When you talk to someone about their car audio, they will tell you about the subwoofer, the tweeter, the speakers and the amplifier, but chances are they won’t say anything about the head unit.
Most don’t because most don’t even think about the head unit. However, the head unit is extremely important in your car stereo system, because without it, there is no car stereo system.

This is the component of the car stereo system that provides a unified hardware interface to everything in the system. From here you can adjust the amplification, speaker noise, bass level and even the tweeter. It was once called the receiver, but these days it is known simply as the head unit.

Most head units are located in the center of the car’s stereo system near the driver. They will be integrated with detachable face plates that allow you to take the faceplate with you to discourage someone from stealing the stereo. Some high-end head units are very common targets of theft, so some are even integrated directly into the car alarm system.

The head unit will allow you to control the AM/FM Radio, the satellite radio, CD player, MP3, GPS and Bluetooth features of the car and the stereo system. This is where everything comes together for you, so that you can control the speaker balance, speaker fade, treble, equalization, bass, band, frequency and more.

As you can see from what we have said here, and elsewhere in the website, the head unit is very important to the vehicle and without it, nothing runs. You need to be able to adjust the volume so that the amplifier can receive the signal and boost the output, and that ability to adjust the volume comes from the head unit. If you want to adjust the bass, you need the head unit to send the signal to the subwoofer to increase the base. Even if you just want to listen to the radio, your head unit has to send the signal to change the frequency of what you are listening to on the antenna so you can listen to what you want.

Since the head unit is often the “face” of the car stereo system, you can even put skins on it and tailor it to a representation of your personality. It is an integral part of your dash, and the first line between you and your car stereo system. Its importance cannot be disregarded!