Based on a quick poll last week, many specialists are now retaining the radio in about 25 to 35 percent of their installs, where this figure might have been 10 percent two years ago.
Especially with newer and upscale cars, retailers are more likely to retain the factory radio but add a processor or navigation module for an upgrade, they said. This a marked shift away from the days of a “deck and four” where consumers typically purchased a new CD player and speakers to upgrade their system.
Other specialists are soaring past the 50 percent mark and selling more integration systems and retaining the factory radio. Many of these retailers push high end DSP units such as Audison bit processors that they add to an existing factory radio.
Freeman’s Car Audio, a 7 store chain suggested I speak with its Cornelius, NC store manager, Travis Grimm, who says that store has about a 50/50 split between installs that keep the radio and those that replace it. This store tends to work on newer cars. “We use a lot of the bit Ones and bit Tens or we’re adding navigation,” said Grimm.
ABT, Glenview IL keeps the radio 40 percent of the time, where two years ago, that figure would have been 10 percent. Avenue Sound, NY says its split is now 30 percent integration and that it used to be 5 to 7 percent two years ago. Car Tunes Stereo Center, MI is at 35 percent. “It’s not 50/50 yet, but each year it gets closer,” said Tom Koehler. For Car Tunes of Santa Rosa, CA integration is at 20 percent.
Westminster Speed & Sound still sells a lot of radios and many customers come in specifically asking for a new radio. “But if a guy comes to me and it’s a newer car that already has Bluetooth and USB ports, there’s no reason to change the radio. So in a nicer install, 85 percent of the time we’re integrating. Two years ago it was 70 percent,” said owner Mark Miller.
Mehdi Narimanian of Sound of Tri-State, DE agreed, “For the majority of the vehicles 2012 and up we are not generally changing the radio.”
Kingpin Car Audio, OR has already passed the 50/50 mark. Last year 65 percent of its installs were integration systems that retained the radio and 35 percent involved a new radio.
This is not necessarily bad news for retailers as the profitability of high end processors can be higher than those of a new radio.
As we near the 50/50 mark, ABT’s John Samp said, “I’m ready for that. I’m already changing with the times. It’s the same profitability. We’re selling more amps, speakers, power cables, RCA with [high] profitability…”
Another consequence of newer cars featuring better radios is that when the customer does want a radio replacement, it will likely be a higher end model. Notes Andy Wehmeyer of Audiofrog, “I think the desireability for radio replacement in new cars is going to be focused pretty heavily on seriously high end radios because no one is going to pull a double DIN touch screen out to put in a $149 single DIN CD player.”
Source: CEoutlook
Photo: Audison bit One
This trend, which continues to accelerate, was the impetus for Audiomobile launching our “LineDrive” family of high-perf OEM preamps.
Capable of accepting 30 – 40V per ch on input side.
These active-gain preamps deliver upto 11 V of clean signal, w/ low output impedance, and have been specifically engineered to address the new, higher-power factory amps, and provide full suite of features that make any aftermarket amp sound ‘sub-stantially’ better.
As in any ‘Good, Better, Best’ merchandizing mix,
the real opportunity is in the “step-up” (“Better”)
middle. Your typical customer will not want, nor opt to buy your “Best” option, especially if it’s $500 – $900 installed. And most customers don’t reslky don’t want the cheapest solution either…
(nor do retailers want to sell low-brow options).
And you certainly should not ‘choose to’ make zero money by missing a ‘golden opportunity’ to make an attachment sale that can put $100 – 250
dollars in the register. Plus, just like an amplifier sale, you charge for that too.
Leaving substantial profit opportunities ‘on the table’ is not a good idea, esp in todays market and in this rapidly growing category…
What’s a shame is that too few of the integration DSPs include features that make high quality integration of audio signals possible in any kind of a correct way. Very few even have a high quality input EQ. Too few remove the channel delay included in many OE systems. On the bright side, the increasing use of active integration devices will make a market for someone to build a really useful processor and teach the techs how to use it.
This trend is not suprising if you been following what the OEMs have been doing since about 2010. Auxilary inputs, Bluetooth, Navigation, back up cameras and in some vehicles, 8″ displays with very colorful graphics, and all are engineered into the dash design. These features are what we have been and are selling to fill the technology void in lots of vehicle. But there’s one area that continues to fall short for the music enthusiast, and that’s BETTER, LOUDER SOUND. True, the OEM’s have gotten better, but they are still NO match for a good audio shop, one that knows sound. I see a lot of shops still using the basic passive LOCs, claiming their customers won’t pay for a basic active line converter like an Audio Control LC2. ($99) The problem is for these guys, in most cases, they aren’t improving the sound because they aren’t selling hardware that provides tuning. Anyone who’s attempted to simply replace speakers in an OEM Bose system knows there’s alot more going on before the signal gets to the actual speakers. This is where products like the Audio Control DQ-61, Audison Bit products, Mosconi 6to8 or Arc Audio PS-8 come in. While these pieces are definetly on the higher end of the spectrum, it’s important that retailers offer and can explain “the spectrum” of OEM integration processors and why they are necessary. And with all the music industry hype about Hi-Res Audio from things like Pono, Tidal and HD Tracks, etc., music enthusiast, who really never disappeared, now have a renewed interest in great sounding audio and the hardware to support it.
It’s getting more and more difficult to install an aftermarket head unit. Many of the heavily integrated dash kits look like absolute garbage and have spotty reliability. The Ford Focus Metra kit comes to mind. :gag:
That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. There are a lot more vehicles on the road over the past two years who have in dash LCD screens and/or OEM technologies thyat do not need upgrading. This trend will continue to rise in years to come until radio replacement becomes all but obsolete.