2. misc-audio
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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.....
wspohn

Showing 1 response by artemus_5

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artemus_5
1,994 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.
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