This week, my car was in the shop and I ended up driving loaner cars for 3 days. (My car is fine now, but the dealer’s initial repair ended up breaking something else.) After three days in two different cars, I was reassured that I really do like the car that I own better than those other cars I was driving, except for one thing. The stereos in those cars sounded much better than mine.
When I finally got back into my fixed and re-fixed car, the sound system really did sound as bad as I remembered. The loaner cars had surrounded me with stereo sound, while my car just sounded flat. And then a thought occurred to me. I reached up to my stereo and touched a button I had never touched before: “audio.” The word “Treble” appeared on my radio, along with a number- 0. I knew that having 0 worth of Treble was probably not good, so I adjusted it to the middle level of 5. I punched the audio button again and saw “Midrange-0.” I moved it up to 7. Once more, and I saw “Bass-0,” and so I moved it up, also. The next punch of the button told me that the only speakers I was using were the front speakers, so I adjusted that, also.
Suddenly, my car’s sound system sounded as good as the loaner cars! The embarrassing thing, though, is that I have been driving my car that way for three years. I know that I’m not a sound-techie type of person, but, even for me, that’s bad. All I had needed to do was adjust one button, and I would have had the stereo system that my car was built with.
The preacherly point here is either a) I’m really lousy at all things audio or b) at times, one adjustment in our lives can make a world of difference. Okay, it’s probably both. And, if you see me driving around Blue Springs with my stereo cranked up loud, you'll know why!
