4 Things You Need to Know About Car Alarms in the UK

Are you thinking of buying a car alarm for your car? If you are, then you need to read this article because we are going to look at five things you really need to know about buying car alarms in the UK. This will help you to make the best decision for your vehicle.

Car Alarms Are Great for Your Car Insurance Premiums

If you're feeling the pinch from your car insurance premiums, then undergoing a car alarm installation can be a great help. A decent alarm can reduce your premiums by as much as £150. That’s a great saving, particularly if you're feeling the effects of a sluggish economy! I certainly am!

There are Different Types of Car Alarm

There's no such thing as a standardised car alarm. Instead, there are many different types, such as motion sensor alarms, steering wheel immobilisers, starter motor immobilisers, alarms that alert the police, alarms with cameras, alarms with sirens, alarms with LED lights…yep, there are a huge number of different types of alarm.

When choosing a new alarm, make sure that you research the market thoroughly to find one that works for you. A great place to visit to see which the best is is the website “Which.com”. They actually spend time objectively measuring and testing different products in the UK and they are an excellent source of information.

Unfortunately, you do have to pay for “which.com”, and I think its well worth it, but that doesn’t mean that everyone can afford it. A good trick here is to go onto a website like John Lewis, and look for car alarms. You'll find that if they’re endorsed by which.com, that they will be labelled as such. You won’t know what rating they get, or if they are the best, but you will be able to find out if they are recommended, and if they are recommended, this is a good sign.

You need to have them Installed by a Professional

In order to ensure that your car alarm is properly installed, and that the car insurance company will accept the build quality of the installation, you should have your car alarm installed by a specialist.

Who installs car alarms in the UK? This might be a tricky question because there is no dedicated service. Instead, the people who install car alarms in the UK are actually the car audio shops. Car audio UK covers actual car stereos, but also things like car alarms and parking sensors. It might sound odd, but that’s just the way we do it here.

Car Alarms Deter Thieves

Many people think that car alarms are about catching thieves once they steal the car, but actually, they’re very good deterrents too. If a thief sees two identical cars next to each other and one has an alarm and the other doesn’t, they will choice the car without an alarm.

Car alarms just make it harder for thieves and so they’ll avoid it. A good trick is to put a fake sticker in your car even if you don’t have an alarm, because that still puts them off!

I hope you found this article useful and that it contained information that you didn’t already know about.

What Are the Best Things to Include in Your Car-Stereo Set Up?

OK, so if you're reading this article, you probably want to make the best car stereo system money can buy. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place. We are going to teach you about the various things you should be including in your car stereo if you want to ensure that it literally kicks a**s.

Internet Connectivity

The internet must contain the entire library of human music. No matter how many terabytes of data you can attach to your stereo, it’s never going to match up to the wealth of information you'll find online.

Internet connectivity is about the best thing you can include in your car stereo set up. It literally gives you access to any music any time, whatever your mood, whoever your passengers. You can listen to any music, any podcast, and any radio station.

Subwoofer

If you want to get the best out of your car music system, then you need a subwoofer. No music system is complete unless it can pick up the base sounds in the music. There's nothing quite like that rumble in your tumble as the beat drops. It’s such a great feeling to drive down the motorway banging out a heavy bass line. There's a sense of freedom in that and I love starting my day like that and unwinding on my commute.

Amplifier

Of course, you can’t have a decent subwoofer if it doesn’t have an amp. Gotta make sure that your power handling is on point and to do that you need an amp. Your subwoofer will sound leaps and bounds better if it has an amplifier in the system too.

Touch Screen

Buttons are for peasants or hipsters. The 21^st century is all about the touch screen. It’s so convenience (especially if you have a high quality one that is well calibrated). You don’t have to take your eyes of the road and everything is so institutive.

Quadlock Connectors

Given that you have all this technology in your car, you need a way to keep it all organised. Not only will this make it look nice, but it also makes it much easier to trace wires and work out which wire is going into which hole (and if you work with electronics, you know how annoying it is when this isn’t the case – how many of us have spent entire afternoons chasing down wires?).

This is where you need a quadlock connector. It allows you to link all your wires together and keep them all organised. It’s a very simple thing that allows you to wire up your car stereo much more easily than if you just leave the wiring in free fall.

As you can now appreciate, there are lots of things that you can add to your car to make it more comfortable, and to make sure everything works properly and to its full ability. In fact, it can take your car stereo to the next level. The things above will definitely help you do that.

Car Audio And The Rest

They’re still listed in telephone books as car audio outlets but today they offer a lot more than just sound systems. 

Hands free kits with all sorts of security equipment now fills their pages. Cameras, reversing sensors and a complete overhaul of a speaker system can all be bought and fitted.

