Luxury cars up the audio ante

PHOTO SUPPLIED

JVC's award-winning El Kameleon features state-of-the-art aftermarket audio technology.

Michael Banovsky

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Carmakers have always been behind the times when it comes to audio. In the years prior to the cassette tape player, you were stuck with radio – unless you were blessed with an 8-Track system.

Now, though, the pace of change is so fast that multiple ways of searching, connecting and recording your music on the go are available on nearly every luxury car.

The easiest? Simply plugging in your iPod. Hyundai has done a fine job with the new Genesis and its iPod connector. Everything – albums, artists, playlists and podcasts – is easily operated using the car's central control knob or touch screen.

Porsche, too, deserves mention for the entertainment systems being fitted across its range of vehicles. Menus are controlled by a more conventional button-and-touch interface for those averse to strange control knobs being placed in luxury cars.

Porsche, like other luxury carmakers, considers the MP3 hookup an extra. Cables can run you anywhere from $80 to $1,200 – many times the price of an iPod – so ensure that you receive a live demonstration of the stereo's MP3 functionality before ticking the options box.

Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz are notable for their choice to fit actual hard drives to their cars. In Infiniti's case, when you insert a CD, it will transfer all the tracks to the hard drive – meaning you never have to plug in an iPod or an MP3 player. The car's software catalogues the music so that your track, album and artist names will be stored safely in the car's memory. Afterwards, it's just a matter of navigating your music as you would on your home computer.

The Mercedes-Benz COMAND system, part of the navigation package on its GLK model, costs about $1,800 and provides space for 4 GB of music – enough for about 1,000 songs. That's costly, but far easier than trying to keep up with the latest MP3 technology.

For 2010, the subtly refreshed Lincoln MKZ features a Microsoft-based media system found exclusively in Ford products: Sync. With Sync, you're able to insert nearly any MP3 player, hit a button on the steering wheel and tell the car what you'd like to listen to.

It sounds like a gimmick but works well in nearly every way, right down to the pronunciation when the automated female voice reads your selection back to you. She'll even use swear words.

But not everyone has the inclination to import CDs into their car, or set up an MP3 player with music, or wants to buy their grandson a ticket home so he can decipher the car stereo instructions.

In the Cadillac CTS, none of this is a problem – you can record tracks directly from satellite radio into your car. Hear a great jazz number? A few button presses later and it's stored in perpetuity inside the vehicle's digital brain. And it'll download the entire song, not just the last few bars before fading to a husky-voiced DJ. You can also rewind and store up to an hour of radio.

But what if you drive an older car? Or a classic car that you'd like to retrofit with current stereo technology?

JVC's award-winning El Kameleon is unique in that when not in use, it appears all black – no gaudy silver buttons to ruin the interior's look. Its proximity sensor brings the display to life when your hand comes close.

MP3, iPod and Bluetooth audio playback are supported – and it's pre-wired for a reversing camera, satellite radio and a subwoofer.

It costs around $400 and is a relatively inexpensive way to update your vehicle with some of the latest audio technology.

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