Your Favorite Car Stereo System

[unixfish]

We've had a few good ones. My wife's 2003 Lexus ES300 had a good system. Her 2018 Mazda MX-5 has a Bose system, and it sounds good as well.

Two cars ago, I had a 2000 Jetta with the two point slow, a 5 speed manual, and the Monsoon sound system. I loved that car. The Monsoon system may not have been as clear or have as good a sound system as the Lexus or the Mazda, but I really enjoyed the overall sound of it more. (Does that make sense? Like a guitar amp that is not as clear but sounds "better".) I had a certain color to the sound that just worked in that car. I bought and installed a 6 CD cartridge player in the trunk; that unit was an option for that car, and the wiring was already there - plug it in, screw it in place, and voila. The unit was controlled by the audio head in the car.

The Monsoon had an interesting effect:

When you turned it up, it did get louder, but more so it "filled" the car. At one level, it felt like the sound in the car was full to your belly button. Turn it up a bit more, and it felt like it was full to your chest. If you got the volume right, it would fill to your ears, but leave some breathing room around the top of your head. It was such a cool effect. I have not had a system feel like that before or since.​

Ah, memories. I traded that car in around 2010, as it needed more work than it was worth. I probably should have done the work, as the next car I got had a lot of problems.

That "fill" thing was cool, though.

 

[studio1087]

How do you spot a Ford Eco- Sport SUV and the stereo is very good I have the titanium edition which is the car that has every bell and whistle that Ford sells. Beyond that I would nominate the Ford mustang that I had in the late 80s in college that I put a Sony cassette stereo in and and an EQ booster from Pioneer and I had Sony speakers put in the car and that thing thumped.

 

[Frodebro]

I really like the system in my E36, but not one bit of it is factory original-not even the speaker wiring.

 

[Smokin OP]

Any sound system that is in a car that is paid for!

 

[unixfish]

Any sound system that is in a car that is paid for!

Ah. All four of the cars in our family then!

 

[Blackout Jazz]

I bought my son a 2012 Lex IS250, not the Mark Levinson stereo. It has 3 way component speakers in all 4 doors and a weird dual voice coil 8" sub in the back deck. It sounds good but there really isn't an upgrade path because all of the climate control is on the nav/stereo touchscreen. So kinda stuck.

But MY truck, 05 Tundra, I installed a JVC head unit and Kenwood 50w RMS per chan amp with 6.5" Kicker CS series speakers in the doors. Plenty loud for this old rocker.

 

[guitar_paul1]

AM radio from a 59 Lincoln (or caddy?) That had a mechanical motorized auto tune. I had in my 58 Dodge power wagon back in the day. Oh wait, it wasn't stereo. But it was really cool.

 

[koen]

 

[Chiogtr4x]

Well I just TOTALLED my 2009 Nissan Altima last Saturday AM on the way to a Winery gig ( and I am NOT happy- ran a red light, plowed into a crossing SUV)

I bought it used after another accident ( not my fault) in 2018, and besides being a fantastic car, it had an awesome BOSE stereo system

I don't know what model, or how much power, but it had maybe 8-10 speakers, a 6-disc CD changer, and one of those amplifiers bolted to the top of the trunk.

Favorite moments:
Cranking War Pigs, and the Allman Brothers Mountain Jam and Whipping Post to almost earbleeding levels ( I really don't usually crank it...)

Great car and Stereo- gone, just like that! But this car saved my life

 

[aging_rocker]

View attachment 916002

Puny...try these...

 

[Deathray]

My Mazda3 has a 12 speaker Bose system, that was designed specifically for the interior. It is the most amazing car stereo I’ve ever heard!

 

[draggindakota]

In my first truck (the Dakota in my name lol):4 Kicker L7 10's in a sealed box, Kicker Resolution 5.25" components up front, Clarion Pro Audio deck, Profile California amps pushing it all.

I have 2 sets of Kicker KS 6.75 components & 2 Kicker CompRT 10's waiting to go into my F250 once I get around to it.

For factory sounds, the Bose system in my wife's Impala sounds pretty dang good. Way better the the Sony system in my 250.

 

[JL_LI]

I have Harmon Kardon systems in both of my BMW’s. The pic is of my Z4. It took about two weeks to break in the speakers, after which they’ve been nothing short of amazing.

 

[David Barnett]

My 2007 VW had the Dynaudio premium sound option, and it sounded great. Okay, it was sorta overtly "hifi" and "analytical" but it had detail out the wazoo. The sound in that car's replacement, a 2010 VW, was nowhere as good, and my present 2019 VW has a "Fender"-branded sound system that still doesn't hold a candle to the old Dynaudio.

 

[tubedude]

The Harmon Karden in my Sorento.

 

[Nahtabot]

Whatever drowns out the rattles is good enough.

 

[jimd]

Two cars ago, I had a 2000 Jetta with the two point slow, a 5 speed manual, and the Monsoon sound system.

Ah, memories. I traded that car in around 2010, as it needed more work than it was worth. I probably should have done the work, as the next car I got had a lot of problems.

I had a 2000 Passat 5 speed. I also put a changer in the trunk. It was a great stereo. I also traded it in in 2010 because it was getting expensive to maintain. The check engine light was on more than it was off.

Since then I have had 2 Subarus. I like the cars, but the stereos are meh. The CD player in my 2010 Impreza ate discs. The interface sucks on my 2020 Crosstrek. It will play mp3s on a thumb drive, but won’t play them in the order in the album, only alphabetically. It also has some mysterious limit to the number of songs it will recognize. Add another and it doesn’t see it.

 

[spupilup]

Back in the 1980’s I had a Porsche Carrera in which I installed a sick system. The head was a Nakamichi TD1200. The front speakers were a pair of ADS 320i’s. The rears were a pair of ADS 300i’s with a pair of ADS 8” subs mounted to a special board below the rear window. There were three Nakamichi active crossovers specially mounted in the center console. Amplification was provided to the tweeters by a Nak 4x35 watt amp. Mids were powered by a pair of Nak 70x2 watt amps and the subs were driven by a Nak mono block good for around 300 watts.

I could cruise at 70 mph with the windows down and the sunroof open and all I could hear was music. That system was insane.

 

[spupilup]

This video isn’t mine but it gives you an idea of how unique this state of the art Nakamichi cassette player was. It was the only automobile cassette player to have auto azimuth adjust similar to their Dragon home cassette deck. The one I had sold new for around $1400 and that was 1984 dollars.

 

[rz350]

The stock one in my Acura is just fine....