Who's the Cadillac of Hi-End Audio?

Interesting points raised by Mrmb. I think the failure of GM/Ford/Chrysler wasn't in the engineering, but instead was a fault endemic to their entire corporate structure(s). When Toyota first started the Lexus brand they imported dozens of Mercedes to the Japanese factory and let the assembly line workers use them. Management wanted the workers to know first hand the level of fit and finish that they would have to do better than. It's hard to imagine at any of the Detroit Big 3 management and labor working together to accomplish long-term goals. My observation is that in successful companies management and labor have a mutual respect and trust for one another.

I know a lot more about cars than I do about audio equipment so here are my thoughts...

German:
The best high performance designs in general. Even those with modest specs present a cohesive approach to design and provide performance fundamentals before luxuries or features. At my budget end of the spectrum I would analog German cars to equipment such as Rotel or NAD - simple pieces with good performance for the money at cost moderately above garden variety mass market.

Japanese:
"Bland Quality". These products are generally well built and efficient but fail to excite most performance enthusiasts. Clinically there's little to fault with Japanese cars. I consider such cars to parallel audio equipment that is resolving and presents a flat frequency response but is otherwise uncaptivating.

American:
Design for specs and impressive behavior on a 20 minute test drive (i.e. excessive throttle response upon initial toe in of the accelerator). When I think of an American car I think of a mass market stereo with sharp treble and deep boomy bass. It catches your (not my :) ) attention on first impression but after sampling better products becomes tiring and artificial.

Geez, if your knowledge of cars is better than your knowledge of audio, the latter must be pretty dismal. It's as though you have not test-driven a Japanese car in a while. Let's just say that generalizations are usually false, and leave it at that.

Pbb, you can like anything you want, but Japanese cars are well engineered but made of poor quality parts. Thus they are not good cars. They will never compare to the average European car, but you probably drive a Lada or Yugo anyway.

I'm leasing a new GMC Yukon and for $326.00 month there was absolutely nothing else I could find that had the ability to carry, tow and drive in it's class for that money.

I have zero experience with Cadillac, it would never work for my photography business and I was never drawn to it as a sports vehicle.

I have owned four BMW's, including the 540 V8 wagon. Five Volvo's (three of which were turbo charged wagons), and three Honda station wagons. (Cute but useless for many things).

I think much about an automobile, ANY automobile is about what you intend to use it for. If I were a single guy and no equipment to haul, I would own a Porsche, assuming I had the money. Since I must make a living and carry half my photo studio with me, there is little to compete with the big three auto makers for hauling, especially for the costs involved.

I have owned over 45 automobiles or trucks, including one Ferrari. The choices I made at that moment were a balance of what I wanted, what I needed and what I could afford. I always wanted MORE car than I could reasonably afford, sometime I made the decision to spend more than I should.

I must say that looking back, I am happy that I did, great memories are made from the unexpected things in ones life, especially things born of passion and excitement.

Automobiles are all about THAT moment, they have different values in different decades depending on their quality, gas economy, style, social acceptance and price. I can honestly say that I have been mostly satisfied with all the cars I've owned in some way or another.

Some, particularly the German and Italian cars, evoke a passion that escape most of the others. If you've not owned such an automobile, it's difficult to explain or justify.

I agree with those above who say the Japanese cars don't stir much in the way of passion. A strange level of emotionless perfection combined with reliability, as was their audio gear back in the 1970's.

Strangely, my GMC has a bit of personality that reminds me of several old GM products from years ago, including my 1955 Chevy Nomad station wagon, 1958 Chevy convertible and the four big block Corvettes.

When I hit the lottery I'm selling the GMC and buying 15 cars to replace it, most of which will be useless for hauling but a hell of a lot of fun to drive.