Surprisingly good quality In Car Entertainment

Surprisingly good quality In Car Entertainment

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Stuart M 1976

Original Poster:

62 posts

81 months

Wednesday 26th August 2020
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Just thinking about an old Mercedes CLK I bought when I needed an automatic for a while. One of the best things about the car was the sound system. It was a really nice surprise (as I don't think I tried it on the test drive) just standard fitment stuff but very good quality sound.

What car have you owned and been impressed with the ICE?

Sparky137

883 posts

188 months

Wednesday 26th August 2020
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2006 Chrysler Grand Voyager. Truly amazing sound system, particularly as its a people carrier and limited in the type of speakers that can be fitted. Sounds like it could handle much more power than it has as there is no distortion even at full volume.

Sparky137

883 posts

188 months

Thursday 27th August 2020
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Stuart M 1976 said:
Just thinking about an old Mercedes CLK I bought when I needed an automatic for a while. One of the best things about the car was the sound system.
I'm curious about this, I also have a 2005 CLK Cabriolet fitted with the Audio 20 sound system. It's not bad but nothing that I would get excited about. Was yours the earlier model with the Bose system including a sub in the back seat or was it the coupe that has speakers in better locations?

Stuart M 1976

Original Poster:

62 posts

81 months

Thursday 27th August 2020
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It was a coupe from 2001. Elegance spec Not sure if it was a Bose system (no speakers were labelled as such?) I'm pretty sure it did have a separate bass speaker.

I suppose it would have been a fairly expensive car new so sound deadening probably helped perhaps. It was just a great sound / clarity that I've not heard from a factory set up previously.

broncoupe

159 posts

233 months

Friday 28th August 2020
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Sound deadening in any car from manufacturer is poor limited to small pieces to stop a panel drumming and cheapest solution to floor and front bulkhead even the likes of Bentley and RR are better but can be vastly improved
Had the opportunity to do a large audio project on a late RR used 8 boxes 9 sheets per box of Dynamat extreme and 60+ hours
To be honest on a cost basis I reasoned against such a extreme approach to the client
The client insisted he wanted it done having heard a friends car in the USA
The result was so tangible effort did equal reward

heisthegaffer

3,649 posts

205 months

Tuesday 1st September 2020
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Our Volvo V40 has a good sound system. It's actually a little bassy with everything flat so have turned the bass down slightly.

Deep in the car settings it has an equaliser as well as the traditional bass and treble settings. I've left the EQ alone.

Goes loud, sounds good. No distortion nor unpleasant rattling.

I've just changed my phone from a Samsung S8 to. Brand new Motorola and the Bluetooth streaming sounds a fair bit better and is a little louder too. Only discovered I could stream Spotify about a month ago - bought the car in April 18!


anonymous-user

61 months

Tuesday 1st September 2020
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The B&O system in my old V10 S8 was by far the best in car system I’ve ever heard.

tektas

293 posts

106 months

Tuesday 1st September 2020
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The BOSE System in my Alfa GT was surprisingly good.

Garemberg

424 posts

96 months

Monday 7th September 2020
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Lexus premium in my IS300 Sports Cross, I replaced it with an all bells & whistles double din unit which sounded terrible. Refitted the original Tape deck with a Grom for bluetooth streaming coupled with a pure DAB unit. It's a very good sound indeed



Edited by Garemberg on Monday 7th September 13:05

jakesmith

9,463 posts

178 months

Monday 28th September 2020
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Meridian 850w system in our Evoque is excellent
Audi sound system plus in our A5 is surprisingly good
Normally I remove and replace sound systems in my cars but these are good enough to leave as is

Bose in the 987/997 was dire as was B&O in my R8. They all got ripped out.

g3org3y

21,107 posts

198 months

Tuesday 29th September 2020
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Logic7/Pro HiFi Option on the BMW E63 6 Series. Sounds so good I'll go for a drive for an hour just to listen to some music (loud!).

