Concerning high end audio names in new cars

Before I retired I drove 2500 miles a month. Sound was very important. My then Mercedes e class had a Harmon Kardon system that sounded great. I traded that for a 2018 with the new Burmester system—miles ahead of the HK. It still surprises me now and then with its imaging. I listen mainly to radio jazz fan from Poland or KCSM from San Mateo. And I’ve got about 600 mp3s on one card and another card with flac files.

Anyone ever heard the Boze Panaray system on a Cadillac sedan?

I also have a Lexus with the Mark Levinson system. I was pretty good stock. I now run my IPhone with camera adapter usb out into an IFI hip dac headphone amp through the aux jack in the system. I have had many audio nuts who are blown away by how good it does sound through the dac. Deep tight bass, and great separation of instruments. Is it as good as my home system? Don’t be stupid! Is is good enough to look forward to my two hour daily commute to work? Hell yes!

Keep in mind that car audio designers also are handcuffed by:

Components prices and total system budget (I’ve lived the auto industry supply base and it’s absolutely brutal when it comes to the OEM’s and part prices)

The need to minimize warranty claims thereby limiting outputs of amplifiers, bass /treble adjustment and total system volumes.

Appealing to a wide and diverse customer base expectation of what an automotive sound system should sound like - not just marketing/designing a system to audiophiles.

Temperature extremes for drivers, head units and amplifiers (think about this one and what that gear has to put up with)

Moisture resistance and UV resistance

User interface - needs to be simple enough for the average non audiophile user to operate

Almost ridiculous phase, time delay and standing wave issues in a car with all those seating positions and speaker positions. I doubt many audio engineers in the automotive arena get to choose their ideal speaker locations. It’s the same ol’, same ol’ setup of woofer in the lower door, tweeter feet away in the A pillar, small center channel speaker in the middle of the dash, then rinse and repeat for the rear doors. Now add in the rear deck and sub frequency drivers. Everything essentially fires almost sideways to the occupants’ ears with nothing really directly radiating to the occupants’ ears at ear level; how crazy is all of that driver placement? One wonders how anyone can even design anything to sound good in a car as compared to the relatively controlled environment of a living room / listening room at home.

I’m a big car audio nut. I’ve heard incredible aftermarket systems in cars and have had many a high watt, high impact system in various cars I’ve owned. If you get it right, it’s very fun to experience in a car, but it’s really hard to do. It’s a totally different environment vs. home audio. To compare home audio and car audio is almost pointless and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a stock OEM audio system sound as good as a custom, high dollar aftermarket system in a vehicle.

Here's how I look at it: whatever alleged up class name is placed in a car, it's better than what sound acquisition used to be from auto manufacturers.

My wife's 2022 Mazda CX 5 has a Bose system in it and it is quite spatial. Sounds way better than what was in her 2014 Subaru.

After setting relatively low expectations for the Meridian system in my Rivian R1T, I am more than pleased with the performance of the system. It sounds as if Meridan used some fairly decent DACs in the front end and designed the system for grown ups.