For a Certain Audience
Written: Aug 11 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The Real World Systems are great to see, The DIY section is very useful, Great Letters Sections
Cons: Seems like the same magazine as the others
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| Goldentoe's Full Review: Car Stereo Review Magazine |
Car Stereo Review is a pretty basic car audio magazine. They do articles on jaw-dropping competition cars. They also do reviews of audio equipment, give advice on speaker placement and just about everything. They take note on upcoming products and feature many multi-media news. Including doing reviews of the sonic quality of new CD's. The magazine has many strengths and weaknesses depending on what you're tastes are.
The first strength is the "Real World Systems" articles about stereo systems assembled by real non-competition people. The cars are all daily driver cars that have less than $5000 (most are around $2500) invested in the stereo system, that includes stereo equipment, supplies and installation cost. Each article tells the story of how this particular person came to creating this unique system, some systems are rather bland and look like the normal install for a teenager, while others are flashy with plexiglass sub boxes with mirrors' and neon lights inside. Some people install the system themselves and some get a professional to do the install, which is nice for people like me who like to do everything yourself, and it also shows what can be done if you don't want to do the install yourself.
The second strength of the magazine is they occasionally have Do It Yourself (DIY) section, which is easily my favorite part. They show you step by step instructions on how to make a basic amp rack or build a box for your Subwoofers or something of the sort. These sections are well done and tell you what materials you will need to accomplish this feat, these are truely great stepping stones to making your stereo install look professional.
Another great part about this magazine is the extremely helpful letters sections. The "Sound Off" section answers general questions about the different cars in the magazine, and they will also help you answer a specific question you may ask about your system, like after you have explained your setup they will give you possible explanations as to why your system still hisses. The "TechniQ&Alities" section (another letters section) they will get down and dirty into a certain subject. It will go in depth about many technical issues that I didn't even know were an issue. This section is truely great for people interested in knowing about everything there is to know about car stereo. It often explains common misconceptions about terminology and common mistakes that occur during install.
One of the major good points is the direct comparisons they do with some products. They will compare twelve 12-inch subwoofers based on price range. It is sometimes surprising which ones come out on top and sometimes it reassures you're belief that you know it all. They give the strengths and weaknesses of each and even include all the nitty-gritty stats that is very important to some, but could mean nothing to others. Along with the direct analysis they are always doing "test reports" of individual components, some are fascinating like the review of a Profile Jam Series amplifier. I was all ready to read them digging into this low-end inexpensive amplifier, instead I read them loving this cheap amp and how it was able to exceed all expectations. They need to do more reports on the common pieces of equipment.
Which leads me to the first problem, most of the "test reports" are on the extreme top of line equipment. It's no big surprise that a/d/s eight channel amplifier kicks serious booty, or that the new Phoenix Gold Limited edition amps are incredible, no duh. I can't really blame them for that since they just rate what comes into their office, plus the fact that there are hundreds upon hundreds of different pieces of equipment that could be rated, they just don't have the time or the space to rate everything.
Plus many of the best features in the magazine like the "Real World Systems" and the DIY sections don't appear in every issue. Making some issues nearly worthless to me, and others are indispensable.
The biggest problem isn't in it's quality or features, it's the fact that it is almost identical to the magazine Auto Sound & Security and also the Car Audio and Electronics. I can't give a firm recommendation of this magazine over the others since you could order a subscription of one and not mind (or notice) if you ended up getting a different one every time.
This magazine is still a excellent resource for the car audio enthusiast and the novice getting into car audio. For anyone else you won't find this magazine very interesting and it probably wouldn't even make much sense. You would most likely just be left going "Yeah, that's a speaker" and "uh huh, that amp looks big". It really requires you to have advanced knowledge and experience to appreciated it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Goldentoe
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Member: James Lowenberg
Location: Mayberry, Iowa
Reviews written: 59
Trusted by: 29 members
About Me:
Uh...What should I say?.... Hi?!
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