Terry Tibbs

218 posts

56 months

Wednesday 30th September 2020
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The Sony system in my 2007 focus is really good, very crisp and gets very loud with no distortion. Was pleasantly surprised when I used it for the first time.

untakenname

5,052 posts

199 months

Wednesday 30th September 2020
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Since around 2010 onwards most 'premium' cars have had decent audio fitted by the OEM in comparison with before that when it was a lottery even when paying extra for the factory options.

I've had cars with £20k's worth of aftermarket ICE in them and you quickly get into the laws of diminishing returns, sound deadening in the front doors and replacing the front tweeters and perhaps adding a small subwoofer is all that's needed these days in most cases for most people.

Heaveho

5,652 posts

181 months

Wednesday 30th September 2020
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Garemberg said:
Lexus premium in my IS300 Sports Cross, I replaced it with an all bells & whistles double din unit which sounded terrible. Refitted the original Tape deck with a Grom for bluetooth streaming coupled with a pure DAB unit. It's a very good sound indeed



Edited by Garemberg on Monday 7th September 13:05
Yeah, I'll second that, some very good systems in Lexus as oem.

spyder dryver

1,330 posts

223 months

Saturday 24th October 2020
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The sound system in my Peugeot 508SW GT was developed in association with the French company Focal, producers of high-end loudspeakers and studio monitors. Thankfully, they've done a pretty good job and it sounds excellent playing lossless flac files via a USB stick. One minor problem is that it encourages me to play music somewhat louder than I used to which elicits some disapproving glances at times. Maybe they're just not fans of Steely Dan.

Taff107

567 posts

156 months

Monday 26th October 2020
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spyder dryver said:
The sound system in my Peugeot 508SW GT was developed in association with the French company Focal, producers of high-end loudspeakers and studio monitors. Thankfully, they've done a pretty good job and it sounds excellent playing lossless flac files via a USB stick. One minor problem is that it encourages me to play music somewhat louder than I used to which elicits some disapproving glances at times. Maybe they're just not fans of Steely Dan.
I pulled out all the speakers in my Subaru and replaced them with Focals. Probably the best bang-per-buck car speakers you can get imo.

Uggers

2,224 posts

218 months

Monday 26th October 2020
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The Shogun has a Rockford system fitted, speakers everywhere and a big sub in the boot. ACDC live in concert is so good it's almost like I'm there. Absolutely amazing sound for a system that is now 13 years old.

andycaca

463 posts

135 months

Wednesday 28th October 2020
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BlackWidow13 said:
The B&O system in my old V10 S8 was by far the best in car system I’ve ever heard.
The standard speakers and amp in my 2001 S8, coupled with the RNS-E nav system upgrade, is also excellent. Really good sound at all volume levels. Suppose it should be, for what was specced as a 70k car!

jakesmith

9,463 posts

178 months

Wednesday 28th October 2020
quotequote all
Taff107 said:
spyder dryver said:
The sound system in my Peugeot 508SW GT was developed in association with the French company Focal, producers of high-end loudspeakers and studio monitors. Thankfully, they've done a pretty good job and it sounds excellent playing lossless flac files via a USB stick. One minor problem is that it encourages me to play music somewhat louder than I used to which elicits some disapproving glances at times. Maybe they're just not fans of Steely Dan.
I pulled out all the speakers in my Subaru and replaced them with Focals. Probably the best bang-per-buck car speakers you can get imo.
I rate focals. Have put them in a few of my cars. Very good quality for the money

paralla

3,977 posts

142 months

Wednesday 28th October 2020
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Everyone loves to hate the Burmester Systems Porsche put in their cars because it's a very expensive option but if you can get past the price they are very good.

https://www.burmester.de/en/automotive/porsche/

I had Burmester in a Cayman S and it was amazing. So many speakers powered by multi channel amplifiers in such a small space all tuned with powerful DSP was impressive.