Car stereos evolve as boomers age
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
Remember those kids in boom-box cars who drove everyone crazy with their pounding bass beats? They are all grown up now, packing DVDs, PlayStations and $3,000 sound systems with wireless headphones in their family sport utility vehicles.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
"The big shift in cars is toward an audio-visual product that isn't just loud, but sounds good too," said Don Krug, president of Delcrest, an exhibitor at this weekend's Aloha Electro Expo and Auto Innovation Show at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.
Aaron Roberts, an installer with Mobile Car Audio, displayed a customized sound system at Blaisdell Exhibition Hall that took him two months to complete.
A custom auto sound system, all bass and subwoofers just a few years ago, now might include technology that lets the children play video games or watch DVDs in the back seat, while Dad relaxes with Sinatra or Soundgarden in the front.
"They don't fill up the whole trunk with speakers anymore either," Krug said. "They have to save room for their golf clubs."
A visit to the show quickly demonstrates that lots of people are still willing to spend thousands of dollars on car audio systems but are more concerned these days with pleasing themselves than annoying others.
"Our customers are family people now," said Tim Wolf, a 32-year-old salesman for Revolution Motor Sports who customized his first car, a Volkswagen Jetta with a high-end sound system, as a teenager. "It's a maturing process."
New car video systems can be mounted in the dashboard, on head rests, behind the seat, or from the ceiling.
They come with crystal clear LCD color displays, DVD and game options, remote control sensors, auto dimmer and remote controls, joy sticks, equalizers, satellite reception, and — of course — killer sound systems. Prices range from $500 to $6,000.
Still, for every "maturing" audio enthusiast, there's a younger one ready to pump up the volume.
"Every year there's new crop of young kids who want to know who can play the loudest," said Krug, who started out cranking up the radio in his 1955 Chevrolet and after 40 years in the audio business now uses a hearing aid.
Those are the ones who want to "want to be noticed," Wolf said. "They want to be different and make a statement with their cars."
Hollywood Sound Labs, a manufacturer of car stereos, brags that its equipment can "shake seats and annoy neighbors." Prestige Stereo boasts that its four-channel 120-watt amp will "put the over-40 set into cardiac arrest." Lightning Audio gloats that its products "make you bleed," and Sony's slogan for its Xplod speakers is "disturb the peace."
You won't hear such systems as much as you used at Ala Moana Beach Park or in Waikiki.
A city law several years ago placed strict penalties on drivers who disturb the peace and effectively put a damper on street noise, most audio enthusiasts agree. Violators are subject to fines of up to $1,000 and confiscation of their audio equipment.
But they haven't disappeared entirely, Krug said. "I can hear my 19-year-old daughter driving home from more than two blocks away."
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
