# Old Car Audio and Electronics & Car Stereo Review Magazines 1989 - 1993



## KillerBox (Jan 7, 2011)

I have a bunch of old Car Audio Magazines. I don't know if these are available anywhere on the net but, I would be willing to send them to a trusted member here (with a lot of positive feedback) with the understanding they would .pdf them. Then, send the originals back to me and share the .pdf files with everyone here.

If anyone interested, please let me know.


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## imjustjason (Jun 26, 2006)

There is a member here named bigdwiz that does that very thing. He's actually been trying to find some of the earlier editions he is missing to scan just as you mention.


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Why did you capitalize "car audio magazines"? It's not a proper noun.


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## KillerBox (Jan 7, 2011)

HondAudio said:


> Why did you capitalize "car audio magazines"? It's not a proper noun.


Because I wanted to


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## bigdwiz (Oct 7, 2010)

Here are the CA&E's I'm missing:

1988 - Jul, Aug, Sept, Nov
2003 - Jan, Apr, May, June
2004 - Jan, May
2006 - Feb, Mar
2008 - Dec

I have scanned several and plan on eventually scanning them all. My concern is 3 fold:

1) It takes me approx. 5 hours to scan, crop, optimize, straighten and PDF EACH magazine! (and I bought a 11x17 scanner and software specifically for this project)
2) I've spent BIG $$ acquiring these mags over the years 
3) There are copyright issues involved and I don't want to get in trouble with the rights holders :argue:

I guess I'm wondering why I do all of the work, invest lots of $$ and get nothing in return (except the mags in PDF)?


Many of you know me and I'm more than willing to help out and share whenever possible, but I think this is a lot to ask.


Also, I know there are more people out there w/ mags than imjustjason and me, why not split up the work? I'll be glad to contribute 1 issue per year if we can get 11 other people to do the other ones. I will be glad to share my workflow along with the hardware/software I use if that helps.


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## Big Mike (Jul 2, 2011)

HondAudio said:


> Why did you capitalize "car audio magazines"? It's not a proper noun.


Why bother to comment on something of frivolity and not contribute to the thread topic? 


I'd be interested in seeing some of these magazine PDFs. Too bad it's not an enjoyable enough hobby (tedious, I am sure) so as to motivate those with the hard prints to scan them to host for private enjoyment.


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## tim (Jan 22, 2009)

I'm up for scanning some old issues I have. Will an older cheap lexas all in one printer be good enough or would I need a better stand alone scanner?


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## Mike_Dee (Mar 26, 2011)

HondAudio said:


> Why did you capitalize "car audio magazines"? It's not a proper noun.


English Nazi?


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

HondAudio said:


> Why did you capitalize "car audio magazines"? It's not a proper noun.



Not that **** again


He pulled the same **** on me over something real petty


OCD must be acting up:laugh:


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## KillerBox (Jan 7, 2011)

I did not know if the Scan Nazis are as bad as the English Nazis on this forum? 

I tried scanning my first magazine. It is Car Audio & Electronics October 1991. 

I choose this issue because it was the Big Amp Shoot Out between Orion GS-500, Precision Power 2350DM, Linear Power 8002, Rockford Fosgate Power 1000 and HiFonics Colossus.

Anyway, I only scanned the first 15 pages of the magazine because the scans looked like crap and it took time. If anyone really wants to read the rest of the magazine let me know and I will continue to scan. But, you will have to control the Scan Nazis. 

Car Audio & Electronics October 1991.pdf


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## KillerBox (Jan 7, 2011)

I also scanned, Car Stereo Review October 1996 review of the Phoenix Gold Cyclone.

Car Stereo Review October 1996 Phoenix Gold Cyclone.pdf


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## Big Mike (Jul 2, 2011)

I'd keep reading for sure. I love the ads most. I miss the old gear, the Sony ES ad was great, and all the older long gone names... Phase Linear, Sherwood...


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## bigdwiz (Oct 7, 2010)

Sorry for taking so long to respond...real job has been keeping me away from the fun stuff.

Those hosting files, I'd suggest Data File Host or ADrive as they are easier to use and don't have too many ads or nag pages.



> I'm up for scanning some old issues I have. Will an older cheap lexas all in one printer be good enough or would I need a better stand alone scanner?


The Lexar scanner/all-in-one is fine for scanning the mags. The biggest hurdle is getting the "descreen" filter correct. Some scanners have software with the built-in "descreen" option for scanning magazines. The new scanner I bought didn't have this option, so I bought VueScan from VueScan Scanning Software. 

Here is my scanning / PDF process:

1) Scan into VueScan ($40) using the "Magazine" option, with dpi set to 300 and the descreen filter set to 150dpi (you can use your scanner's built-in software if it has the "Magazine" or "descreen" mode, mine didn't)
2) Save at 100 quality jpg (initially tried tif, but the files are HUGE - and the difference wasn't worth it to me)
3) After scanning all pages, use Picasa (free) to crop and straighten each page. I save as high quality jpg, yielding about 5MB per page
4) After cropping and straightening all pages, use Fastone Image Viewer (free) FastStone Image Viewer - to batch resize all of the crops to 1024 on the largest side. Each resized page should be between 400-700kb in file size
5) Import all of the resized pages into Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 (you can also use PDFCreator which is free). Save as optimized PDF and that's it...whew!!

I may put together a screencast of how all of this works...much easier to see it on the screen vs. describe it in steps!

