What do audiophiles listen in their cars?

as an audio freak, the quality of the stock system used to be my primary determinant in buying a car; thus i cycled through lexus (levinson), acura (els) and genesis (lexicon); all, esp. the acura, were great for cd playback, but lackluster for xm radio, which just can't be made to sound good. best stock system i've heard was the dynaudio system in a volvo s80; the hk system in the chrysler 300 is also really good. in fairness to bose, their mazda3 system is one of the best i've heard in an inexpensive car

CD's and NPR on the stock radio in my Chevy Cobalt. I enjoy it a lot. I find I enjoy it as well as the vintage system in the basement. Quality of the electronics doesn't seem to get in the way as long as the music is good. I'm tapping my feet in front of them all.

The 6cd OEM system in my F-150 truck sounds great, Even better than the sony 12 speaker system in my car. Maybe the size of the cab makes the difference. I bought the truck new in 2004. That same year I also purchased a Marantz single disc cd player for my home system. The Marantz decided to stop reading discs several months ago. The cdp in the truck is still going strong. Pretty amazing considering the truck is never garaged, and the heat here in Central Texas. I would have thought a changer would have been more prone to failure.

Wow - such an outpouring of really helpful comments...

I sincerely appreciate all the posts so far!!!

Please keep them coming...

If you are planning on selling auto sound systems, you must also have a competent installation shop. I don't think it would make sense to try to only sell gear. For one thing, the big money is in the labor to install the gear, not in the gear itself. With complex integrated sytems (audio, phone, navigation, etc.), it is not that easy for most people to do their own installation, which is where your shop could provide value. You don't want to become the car audio equivalent of Best Buy--a place for people to look at gear, but not purchase. Particularly bad would be offering gear for sale that you will not be installing that one can find in a Crutchfield catalogue or some online equivalent.

Most towns of decent size already have car audio shops, which will make it hard for a newcomer to be competitive. I would bet that most of the work those shops do involve installing systems that are meant to be really loud, rather than catering to audiophile concerns with quality of sound. Perhaps, you could offer a quality alternatives. I don't know what brands qualify in that department these days (Alpine, Boston Acoustics?).

As a lot of posters have noted, road noise is a big problem with car audio. Your shop should put an emphasis on sound dampening products and installation. I have a fairly quiet vehicle (2011 E350) and I still have issues with noise.

Good luck on your endeavors.