For Car Audio Aficionados Only! Shopping for the Best Car Stereos

Over the top? In the market for a car stereo? Seriously, there are lots of choices.

Whether you are ordering your new car, or retro-fitting your current car, if you are in the market for a car stereo system, there are two web sites that are enormously informative: CNET.com and Edmunds.com

CNET.com offers its take on the 5 best overall car audio systems, the 5 best car stereo systems for iPods, and the 5 best Bluetooth car systems.

According to CNET, with many consumers opting for digital downloads over CD purchases, in-dash receivers must be compatible with an increasing array of portable digital audio players and formats. Car audio manufacturers are moving away from the standard auxiliary input, and instead implementing USB inputs and iPod connections.

As the standards for Bluetooth begin to solidify and the technology takes hold, reviewers are also seeing a few receivers that support A2DP stereo streaming, creating a convenient, no-wire experience for the car audio enthusiast.

Here is CNET’s current take on the five overall-favorite car stereos.

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-car-stereos/

The five best car stereo systems for connectivity with iPods:

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-car-stereos-for-ipod/?tag=rb_content;contentNav

The three best car stereo systems for connectivity with Bluetooth:

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-bluetooth-car-stereos/?tag=rb_content;contentNav

If you have a good ear, and just want to test out various car stereo options on your own, Edmunds.com recommends these seven basic subjective sound-quality criteria to test an audio system:

(Excerpt from Edmunds.com)

Frequency response: The range of human hearing is roughly 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, although you feel more than hear the lowest frequencies, and people start to lose the ability to hear higher frequencies as they age. A good sound system should be able to not only re-create frequencies throughout this range, but do it in a balanced manner.

When Edmunds.com tests a system they listen for tonal balance or how well it smoothly reproduces the frequency spectrum, without bass overpowering the midrange and highs and vice versa.

Clarity: This is the ability of a system to reproduce music without distortion (unless it already exists in the listening material). You've probably heard the fuzzing boom of bass from the neighborhood kid's car stereo, but a good test for clarity is listening to cymbals and high-pitched female vocals. Cymbals will sound overly brassy and "sizzle" when distorted, whereas female vocals sound shrill.

Timbre: This is a system's ability to re-create the lifelike sound of instruments. Acoustic instruments are good for assessing timbre since almost everyone knows what they sound like. Vocals are also a good test of timbre since listeners know what a human voice sounds like.

Tonal accuracy: This describes how faithful a system is in general to the original recording, and applies to instruments and vocals as well as a recording's ambience or the space in which the recording took place.

Staging and imaging: These two related concepts date back to the heyday of stereo and don't necessarily apply to modern recordings. The idea is that when you're listening to a stereo recording, the system should create the illusion of a stage in front of you on which the performance is occurring, and you also should be able to pinpoint the sonic images of the individual performers and/or instruments within the stage.

Ideally, a car should have a "sound stage" that is at least dash height, as wide or even wider than the car (in the best cars it extends beyond the A-pillars) and deeply layered so that it's almost three-dimensional.

Dynamics: Some systems reproduce the loudest parts of a piece of music with ease but have trouble with the softer passages, or vice versa. Think about when you're at an intimate live performance and you can hear the drummer lightly brush the cymbals just as well as you can feel the visceral thump of the kick drum, or the singer's whispered lyrics have the same emotional impact as when he or she belts out a tune. A great system can reproduce both extremes with equal ease, and dynamics refers to a system's ability to re-create this wide range for a vibrant, live-like sound.

Linearity: Related to dynamics, this refers to a system's ability to retain detail despite the volume level; when a system is very linear, it has the same level of detail at low volume as it does at high volume, which is very difficult for most systems to achieve.

Together, these concepts relate to how "close" a system gets the listener to the actual performance and how the producer intended it to sound.

For systems that play surround formats such as DVD-Audio, many of the same sound-quality concepts apply. But with surround formats we look for an enveloping, immersive sound.

How Edmunds.com Listens

When we critically evaluate an audio system, we listen to it under the following conditions:

• Sitting still with the engine at idle
• The volume set at moderately high levels
• All tone controls set to "flat" or at the center-detent position, including the fader and balance
• All surround or other signal processing turned off, if possible

While we also evaluate systems while driving and take into account road, wind and other noise and the overall quietness of the cabin, because of variables in road surfaces we test audio systems while sitting still to level the playing field. This also ensures that we give the listening task our full attention, without being distracted from the music while driving and vice versa. Likewise, when reviewing an audio system, we may comment on the presence and usefulness of the signal processing available, but for critical listening we switch it off.

