Although there may appear to be a lot of parts when it comes to a car stereo, it is not nearly as bad as it may seem at first.
After reading this article you should understand the basic concepts of a car stereo.
The Head Unit of the Car Stereo If you are unfamiliar with the term the "head unit" the explanation is rather simple.
It is the part that actually can play the music.
So when you look at the dashboard of your car and you see the stereo knob with all the buttons, that can be considered the head unit.
You can now find these with USB inputs for your mp3 player along with a cd player.
If you go back the older days, perhaps they just had a radio dial and an old tape player.
The Amplifier of the Car Stereo Some people like to hear that extra wattage when they are listening to the radio.
If you want to blast the music way louder than any other car on the road, then you need to get an amplifier.
It takes the existing sound and amplifies it sometimes up to over 100 amps which can quite easily blow out your speakers, so be care when you are adding overpowered amplifiers to stock speakers.
Speakers and Woofers When you are supping up your car make sure you go shopping for speakers and sub-woofers as well.
Naturally, these seem to be the most important part of a stereo system and this is exactly where you should be putting your money.
It is not all about wattage here and you will need to make sure that you are buying quality.
Blowing out a speaker or sub-woofer is incredibly easy to do and very costly to replace.
But if you buy quality then you will get the sound that you are looking for.
But loud is not everything, buying quality speakers will also keep the sound quality in check.
Hopefully this gives you a quick overview of a car stereo system's parts.
It is not nearly as difficult at is sounds like.
Check out some of my other articles for more information on actual installation of a car stereo system.