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New Car Radios....a sorry state.

www.whathifi.com

Best Dolby Atmos soundbars 2024: tried and tested by our review team

Atmos soundbars that take immersive TV audio to the next level
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Systems like this could solve many of the problems of getting "Hi-Fi" sound without having to get a huge A/V receiver and lots and lots of speakers (for Dolby Atmos type uses).

Also, another reason for AM stereo - could be used as a source for derived surround sound created by a surround sound soundbar.


Kirk Bayne
 
yeoldeschool said:
It's refreshing to know 24% of those sales are still physical. (Downloads become physical locally after they're finished.)
Click to expand...
You're splitting hairs.
yeoldeschool said:
But a "set it [up] and forget it" amplifier and speaker installation that rewards you, effortlessly, time and again, every time you want to cast your phone to its bluetooth input (or throw one of those vinyls on its companion turntable)? That can actually go big again.
Click to expand...
People can buy a big bluetooth speaker now, and for less than a bookshelf speaker costs on that hi-fi site, with free shipping from Amazon. I doubt that hi-fi site gives you free shipping on anything. Plus it looks like they aren't even selling their floorstanding speakers, since there's no link to buy them.

$149.95:

$222.15:

shop.project-audio.com

Speaker Box 3 E

Ultra compact speaker 2-way bass reflex principle Small size with big sound Low coloration Gold plated banana terminals Magnetic speaker grills included *Wall mount sold separately
shop.project-audio.com shop.project-audio.com
 
kfbkfb said:

Stereo Lab - 45 RPM records

Stereo Lab 45 RPM records
pspatialaudio.com

References and footnotes
item 6

(some info about 45s and record wear)


Kirk Bayne
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I think it is accurate to say that vchimp is referring to vinyl 33 records not the 45s which this article is about. 45s will certainly wear.
My 45s from the 60s are pretty noisy.
My vinyl lps from that era still sound fine.
If I had to guess, he has never owned a high quality turntable.
 
BruceB said:
I am going to guess, you have never owned a high quality turntable?
Playong vinyl records on a cheap "record player" will, in fact, ruin them.
Click to expand...
Well, mine was cheap. My parents got a more expensive stereo in the late 70s but I'm guessing it wasn't high quality.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Well, mine was cheap. My parents got a more expensive stereo in the late 70s but I'm guessing it wasn't high quality.
Click to expand...
My attitude was if I'm going to build a record collection that's going to end up costing me thousands of dollars. It didn't make sense to play them on a cheap turntable. So when I graduated from high school my family got me a gift Certificate from the Audio Warehouse and I used it to buy a Dual 1229 which at that time was state-of-the-art or very close to it. Since then i've always bought quality turntables.
 
The key to any turntable is the stylus and tone-arm tracking. A high quality stylus combined with a quality turntable that accurately tracks without too much pressure on the vinyl is key. However, the problem with vinyl is the potential of accidentally bumping of the turntable or tone-arm, causing it to rip across the grooves of the vinyl. In that case, even the highest quality stylus could become damaged as well as cause the vinyl itself to be damaged. Just playing the vinyl as long as the stylus is not damaged and the tone arm is not allowed to rip across the vinyl, there should not be any problems playing it for many, many years.
 
Lester_the_NightFly said:
Getting back on topic. :p
My 2023 Lincoln Nautilus' AM and FM sound fine. When I play WAV files on the USB stick it just sings.

The processing of the FM I used to work is crap, the current engineer still thinks being the loudest thing on the dial is still important. No wonder their numbers have them in 8th place and they were number one for decades.
Click to expand...
So, is it mostly the radio engineers or the radio PDs that are killing music radio with their inability to hear the most important part of recorded music, which is the instantanious (note to note) dynamics?
 
Robert Douglas said:
So, is it mostly the radio engineers or the radio PDs that are killing music radio with their inability to hear the most important part of recorded music, which is the instantanious (note to note) dynamics?
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The consensus opinion among professionals and insiders seems to be that radio in general is dying due to a loss of ad revenue caused largely by a significant portion of its audience turning to online streaming, among other things, basically because radio doesn't give them what they want.

But I thought this thread was about the declining sound quality of modern car infotainment systems' AM/FM tuners?

I find it kind of depressing when any time something like AM Stereo comes up, the topic invariably becomes about how it was a failure and AM is dying, with FM not far behind, because almost everyone's streaming exclusively now. All true of course, and I get that the situation is grim at best, which leads to a general apathy and disappointment regarding radio's future, but come on now! Let's lighten up a little! Radio may be on it's way out, but it's still here now, such as it is, so let's not get downcast about its inevitable demise and enjoy it while we still can!
c
 
cc333 said:
I find it kind of depressing when any time something like AM Stereo comes up, the topic invariably becomes about how it was a failure and AM is dying, with FM not far behind, because almost everyone's streaming exclusively now. All true of course, and I get that the situation is grim at best, which leads to a general apathy and disappointment regarding radio's future, but come on now! Let's lighten up a little! Radio may be on it's way out, but it's still here now, such as it is, so let's not get downcast about its inevitable demise and enjoy it while we still can!
Click to expand...
Not a bad idea, actually...
 
