How Much Have You Spent On Car Audio

I’m interested to know how important is car audio to people who appreciate good home audio, and how much people have spent on upgrading the audio system on the current vehicle.

  • Nothing. I’m happy with the stock audio system of the vehicle
  • Up to £1,000
  • £1,001 - £2,000
  • £2,001 - £3,000
  • £3,001 - £4,000
  • £4,001 - £5,000
  • Above £5,000

0 voters

I clicked Nothing, but it’s not that I’ve compared the stock systems with anything better and then come to the conclusion I don’t want to pay for anything else. Rather, I’ve just never really asked the question. I might be really missing out, for all I know, like all the people who consume their music at home on a tiny tinny smart speaker…

Mark

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I always go for the top option from the manufacturer. This is normally about 1000 above the basic cost. The current system is a Sonus and sounds nice.

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I have never bought a new car or fitted an after-market system except for when the radio in my first car died and then I got a second-hand unit from my local garage for around £10-15 if memory serves. I think in my last car the system in the car was an option but I am unsure.

Ditto.
For me a car is simply not a place for serious listening to music. Many years ago if driving when tired I played music louder to keep myself awake. I later realised it was much more effective to have someone with me and engage in conversation, or have a talk radio station with an interesting subject or play etc.

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I very rarely listen to any music in the car. For my use case, it would be a waste of money to buy any sort of aftermarket system.

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£99 for a kenwood which can play flacs from a usb stick, and accepts qobuz playing downloads from my iPhone via usb.
The category poll values are much too large.

£8.99 for a cable to connect my aging iPod Classic to my Audi B & O sound system. :+1:

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I’ve never even used the cassette in mine. :thinking:

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Same here, nothing as I’ve tended to accept what comes with the car and being impatient don’t tend to like to wait for a build to order or retro-fitting.

My old VW Golf had significantly better in-built audio than the current leased VW Tiguan. If/when I order another car I’ll probably contemplate a higher end audio system but likely only what the manufacturers will offer as an upgrade from standard.

I always tick the audio upgrade on any car I buy.

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I ticked standard in the poll, but did go with the model with the best sound system.

My current car has Dynaudio with 730 watts.

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I spec’d the Harman Kardon upgrade on our Clubman JCW which I believe was about $1.5-2k over the stock, maybe more (and was lucky to get it as they started chopping off bits on the production line at Oxford when Covid and the semi-conductor shortage hit…until the car was delivered the dealer wasn’t able to tell me if it had missed the cut off point and indeed been built with the full spec I’d chosen, including the auto opening rear doors…thankfully all was present when delivered…)….

I know it sounds much better than the stock…but if I’m honest, I’m not hugely blown away with it……As with most average car audio upgrades, sounds nice, clear and detailed, especially when the engine isn’t running or your at low speeds…! :roll_eyes:

I know from experience when I was younger, as well as from a good friend of mine back in the UK who’s actually a car audio specialist, you’re often better off SQ wise fitting something aftermarket and upgrading all the elements – incl a tonne of sound dampening, as much as you can cram in behind any panel you can access….However, these days that’s getting ever harder and trickier as the electronics on cars are now so complex and often ‘closed’ ecosystems…Cars these days are more often than not written off for electronic reasons and not mechanical……

Back as a 20yr old roaring around like a prat in my Renault 5GT Turbo, I had a pretty flashy Alpine system I fitted myself, HU, speakers, 6-disc CD changer in the boot, etc etc…Dogs boll*cks…Sure it would still sound good today…!

I always wondered/hoped Naim may have ventured into into offering a HU and Amps at some point, especially after the work with Bentley and Focal etc…but it seems not. I guess after pulling out of the AV market, sadly, it’s understandable they wouldn’t want to open up to such a niche market, except their controllable partnership with Bentley….

SC

Nice :grinning:

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I had the HK system in my Alfa it was the best system I’ve ever had.

May be mine is missing a few semi-conductors…! :rofl:

Don’t get me wrong, it is good…and perhaps I’m being a bit harsh….but as ever, there’s upgrade potential there, on the upgrade…!

The one thing I couldn’t go without now though, is wireless CarPlay….Just don’t need to think about it, get in the car and as long as my phone is with me everything I need/want is on the screen….

Having said that, there is a bit of me that thinks fiddling around with screens whilst driving is a major distraction, not that much worse than putting the phone to your ear….
But then, where do you draw the line…is adjusting the heater control any worse…?
S’pose full voice control will be the future, if not fully autonomous driving….but that’s a different discussion!

SC

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I detest listening to anything whilst driving

Driving a VW T6 Transporter, the sound was horrible. I have damped the doors and the wall behind the front seats and installed new tweeters and midrange/bass drivers. Was around €550 total. Night and day difference. I drive around 40000km each year.

I’ve clicked on nothing although I once bought a Pye radio for my Escort. It had push button pre-selects😎