Car Audio

It's true that road noise, engine noise and speaker placement will never allow a car stereo to sound as good as your home setup. However, these days i really have to find time to enjoy music on my home system, whereas i find myself stuck in my car up to two hours a day!

I have more than $10,000 into my home system, yet I now probably spend more time listening to music in my car. To this end, i have put about $2000 into my car stereo to bring it up to tolerable standards. I really enjoy mt car system now. It is not at all "boom" car. I have spent hours, days and weeks tweaking it to sound balanced.

At home i'm a bit of a purist. i adjust sound with speaker placement, careful matching of equipment cables etc and room treatments. I have no tone controls. Most preamps I've owned have not even had balance controls. In my car setup, however, I have 30 band 1/3 octave digital equalizer in my trunk it it works wonders! A car is a far from ideal place for high end sound. The car's irregular interior space with a combination of highly reflective (the windows) and highly absorbtive (the uphostery) surfaces combined with very poor speaker locations create wildly non linear frequency distribution that is best cured with an equalizer. I have a fairly modest subwoofer in the trunk to fill out the low end and give the sound some depth.

As hemidakota said, there IS great car audio out there. My Impala is one of the most awarded cars in IASCA history.

http://www.rtol.net/scornell/

Enjoy...

As hemidakota said, there IS great car audio out there. My Impala is one of the most awarded cars in IASCA history.

http://www.rtol.net/scornell/

Enjoy...

I think I may have some relevant experience here.

I know home audio well, and I know what accurate, high-fidelity sound using live unamplified orchestral music as a reference sounds like.

You aren't going to get this in a car.

However, for the 99.9% of audiophiles who don't achieve this at their home and require this to be pleased, there is hope for you.

I have an 01' VW New Passat that I bought used. It had the "upgraded" Monsoon stereo, which sounded like a broken clock radio. Absolutely horrible, and I just didn't turn the radio on for 2 years.

I then decided it was time to investigate car audio. I first went to a small car-audio shop that also sold vintage home audio gear. You know, KLH, old Bose stuff, vintage turntables.

I thought this gave them some credibility, they quoted me $1200 to put in a system that we agreed would:
* have a relatively flat freq response
* have high dynamic capabilities
* be +/- 3 db to 30hz
* have lifelike, and high-end tone and timbre

The owner of this shop enthusiastically convinced me I was going to LOVe this system, and he said he would be surprised if it didn't compete with my Dynaudio/Plinius home system.

Well, I got the car back, and it sounded like it did before I brought it in, except now with the 30-60hz area up about 30db. Hideously awful. Apparently, they put in some cheap Jensen speakers, some crappy Clarion amp, a JVC head unit, and an Infinity Basslink sub.

Needless to say I went back there, and played some classical music for the owner. He agreed it sounded awful, and asked for a second chance.

I gave them one, they messed around with it some more, I got it back, and it sucked just as much.

Thankfully, I was able to recover most of my money. I kept the basslink sub, because it actually wasn't too bad.

So I then did my own research, bought some parts online, and had a friend do the install.

Alpine 9856 head unit - $200
JL XR-650 - $250 (only front speakers, rears are useless)
JL 300/4 amp - $350

So, for about a grand with the basslink, I put this system together.

It is now just about broken in, and is sounding pretty good.

My goal was to be able to put in a CD or plug in my Ipod, and be able to listen to the album without it hurting my ears, or having a major, distracting problem.

I am happy to say that this system easily meets these goals, and is quite fun to listen to. It isn't transparent like a Quad or dynamic like a Wilson, but it sure makes my commute to a work a LOT more enjoyable.

All this for the price of a "middle end" long RCA cable.

I'm sure it could get a lot better than I've got it, and I am interested in persuing that, but if you want better sound in the car, go for it. It is not a lost cause, though you do have to do you homework and your research, and be very careful about qualifying your installers.

PS - If there is anyone reading this thread that knows a lot more about car audio, send me an email! Especially if you are near Boston. As I stated, I would love to take this to the "next level" if possible and not too cost prohibative, and would love the expert advice and experience.

i had a system in my car that had Scan Speak 7" drivers and 1" tweeters, a Lambda Acoustics 10" sub in a sealed enclosure, tubed Xover, McIntosh amps and then Adcom.

I eventually had the doors silenced with Dynamat...But the real secret was the CDP and the processor with time alignment..it was an old Alpine 7941 and the processor connected via fiber optic.

I had audio boutique store guys that despised car audio raise eyebrows when they heard my system...I bought it all used, so I didnt spend thousands.

There are tons of options for car stereo...just go to car sound and performance web site.