Was it really simpler?

One of the gifts I gave Elaine for Christmas was a new stereo for her car. The original unit played both CDs and cassettes, plus the usual AM/FM radio. The car is old enough that the stereo did not have an AUX input for mp3 players. Who needed one in 2000? On the drive home from Best Buy after having it installed, I got to thinking about how car audio has changed since I was younger.

I recall that car audio as simpler than now, but I really wonder about that. True, there were far fewer w...