Most cars with factory fitted sound systems can be replaced and therefore greatly improved. Apart from luxury cars the average more modest car has a sound system that is at best, acceptable.

But if you like quality and spend a lot of time in the car then there is much you can do to improve. In order to make the most of this you need to remove the factory header unit. Replace with a double DIN 7” touch screen DVD player with inbuilt Bluetooth Satnav USB Aux stereo and then look at a bigger amp.

Take those inadequate speakers out and fit a sub-woofer and other quality speakers to make the most of the improved output. 

Good car audio shops offer a fitting service not just for new sound systems but all sorts of security devices including trackers and cameras. And don’t forget the importance of a tracking device on motorbikes as well as high value bicycles.

For high value vehicles there is no end of new security and anti-theft controls. Locating a stolen car has to be done as soon as possible as many very expensive cars are stolen to order for parts. And this is the reason that a tracker should be skilfully hidden and certainly not too visible.

After our home, we spend a great deal on a car and it’s essential to make it as secure as possible. Some insurers will also offer a small discount when a driver goes to extremes to protect his vehicle.

If you do upgrade the sound system in your car, don’t forget that it’s advisable to do something about the insulation. Dampening boot, hood and floor as well as side panels can help keep the music in and the road noise out.

For car audio shops http://www.incarmusic.co.uk/

  

Where’s the Best Place to Find Advice About Your In-Car Stereo?

If you're anything like me, you want your in-car stereo to produce the best quality music it can. I hear every anomaly in my audio – if the tempo’s off, if the bass is too low, if there’s fading, I can spot it all.

Finding the right advice to improve your system isn’t always easy. It can sometimes feel as if everyone you speak to is an expert. In the past, this has led me into making some poor decisions. For instance, I once changed all of the cables to my speakers when the problem turned out to be caused by power handling and sensitivity issues.

Not only was it a waste of time, it was a waste of money too. Although, to be fair, speaker cables aren’t particularly expensive. Nonetheless, it was a cost that I didn’t have to make if only I’d known who was worth listening to and who wasn’t.

Over the years, I’ve come to realise exactly who it is who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to in-car audio. Here are a few notes on the problem:

1. Internet Forums: you can find some real golden nuggets of advice in the forums, but as with gold nuggets, there a rare find. Instead, what you find is a lot of fool’s gold. These people sound like they know what they're talking about, but actually have no idea.

Most of them are part way through an audio degree, or they’ve spent time tinkering at home, because they know a little, they think they know a lot. They're the most infuriating because they’re so genuine.

2. Car Audio Websites: these are great and have plenty of useful information. If you have a specific problem, then you can find plenty of help here. The problems come when you have an issue that they don’t cover, or when you're following their advice, but something happens that makes your issue slightly different.

Because you're reading articles or watching videos, they can’t give you advice about the specifics of an issue. This can result in you getting half way through a job and getting stuck. It’s extremely annoying!

3. Car Audio Centres: for me, this is the best place to get help. My local car audio centre Ilford is manned by professionals who understand, and have worked in, car audio technologies for years. They mostly understand the issues, but where they don’t, they have contacts that do. I’ve never had a problem here. The only thing is that you have to pay for the service, but in my opinion, it’s worth it.

Are you looking for advice about your in-car stereo setup? If so, please visit https://www.incarmusic.co.uk/.

What Are the Cheapest Ways to Improve Your In-Car Sound System?

Are you looking to improve the quality of your in-car sound system on a budget? If so, you're in luck. There are a few things that you can do that are relatively cheap. Today, we are going to look at a few ways that you can boost your sound system on a budget. Each option will cost less than £50, so are reasonable for the majority of people.

Increase the Amount of Baffle & Sound Proofing within the Car

Many people don’t realise, but a key reason that the sound is poor in a car is that there’s a lot of exposed metal. This metal allows sound waves to bounce around the car and interfere with each other. At these times, you hear distortions, such as a tinny/bouncy sound interspersed within the music.

In order to minimise this and to improve the quality of your sound system, you can increase the amount of baffle and sound proofing in the car. Simply by adding a scrap of carpet to the foot wells, you'll help to improve the sound quality. However, genuine sound deadening material is relatively cheap too, and you can certainly buy enough to do a decent job on your car for less than £50. 

Change Your Speakers

You might not realise it, but changing your speakers can be relatively cheap. You have two options:

1. Add tweeters and a sub-woofer to your existing coaxial speakers. This will give you a broader range of sounds. It is the more expensive option, but you can create an excellent car sound system.

2. Change your existing coaxial speakers. These will cost you less than £50 for a decent pair. You'll certainly be able to tell the difference between these and the speakers that the car manufacture uses. Manufacture speakers are almost always low quality.

Are you looking to improve your car sound system? If so, please visit https://www.incarmusic.co.uk/