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Why is the car audio industry so far behind?

goat76 said:
What about noise cancellation, aren't there any car manufacturers who have explored the idea of canceling out the wind and road noises, or is it a hard thing to achieve?
Click to expand...
Low frequency noise should be possible to cancel out. There are some manufacturers that are experimenting with it ..

www.akm.com

Noise cancellation for cars | Solutions | Audio & Voice DSPs | Products | Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM)

Road Noise Cancellation technology reduces the noise that is generated by road-induced vibrations. This is performed by composing a secondary sound field using acceleration signals as inputs and processing these signals in real-time with low-latency computational efforts.
www.akm.com www.akm.com
 
Doodski said:
Theoretically introducing a equal and opposite force to the extraneous noises is possible and does not appear too difficult on first thought. The reality apparently is that with acoust
Click to expand...

StigErik said:
Low frequency noise should be possible to cancel out. There are some manufacturers that are experimenting with it ..

www.akm.com

Noise cancellation for cars | Solutions | Audio & Voice DSPs | Products | Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM)

Road Noise Cancellation technology reduces the noise that is generated by road-induced vibrations. This is performed by composing a secondary sound field using acceleration signals as inputs and processing these signals in real-time with low-latency computational efforts.
www.akm.com www.akm.com
Click to expand...

Most car manufacturers should be highly interested in the noise canceling technique, not just for audio listening as it could also be actively used all the time for canceling out wind and road noises for a quieter in-car environment.
 
goat76 said:
Most car manufacturers should be highly interested in the noise canceling technique, not just for audio listening as it could also be actively used all the time for canceling out wind and road noises for a quieter in-car environment.
Click to expand...
For sure. I experimented with OP amps and using the inverting and non-inverting inputs and it works for noise cancelling if one is into it but it was very rudimentary stuff and not pro level design.
 
StigErik said:
I have a KIA EV6 GT-line as well (great car by the way) with the Meridian Surround sound system. It's actually worse than the standard sound system I had in my 2008 Citroën C5 ..
Click to expand...
The “Meridian” in the KIA will be different than the Meridian used in Land Rover. The Mark Levinson audio in the LC500 is very bad compared to the LS500…


goat76 said:
What about noise cancellation, aren't there any car manufacturers who have explored the idea of canceling out the wind and road noises, or is it a hard thing to achieve?
Click to expand...

I believe the Mazda Millenia was one of the first cars with this tech (or the concept Amati)
 
Grumpish said:
Spot on - only a minute number of people can afford cars that are quiet enough (such as a Rolls Royce, and even the best of those are nowhere near) that sound quality is anything beyond marketing blurb.
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Cars are ok for listening so long as they are parked and turned off.

Actually a my car driving at 65 mph is so noisy it's a good test for ineligibility of a podcast, which in my view is top priority in podcast production. The well made podcasts are fine but it shows up small defects.
 
Over July 4, I had the opportunity to ride in a few years old probably maxed out Lincoln Continental.

The sound wasn't on but the massage seats in the back were amusing.

I figured it would be a lot quieter than my Camry, but it didn't seem to be.
 
i just bought a 2020 kia niro hybrid, and the sound-quality compared to my last, a 2018, is abysmal. they have a permanent low-mids sound effect that sounds like an air raid siren that plays through a speaker under the front bumper. the only time it is now on is when you are going 50 or higher. the sound wrecks the low-end of any of my material and hurts my ears to boot. it's a safety function because they figure silent cars are dangerous but they could just have easily marketed it as a music-wrecking function. it's awful.
 
Multicore said:
that sucks. going significantly backwards on that would be annoying every time. it's a reminder to me to test drive the audio when i test drive a car.
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it sure does. i had no reason to assume they would ruin a perfectly good system! i'm autistic and am very sensitive to foreign noise that i can't control, as well, so i'm in a real jackpot.
 
There are some pretty high end amps like the one below.
www.audiosciencereview.com

Purifi based car amp: Brax by Audiotec Fischer

Very interesting how this manufacturer of car audio amps not only uses a custom amp co-developed with Purifi using Eigentakt technology, but also TI OPA1612 opamps and ESS ES9039Q2M DAC chip. And Made in Germany too. What a beast of an amp! :oops: No idea on pricing yet, but of course it will...
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com
 
StigErik said:
Are they? I have Meridian in my own car, and to my ears it sounds awful. No proper way to tune the sound with EQ either, just three simple tone controls and some basic EQ presets.
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+1 to this. I have a new Kia ev6 with the Meridian audio system and it is not very good compared to the aftermarket Kenwood+morel system I had installed in mazda cx9. Specifically very muffled treble and very little mid and low bass SPL. Can definitely be upgraded. The main issue as others have said is it's so integrated into the workings of the car you can't really replace or mess with the head units. You really are limited to replacing amps and speakers I think.
 
I think innovation in after-market car audio, particularly HU’s, has mainly focused on mobile integration and convenience features more than SQ. They’ve also integrated DSP and such into HU’s now as well.

I didn’t see many (or any) true SQ pre-amp only options on the mkt when I was looking several years ago. IIRC, I think Sony had a pre-amp only unit, but it was like $2k, or something ridiculous like that.

I ran a pre-amp only Alpine 7909 back in the day. So I was pretty disappointed with what was available - lol.
 
I remember back in the 1989 through 1998 that Orion use to be one of the top Car Audio companies. I saw in the competition explores in the back seat 2 10 inch subs for mid bass and 2 15 inch subs for low end. Also in my 2 last years of High school Boston Acoustics 6x9 ‘s in hatch backs were slowly replacing the sub woofers in the kids cars. MB quart and Rockford Fosgste and Mtx and still waters ( now kicker for years). Alpine was a leader at 1 time. I do agree things are more complicated to switch over to custom installed car stereo system in the Newer vehicles made today. One day they will come up with something like the sound bar replacing the basic Home theater That people use to buy and install in their homes and it will be for the cars instead. Also to make note car Audio has come a long way but, the technology and design is still not there and the price tags are what drivers me away. I had a lot of good times in the 90’s with car sound systems. One of my Favorite subs was the ultimate bass reflex ones I bought from Parts express in 1991. Lots of good Memories for sure.
 
I have a Mercedes with Harman stereo. The ‘Logic 7’ DSP can be defeated. Turning off the DSP shows how much work would need to be done for a custom system to sound good. Speakers in weird spots, reflective surfaces, cabin gain. A well tuned stock system should sound better in most cars than a roll your own. The bass extension and SPL is nothing to brag about though.
 
Jim Taylor said:
I think that if the auto sound industry doesn't find a way to create a noise floor in a car that is the rough equal of a room in a house, then there's' no point in putting too much time, energy and money into designing high quality (SQ) auto sound gear. Even the quietest of cars are actually noisy as heck.

Of course, I could be wrong about that ....... :)

Jim
Click to expand...
I was trying to explain to a car guy why better than Red Book (high rez) couldn't possibly matter in a noisy car and he wasn't getting it.
 
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