June's edition of Car Audio and Electronics is a theme issue that looks at people in different aspects of the industry, from hardcore enthusiasts to industry celebrities to representatives of the manufacturers that make the products we cover. As we were putting this issue together it occurred to us that we all tacitly agree but seldom acknowledge that the installers whose creativity we admire every month are our true champions! They make everyone look good - storeowners who employ them, customers going home with their new systems, and manufacturers, of course. We benefit as well, with a constant stream of great vehicles to share with the world. The entire industry revolves around these guys, in my eyes. They are our race car drivers, our "athletes," if you will. We included a little bit about each of the installers behind the featured vehicles this month, and will continue the process of showcasing installers. Also, after reading my new copy of Vance Dickason's 6th edition of the Loudspeaker Cookbook, I have to reaffirm his place in the car audio pantheon of champions. Finally, he comes out from the shadows of our test reports and we actually publish a photo of the speaker guru. Our quest was to find out just what qualities make for a technical expert like him. Not that this is all answered in one story. We expect to "see" more of him in upcoming issues.
On the flip side we have the products that drive the industry in another way. Once again I was going through an '88 issue of CA&E in which the editors had tested the first single-CD head units without the cartridges. These units were simple, yet ranged in price from $700 to $900, and had novel features that we take for granted by today's standards. These were not high-end or entry-level units; they were the only units that played CDs without the old CD cartridges. Seven to nine hundred dollars was, and is, a substantial amount of money, at least in my wallet. Paying out that kind of money to keep up with all the changes in technology can deplete your bank account just as fast as a new girlfriend. Between 1988 and 2001 a lot has happened. And now we have satellite radio and MP3 players, along with DVD-Audio. So here I'm going to say something that may sound radical. Sometimes I do not need the latest and greatest! Just make it simple and reliable. Those two qualities are what we are looking at in our story on head units. The point is getting value, and getting what you should get for the money you put down.
What we've done is to target a segment of the car audio nation, and provide a consumer-friendly review of the very heart of every system. A lot of our readers are knowledgeable audio enthusiasts, but not all of them make the kind of money that affords them those luxury items which affluent non-audio aficionados may take for granted (or do they?). And as a side note: I want to dispel a common misconception. We do not have all kinds of free audio gear from manufacturers lying around in our garages or at the office. Believe me, we know only all too well what it's like putting together a system on a budget. Unless you're some financial heavyweight (OK, like some of the people we feature in the magazine) then we're all on some kind of budget. We know that this is a very big area in our readership, so we took into consideration how much you spend on the average system and broke it down, looking at head units between $275 to $300. It's not the bottom end of the bucket, and leaves plenty of room to add the boom.