Those who have tried scanning the mags know it is a HUGE pain, and takes forever. I'd recommend getting the settings right before scanning too many pages...it took me a few nights of trying different settings to finally get the scans optimized between filesize and quality.


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## TXwrxWagon (Sep 26, 2008)

bigdwiz said:


> Here are the CA&E's I'm missing:
> 
> 1988 - Jul, Aug, Sept, Nov
> 2003 - Jan, Apr, May, June
> ...


I will be home in 2 weeks... I am 99% sure I have all of those and more... PM details to me....

I also have pretty much all CSR , Autosound & security, and others of vintage Epic-ness

Rob


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## tim (Jan 22, 2009)

I'll mess around with it to get the settings right first this weekend or early in the week.

I'll then target the issues you need, if I have them. Haven't flipped through the in years.


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

this is going to be great, i had every issue of autosex and security, car audio and electronics, car stereo review, carsound, but my exwife deemed them fit for the trash can when i moved out.. damn. that was 20 yrs of books gone in a flash.


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## keep_hope_alive (Jan 4, 2009)

Sounds great. i'll see what i have as well. I have the software, hardware, ability and skill to scan in the same methods you've described. finding the time is the hardest part!


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## bigdwiz (Oct 7, 2010)

keep_hope_alive said:


> Sounds great. i'll see what i have as well. I have the software, hardware, ability and skill to scan in the same methods you've described. finding the time is the hardest part!


Yeah, that's where I was coming from with the 5 hour investment per magazine. I have invested quite a bit of $$ in the h/w and s/w, now just need to invest more time. BTW, if anyone is looking for a reasonably priced 11x17 scanner, check out the Brother MFC-6490cw. I got mine as a refurb from Staples for around $100, now they are around $150. It is a Fax, Scanner, Copier, Printer, etc and thus far (knock on wood) very stable. I tried out a Mustek 11x17 scanner that broke after the 2nd scan and the only other ones I could find were by Epson or Canon and they were $1000+. 

I will put together a screencast showing my workflow as this will hopefully help others in this project. It may be a few days, but I will get it done and link to it from this thread.

Those really wanting to do this and save some time, the 11x17 scanner helps as you can scan two pages at a time. The CA&E's and CSR's have a glued binding, making the thicker magazines more difficult to scan. AS&S mags are stapled and much easier to lay flat in the scanner.

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## BowDown (Sep 24, 2009)

Very cool. Would be nice to see car audio in it's roots. Despite my age, it was before my time. :laugh:


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## rockytophigh (Apr 16, 2008)

KillerBox said:


> Because I wanted to


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## TXwrxWagon (Sep 26, 2008)

1988-covered with a couple specials too...

Rob


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

How about some old school builds?


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## bigdwiz (Oct 7, 2010)

See the link for an example of the indexing work I've done...

Car Audio & Electronics - Archives - Part 1

If anyone wants to follow up and update the doc with the stuff I've skipped and later issues, please feel free! I worked on this for about a week at night after work in lieu of scanning...I was planning on eventually making a spreadsheet, but this was working for me until I got all of the info inputted. You can use the search function to find the car or product you want to see.


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## ReloadedSS (Aug 26, 2008)

bigdwiz said:


> Here are the CA&E's I'm missing:
> 
> 1988 - Jul, Aug, Sept, Nov
> 2003 - Jan, Apr, May, June
> ...


I didn't know you were doing this when you wanted to buy my magazines. I've looked into the very same thing (it's been discussed in a few other threads), and I came out with similar results. It takes a long time to do each magazine, and with hundreds of magazines...well, it's not easy.

If I could do it, I would have scanned in everything I had. Just doing one issue was a pretty big undertaking, and there were some other problems as well. It's all been hashed out in other threads, so I'll leave it alone.

More power to you guys, I know what goes into this endeavor.


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## xtremevette (Apr 14, 2011)

resurrected...just a thought...because we are just viewing these online and printing out copies...quality doesn't have to be super hi res of a scanner. What about taking high res photos and just putting up the images into a photo album gallery? Would be much cheaper, faster and you don't have to worry about cropping, having tons of settings, or resaving images down or creating the PDF. A simple medium/high res jpeg (200 dpi) would work nicely. Let the cropping or altering be handled by the person viewing or downloading the images. Sure it would be nice but like you said...5 hours is just crazy. I would rather have something up to view then nothing at all.

I have been a graphic designer for over 20 years. For a project like this..unless your getting paid for it...just blast it out.

If someone wanted to send me a mag or two of the older CA&E, I have no problem photographing it and getting it online for everybody to see. I have a perfect selling history on ebay, here, corvetteforum. I can be trusted as I know how much some of these magazines me to you guys.


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## Cearex (May 10, 2015)

Any update on this?


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## OldOneEye (Jun 16, 2005)

Updates?


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

OldOneEye said:


> Updates?


since there is A LOT of work with scanning, editing and putting everything back so the paginas goes as they should-..... I doubt that there will be anybody to be prepared to do this for free. Second issue is that almost nobody owns a decent scanner this days since it is pre 2k technology. I have two drum scanners which are extreme quality wise, but scanning originals on such scanners take even more work and time as if it was done on flat scanner....


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## saltyone (Feb 2, 2019)

KillerBox said:


> I also scanned, Car Stereo Review October 1996 review of the Phoenix Gold Cyclone.
> 
> Car Stereo Review October 1996 Phoenix Gold Cyclone.pdf


I remember reading that issue when it was published. Brings back memories! Bless you guys that have taken the time to preserve this period of car audio history. Bravo!


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