What We Listen To:

We have a library of roughly 50 music tracks we use to evaluate sound quality, as well as test tracks for staging, imaging, linearity and absence of noise. In addition to music tracks, we also use technical tracks on IASCA's Official Sound Quality Reference CD to test imaging, linearity and absence of noise.”

(End Excerpt)

For even more information on car stereo systems, visit Edmunds.com’s Car Audio and Electronics Center at:

http://www.edmunds.com/technology/

And Cnet.com reviews at:

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-car-stereos/?tag=rightColumnArea1.0

Tips to Prevent Accidents Caused by Driving Drowsy

With more and more Americans getting fewer hours sleep per night, the following bad news statistics shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that approximately 100,000 police-reported crashes annually involve drowsiness and/or fatigue as a principal factor in causing the accident.

Those crashes result in an estimated 1,500 fatalities and 71,000 injuries each year, and an annual monetary loss of approximately $12.5 billion.

A recent survey by Farmers Insurance found that more than 10 percent of drivers admit to having fallen asleep at the wheel, while more than 20 percent say they have momentarily dozed while driving.

What is the solution? There are a couple of common sense things we all can do:

1. Get enough sleep when you are NOT behind the wheel. Experts say the average person needs between 7 and 8 hours sleep – teenagers reportedly need more.
2. Don’t drive if you are drowsy. Get someone else to drive you, or get some sleep before you get behind the wheel.

According to the Farmers survey, almost three times as many men (15.9 percent) as women (5.8 percent) said they had fallen asleep while driving. Those ages 55 to 64 had the highest percentage of any age group surveyed (13.7 percent).

Tactics to fight drowsiness

Now a new survey shows some of the tactics drivers resort to in an effort to fight drowsiness on the road. The most popular tactics those surveyed said they have used when they have become sleepy while they were driving were:

• Stop driving or switching drivers (59.5 percent)
• Open the windows or turn on the air conditioning (59.0 percent)
• Listen to the radio or CDs (57.7 percent)
• Stop to eat or drink (46.3 percent)
• Drink caffeine (42.3 percent)
• Singing to themselves (31.7 percent)
• Splashing water in their faces (18.4 percent)
• Slapping, hitting, or pinching themselves (a self-abusive 16.1 percent).

For more information, visit any of the following helpful sites:

http://www.drivers.com/article/680/

http://www.ehow.com/how_4488661_keep-falling-asleep-driving-alone.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4860629_stay-awake-driving.html

WORLD’S LARGEST AUTO MALL UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Autopia Europia

Architect's Drawing of the World's Largest Auto Mall being built in Istanbul, Turkey, with test drive track on top

The world’s biggest buildings with the most unusual shapes – including one shaped like an upended circle -- are being built in the Middle East – specifically in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emerites.

So I’m not surprised that the world’s biggest auto mall now under construction is also in the Middle East, in Turkey.

The mall is called Autopia Europia and has a full size race track on top so customers can test drive cars before buying them.

Interior rendition of World's Largest Auto Mall under construction in Istanbul, Turkey

Under construction now, the five-story, 708,661-square-foot building will have room for 200 car galleries, displaying 2526 different kinds of vehicles. Meanwhile, 24 banks will be standing by to help customers pay for that dream machine, and 56 bars, restaurants and cafes await --- oases where customers can mull over or celebrate their purchases.

The Video at this link says it all: http://dvice.com/archives/2010/05/worlds-largest-9.php

What Car Has a Swimming Pool with a Diving Board Inside It?

According to Guinness World Records, this car does.

The longest car ever built is a 30.5-m long (100-ft), 26-wheeled limousine, designed by Jay Ohrberg of Burbank, California, USA.

The car is mainly used in films and exhibitions. It can be driven as a rigid vehicle or can be changed to bend in the middle.

Not to be outdone anywhere on the planet, the limousine boasts a swimming pool with diving board and a king-sized waterbed as features.

But it will be an incredible task to drive it properly on a normal road without causing an accident.

But, don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself and see other world records at WorldAmazingRecords.com:

http://www.worldamazingrecords.com/2008/08/26-wheeled-limousine-worlds-longest-car.html