I would LOVE for BMW to follow suit. B&O is definitely the way to go. I'm tired of people thinking BOSE is the best stereo around.

Danish Audio Phonics company in English sports cars. You would think they would be optional equipment in most Volvos and Saabs.

@WesR: Agreed on the BOSE. Total shit, that stuff. By the way, factory BMW stereos are made by Alpine.

@WesR:

I don't think anyone who knows anything feels Bose is even decent.

@rlj676: Next you're going to tell me my Monsoon speakers ain't all that.

@Maxichamp: They are one of the better weather-related sound systems.

@Maxichamp:

I'd think it a safe bet that their performance to cost ratio blows away BOSE. (Is monsoon the Chevy upgraded system?)

Bang & Olufsen puts mediocre entertainment equipment into pretty cases (I'm definitely going to pick up a used wall mounted multi-disc cd-player/display one of these days).

Selling the name to automakers, like Bose, must be the strategy for staying solvent now that cell phones have destroyed the need for their $1000 home phones.

Bang & Olufsen. It's fun to say, though. I'm going to see how many time I can work it into conversation tonight before the g/f gets mad.

@no_slushbox:

I think selling the name to automakers is a strategy employed by many of the "larger" home audio companies.

I doubt they really have much to do with the design and production of the mobile audio stuff.

I just can't believe Mark Levinson is actually designing the Lexus systems, when I think their home systems sell for about the cost of a Lexus.

@JimBobJoeBobJim: I'm surprised. I thought Bose was pretty decent outside the nose-bleed audiophile catalog. I once had an Alpine stereo. It was crap. Lost the whole right channel due to poor fabrication. Hope they've improved their factory stuff.

Yep. Most of the bits inside a B&O system say Phillips, or Toshiba on them. Everything is bought in.

Also, a B&O system looks and sounds great, but the same $ spent on a set of well matched hi-fi components will blow the shit out of it.

What we have here is your finest badgeneering.

Think those Bose systems in early 90s chevies have ever been anywhere near Bose? All it means is a guy from Bose has been round to chevy and said "Yeah, that sounds good"

Dynaudio, Harmon Kardon, B&W have all been badgeneered to a certain extent.

Mark Levinson is the only exception to the rule, the gear actually comes from a factory with Mark Levinson written on it.

@Rust-MyEnemy: I should add that the Mark Levinson gear is of course not built to nearly the same standard as their domestic stuff.

Like a Nikon D300 is rather better built than a Nikon Coolpix. Same badge, different market.

@brandegee: That's exactly what they want you to think. Bose has some of the most clever marketing around, but if you take their stuff apart, it's nothing but cardboard tubes and Chinese speakers.

That said, I don't envy automakers one bit when it comes to making a stereo that can sound passibly good to all listeners...

What factory option stereos use "authentic" high-end audio equipment?

Audi and Aston got B&O...
Lexus got Mark Levinson...
Chrysler got Boston Acoustics...

Meanwhile the ever-affordable Subaru got McIntosh!?!?

What a crock.

Any serious audiophile can fix the horrible wiring, routing, powering and sound projection of even today's best and most modern car audio systems.

I feel bad for the audiophiles who bought the above mentioned companies good stuff, before the names were soured; like way back in the day when Bose used to make awesome big-ass shelf speakers and then they stopped to concentrate on more 'mass-marketable' products.

@Evander:

Their good stuff isn't worse simply because they're making some "free money" in the automotive marketing game is it?

Sounds like you feel sorry for posers who bought something because of the name only, with little care as to the actual sound reproduction qualities. So, that would be all BOSE and B&O customers no (in the last 20 years or whatever), and their affiliation with "sub-par" mobile audio won't matter to them anyways.

@rlj676: No, I feel bad for the people who love their 20 year-old Bose speakers but feel dumb ever mentioning it because of how annoying their new commercials are to everyone else.

Just like how I feel for the true audiophiles who now have to deal with idiots buying optional stereos just so they can say they have the same stuff in their car as the audiophile's roughly 10 times more expensive, same name, but actually good sounding home stereo equipment.

I don't know, I guess I just feel bad that these companies are tarnishing their identities.

@Evander:

People with opinions that "matter" know Bose used to make some quality products before going all paper-coned wave radio on us, and understand the attachment to the old stuff.

However, just because Mark Levinson or McIntosh has "sold out" by putting their names on "inferior" auto stuff doesn't hurt their image in home equipment in my mind. Most people who even recognize the brands know the difference. They're just making money off their brand name.

I used to be very into hi-fi, with Martin Logans powered by a C-J/Krell combo, Wadia/Rega front ends, yadda-yadda-name-dropping-so-you-can-tell-that-I-sort-of-know-what-I'm-talking-about-here.

