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| Audio & Entertainment |
| The Sportage is fitted with a simple but reasonably good quality Philips RC600 single in-dash CD player with AM/FM radio tuner. Automatic front guard mount antenna rounds and four dual cone speakers round out the package. |
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| It's not bad as systems go with a fairly simple pushbutton system thats backlit at night and has a large clear display. It even features an equaliser pre-set mode where preferences to Rock, Jazz & Vocal (etc) modes can be selected to best suit your preferences. They're quite cheap to buy new at well under (AUD) $200. The Philips systems are actually fitted locally after the vehicle arrives from overseas which is good news for anyone wanting to upgrade the system in that it's a standard single DIN size and theres no shortage of choice to fill the hole left in your dash. Don't get carried away and think you can fit a larger DIN-and-a-half deck if you remove the pocket underneath the deck; its not deep enough. |
| My background in the car audio business has given me good insight into whats hot and whats not in the vast range of car audio products out there and believe me there are no shortages in choice. It's a sensitive subject and everyone will have a mate that knows a bloke who has another mate that swears black and blue one brand is better than the other. Good and bad experiences whether true or not will forge long standing opinions and all I can suggest is not to believe everything you hear. Salespeople at car audio companies will generally sell you what the company wants them to as there may be a special buy or rebate to the dealer if the sell a certain number of units. Otherwise it's usually the unit with the highest gross profit attached to it. Unfortunately this isn't always what is best for you and you may end up spending either more than you planned and ended up with something the dealer wanted you to have, and not what you wanted to start with. On the other hand a good salesperson will listen to what you want and will best advise you given the criteria you've specified. Don't buy on your first trip to a car audio specialist; have a look around, get some ideas and options together and figure out what a realistic expectation of price will be including installation and any extras such as cables, brackets and the like. Above all shop around at least two or three dealers; the car audio market has been shrinking for a long time and competition is intensely fierce. The only advice I can give on brands is to pick what you like; not your mate or the salesman; after all you're the one that has to live with it and use it. Stick with a brand name and stay away from brands you don't know ! You will only ever buy one cheap sound system because when it fails (and it will), you'll be back to buy something decent. That means you've bought two sound systems so wasted your hard earned moolah on the first pile of junk. Don't be put off if the brand name units are made in Indonesia or China; most are now and the quality is every bit as good as any other country it came out of. |
| Too Much Too Fast Another pitfall of getting sucked into the heat of the moment is interest free deals or taking your credit card for a workout on the first day of checking out your local car audio store. I've seen it a thousand times. A young bloke (typically) will come in wanting to spend a couple of hundred dollars max on CD player for his little Gemini or Corolla to replace mum's old AM radio which, lets face it is totally understandable. It's my opinion that AM radio leads to roadrage (ever listened to AM radio lately ???). He walks out with half a dozen subwoofers, at least as many amps and more speakers than a recording studio and a piece of paper that says 'no payments for 12 months' or something along those lines. The fact is that sooner or later that young bloke will have to pay for the system that he would have had to pay full retail price for (to 'qualify' for the interest free deal) and on his apprentice wages is going to be a major financial trap in months or years to come. Odds on is that if that young bloke does get a lump of cash in the pocket at some point it won't go into paying the loan, and more often than not back into the sound system. The best strategy is the look around, work out the budget for what you need then go and buy when you've shopped for the best deal. You can always add onto the system piece by piece down the track. |
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| Left : Panasonic has been my favourite brand for many years due to its range, features, reliability and pricing. This unit features single CD with MP3 playback capability, AM/FM radio, remote control and stacker controller. The relatively simple layout for basic functions makes it easy to operate while driving and the large blue display looks great. CD is accessed via the detachable flip down front panel. MP3 allows music to be copied onto blank CD-R/CD-RW media on your PC allowing up to 160 or more entire tracks to be recorded onto one CD. The easy menu driven system that allows you to place music in 'folders' on the disc combined with the CD text feature that displays the track names on the display keeps things easy to manage. |
| Speakers The factory speakers consist of 4" dual cones in the front door panels down near your feet, and the rears are roughly a 5" dual cone fitted into the roof just above the rear tailgate. Many people will choose not to replace these as simply fitting a higher powered deck will draw better sound quality at reasonable volumes from these speakers, providing they're not too old or damaged. However they should last quite a while as neither set are exposed to damaging sunlight though the fronts may suffer from moisture in time. Humidity will also kill speakers over a period of time if you live in the northern states. If you find that the speakers are fuzzy and distorting at higher volume levels then adjust the bass, treble and front/rear balance to adjust it out. If distortion continues then fit higher rated speakers. If the distortion is apparent even at lower volumes then you may well have at least one dud speaker where the paper cone has cracked or rotted away. Once again replace them and always replace the pair ! The front speakers can easily be replaced with 2-way 4" units with a higher power rating to suit your new deck though with a simple modification a set of spacers can be made and 5" units fitted underneath the door trim. Larger speakers are more efficient when it comes to power handling and the 5's are definitely better. A decent set with polypropylene cones are the way to go; they won't rot. The rear speakers are a little harder to change due to their odd mounting set up but a set of 6" 2 ways can be fitted by a good installer for relatively little cost. |
| My System The Panasonic CD/MP3/tuner in my Kia is complemented by an 8-CD stacker mounted underneath the passenger seat. A 10-stack won't fit under there and the 6 stack is the same size as the Panasonic 8-stack. Why have 6 when you can have 8 ? Shock resistence is excellent with neither the stacker or the deck skipping. Even the roughest four wheel driving will rarely see either unit skip. Cheaper units will skip far more easily. The front speakers I've chosen are Blaupunkt 5" splits ie the tweeter is mounted seperately from the main 5" cone and reproduce sound extremely well. They're driven by a Clarion VNET 2-channel amplifier mounted under the drivers seat. In the back I have a 12" Rockford Fosgate subwoofer mounted in a simple carpeted sub box that sit in the cargo area. This is driven by an MTX 2 channel amplifier bridged into a single channel and is mounted on the back of the sub box. By using a heavy guage 'Anderson' power connector I can remove the entire sub box in seconds should the cargo area space be needed for other purposes. This power connector also doubles as an additional power supply for the camping fridge or lighting etc when required. The rear speakers have been left as standard. A bit odd you may think since everything else has been upgraded. Think about it. When you listen to music at home or at a concert the majority of the sound comes from in front of you. Thats why the front speakers are substantially upgraded and with an amplifier pushing them. The subwoofer provides the bass which isn't nearly as directional as the voice frequencies so is fine in the rear of the vehicle. The factory rear speakers are driven directly from the deck and provides what we call rear fill. This simply means that the bulk of the music and voice frequencies are provided from the front of the passenger compartment (the way the music was intended) and the factory rears serve a far more subtle role at far lower volume levels than the fronts or the subwoofer. Incidentally the Panasonic deck I've chosen has its own subwoofer outputs which aren't necessary if you want to add a subwoofer but allows me to control sub volume and bass level from the deck. Most systems require the sub settings to be adjusted via the amplifier in the back. |
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| Above : Panasonic 8-CD anti-shock stacker under passenger seat. Rockford Fosgate 12" sub fits nicely into a sealed carpeted box availabe at any car audio retailer. Easily disconnected in seconds when required and kept secure with a cargo net. |
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