Combining the head unit and amp simplifies the channel outputs, and lets the head unit centralize control of all its media sources. Meanwhile, if head unit has become the generic term for what you see in your dash, whether it’s a touch screen or less sophisticated media player, what is a receiver? The distinction here is that a receiver includes a built-in amplifier to power the speakers. In other words, your car stereo is your entire car audio system. So, the term car stereo refers not just to the head unit or radio, but also the speakers, as well as the amplifiers powering them. This means for a car stereo to work, there has to be at least two amplified speakers in the car. Even just two distinct speaker channels, left and right, can make an audio recording sound closer to live performance, by making it sound like individual instruments are different positions in the room. Short for stereophonic, “stereo” refers to sound coming from two speaker channels (or more than two, as we see nowadays in more advanced car audio systems). One early advance in car radio technology still gives us a term we use today: the car stereo. While most head units still feature radio tuners, calling the audio and video technology in your dash “car radios” would be decades out of date. But over time, new ways to listen to music came out: first cassettes, then CD players, and all the way up to the current day, when smart phone compatible touch screens are the norm. When the first radio tuners were installed in cars back in the 1930s, there was no reason to call them anything other than car radios. The head unit is that part of the car stereo you see from the driver’s seat, with all the knobs and buttons.

When you are shopping for car audio installation, helps to know the names of everything, starting with the difference between a car stereo and a receiver.

Obviously, there’s a lot more going on behind the dashboard, even more than the terminology suggests. As drivers, most of us only tend to see one part of a car audio system: the part with all the screens, knobs, and buttons.

Car media player