Your Radio is Smart. Very, Very Smart.
Some would even say it鈥檚 indispensable. By and large, they鈥檙e right. Gone are the days of the radio being just the radio. That same screen now controls things like ride quality, air conditioning, backup camera and countless other indispensable facets of your daily commute.
All of these conveniences have a difficult by-product for car audio manufacturers to navigate. For decades, a new sound system started with a new head unit. With aftermarket head units becoming increasingly rare, the question becomes simple: can car stereo survive?
In a word: absolutely. While many industry vets used to consider integration to be limited to a small device that converts speaker wire signal to RCA signal LOC (Line-Out Converter) 鈥� that is now only part of the whole. To get an amplifier into a modern car, technology like all-pass filters, high-power factory amplifiers and noise cancellation algorithms are some of the challenges the aftermarket has to overcome if you want to upgrade your car鈥檚 sound.
It鈥檚 a tall order to be sure, but where there鈥檚 a will鈥�
AudioControl and Kicker are among the more prominent examples of car audio manufacturers making easier integration a priority in their development process.
Chris Bennett is AudioControl鈥檚 Director of Mobile Audio. Well known as one of the keystone companies in the world of Line-Out Converters with the ubiquitous AudioControl LC2i, the Washington-based audio company believes the future of factory integrating lies in the digital realm. 鈥淭he future of audio is still very bright,鈥� says Bennett. 鈥淎s our processing power increases, the solutions will continue to grow. data-driven preamp solutions is where we believe the industry is going. We will have processors and data-driven solutions to do some pretty cool stuff that no one has done before in a car. It doesn鈥檛 matter how good these factory sound systems get 鈥� there will always be people that want something better.鈥�
As Kicker Audio鈥檚 R&D Electronics Manager, Joe Hobart resonates similar sentiments as Mr. Bennett, believing the future of improving the factory audio system rests on how well aftermarket technology can work in or around pre-existing OEM electronics. 鈥淎uto-tuning products will become very mainstream,鈥� explains Hobart. 鈥淭he cars are going to continue to get more complicated and have more methods of protection in them.鈥� Evidence of this belief rests in the company鈥檚 most recent offering into the LOC market, the KEYLOC Smart Line-Out Converter.
As one of the prominent accessory/integration companies in the industry, AAMP has made adapters like the AmpPRO for several years. These accessories integrate with existing speaker lines, or bypass factory amplifiers, allowing installers to add an amplifier to a car鈥檚 stereo system.
Kevin Kuenzie is AAMP Global鈥檚 VP of Product Development. 鈥淭he AmpPRO system is based around bus integration,鈥� he explained. 鈥淲e are pulling that audio data from the vehicles bus. We are having to translate that data, put a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), translate that data into flat signal. That鈥檚 where the future of this [integration] is going.鈥� Mr. Kuenzie believes accessing an analog speaker wire, as we progress, is going to go away.
All three manufacturers know that the tried and true process of converting speaker lead voltage to an acceptable RCA signal is reliable and, for the time being, is a relatively inexpensive method of getting an aftermarket amplifier into your car. The question is no longer if 鈥� but when the integration process relies almost exclusively on the digital data bus in your car.
Luckily, that bodes well for the quality of the signal you get to hear. Digital signal is inherently the highest quality signal you can get. It means that the digital solutions these manufacturers offer stay digital further down the signal path.
The factory audio is analyzed - and ultimately 鈥渇ixed鈥� 鈥� before being turned into their final analog signal, which is then sent to your amplifier. The advantage here is that you are avoiding the digital-to-analog conversion, which almost always results in some level of degradation. In a nutshell: the longer it stays digital, the better. The resulting acoustic changes can mean a higher quality sound at any volume level.
Hey, it鈥檚 a brave new world, and consequently, a better sounding one.
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