listening to music in the car

I have so much music that I have to listen at any opportunity, otherwise I simply would never hear it in one lifetime. For me, listening in the car provides just another of many opportunities. I’m not very much concerned with sound "quality" though when listening in the car.

gdhal,

I agree with that for sure.   In spite of the  terrible quality provided by Sirius radio I listen every time I'm in the car.   Every week a tune turns up that I make note of and audition at Amazon (or wherever I can) and consider for purchase.

This primarily happens with Real Jazz channel but has happened on other programs as well.   It's important to be able to listen in the car, but long ago realized the frustration of trying to make it great in that environment.   It's hard enough at home where things are more under control.

I’m like gdhal. Always looking for time to listen to music. A good car audio system helps. A quiet ride also helps. I think I read the Acura ELS system uses active noise cancellation. In any case the overall result is very good and I hear more in the recordings without having to up the volume. Bass is very controlled and does not obscure the midrange as often happens in cars. Very happy! Silly to compare to home. Totally different. I had a Nakamichi unit in a fairly noisy SUV years ago. Good sound but lots of background noise.

In any case I’d be interested in others opinions of the Acura system. If they have heard it. Again using good quality streamer on smart phone like Plex helps greatly. Sirius is still pretty unlistenable though. I will let the free trial expire.

Mapman,

A quite ride would indeed help.   A random Acura I looked up at Motor Trend shows 68 DB.   That may not include the ELS system?

Background noise would indeed be a big deal.

I am glad I found this thread because I do not feel fully an oddball anymore. I accepted that car environment and, probably, lesser quality electronics will degrade sound from what I am used at home. Still, when looking for a new car, I went around checking sound systems specifically. Huh, that was an experience. I brought an iPod Touch and one USB jump drive with different types of files (DSD, FLAC multiple resolutions, WAV, AIFF, nothing under 16/44.1) and puzzled each and every car salesman along the way. All the listening was done in stationary, non-running cars and some also during driving.

After all, I was disappointed with some that I had expected to be top-notch. Burmester in S coupe, for example. Not bad compared to others, but not as stunning as pedigree would make me think. For some reason, Jaguar XJ with Meridian system was the most pleasing to me. Another revelation was inconsistency of what a certain system could play. Pretty much nothing I tried could play AIFF, unless played from iPod, and pretty much everything could play FLAC, but resolutions varied. Tesla would play from iPod (or your iPhone) only via Bluetooth despite having an USB port which serves for...charging. Nothing I tried played DSD at that time. BMW was charging $1200 for Harman/Kardon upgrade, but deep at the end of instructions that most would never read, says that it would not play anything over, I believe, 320 Kbps. I had no mp3s, but it had no problem with AIFFs, for whatever it is worth. Volkswagen with Fender system was the most convenient by far with SD card slot (works even with 512 GB card) and USB port that actually connects. Unfortunately, Fender made sure that your opera will sound like a garage band. Everything else, too. It was basically unlistenable on most of the material/genres. So, these days we got to the point that sound is just a half of the problem.