Tips For A Better Car Audio System

The audio system is one of the most important entertainment parts of a car, but is one that doesn't affect the proper functioning of the car. Some drivers wouldn't imagine a ride, a way to work, home or going on a trip without music.

Most of the cars come from the factory with a medium class audio system. If you have a top class car from a famous brand, things are much better and it's not necessary to upgrade your original system.

There are a lot of ways to improve the audio system. Most of them consist in changing one or more components of the system. You can replace the receiver, the speakers and the amplifier (if your car has one, if it hasn't you should buy one to improve the audio system).

To change or improve the audio system you must know the exact amount of money you can spend (including the unexpected costs) and what you want from the car audio system after you've made the changes or upgrades.

If you want to change the receiver, you must choose one with a lot of features which today are important, like Bluetooth, hands free, applications for Apple, Blackberry or others, maybe a touchscreen for simple use.

When it comes to speakers, most of the factory speakers are made from some materials that aren't so well designed in terms of quality so they will not resist in time. You should take a look at some systems which have components made from Kevlar, rubber or polymer (polypropylene). For example the speakers which are made from rubber have excellent quality and a long life and those that are made from foam cost less, offer a normal quality but they haven't got a long life.

The speakers that are made from good components can cost a few hundred dollars, but the investment will deserve the money.

Sound damping materials like Dynamat can absorb vibrations and music isn't going to be heard from outside the car. When you are on a highway or in a very noisy place you will not have to increase the volume to hear the music or the radio, therefore the quality of the speakers is indirectly improved.

The amplifier, its name says almost everything. It's the component which amplifies the power of the entire audio system. Some cars come with an amplifier, but it's small and the emitted power is probably not enough, so you can install a bigger one in your car. You should consider purchasing one with MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor) and it should have more channels because in each one you will plug a component of the car audio system that you want to be amplified.

If you plan to add a subwoofer in your car's audio system, first make sure that you have enough space in the trunk and after you install it there should be enough space left for things you want to transport. The woofers are the same as the speakers but they produce a different type of sound. You should choose a good quality woofer made from advanced materials, those listed at speakers.

After you've made the necessary upgrades or changes to your audio system, you should go on ahead to change the car battery to a more powerful one, since the new system will most likely consume more power. You also need to make sure that all the components have been properly installed so you won't run into any unexpected "surprises".

If you want to enjoy a good quality sound and exploit the new car audio system you need to make some settings, according to the type of music you listen to.

LuckyTrip Lets You Find Your Next Trip In One Tap

I’m a sucker for apps that, on the surface at least, appear incredibly simple and reduce cognitive load considerably. LuckyTrip is one of those apps. Available for iOS, it lets you find a trip in just one tap.

Perhaps taking its inspiration from Google’s original ‘feeling lucky’ search engine, after setting your budget via the onscreen slider, you tap the ‘Lucky’ button and LuckyTrip presents you with three prospective trips after searching for flights, accommodations and rail travel. Don’t like any of the suggestions? Then simply tap the ‘Lucky’ button again. And again.

“For too long now the process of finding and booking a trip has been time consuming and complicated. The traditional travel sites are cluttered, with hundreds of choices that easily overwhelm you. The average user visits 7 different platforms, spending over 6 hours researching a single trip,” says LuckyTrip co-founder Tiff Burns when asked to describe the problem the app solves.

“We use the cheapest flights from Skyscanner, the best places to stay from Booking.com and unique handpicked things to do chosen by us. If you don’t like a trip, keep on tapping ‘Lucky’ to generate trips to new locations. Save trips, share them with friends and book, all on your phone,” he adds.

The result is a nicely designed and single use-case app that aims to encourage people to be “spontaneous, explore and go on new adventures,” perfect for those who like to take the odd long weekend city (or otherwise) break.

“Quite often people just go with what they already know, choosing the same tourist spots as everyone else. We think this is because of the way traditional travel companies work. They all like to ask us ‘where do you want to go?’. But what if you don’t know where to go? We think for a lot of people a much more relevant question is ‘how much do you want to spend?’ LuckyTrip searches by budget, not by location. Tell us how much you want to spend and LuckyTrip does all the hard work for you.”

Noteworthy is that Burns and his brother and co-founder Alex Burns initially tested the premise behind LuckyTrip without building a functional MVP. Instead the pair put up a one page website with the concept of the app and invited people to register their interest. However, to be added to the invite list they were required to answer a questionnaire about their travel habits.

“A few weeks later we had a huge surge of traffic, and loads of really interesting answers to our questionnaire. We used this as proof of concept, and it really helped our decisions early on,” says Burns.