Do you care about car audio?

sgreg1,

"...IMO there are songs that sound better in the car than at home."

I suspect that some material is mixed/mastered with car environment in mind as that is where many (most?) people will listen to it.

"When we had finished a song, we’d take a drive and listen to it on the car stereo to give us that extra objectivity. When you are working so intensely you can lose that objectivity. And when you’re in a studio you’re listening to the absolute best reproduction of the sound. But most people won’t hear it in that environment. So we’d go for a drive – the car test."

Article in the Independent on Sunday - leonardcohenforum.com

Lost interest after CDs took over.

Concord & Nakamichi head units made it work for me - started with a Concord HPL 110 & called it quits after a Nakamich TD700.

Good evening chayro,

I was in the same situation as the past several years with car audio as there was not much interest in upgrading the car stereo system.  A lot of the local car stereo shops seem to focus on the bass and high volume.  One day I walked into a shop with a car stereo dealer that had decades of experience from the time of cassette and even 8 track!  We talked about several different options for my Ridgeline truck. 

The final choice was to keep the original head unit, add a JL Audio - 5 channel 75 watt amp and 4 JL Audio separate component speakers. The amp drives the 4 JL door speakers and the existing subwoofer.
This dealer was able to use the factory head unit with the preamp outputs so the steering wheel controls all work perfectly.

When the work was completed he asked me to demo the truck with the new speakers and amp.  I was absolutely blown away by the night and day difference in sound. Especially when listening to a CD, the sound quality is exceptional.  He even added a small knob to directly control the output of the subwoofer (without going thru the settings on the head unit)!

After having many good quality car stereos I am amazed how well this simple setup works, and I can say that it is now a pleasure to drive that truck everyday.  

Best wishes,

Dan

i can't really put it in the same aural category as home audio until and unless technology totally solves the noise problem.

I've said this in this forum before, so if you've heard it, bear with me.

Back in the 90s, Richard Clark had two cars that were simply incredible on the IASCA circuit. A Cadillac and a Buick Grand National. The GN was the later car for him. But you could be sure of one thing. If you were competing in his power class and you saw the Grand National roll off the trailer (yes, it was trailered to every show), you knew the best you could do on that day was 2nd place.

Those cars opened my eyes to what was possible with high end audio in a car cabin. Still some of the best sound I've heard anywhere, including many high end home systems.

Oz