Car stereos - why are they so poor sounding?

Majorscale

I agree with Sporky, for a price, car stereos can sound absolutely amazing. Had a ride in a friends Jag XFS the other day, he has a Meridian system in it, and it sounded lovely. Also have had first hand experience of a Burmeister in a Merc and that system easily blew away my home  Hifi kit!

Danny1969

My Jag XJR had an HK premium audio upgrade in it which was an extra £1200 to the original owner who brought it new .... sounded pretty good to be fair up to fairly loud volumes but then things got very harsh 
Trouble is from a design point of view you are at a disadvantage with car audio as there's only a 12V DC rail to start with so traditional class AB amp design is out the window, class D is the way to go but even then design is harder and more complex because of the lower starting voltage. 

scrumhalf

Never mind the quality, why the hell do they have to be so loud?

I live in a road that gets traffic in the morning and evening rush hours. Every day we have the pleasure of listening to the car stereo of people with no musical taste making sure that everyone within a 5-mile radius knows it. How can they be driving with due care and attention when a bomb could go off outside their car and they wouldn't hear it?

richardhomer

The Naim system in my Bentley Continental’s pretty good....

littlegreenman

There's a reason Van Halen had his guitar panned hard left. So even in a car with only one speaker he'd be heard loud and clear!

littlegreenman

And, to the OP.

You're in a car. You're supposed to be paying attention to the road, not the music. If the quality of the tunes is distracting you then heaven help whoever you're sharing the road with!

ToneControl

At higher speeds, there will always be a lot of car noise in cheaper cars -  which will degrade any audio system, and quite a lot of noise in mid range cars. It's better at the top end of the car market, but even with a good system, classical music is hard to listen to unless you are driving slowly 

FM stations are all awful
DAB stations can be a bit better, but CDs and mp3 are the only way to get a good sound. I think my 1989 Daimler had a compressor in the hifi that you could turn on to assist with the car's residual noise floor

Fretwired

I have a BMW and my stereo system is great - lots of speakers and some software to tweak the sound. CD, HD, MP3, iPhone etc plus radio. Bloody loud ...

ToneControl

ToneControl said:

At higher speeds, there will always be a lot of car noise in cheaper cars -  which will degrade any audio system, and quite a lot of noise in mid range cars. It's better at the top end of the car market, but even with a good system, classical music is hard to listen to unless you are driving slowly 

FM stations are all awful
DAB stations can be a bit better, but CDs and mp3 are the only way to get a good sound. I think my 1989 Daimler had a compressor in the hifi that you could turn on to assist with the car's residual noise floor

no, wishful thinking on my part:
https://www.jaguar.fr/Images/JJM100221802_tcm96-41254.pdf
it was just an automatic volume control 

ToneControl

Fretwired said:

I have a BMW and my stereo system is great - lots of speakers and some software to tweak the sound. CD, HD, MP3, iPhone etc plus radio. Bloody loud ...

yeah, my bmw system is perfectly good, clever locations for speakers and a storage disc in the car to house an mp3 library, it rips the CDs itself and stores them with the album art
I had a great one in an Omega Elite once too, lots of extra amps and speakers fitted as standard

Garthy

Rocker said:

Not DAB, standard FM. It is true that I have hearing loss but I can hear speech. No problem with internet radio either. It is simply a case of a rubbish player factory fitted in a fairly costly car. Music is fine or good enough (CD). It is the radio. There are specialist music system installers the UK, none that I know of in Ireland. Hopefully one is suggested and if so, thanks

No wonder the aftermarket people don't understand your problem, you're deaf and they aren't.

My wife is profoundly deaf and also struggles to hear the DJs & News on the radio in her BMW yet I think it sounds bloody amazing and can hear the news clearly even with the roof off on the motorway.

p90fool

@merlin ; is right, it's the lack of midrange. 

A car is a crappy boombox and car stereos are designed to enhance that, so sad little suburban boys can pretend they're Chicano gangsters. Combine that with some road noise and speech just disappears.

I spent ages wiring up some decent speakers for our kitchen, as my wife and I spend a fair bit of time cooking together with the radio on. 

The combination of full frequency speakers, taps running, pans and kettles boiling and general clanging around makes Radio 4 totally indecipherable unless it's rattling the windows with volume. 

We now use the good speakers for music and a £4.99 mini radio for speech. 

Rocker

littlegreenman said:

And, to the OP.

You're in a car. You're supposed to be paying attention to the road, not the music. If the quality of the tunes is distracting you then heaven help whoever you're sharing the road with!

If you read my OP you would know that it is speech not music that is the problem. News and sports bulletins.

@Garthy my wife, who had very good hearing, has a problem hearing news bulletins in the car. A better factory fitted player would solve this problem. Charge an additional €500 for the car or make the audio system upgrade an optional extra.

prowla

richardhomer said:

The Naim system in my Bentley Continental’s pretty good....

Mine wouldn't fit in my car!

p90fool

Rocker said:

 it is speech not music that is the problem. News and sports bulletins.

@Garthy my wife, who had very good hearing, has a problem hearing news bulletins in the car. A better factory fitted player would solve this problem. Charge an additional €500 for the car or make the audio system upgrade an optional extra.

It really wouldn't, you'd be better off using iPlayer through the speaker on your phone for speech, rather than yet more pumped up bass and treble. 

Garthy

Rocker said:

littlegreenman said:

And, to the OP.

You're in a car. You're supposed to be paying attention to the road, not the music. If the quality of the tunes is distracting you then heaven help whoever you're sharing the road with!

If you read my OP you would know that it is speech not music that is the problem. News and sports bulletins.

@Garthy my wife, who had very good hearing, has a problem hearing news bulletins in the car. A better factory fitted player would solve this problem. Charge an additional €500 for the car or make the audio system upgrade an optional extra.

Then choose a car that has audio upgrades in the option list, most do.

57Deluxe

The last shitty sound emitted from my stereo was POP in 1912... well it feels it anyway cos is an integral part of the dash design in my Grand Vitara and any old replacement won't fit and they want £400 for a new one and is only a Clarion anyway... So - I sing and talk to myself instead.

https://img.jamessimpson.co.uk/2010/11/PICT0078-1.jpg

randella

57Deluxe said:

The last shitty sound emitted from my stereo was POP in 1912... well it feels it anyway cos is an integral part of the dash design in my Grand Vitara and any old replacement won't fit and they want £400 for a new one and is only a Clarion anyway...

@57Deluxe - Clarion seem to make lots and lots of these OEM units, or at least they used to.  The unit in my Ford was the same, I think £329 was the cost of a replacement.

If you're minded to go hunting, there's usually an aftermarket bracket that'll convert the hole in the dash to a single DIN so you can fit any replacement.

dindude

Some odd responses here I think, I find it impossible to disagree that car stereos are shit. I lease my car but it’s got a retail value of nearly 30k and the stereo is no better sounding that something you’d buy in Tesco for £40. It’s just not a priority for most manufacturers. Remember this is an industry which was still pretty much charging an upgrade cost for a CD player option when CD’s we’re pretty much end of life tech. The perceived value by a very small investment in quality here would go a long way, but then where then would they get their upgrade options from. 

PC_Dave

Listening to Snarky Puppy on the stereo in my BM is one reason why I’m frequently late for work. It sounds aboutely sublime, but I think that is partly due to the acoustic dampening in the car as well as a good stereo. It’s the only decent car entertainment system I’ve ever come across.