Ground Control, this is Off-Road Gear One, a.k.a. ORG-1, as I’m
still orbiting the earth in the experimental mobile-entertainment vessel
I transmitted from last month. Do you copy?
Yes, I copy, ORG-1. This is Steve at Ground Control. I can hear you loud
and clear — and without distortion, I might add.
Hmm, that’s what I said last time. Anyway, I’m following up
my previous report regarding all of the cool happenings in the field of
mobile electronics at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES),
which was held in Las Vegas back in January. Last time, I focused solely
on satellite-radio gear, but this month I want to cover a lot more ground,
so I’ll dive right into it.
Swim away, ORG-1.
Blaupunkt's
PA 275 two-channel amplifier ($290) |
Thanks, Ground Control. First off, I gotta say, it was great to see such
a full-on rollout of in-dash-ready MP3-oriented head units and in-dash
DVD players. A year ago, there were barely enough mobile products in either
category to count on one hand. Most of the major companies have now embraced
MP3, as Rockford Fosgate’s RFX 9100-9400 series ($300 to $600) and
Sony’s Xplod CDX-MP450X ($400) attest. And DVD heads abounded from
the likes of Clarion, whose Joyride package ($3,000) essentially replaces
the much-talked-about AutoPC, and Kenwood, whose KVT-910DVD receiver ($2,800)
also includes a 6 1/2-inch widescreen LCD video monitor.
On the techno-cool side of things, I really got a kick out of Pioneer’s
DEH-P9300 receiver (price not available at press time), which enables
you to display personalized screen savers on its faceplate by way of the
company’s organic electroluminescent (organic EL) technology. To
do this, though, you’ll have to go through your dealer, who has the
proper hardware and software to get your downloaded still images showing
on the 9300’s face.
I’ll bet yours has a shot of your favorite band, the Tragically
Hip.
No comment. Moving on . . . . It’s worth pointing out that what
might be considered “traditional” car stereo gear — meat-and-potatoes
products like power amps and speakers — also saw significant activity
at CES. These categories are indeed thriving in the wake of the mobile-entertainment
explosion — after all, if you decide to add things like video monitors
and DVD players to your system, you’ll need more juice to power them
as well as more speakers in order to accurately reproduce a 5.1-channel
surround sound environment.