Times have changed and audio equipment (Auto/Home) has dramatically changed as has Radio. For a number of years I used a Kenwood KA-5700 integrated amp to listen to music through. It finally died and to gain something inexpensive and quickly to replace it, I purchased a Sony STRDH-190 receiver from a local Big-Box store. The very first thing I noticed about the Sony was that the receiver in this unit was horrendous. It couldn't even pull in "strong" station, much less the weaker ones. To solve this, I purchased a Vintage Kenwood Tuner (KT-615) from Ebay and ran it through one of the AUX inputs of the receiver. I was amazed at not just how superior the sensitivity/selectivity of this tuner compared to the Sony Receiver is but how amazing the sound reproduction and stereo separation of the received FM signal was. I also have a Sangean HDR-18 HD Radio, which I also have run through the same Sony Receiver. The FM HD Signal from the Sangean is far inferior to the quality of the FM Analog signal from the '70s era tuner! It made me realize that most of the FM signals I receive are being broadcast just fine but the junk being made in this day and time to reproduce the received FM, FM Stereo and FM HD signals just do not seem to accurately reproduce the signals to the quality that they are actually being transmitted as. I do agree with many of the posts here that there are a number of stations that either don't care what their signals sound like or else they operate on a shoe-string budget, so their processing equipment and their ability to set it up accurately is lacking. It just seems today that most tuners, especially in Automobiles seem to be made as cheaply as possible with not thought or care about how well they reproduce, select signals or reject adjacent signals IMHO.
 
Thanks for getting this thread back on topic.
A friend of mine just bought a brand new Mazda CX5. The young lady, that sold it to him was in the car with him, explaining all the many features. He said she obviously knew what she was talking about. But then he said "how do I set the presets on the radio?" And he said she just stopped dead silence. And said to him."Well, I'm not sure, but you can check the owner's manual."So not only do the car manufacturers not care about the quality of radios, the people that sell the cars don't care about them either.No wonder the quality of the radios have gone down.
As for my new Honda, I'm now listening to my stations through the iHeart app on my phone played from Android Auto through my car and it sounds great!
I guess this is just the new normal
 
BruceB said:
I guess this is just the new normal
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Yeah, it pretty much is, except for those of us outliers who insist on using old tech (OEM stereos in 90's cars/trucks) despite any disadvantages (no HD, no Bluetooth, no Android/Apple Car play, lousy speakers, bad acoustics, etc.).

Of course adapters exist for most of it, but they are less convenient and tend to reduce sound quality compared to modern systems with all that stuff built in.

Anyway, I've noticed that aftermarket head units do exist for some 2010's cars whose OEM systems are heavily integrated, so perhaps someone could design something that actually has a good AM/FM tuner in it with sound quality that's more on par with that of BT and HD? I mean, 99.999% of the hardware is the same, and all it would take is some careful software hacking most likely.

I almost feel like doing it myself to prove that it can be done, but I wouldn't know where to start.

c
 
cc333 said:
Yeah, it pretty much is, except for those of us outliers who insist on using old tech (OEM stereos in 90's cars/trucks) despite any disadvantages (no HD, no Bluetooth, no Android/Apple Car play, lousy speakers, bad acoustics, etc.).

Of course adapters exist for most of it, but they are less convenient and tend to reduce sound quality compared to modern systems with all that stuff built in.

c
Click to expand...
One thing I miss about the old days where you could get under the dash pull the head unit and replace it with whatever would fit.Try that now. good luck
 
BruceB said:
So not only do the car manufacturers not care about the quality of radios, the people that sell the cars don't care about them either.No wonder the quality of the radios have gone down.
Click to expand...
Speakers matter just as much as the quality of the radio - how come no one has mentioned this so far?
 
BruceB said:
One thing I miss about the old days where you could get under the dash pull the head unit and replace it with whatever would fit.Try that now. good luck
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know.

But, as I added as an edit to my last post, there are still a few cases where aftermarket units exist and can be installed. Take my 2017 Subaru, for example. There are some aftermarket units I could install that add things like Carplay and a more robust UI for playing files from flash drives, which also appear to have the ability to integrate into the car's OEM systems at least as well as the stock head unit can.

I'd thought about maybe checking one out for my car to see if maybe one exists whose radio sounds better, but I can't justify the cost to replace the OEM unit, which sounds good enough and still works fine.

I wonder of the car makers count on that?

c
 
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