Living without car stereo - could you?

My summer ride of choice is my 1977 Porsche 911S (Targa/Convertible). The original stereo is somewhat a collectors item, as you can dictate with a mic to the compact cassete - if it were working that is. The radio gets only fair to poor reception, an annoyance more than anything. Lately the knobs would rather come off in my hand than turn the unit on.

I enjoy the sound of the wind, the sound of the engine winding up to 6,000 RPM and the freedom from distraction.

Am I getting old?

Am I getting weird?

I used to love car stereo, now I would rather live without it.

Could you live without a car stereo, for how long?

I suppose if I had a nice Porsche like yours I wouldn't worry about the radio either.

And no, you are not old or weird... this is a great way to stimulate the other Four senses. It definitely makes you feel alive, doesn't it?

You got me thinking about how much I miss having my old Jeep Wrangler. Having lived in NYC for quite some time, I had to take the subway/bus/taxi everywhere. And now living in Europe, I'm still riding with the masses.

Perhaps you think I'm weird, instead of buying a car I chose to buy a high end stereo.

kach22i said:

I enjoy the sound of the wind, the sound of the engine winding up to 6,000 RPM and the freedom from distraction.

...

I used to love car stereo, now I would rather live without it.

Could you live without a car stereo, for how long?

Click to expand...

i've always felt that while driving, my ears were there to save my butt and that the sirens, horns &c. serve a purpose

on the flip side, i keep wanting to take my sound meter along to see how loud the cars making me vibrate in *my* car are playing things.

but i don't, i really don't believe in asking questions if you aren't ready for the answer.

I used to compete in IASCA (InternationalAutoSoundCompetitions) way back in the 80's and that is where I learned a lot about soundstaging, frequency response, phase, 1st, 2nd, 3rd order bass cabinets etc. Those were the days when sound QUALITY were the governing factors and max sound pressure level was just a small part of the overall points. I think 130db max got you the most points anything over that was useless. Now they are claiming max spls of 170+

That is why my car audio systems have been OEM for the last 10+ years and my focus has been on home audio/HT

I still listen to music in the car but at a minimal volume... The motor sounds much more musical to me as I am part of a few local car clubs.