Growing up, I always thought burning CDs was the coolest thing. Getting ready for an event, or for a drive, meant getting the music ready too, thinking through what the playlist would look like, what you'd play when the moment came. There was a real anticipation to it. It made every moment feel a little more special, like the preparation itself was part of the event.
And at the center of it all was the head unit. There was so much character to it. They put something behind the music and amplified the moment even more. The glowing screens, the animations, the colors, a lit up dash was one of the biggest parts of a car's identity back then.
Then newer technology came in, and we slowly lost that. Screens got bigger, touchscreens were introduced, everything got more capable, and somewhere along the way the appeal just wasn't the same. And honestly, for some time, I had forgotten all about it, the glow, the animations, everything I loved about these old school decks just faded into what was.
Over the years of building drift cars, my attention was eventually brought back to the interior of the vehicle. And as I began seeing these retro decks more and more in the drift cars I admire, it really began to reignite something in me. A lot of conversations with Ryan of Emulsion VHS and Tristan of Dreamspeed Garage sealed it, both big advocates for old school units in drift cars, not just for being period correct, but for the character they add to any build. Some real personality.
Nowadays, I've truly begun to view these units as art. Each one has some unique capability or graphic that draws an owner to it, and the one you choose ends up reflecting you, or reflecting the car, in some form. It's like good art. The art that reflects the artist.
What's honestly overwhelming is how many of these units are out there, and how easy it is to find something to love in nearly all of them. Each one has some feature, some quirk, some look that's entirely its own. Single DIN versus double DIN alone is hard enough to pick between, and I don't think I'll ever be truly satisfied settling on just one.
Every brand had its own thing, too. Carrozzeria was known for the animations, but their audio tuning was great in its own right. Alpine picked up on some of the visuals, but phenomenal audio tuning was their thing. Sony brought in the blackface units and some truly unique looking double DINs, each with their own set of features. Kenwood had such a great mix of it all, some blackface units, great tuning, some genuinely cool visuals. And in between all of them, motorized faceplates, hidden mechanisms, all those little details that still excite me every time.
Every unit I've picked up has some characteristic that called to me, or one I think would really resonate with another owner who could appreciate it fully. The vibrant colors. The detailed graphics. The genuinely unique features some of these brands packed in. The in-depth audio tuning, for the people who are passionate about that side of it.
This is just one part of what Pulse is, but it means a lot to me. Finding these decks worth saving, cleaning them up, getting them working, adding Bluetooth so they can easily live in someone's daily or their drift car, and then seeing them go on to their next life, in a build they belong in, with somebody who fully appreciates what they are and wants that character in their car.
Thank you for letting Pulse be a home for passions like this one, and for letting me share in it with all of you.
The ones we've brought back so far are in the shop, and we encourage you to take a look, even if it's just to admire them.
0 comments