I put this up as an intro of The Audio Journey on a forum, of what I think about high-end home audio vs high-end car audio, and how that ties in with the items that appear on my blog:
Me, I'm just a high-end audio fan, been one for many years. As for high-end car audio, I must say I have not yet heard a car audio system that can quite match a good in-home setup in sound quality. My take on it (some may disagree) is that this is due to: (1) difference in quality of source, amplifier and speaker components when comparing high-end home audio vs car audio; (2) sometimes difference in philosophy of equipment design, ie designing products for dynamics vs natural sound; and (3) difficult in-car acoustics.
Couple that with the difficult consideration for owners of newer cars: (4) integration of head unit with car's HVAC and/or navigation systems; and (5) (rightful) reluctance of owners to tear up doors/dashboard/panels/pillars in order to optimally place speakers and amps.
With all these factors, the question in my mind is: How does one maximize sound quality while minimizing the amount of major surgery on the car? And my take is: (a) good head unit, if possible; (b) good OEM integration processor, if not possible to change head unit; (c) good amplifiers; (d) good speaker components/systems in stock locations; and (e) meticulous, systematic tuning.
Yes, while tone controls are the bane of high-end home audio, I believe they are the boon of high-end car audio, eg I think the Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.2 is probably one of the better OEM integration processors around in terms of allowing flexibility of tuning, with individual channel equalizers, time delay and all, while the JL Audio CleanSweep CL441dsp is probably one of the easiest to use, given that it comes with automatic equalization.
As and when I come across new items that fulfill conditions (a)-(d), or facilitate (e), I will list them, with pics, as soon as practically possible.
