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The Pioneer Car Stereo: Car Audio with IASCA Award Winning Speakers

Published on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 in , ,

The Pioneer Company is a Tokyo-based corporation, and is one of the world leaders in digital entertainment products. If you look at any good car stereo/car audio system and you’ll almost certainly see a Pioneer car stereo unit plugged into the console. Alongside with quality speakers and a strong lineup of accessories like LCD panels and navigational devices, Pioneer audio products/Pioneer car stereos have earned a huge following the world over. 

 
Pioneer car stereo/ Pioneer car audio units are not just simple head units. A car stereo can easily be comprised of several items built into the console of the car. Hardware like navigational devices, DVD players with LCD panels, coupled with the standard array of compact disc, mp3 and cassette players now usually go together. Usually, a Pioneer car stereo unit is a head unit with a radio, cassette and cd player. No matter how bare-bones this might sound, anyone will surely be impressed with the sound quality and features a Pioneer car stereo can boot.

Something like the DEH-P90HDD Pioneer car stereo single CD player head unit. The DEH-P90HDD allows you to record CD Audio (from the unit itself or from a changer) onto a 10GB hard disc drive, which holds about 200 audio CD's (using ATRAC3 digital compression). Your CD's are recognized by the pre-installed Gracenote CDDB database, which includes auto-playlists that make finding a specific CD easy. This Pioneer car stereo unit can also play your MP3 CD's plus CD Audio, CD-RW, and CD-R discs. Also, the MagicGate Memory Stick player lets you play recorded Memory Stick tracks. The Organic EL display is easy to read and accepts image downloads, so you can customize its look. Built-in DSP offers a 13-band graphic EQ and a huge variety of tools. If cassettes are your thing, the KEH-P4020 Pioneer car stereo cassette player head unit is a good product to choose. It is a full logic cassette system with multi-color display, 45Wx4 High Power, EEQ™ equalizer system, Tuner, IP-Bus System Control, flap face and has a detachable face security.

If you’re planning to buy a Pioneer car stereo unit, why not match it with a set of Pioneer speakers too? Pioneer car stereo has made another innovation in their REV Series speakers, which incorporates technological breakthroughs in their IASCA award-winning Premier Reference Series (PRS) speakers. Rev Series speakers boast Pioneer’s Kevlar Fiber Composite Cones, Soft-dome tweeters and Wave guides. Each speaker features a bright yellow cone and distinctive wave guides, plus a six-spoke grill with a titanium finish that simulates chrome wheels.

With all these impressive products, is it still a wonder why they call Pioneer car stereos for your car audio

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How a GPS device can make your trip more efficient and worthwhile

Published on Saturday, February 20, 2010 in , ,

Audi A7
I pretty much use my portable GPS navigator in my car every day, like when I’m going to visit my relatives in Mississippi.  I usually like to drive out there since I’m up here in Chicago, and I’d rather not take a plane.  If I took a plane I couldn’t stop anywhere and look at any of the interesting things along the way – I usually plan my course so that I can see as many things as possible on the way there, but without my portable GPS navigator I would be stranded on taking just one of the interstates south.  It’s just not fun driving so long without seeing anything, and I really hate airplanes – so I use mine and its map to make sure I am where I should be. 



When I do go to my aunts or grandmother’s house down in Mississippi I have to use the darn thing an awful lot so I don’t get lost on the back roads.  They live a bit out of the way, so it can be very confusing, and since I don’t visit but once or twice a year it’s hard for me to remember where I am at or which way I am going.  If I didn’t have the portable GPS I probably wouldn’t be able to find it for hours on end, but thankfully I have the portable GPS navigator in my car.  It also helped me when my cousin, Jake, had appendicitis over Thanksgiving when I drove down there.

He’d been complaining about pain in his stomach for a while, and we all thought he was being dramatic, until we realized something was wrong – so instead of waiting on an ambulance trying to find the house out there in the backwoods, I threw him in the back of the car and brought Uncle Zachariah with us, he’d never seen something like the portable GPS navigator before.  I punched in to go to the nearest hospital and we were there in about twenty minutes without one single wrong turn. Later on, after Jake had his appendix removed he made me drive him and Zachariah back to the house (this was much later on after they did their quick operation – they said if it had been any later his appendix may have burst) and they both sat there quietly watching the little screen do its work on the GPS navigator.  When we got back to the house I heard Jake begging to get one, and then I heard Zachariah begging his wife to allow it – because they were impressed.

