powered by a standalone amplifier may be the option to choose in addition to the head unit and speakers combo.

In rare cases, such as extremely demanding car music lovers, may want to power all their speakers and sub-woofers (two in some cases) from a high powered amplifier (150 Watts plus RMS per channel).

But, that said, such expensive systems might only have snob value and be more of nuisance to you and other road users than be required for playing rich music.

(To be concluded)

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