How will Samsung utilize it's acquisition of Harman?

[Kvn_Walker]

Hold different ballgame with some of the "premium" stereos that can come in luxo cars where you can get factory systems by B&W, Dynaudio (like my old XC70), Burmester, B&O, Krell, Revel, etc.

Mine was apparently like a $2000 option, but the Burmesters and others I listed can be like $5000 or more, so they better be good. Haha. Thank goodness for the used car market! I think my car's total value now is probably worth about as much as that stereo upgrade cost the original owner alone. Lol.

When the car dies, take the drivers out of the door and make home speakers with them. Boom! Poor man's Dynaudios!

 

[Montucky]

When the car dies, take the drivers out of the door and make home speakers with them. Boom! Poor man's Dynaudios!

Hey! Not a bad idea! Car's got a gazillion miles and it's over 10 years old so it's hardly worth anything, but runs great so we'll just keep on driving it til it blows up. When that happens and it's off to the scrap heap, I'll definitely rip out the speakers and (surprisingly powerful) amp and play with them. Great idea! I really do like it. Factory car stereos have sure come a LONG way since the 90s.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

What the heck? You guys dont put after markets in yours cars? I figured everybody in the AV hobby would be custom doing cars too.

It's nearly impossible to swap modern cars sound systems, especially the electronics. They are extremely deeply integrated with all of rest car electronics and besides if someone is "lucky" enough to have HK (or it's Mark Levinson), Dynaudio, B&O or another really good system (not Bose obviously) then there's very little point of upgrading it as already mentioned.

 

[lovinthehd]

These days I don't drive nearly as much as I did earlier in life....am under 6k miles a year easily now compared to 40-50k a year as I used to. My suv goes largely unused now and am procrastinating putting it back on the road (needs some work). I do have a decent aftermarket setup in my van, because the stock basic system was driving me nuts. If I bought a new car I'd likely be fine with one of the better systems offered now rather than trying to tear it apart and insert something custom that would truly be an improvement worth the additional $ (let alone potential problems as was said about how things are integrated now).

 

[Drunkpenguin]

I actually enjoy tearing cars apart and installing systems. Its very satisfying. I even upgraded the speakers in my work truck and I don't even own that one. My Z also gets very low mileage but when were in it I gotta rock out. It's the most challenging car ever to get great sound tho. Theyre so small they don't even have a place for rear speakers. I put a sub in the back but now I can barely get a suitcase back there. I just hit 10k recently and its a 2015. It's mainly our road trip car.

 

[Hi Ho]

My Mazda 6 has a Bose system and, dare I say, it sounds excellent. It is setup kind of like a surround sound system with three speakers across the dash, speakers in each door, and more speakers across the back deck. The "Centerpoint" option is what I use because it actually sets up a decent stereo/surround image for the driver. It really sounds great. The "Autopilot" option is also nice because it takes speed dependent volume control a step further and uses a microphone to measure the ambient noise in the cabin and not only adjust the volume but it also has a dynamic EQ that adjust particular frequencies based on road noise.

Bose gets a lot of hate and I'm right there with most of it but the system Mazda has implemented is really impressive. That's a good thing too because there is no possibility for aftermarket in this car. There is no standard DIN stereo slot and a lot of the cars options and settings are accessed through the screen.