Because your car should sound good too

Has anyone heard the McIntosh car audio gear? Looks very interesting.

Spending a lot of money and time on car audio seems like a bit of a waste to me.

McIntosh HUs still have the some of their trademark sound. They do sound great. That is, if you don't mind spending the cash.

Unsound, if done right it is far from a waste. Most of the time it is a waste because people do not put the right amount of time, money and energy into it and always get sub-par sound and then blame it soley on the gear. So your statement, while true to a point, is only valid with those that take the cheap route. I've heard a few mobile audio stereos that sounded nearly as good as the $80k reference system at my local home audio dealers sound room. Of course they'll never sound as good due to space and the overall environment but you certainly can get close.

I don't mean to take the joy away from others, but between ambient noise and the near impossibility to get a proper speaker/listening position, it almost seems like an unattainable quest. Perhaps with digital "room" correction things might work better than I've experienced?

Probably, Unsound.

While I get why people want good music in their car- who doesn't? - I think there's a limit. Can you 'critically listen' while driving? For that matter, should you be?

My Alpine deck and factory speakers sound good enough for me. If I had a car that I knew I would keep forever or close to it, I'd seriously look into a McIntosh system. It would probably look great in my father's '71 Mercedes 280 SL convertable. Hanging out on July 4th and watching fireworks with the top down and a Mac system playing would be pretty cool IMO.