April 8, 1998
Luxury stereos, not luxurious cars, drive audiophiles
By Garret Leiva
Herald staff writer
You can hear it in the air - birds chirping, wind rustling, streams churning, 12-inch subwoofers booming. It is the sounds of spring.
Yes, springtime, when a young man's fancy turns to 1500 watt amplifiers and 3-by-5 tweeters. Temperatures heat up, windows come down. Along cruising strips like Front and State streets, the thump-thump of bass bounces off buildings and rattles windows.
It's car stereo season again, a time of year that reveals the auto audio enthusiasts who spend more on their sound than on their wheels.
Take Aaron Perez, 19, of East Bay Township, for instance. He paid $2,500 a year ago for his 1991 Honda CRX, a most compact of cars. Four 12-inch subwoofers, two amplifiers, eight mid-range speakers, two batteries, a beefed-up alternator and nearly $10,000 later, and Beethoven could hear him coming.
"It's kind of an addiction," said Perez, who competes in auto stereo contests. "I'll listen to it even now and think, 'It can be louder.'"
Just what does it take to have big bass? One person who knows what separates the big woofers from the am/fm wannabes is Tom Wattson. Part-owner of Mobile Audio Dynamix in Traverse City, Wattson said there are two words that matter most: more power.
Power for many comes in doubling up on components. As opposed to typical "factory" setups of four speakers, upgraded systems will run eight speakers, Wattson said: four in the front, four in the rear.
"Real gearheads install as many as 20 speakers," noted Wattson, who has been in the car stereo business for 20 years. "It depends on how much you want to rattle the brain."
But speakers are just the tip of the ground wire. There are amplifiers and decks and alternators - and, oh my - stiffing caps. Stiffing caps distribute power to the amplifiers so the batteries do not drain. (Yes, batteries, plural, as in six in some vehicles.)
With such a hefty battery bill, it's not surprising that stereo equipment can quickly eclipse the car's Blue Book value.
Eric Wylie of Kurtz Car Stereo has seen his share of this phenomenon. A year ago the store installed $2,500 worth of stereo equipment into a $600 Pontiac 6000, he said. "Every time the bass hit, rust would fall off the car."
While many "gearheads" don't worry about quarter panels falling off, space constraints can be a problem. Getting a big sound out of a compact car can present mathematical equalizations that would have given Einstein pause.
As owner of a 1985 Honda Accord, Mike Crumb has experienced this spatial problem firsthand.
"I'm starting to cut back because I've run out of space," said Crumb, a student at West Senior High who said his after-school job pays for his stereo equipment.
It's easy to see why: two 12-inch subwoofers, a 300-watt amplifier, compact disc player and two 3-by-5 tweeters. And that's just part of the package that he estimates to be worth nearly $1,000 - half the car's original price.
All this heavy duty use of spatial skills is commonplace in stereo shops like Wattson's. In fact, the part owner said his store has its own mantra when it comes to compacts.
"We have a saying around here, 'sacrifice space for bass,'" remarked Wattson, whose customers sometimes remove spare tires to make room for more subwoofers.
But others have a simpler solution: get a bigger ride. John Campeau owns a 1987 Dodge Caravan, but it is hardly your garden-variety grocery-getter.
Whereas the big question for most minivan buyers is, "Yes, but can it hold seven people comfortably?," this 18-year-old Peninsula Township resident needs to know, "Can it carry four 12-inch subwoofers?"
The answer is yes, along with several amps, an assortment of speakers and four batteries. Of course, the batteries aren't for the stereo system, mind you. No, they're for the $1,300 worth of hydraulics that, at a flip of a switch, send the van into low-rider convolutions of side-to-side or up-and-down.
With a $6,000 wall of sound, deep-dish aluminum wheel rims and a go-cart size steering wheel, this van, which he paid $300 for, gets its fair share of double takes. Which for Campeau is the whole reason for his ride.
"It's fun to pull up next to people at the intersection, hit the (hydraulic) switches and crank the Tim McGraw," said Campeau, who also listens to rap because it "feels like it's going to rip open your sternum."
Not everyone, though, is a fan of music that can dissect bones. For Crumb, dirty looks at intersections are not uncommon. While strangers may shake their head in disgust, even family shows disapproval.
"When I come home at night my mom has told me to turn it down because it starts rattling the pictures on the wall," he said.