Most pleasing sound vs most hifi sound

Hi folks, I came to the conclusion that in fact I love the sound that is emanating from car audio

What is your car audio system - some are extremely good. I had a high end Clarion system installed in one vehicle and it was excellent.

Cars tend to have lower distortion and greater loudness than many Hi-Fi systems. Since you are in a very small space it requires much less power - so you get more "slam" as you easily get that realistic compression/dynamics feeling which takes a hell of a lot more woofer power to achieve in a large room.

As far as I am concerned I never heard a great image or soundstage from inside a car - kind of a halfway house between headphones and a home system - although in opera with sustained notes and a large chorus on a big stage - imaging is rather a non issue as there so much reverberation.

Louder often sounds better - could it be as simple as this?

BTW - if you listen to panels at home then I would wager that it is indeed the dynamics/greater SPL that has got you attention in the car. Opera is LOUD LOUD LOUD...especially Wagner (my favorite)

Chris,

Did suggestions in this thread help - did you figure out why you like your some aspects of the sound from your car Grundig system (probably pretty darn good as far as car systems go) versus your home system?

Just curious - your threads often start and then digress and peter out with no resolution or closure...do you feel any different about your car sound now then you did a few days ago when you started this thread outof curiosity?

Chris,

Ok. So you are basically saying you percieve things differently due to a difference in concentration when in the car. You are more relaxed in the car and able to enjoy it whilst the home system is more stressful as it is more resolving and requires more concentration to get the right picture.

FWIW: I would examine this angle a bit further - have you got the ideal match at home for your own tastes? People in the professional audio industry working 8 hours a day with studio systems discuss this issue all the time (just wander over to Gearlutz forums and you will see discussion on this). These pros recognize that they find some equipment fatiguing and stressful for mixing/monitoring whilst other types of equipment can be simply effortless and non-fatiguing. Not everyone agrees on what they like best in terms of equipment....perhaps each brain is wired differently - but all more or less agree that they want gear that makes their job easier, more enjoyable and such that it requires less concentration to quickly achieve a result.

Note that it is not about resolution => they all want powerful resolving gear to pick up issues with microphone placement etc - i.e. they certainly don't want a "dumbed-down" system excpet to check how something might sound to an ordinary consumer, however, among highly resolving systems there are some that are regarded as non-fatiguing whilst others make life stressful. For example "ambience"...are you getting too much reflections at home is it causing overload and stress?

You are the most important, and most variable, component in any system

...huh ...what about speaker cables and interconnects - aren't these the biggest variables in ultra high-end? What cables/interconnects is Chris using in the car? ;-) just kidding.