Aftermarket car audio has been on a slow decline for about a decade now. Recent factory-installed audio systems offer all the connectivity you'll ever need, good to great sound quality and (previously the aftermarket's greatest advantage) good bang for the buck. Add in upgrade-unfriendly dashboards, whole-car electronic integration and the sheer complexity of modern cars (ever accidentally triggered an airbag?) and you'll understand why fewer people are ripping out their stock audio components and replacing them with aftermarket gear.
Pioneer is one major aftermarket brand battling back (and, as always, playing both side of the fence as a major OEM supplier) with recent innovations like its Aha and App radios. Here are the essential tenants of the company's most recent aftermarket counterattack: No one listens to albums anymore, everyone buys single tracks and the DJ scene is huge among the company's target market (see David Guetta).
With DJs in control, songs are sequenced by tempo, musical transitions are inserted between tracks and effects are added. So Pioneer is hoping that a DJ-playback feature will represents a new way for the masses to listen to music -- and a new way for its products to appeal to music fans.
Central to this stategy is a technology called Mixtrax, proprietary software that provides DJ-like playback to create a custom nonstop mix from your music library. You start with free music-management computer software. Importing tracks from iTunes or some other source, it creates a variety of DJ mixes with various song sequences linked by transitions and tweaked with effects.
You put the custom mixes on a USB drive or SD card and they can be played on any Pioneer device with Mixtrax onboard. And instead of a series of songs separated by silence, Mixtrax plays a continuous weave of music with a consistent beat.
Mixtrax software will be available on three new Pioneer in-car head units: the AVH-P8400BH audio-video receiver ($600) and the DEH-P7400HD ($160) and DEH-P8400BH ($190) CD receivers, set to hit stores in early 2012. Mixtrax will also be included in three boom boxes for home playback.
If you're too lazy to create mixes on your computer, the head units also contain Mixtrax EZ software that pumps out a nonstop mix with simpler transitions and effects and lets you adjust tempos. There is also a Mixtrax app for the iPhone.
Is Mixtrax just another gimmick? Skeptically, we used the computer software to create several mixes and found that Mixtrax is pretty cool -- if you're into that sort of thing. Its DJ mixes are entertaining and the transition points and effects it chooses usually make musical sense. Its other features are fun too. We especially liked the Battle Modes; if you don't know what a DJ battle is, we'll let you discover that for yourself.
DJ-obsessed kids may dig Mixtrax, and others might enjoy it too. But is it enough to persuade someone to tear out a perfectly good OEM head unit? Probably not. But it's good to see the car audio aftermarket fighting back -- at least until some OEM adds it. -- Ken Pohlmann, Contributor
flicmod says:
06:25 AM, 12/12/11
Cost of the Pioneer head unit + cost of a labor-heavy install in a newer vehicle = too much cost for a feature that can be easily replicated by an app or software update for iTunes or Sync.
This is way too little to attract enough attention by the aftermarket crowd. Apple and Microsoft can easily deflect this by releasing their own versions that are either updated in iTunes and played right from an iPod, or is integrated right into the software of the Sync system. This will get Pioneer no where.
IMO, the future business model for car audio companies is getting in as suppliers to the manufacturers and providing high quality hardware that's already integrated in the vehicles. Why not push this technology to the manufacturer's instead of to the aftermarket?
gregnv says:
09:36 AM, 12/12/11
Factory audio systems are way ahead of aftermarket systems. Nothing in the aftermarket really competes with the features of Sync, MyLink, Uvo and Uconnect. Aftermarket manufacturers need to wake up. I am waiting for a head unit that supports the following:
1. Interface with Android and IOS for Google Maps navigation. The unit should start with maps built in and update them as necessary from Google maps through a smart phone.
2. Support voice control of audio. Sync, Uvo, Uconnect, and MyLink all support voice selection and control of audio. To date, only Pioneer and Kenwood appear to have similar options, but the reviews of the Pioneer and Kenwood voice selection systems is anything but stellar.
3. Bluetooth and HD Radio built in.
4. Support for Satellite Radio
5. Support for steering wheel controls (PAC interface is fine)
6. A bonus feature (but not necessary) would be a VGA input with touchscreen output to support a carputer.
My guess is that I'll be waiting a LONG time.
ralphhightower says:
01:01 PM, 12/13/11
DJ mixes to play just snippets of songs. Sorry, but I'm old school. That's the reason why Pink Floyd exists.