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Car Audio and the High End

I am both an automotive hobbyist and a dedicated audio geek, and something that has always struck me is the difference between the two when it comes to music reproduction.

The car guys often spend a huge amount of money on 'improving' their car audio, which mostly means creating a bass heavy unnatural (usually loud) sound that gives them some sort of satisfaction.

The audio geeks like me may make some slight improvements in the stock car system (a notable one is swapping out the speaker drivers that perhaps cost the factory $5 for something that cost 10 times that and calling it done) but don't seem to be bothered by mediocre sound (by high end standards). Personally, I view car audio as having to be good enough not to annoy me while driving home to listen to some really well reproduced music on the home system.

Then of course there are the outliers of car audio who load up the vehicles with some much amplification that they win SPL level contests at levels that preclude anyone actually being inside the vehicle lest they have their hearing seriously damaged (the audio equivalent of those people that like to watch cars spin their tires on the spot until they burst, IMHO)

I wondered whether there were any that hang out on this site that overlap their interest in audio between cars and home, or whether they mostly stuck to home use.....
128x128wspohn
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,965 posts
 
I used to always change out the factory system in the car because they weren't tat good. New head & speakers. But today, many of the cars have decent enough systems in them that I don't need to do so. The caveat to this is that I don't expect it to sound as good and realistic in the car as in the 2 channel system at home. But I love music. And driving some distance with music is pretty good for me. 

I would not have called myself a car enthusiast when changing the systems. Nothing to get enthused about when you see and 85mph top speed on the speedo. Now its different. Great cars around again today. Much more power today than during the muscle car era. And though I love music, I cannot see changing out the factory system of my Corvette convertible. Its too noisy for one. And driving these mountain roads like it is a sports car takes my full time attention. But It would be nice to have a little better on my trip to MD coming up. But that's the exception, not the rule. Usually I'm on the back roads having fun, enjoying the music when its appropriate.
wspohn's avatar
wspohn OP
607 posts
 
As I am a sports car guy, the small spacial volume available is a real challenge. Much easier to get decent sound in an SUV.

Oddly, some of the luxury cars with sufficient internal space have very poor sound and some have quite decent sound.

Best I've experienced in a sports car is in one of my own - a BMW Z4M coupe, which has a Bob Carver designed system. Sadly that is paired with some of the worst ergonomics I have ever seen. So mush so that the resale value of the cars with that top of the line system can be slightly lower than the same car with the lower cost system.  The other reason I hate that system is that it has a factory GPS system that pops a screen up out of the dash whenever you hit the wrong control, and that catapults my GPS stand alone unit on top of it into your lap. (Why do I not use the installed BMW GPS, you might ask - because it is a CD updatable system that is painful to actually operate).

For most of my sports cars, the sound system consists of the car's exhaust.
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
@wspohn 
As wspohn sez, with my sports car it's all about the noises the vehicle makes.  The whines of the different gears.  The clatter of the valves. The rise and fall of the exhaust note. The sound of the wind in my ears. The roar, clop-clop and squeal of the tires. Dogs barking. Birds cheeping.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
I thought car stereo was important back in the 1980's. Searched around for an installer who designed me a sub to fit in my CRX. He understood audiophile, not one-note bass, and the result was freaking incredible! It helped that I did my research, used proper gauge wire to power the amps, it was quite a good system for a car, especially back then. 

The CRX went away and I found the sounds and pleasure of driving a 911SC are not at all improved with a sound system. Also my home system by then was so good nothing in a car sounded like anything but something in a car.  

Car audio can be done very well indeed. All you have to do is strip the car down, replace everything that rattles, pad everything else with a couple hundred pounds of damping material, and wire, and add a couple hundred more pounds of components, and you can get about the same sound as at home. Until you turn the key and start driving and then, it is back to being a car stereo.   

Or instead for about a grand you can get Campfire Dorado, plug em into your player or phone, and call it good. So that is what I do now. 


wspohn's avatar
wspohn OP
607 posts
 
The whines of the different gears. The clatter of the valves. The rise and fall of the exhaust note. The sound of the wind in my ears. The roar, clop-clop and squeal of the tires. Dogs barking. Birds cheeping.

Children screaming, women fainting, old men shaking their fists......oh, that's only for old British sports cars (my specialty). 

I never install any sort of radio in my old stuff (1956-1969 or so). The symphony of the winding road is sufficient.
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