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.
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.