Why is the car audio industry so far behind?

[StigErik]

I did an attempt at measuring the audio system in my car yesterday. I placed the Umic-1 where my head would be in the drivers seat, and myself in the front passenger seat. Test sweeps created in REW were copied to an USB stick installed in the car and played back during measurements. Here's how it looks with flat EQ and the "surround" panner in the center position. The "surround" panner setting doesn't do much else than distributing stereo sound between the front and rear speakers. Turning off the rear speakers proved to have no effect on the sound in the driver seat, which is a good thing.

Response first: As you see, the L and R are not having the same response, which is not a surprise considering the measurement is taken far off the center axis between the speaker systems and not in the middle of the cabin. The response curves are a little less good... The peak at 2 kHz is quite annoying, and the treble is in general too loud.

 

[StigErik]

The impulse response is a total mess. Here the R speaker only, which is to the far side of the driver seat.

 

[StigErik]

I also measured the noise floor, unfortunately not with the mic where my head would be, but placed on the front passenger seat on a small tripod (the one that is uncluded with the Umic-1).

The KIA EV6 if a fairly quiet car for its class. Being an EV there is no engine noise. At standstill, all you can hear is the climate control system. I also did one at 80 km/h, where road and wind noise is dominant. As you can see, the noise is very high at low frequencies, and it will mask out anything you try to make the audio system play back....

This is a FR measurement with no sweep actually being played.

 

[Vacceo]

How very sad, but then I don't go for the car audio thing much, I don't spend near enough time in my truck to make it important to me. Besides horsepower and acceleration are much more important to me than a few mpg.. But that's me and we all have our priorities own. LOL.

Now that you mention mpg, I realized that when you drive an electric car, there is an interesting mindset change.

Range on them is a lot more weight dependent, but at the same time, the base noise is lower, hence insulation, that reduces range, becomes a lot more relevant.

I have driven a Tesla 3 properly insulated and with good, turned up sound system. It is a very peculiar experience to say the least.

 

[Elgrosso]

I don't know about the current industry level, but in my time few years ago they were definitely in advance with dsp & multichannel.
Sure aftermarket suffered with all the integration but there’s new product that can bypass all this.

I had so much fun working on the car, learned so much, working on fiberglass, wood, fabric & leather, electronic & electric, acoustic & psycho-acoustic, well just broader than in home audio, even if not everything is applicable to home audio of course.
It’s definitely possible to get great sound, not home level, but everything can be improved, can be better in some way, because it ’s easy to get it more fun, more spl, more bass, more impact (chest thump) etc, And just the improvement can be so dramatic compared to OEM setup.

Just one example in my old stuff, I think it was 10’’ midbass IB deep in the footwell, 6’’ PA in doors, HF108 in horns below the dash, and 2x15’’ right behind me. It was also fun to experiment Dirac in there.

 

[StigErik]

I have driven a Tesla 3 properly insulated and with good, turned up sound system. It is a very peculiar experience to say the least.

Was that a modified Tesla of some kind? The first generation Tesla 3 is a noisy car at highway speed. The second gen Tesla 3 is supposedly a bit better. Tesla S is not very quiet either, but they do offer a much better audio system than my KIA....

 

[Ste_S]

I suppose the best audio experience in a car is your phone with ANC earbuds; not sure I'd feel safe driving with that combo, though.

 

[StigErik]

I suppose the best audio experience in a car is your phone with ANC earbuds; not sure I'd feel safe driving with that combo, though.

You can configure most ANC headphones to pass through some sound if you want. That being said, in most countries hearing is not a requirement for having a drivers license.

 

[Vacceo]

Was that a modified Tesla of some kind? The first generation Tesla 3 is a noisy car at highway speed. The second gen Tesla 3 is supposedly a bit better. Tesla S is not very quiet either, but they do offer a much better audio system than my KIA....

It had all the interior pulled out, two layers of noise insulation applied, and everything re-attached.

It was heavily modified, and around 60 kilos of insulation were applied on top of a change of speakers and amplification.

 

[Blake Klondike]

Some "sporty" cars (BMW, Mustangs, others) are now TOO quiet inside, so they play fake engine noise through the speakers...

https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/fake-engine-noise/

i hate this! it drives me crazy.

 

[RayDunzl]

I tried closing my eyes and concentrating on the music on the way to the airport..

It didn't work as well as it did at home.

Kept hearing strange horn sounds that I didn't remember being in the source material.

 

[nerdstrike]

The graphs above really illustrate what a waste of time I've found trying to listen to classical music on the go. You can hear the violins and other trebly instruments, but the combination of a lower minimum signal (i.e. musicians playing quietly on purpose), higher dynamic range common in classical recordings, and heavy masking of lower frequencies... I can go entire minutes without hearing a damn thing in some pieces unless I've gone silly with the volume.

I have a Jaguar XF: pretty quiet at speed, but they've clearly cheaped on the audio as there's very little audible bass despite a nudge on the EQ and some nasty treble peaks. Based on my previous cheaper cars, the starting point is often so primitive/cheap you can gain a great deal for reasonable money just by swapping out the tweeters and woofers for something not made of craft paper and magnetic cheese. The diminishing returns come on fast though. Several cars I've owned didn't have cross-overs at all, and the best of the bunch had Bose logos and some DSP... that one was ok... for car.

Hybrids and electric cars now also need moderate amplification to run the "I'm maneouvering" sounds. I wonder what they do to implement those!

 

[MattHooper]

The graphs above really illustrate what a waste of time I've found trying to listen to classical music on the go. You can hear the violins and other trebly instruments, but the combination of a lower minimum signal (i.e. musicians playing quietly on purpose), higher dynamic range common in classical recordings, and heavy masking of lower frequencies... I can go entire minutes without hearing a damn thing in some pieces unless I've gone silly with the volume.

I have a Jaguar XF: pretty quiet at speed, but they've clearly cheaped on the audio as there's very little audible bass despite a nudge on the EQ and some nasty treble peaks. Based on my previous cheaper cars, the starting point is often so primitive/cheap you can gain a great deal for reasonable money just by swapping out the tweeters and woofers for something not made of craft paper and magnetic cheese. The diminishing returns come on fast though. Several cars I've owned didn't have cross-overs at all, and the best of the bunch had Bose logos and some DSP... that one was ok... for car.

Hybrids and electric cars now also need moderate amplification to run the "I'm maneouvering" sounds. I wonder what they do to implement those!

Reminds me of when I’m listening to our local jazz station. Often times I’ll be listening to an old jazz piece and suddenly it’s like the music stops silent and I can’t hear a thing. And then I remember: oh yeah, the standup base player is having a solo and I’m in a car.

 

[Waxx]

Reminds me of when I’m listening to our local jazz station. Often times I’ll be listening to an old jazz piece and suddenly it’s like the music stops silent and I can’t hear a thing. And then I remember: oh yeah, the standup base player is having a solo and I’m in a car.

That's why i love my actual car has two 8" subwoofers integrated in the front seat bases, that really give bass to at least 30Hz. It does not go loud with the standard system of my car, but i do have (almost) the full spectrum on that volume, and no crackling speakers like in my old car without the subs (just some 6" midbass in the door). even with the most challening bass, i don't miss a note....

 

[Vacceo]

In other thread I mentioned fully insulating the car if you can afford it. If you drive a lot, the reduced stress from noise and heat alone is totally worth it.