What do audiophiles do in their cars?

Stream Tidal over my Andriod phone with a wired connection to the auxillary input of the factory system, playback via an AudioQuest Cobalt Dragonfly using a USB Pro driver

People will ask what aftermarket upgrades I've made and are surprised when I tell them it's the stock system from the factory

I A/B compare songs between Sirius XM - very pedestrian sound, Tidal without the Dragonfly - much better sound than Sirius XM, and Tidal with the Dragonfly significnatly better sound than the other two

The $300 Dragonfly is the secret sauce and the real differentiator

The Cobalt Dragonfly with the USB Pro driver is full MQA capable

There is only so much appetite for any craving. When I listen to music in car I don't feel like listening at home anymore. Hence car stereo is always off, unless I am on a long drive or kids want it.

I agree that most car systems sound pretty good—much better than 10-20 years ago. The Burmester in my Mercedes sounds very good.  It’s still a car, though, and the sound competes with wind motor and tire noise.  I’m done with XM radio. The sound is just bad. I listen to internet radio or stream Qobuz or listen odd my hard drive where I have mp3 and flac files. But what I enjoy the most is listening.to radioJazz.fm out of Poland. I am continually amazed by their playlists. I hear songs from albums I’ve listened to for decades but have never heard on radio. An amazing resource. 

@rodman99999  Thanks for the information and website.

I will look into it right away. My question is, why did this start "all of a sudden" as I have had the car for a number of years?

Anyway, thank-you very much!

Cheers,

Richard

I really enjoy high end car audio and am able to get very good imaging/performance with my DSP by fine tuning the speaker delays and freq responses.  I've spent quite a bit of time tuning it, but it's something that is a lot of fun.