Vehicle Audio

Car audio/video (car AV) or Vehicle audio for non-car vehicles, auto radio, mobile audio, 12-volt and other terms are used to describe the sound or video system fitted in a vehicle. While 12-volt audio and video systems are also used, marketed, or manufactured for marine, aviation, and buses, and even applications outside of automotive use like slot panels for demo models in stores prior to purchase, this article focuses on cars as the most common application. From the earliest days of radio, enthusiasts had adapted domestic equipment to use in their cars. In the 1960s, tape players using reel-to-reel equipment, 8-track cartridges in the late 60s and early 70s. Compact Cassettes were introduced for in-car use in the mid 1970s and were primarily used until Compact Discs (CDs) came into use in the mid to late 1980s.

A stock car audio system refers to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) application that the vehicle's manufacturer specified to be installed when the car was built. The high tech systems of specialists such as Bang & Olufsen, Bose, Bowers and Wilkins, and Harman International Industries (which encompasses brands such as Harman Kardon, JBL, and Mark Levinson) are available in several luxury car marques. Stock audio systems have gone a long way, and in some preferences may not even need additional after market parts to enhance audio quality and overall power. For example, Bowers and Wilkins have a 1200 watt surround sound audio system with 20 speakers in the 2012 Jaguar XJ series. Stock audio systems are definitely improving the overall sound experience, but anything can be tweaked and modified. Sometimes, stock head units are repurposed as a transplant for near-identical models, or models from the same parent brand within a certain range of model years as their most common applications for repurposing, though some DIY projects have repurposed them outside of their OEM applications, and even outside of vehicles in general.

This is where the after market industry takes over and the consumer can at their desire replace many or all components of the stock system, sometimes stock systems are re-purposed outside of their intended bodies, whether its a transplant from a model from the same parent company, or associated make names to the parent company within 5 model years, or an improvised install on bodies that aren't OEM. Other tactics have simply just involved propping a handheld transistor radio or portable battery boombox on the dash without any direct permanent mount for more casual users of vehicles that aren't intended for high-budget audio install.

In modern cars, the primary control device for an audio system is commonly referred to as a head unit, and is installed in the center of the dash panel between the driver and the passenger. In older vehicles that had audio components as an option, such devices were mounted externally to the top of or underneath the dash. Car speakers often use space-saving designs such as mounting a tweeter directly over a woofer or using non-circular cone shapes. Subwoofers are a specific type of loudspeaker for low frequency reproduction.

Motorcycles have been utilized with similar equipment since they also have the so-called "car audio" experience. Even pedal bicycles, as well as homemade boomboxes have utilized sealed lead-acid batteries (or 12V power supplies) for applications outside of motor vehicle use, likewise the store displays which mount in demo models prior to aftermarket purchases for installation.

Extremely loud sound systems in automobiles, which have been nicknamed "boom cars", may violate the noise ordinance of some municipalities.