The rest of that weekend turned into me giving everyone a ride in the car just so they could see how it worked.  Later on I showed them my cell phone, which also has a GPS locator in it and I can display maps of where I am on it.  They were impressed, all of their cell phones did the whole instant messaging thing, but none of them had known about the portable GPS abilities that you could also get in a cellular.  Well, that’s pretty much how I use mine.

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3 American Performance Cars

Published on Thursday, January 21, 2010 in , , , , , , ,

Bear with me as I step back in time to formulate what I believe are three terrific American built performance cars: the Ford Mustang, the Dodge Challenger, and the Chevrolet Camaro. Currently, only the Mustang is in production with the Challenger coming back by 2009. GM hasn’t committed to building the Camaro just yet, but the company is likely to make a decision in favor of the car and its sibling, the Pontiac Firebird, by this summer. So, what is it about American performance cars that set them apart from the rest? In one word: muscle. Read on as I compare and contrast these three vehicles and share with you my feeble attempts to explain the culture behind the cars.

So, you think I forgot the Chevy Corvette and Dodge Viper when talking about performance cars? No, I did not. Both models are performance cars as well as race cars. On the other hand the Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro are mass produced performance cars with muscle. There is a difference in the way a typical race car handles, rides, and performs vs. a muscle car.

Typically, a muscle car was a coupe version of some of the larger cars that were pervasive on U.S. highways in the 1960s and 1970s. The Mustang and Camaro, however, were designed separately [although they both heavily borrowed parts from other models] and these “pony” cars were a category all to themselves. For comparison’s sake, they join the Dodge Challenger, a performance version of Mopar cars of its time. All three were compared by critics of that time and all three will once again be compared in a few years when production has been ramped up.

Ford Mustang
Dodge Challenger
Chevrolet Camaro
<b>Ford Mustang</b> -–Step back in time with me to April 1964 to an era when America was heavily involved in the space race, Lyndon Johnson was president, and General Motors ruled autodom. Ford, for its part, had been nipping at GM’s heels for years, but the failed Edsels of the late 1950s had cost the company dearly. Still, it was the time of the New York World’s Fair and Ford used the fair and television technology to promote its newest offering, the Mustang. A 2+2 coupe borrowing parts from the Fairlane and Falcon, the 1964 ½ model was the first one sold and is widely credited with being the best introduction of a new vehicle ever. With a V6 engine standard and V8 optional, the all new Mustang quickly broke sales records and has been a hot seller ever since. Indeed, with the introduction of the “retro” look Mustang in 2005, the car once again has spawned interest in the muscle car segment as both DaimlerChrysler and General Motors craft competing models of their own.

<b>Dodge Challenger</b> -– After the success of earlier muscle cars including the Dodge Charger and Plymouth ‘Cuda, the Dodge Challenger was launched as a 1970 model. The car borrowed heavily from the ‘Cuda although the sheet metal was somewhat different and the wheelbase was stretched by a couple of inches. Because the muscle car era was in decline at the time of its introduction, the Challenger lasted only five model years before it was cancelled. The concept Challenger currently on display at many auto shows is based on the 1970 design and is the talk of message boards and blogs across the nation. Look for Hemi powered engines as being favored by many owners; the car is likely to share some technology with the current Magnum wagon and Charger sedan.

<b>Chevrolet Camaro</b> -- GM was asleep at the wheel when the Mustang came out. It took nearly three years before the company could respond and when it did the Camaro and Pontiac Firebird were the result. Although both cars sold well over the years, neither one could match the Mustang’s sales levels and by the time the last cars were sold in 2002, production dropped to a trickle. Still, the end of the Camaro after 35 years has stirred renewed interest in the name and thanks to the retro Mustang, the entire muscle car category is growing once again. Look for a 2010 Camaro to be the first Camaro since 2002; a ragtop version is also being considered.

So, just who can be expected to purchase a muscle car these days? People just like me: middle aged men who grew up with the original models. In addition, a whole new generation of younger drivers tired of the “me too” look of so many of the compact cars out there. Muscle cars of today are so much different from earlier era cars as they incorporate the look of the originals while harnessing today’s technology. Thus, fuel savings will be decent without sacrificing performance: a true win-win situation.

No, I cannot wait to see a Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro lined up at a traffic light waiting for the light to turn green. A new muscle car era is upon us and for that I am very excited.