Best Factory Audio Systems?

[Frank Dernie]

An EV with a silent sealed cabin and multiple drivers / multi-channel with advanced dsp including timing etc.

They should achieve more! I mean, we are not going to get high end 2 channel dedicted room type sound, but a lot of potential is there.

The old paradigm of engine/road noise and poor accoustic treatment with limited speaker positioing should now be overcome.

One of our cars is a BYD with Dynaudio speakers and Dirac tune. It sounds quite nice, a lot is probably due to the quiter background. Still can not do bass right, but we have solved that in our homes with multiple sources/subs, dirac ART, cardioid etc.

Not really.
Road noise dominates low frequencies and is at a high level so the standard get around of excessive bass boost is still necessary.
The drive units are still constrained to be in completrely wrong places relative to the listeners. Coax speakers help, and have been around in cars audio mods for decades and DSP helps a lot to make it "nice" but still lipstick on a pig.

 

[Arindal]

I compared the standard system to the Bose option, which has some DSP and surround sound offerings, and the standard system was less coloured and had a fairly even frequency response so was non-irritating listening to speech and chose that.

Interesting. I had a similar impression, when comparing top-notch B&O system to standard stereo in Audi A7. That was not the case with Porsche Panamera, though, in which the standard system was somehow colorated, and the expensive Burmester delivered quite a neutral reproduction.

I really like the standard audio in 2025 BMW 420i coupe - they nailed it and glad did not look for upgrades.

Did you listen to the H/K in comparison? Usually, in BMWs these are extraordinarily good for the money.

 

[Frank Dernie]

the expensive Burmester delivered quite a neutral reproduction.

For £4k extra it should! but I don't consider a car to be a place to listen seriously to music, so uncoloured speech is more important to me and I spent the money on rear wheel steer, torque vectoring and active anti-roll bars instead

 

[agiletiger]

I have a BMW with the H/K upgrade in it. I did some tweaking based on what others have done both on here and the Bimmer forum. Got it to a point that I’m happy with.

I travel for work a lot and have used a lot of different ones. Only two really stand out for me: Mercedes Benz with Burmester and Genesis with Meridian. And then, there’s a crowded and distant second place where you find just about everyone else including my BMW.

EV’s may be quieter but I’ve heard my share of mediocre systems in them. The one in my wife’s Nissan Ariya is one of the worst. Mustang Mach E is not great.

It also has become much more difficult to customize the newer all screen cars. On my last car, I replaced all the speakers, added an amp, and replaced the head unit with one that had a powerful DSP - did auto calibration for the timing alignment and levels. Thats the only thing I miss about that car!

 

[pablolie]

Back in the day, to me the Scandinavian brands (Volvo, Saab) had the best systems. But I am pretty much happy with anything that's in a car, it's such a flawed environment that my expectations are always quite low. And as soon as you're doing 60 mile per hour, even a Rolls will be too noisy to truly enjoy audio (unless one uses NC headphones).