It's sad to see some answerers here (by no means all) who otherwise regard themselves as
audiophiles
proclaiming systems the car came with are high quality. The incredible amount of DSP used that F's up & homogenizes the sound FAR more then a quality system w/o it is always just sad. The first time I heard the Burmester system in a Panamera not even moving, drove the point home. All the optional settings (some double digit no.) only made it worse. If you picked the dead neutral one, it was grey, uninvolving & somewhat more detailed then inexpensive crap but nothing impressive by any standard. The ML system in a Lexus was better (after they completely engineered it a couple of years after first reintroducing it) but nothing like as good as say, the Focal utopia car audio installed with quality amplifiers (theirs or someone elses as good) Someone earlier mentioned the Milbert which is the ne plus ultra. I heard the B&W Diamond tweeters in a BMW & they were discernibly better then the ML but the DSP always throws a blanket over the music that would be gone w/o it. The Revel was revelatory in its detail & dynamics (for a DSPed system in particular) but ripped your ears of with those aluminum tweeters. Taming it in the systems described always results in sophisticated (at best) blandness.
Do you care about car audio?
I like nice cars and I appreciate the fact that I've been fortunate enough to lease and drive some very nice ones. I would never drive a luxury car out of warranty, but that's not my point. My point is, as much as I love audio, I never really had any urge to upgrade my car audio system. Whatever came with the car was totally satisfactory to me. Right now, my car came with a somewhat upgraded Meridian stereo, but it is not the full-blown surround/subwoofer deal. It sounds fine and I've never wanted more than a standard decent car radio had to offer.
Do you people have any enthusiasm for upgraded car audio as opposed to stock? Then again, truth be told, I've never listened to the fancy car setups and I might be tempted if I thought it was that much more enjoyable. Who knows.
Do you people have any enthusiasm for upgraded car audio as opposed to stock? Then again, truth be told, I've never listened to the fancy car setups and I might be tempted if I thought it was that much more enjoyable. Who knows.