15 Years of Car Audio News: CEoutlook Celebrates Milestone

2025 marked CEoutlook’s 15th anniversary. We’ve published almost 12,000 articles and press releases since launching in 2010, chronicling this dynamic industry.

Car audio has certainly changed since we first started posting.

Videos showing how to custom install an Apple iPad were the rage in the early 2012 with some of the first videos coming from Soundman and Soundwaves of Tampa, FL.

From there, we saw the trend to larger screens take shape.

In 2012, Alpine was the first Tier 1 radio maker to offer a large screen radio, measuring 8 inches. Others joined and now car radios can exceed 15 inches. OEMs are starting to offer dash-wide screens of 48 to 56 inches.

CarPlay hit the streets in 2014 followed by Android Auto in 2015.

Also, around that year, Hi-Res Audio for the car was born. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) began to be integrated into amplifiers. JL Audio offered the FiX and Twk in early 2015, joining market leader Elettromedia, which led the market early on in standalone DSPs with its bit One processor.

By 2015, powersports audio was starting to take off, as were ADAS (Advanced Driver Safety Systems) such as blind spot detection.

Over the next ten years we saw the industry change, becoming a collection of many offshoots of car audio: powersports audio, motorcycle audio and of course, marine audio, on top of remote start and window tint.  Savvy car audio dealers also expanded from car audio into truck accessories, custom radar detectors, paint protection and vinyl wraps.

 I started in writing in this industry as an audio reporter decades ago, but listening to audio in the car, was especially amazing, and it still is today.

For James Chevrette, who joined us in 2023, the passion for car audio began when helping a friend install a Pioneer 6-disc CD player system. “Going for long cruises with the music blaring became a nightly occurrence. Just being able to crank up the stereo as loud as I wanted and take friends along for the ride made sharing music part of everyday life. I love sharing my passion for car audio with our readers, and I just love having conversations about our industry with others!”

 Mr Retail (Mark Miller) a long time columnist for CEoutlook, said he got hooked on home audio when he was 12 years old, in 1979.  Then cars became his passion when he was 14. “I shortly thereafter realized that car audio was a thing, and I was instantly hooked. My passion has wavered on occasion over the years, but I have always come back to my first love, which is making factory stereo systems sound incredible.”

Thanks for reading CEoutlook all these years. We look forward to bringing you the news for many more!

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