MEDIA À LA MOD Out of the thousands of products, hundreds of pimped-out vehicles, and dozens of partially clad... um, booth models at the annual SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas in November, VizuaLogic's VMOD stood out from all the hubbub.
DOME IF YOU WANT TO So you need to pimp your ride with the ultimate speakers because your car tunes are that important - and you wanna shut up the dude down the block who goes on about his titanium tweeters (that match his titanium wheels, naturally)? Throw in a set of Focal's high-end Utopia BE component speakers, and tell that sucka that titanium is just so '90s.
NAV AT IT Car stereos with hard-disk drives (HDD) made a splash a few years ago - then quickly sank into obsolescence beneath the rising tide of iPods. But the double-DIN Eclipse AVN5495 DVD receiver is buoyed by its split personality: Its 30-gigabyte HDD doubles as a navigation database in addition to functioning as a music server.
Convertibles aren't conducive to great sound - at least not when you're speeding along in one with the top down. But with its unique, three-piece retractable hardtop, the 2006 Volvo C70 (sticker price $47,307 as tested) isn't a typical convertible - and the Dynaudio Premium Sound package that's available as a $1,550 option isn't a typical OEM system, either.
Americans love trucks. Whether they're for carrying stuff, commuting, or just cruising, pickups are so popular that they've been the best-selling vehicles in the US for almost 30 years. For this installment of System Builder, we picked the '06 Dodge Ram 1500 ST Quad Cab (sticker price: $22,050) for an audio-system makeover.