As a kid who got his license in the late '60, to me, music in the car has been just as important as the car from the day I first took the wheel. From the days of the clunky push button AM radio with the 5 presets, the gradual addition of FM radio, then FM stereo, the first 8-tracks and cassette car players, then CD and even DVD-Audio players - having good audio in my cars has always been paramount.
I can't tell you how many cars I installed audio system in, hacking up the back deck to install Jensen 6x9 Coaxial speakers, ripping apart the dash and the floor boards to pull the wires for a new "stereo", running a big fat red wire through the firewall to the battery - and I am sure many of you old times have done the same many times over.
Some cars came with wild radio system, even back in the early days of car audio. My fathers 1968 Chrysler New Yorker had a little pull switch under that dash that I one day discovered was a reverberator for the radio! What a revelation. You would pull it down, then you could turn the knob for more or less reverb. What a concept! I never asked him if he ordered that, if it just came with the car, or if he ever used it. To me it was a trip, though!
What brings all of this on is that my new car has arrived at the Acura dealership for me to pick up this weekend, and for the first time in my life I am getting a car that will not play any purchasable media. This struck me as I was cleaning the stuff out of my old car. Piles of DTS-CDs, and even a few store bought (or Amazon bought) CDs that I never even opened. As I put these in a box along with the other accumulated junk in the car, I came to the realization that I would no longer be able to stop in at a store (if I could find one) and buy the latest CD and listen to it in the car on the way home. Wow. That's sobering. It's something that, like I said, I've done my entire life. It was very cool to be able to go into Media Play or Best Buy, buy a DVD-Audio, and listen to it in the car INSTANTLY!! I remember getting "Love" and hearing "Because" with the birds and wondering "What the heck is this", right as I pulled out of the Best Buy. Again, those days are gone. Being on a trip and stopping at a store to get some "fresh tunes". Every one of us has done that in that past. It's only natural. But.............
As we enter the 2020's, cassette decks are gone, and the CD players will be gone as well from most new cars as everyone will be streaming music and listening to iPods/USB sticks, but the ability to purchase a new album and hear it right away will be gone as well.
The new possibilities are indeed great however! A USB stick with a ton of 5.1 files on it, freeing me from formats, how cool is that? It's really why I'm buying this, which will probably be my last new, car - but putting those CDs away, and looking at my LPs, DVD-A's, SACD's, CD's, and other misc media I have, and realizing that it's all superfluous once they are ripped to a hard drive, is a bit jarring. Reality coming into view.
There is really no need for any of this stuff anymore, once you have the data. It's just data. All of that money spent, and now represented by almost valueless media.
When I think about it that way, I honestly feel a little sad. Not sure why, but I can't help it.
Must be because I'm old.
Thanks for listening.
I can't tell you how many cars I installed audio system in, hacking up the back deck to install Jensen 6x9 Coaxial speakers, ripping apart the dash and the floor boards to pull the wires for a new "stereo", running a big fat red wire through the firewall to the battery - and I am sure many of you old times have done the same many times over.
Some cars came with wild radio system, even back in the early days of car audio. My fathers 1968 Chrysler New Yorker had a little pull switch under that dash that I one day discovered was a reverberator for the radio! What a revelation. You would pull it down, then you could turn the knob for more or less reverb. What a concept! I never asked him if he ordered that, if it just came with the car, or if he ever used it. To me it was a trip, though!
What brings all of this on is that my new car has arrived at the Acura dealership for me to pick up this weekend, and for the first time in my life I am getting a car that will not play any purchasable media. This struck me as I was cleaning the stuff out of my old car. Piles of DTS-CDs, and even a few store bought (or Amazon bought) CDs that I never even opened. As I put these in a box along with the other accumulated junk in the car, I came to the realization that I would no longer be able to stop in at a store (if I could find one) and buy the latest CD and listen to it in the car on the way home. Wow. That's sobering. It's something that, like I said, I've done my entire life. It was very cool to be able to go into Media Play or Best Buy, buy a DVD-Audio, and listen to it in the car INSTANTLY!! I remember getting "Love" and hearing "Because" with the birds and wondering "What the heck is this", right as I pulled out of the Best Buy. Again, those days are gone. Being on a trip and stopping at a store to get some "fresh tunes". Every one of us has done that in that past. It's only natural. But.............
As we enter the 2020's, cassette decks are gone, and the CD players will be gone as well from most new cars as everyone will be streaming music and listening to iPods/USB sticks, but the ability to purchase a new album and hear it right away will be gone as well.
The new possibilities are indeed great however! A USB stick with a ton of 5.1 files on it, freeing me from formats, how cool is that? It's really why I'm buying this, which will probably be my last new, car - but putting those CDs away, and looking at my LPs, DVD-A's, SACD's, CD's, and other misc media I have, and realizing that it's all superfluous once they are ripped to a hard drive, is a bit jarring. Reality coming into view.
There is really no need for any of this stuff anymore, once you have the data. It's just data. All of that money spent, and now represented by almost valueless media.
When I think about it that way, I honestly feel a little sad. Not sure why, but I can't help it.
Must be because I'm old.
Thanks for listening.