And here's what I think about car audio: 98% of it blows. Even the semi-esoteric stuff. For starters, as the driver, you sit off center...which you'd never do at home if you were serious about sound. And there are too many other varaibles involved, so unless you have some expensive active equalization/sound steering going on it's mostly pointless.

That said, Aston's partnership with B&O (IMHO, mostly known for their acceptable sound but very high spouse-acceptance factor...ie, it looks better in the living room than most of the audio nerdom I've brought home) strikes me as much more of an image move than their previous partnership with Linn. Linn equipment is very plain, but well respected in the hi-fi world...on a much higher plane than B&O.

What would be really interesting is if a super high end sedan (because in sports cars, it should be all about the intake and exhaust notes) mfg partnered up with some of the more out there names in audio...say a Maserati Quattroporte with a Meridian, VTL, Wilson system. Now that would be worth a press release.

@rlj676:
Remember how good the 901s were?

@Al Navarro:

I unfortunately have had limited encounters with "good" audio equipment, especially of older vintage. 901's are what come up every time I'm reading and old Bose are mentioned I believe. This makes me believe these and there smaller cousins are what built their reputation up, so they can push the "junk" they do now at those prices.

I'm still living in the "mid-priced" world of internet direct brands (SVS, HSU, etc) and mid-level electronics. (NAD, Yamaha, Denon, etc). My ear is admittadly still untrained enough to make spending more worthwile.

@Al Navarro: Too right, and @Al Navarro: My god yes. Still to this day.

My Hi-Fi at home is a bit of a mongrel system... Cyrus front end, Beresford DAC, Talk Electronics Amp, Mission 773e speakers. But it sounds more-or-less how I want it to. Every now and again I get the upgrade, or even sidegrade bug, and every change I make seems incremental. My parents run a Bose Acoustimass system with Yamaha amplification in their family room. It isn't hot with music and has a slightly alien timbre, but for films it is phenomenal.

Also, proper Bose (not like the shopping channel crud) is still extremely good.

I used to be bothered about in-car audio, but nowadays my only concern is that i can hear every note at 90mph.

Incidentally the standard CD/tape and speakers on my '92 Saab 9000 are way better than the alleged Harmon Kardon stuff in Dads 540i.

@Al Navarro:

I suspect this is a double post coming, but it's been like 10 minutes since I my last attempt.

I have only read about the 901's, and assume they and their smaller cousins must have been something to build Bose's name up so they can sell the junk they do now for those prices.

I unfortunately haven't had too much experience with high end stuff. I'm still dealing with mid-level stuff at best (internet direct speakers-SVS, HSU, etc, and mid-level electronics-NAD, Denon, Yamaha, etc). To my admittadly untrained ear it's not worth spending more.

It's kinda hard to learn about audio through actual experience rather than reading unless you know the right crowd.

@Rust-MyEnemy: That's funny cause my standard is 100mph, windows down. I've never heard of anybody else having a "sound at speed" preference.

And I totally agree about Bose' good stuff: anybody who hears a proper Bose commercial-grade setup will know immediately that they don't care about their home systems anymore, just from how much more bass, treble, and overall volume they scream out compared to their for-home-use twice-removed cousins.

@Evander: I "visited" a "bar" in Amsterdam which had, suspended from the ceiling, a big tube, about 20' long labeled BOSE ACOUSTIC WAVE CANNON.

Cannon..... I like my Hi-fi to be artillery grade!

Needless to say the sound at that place was epic.

@Rust-MyEnemy: Bar huh? Sure, haha!

Yeah I like really loud music too but it actually can be overkill.

Megadeath came close. Metallica closer, as I even once used earplugs at one of the many Metallica concerts I've been to only to hear the lyrics and highs better. But nothing I recall can compare to a few of those not-so-legal parties I went to at some factories and warehouses in Detroit...

I remember having difficulties breathing when certain notes were hit. It could border on painful.

Still though; hell of an experience that's for sure.

A step down from their previous supplier LINN, but I guess more people will have heard of B&O and will be happy nonetheless.

@Evander: For fullness of sound, the best I ever heard was the sound of the 40" bass pipe of the organ at Coventry Cathedral.

You're right about overkill on volume. I find that at local gigs the PA is played well beyond the reasonable limits of the amplification, it goes into clipping and you end up with essentially white noise. Neither your ears, nor the speakers, can cope.

They seem to think that volume is job no1. A bit of quality wouldn't hurt....

B & O is the Movado watch of audio. Heavy on style, mediocre on function. Bose is a master of promotion but not of product. Many Bose buyers are too old to hear well enough to know when they've been taken for a ride. However, I guess Paul Harvey has a Bose.

I rather have Backes&Müller speakers in my car

Yeah so many stereos are out for boom instead of sound quality it's not funny. I got lucky on my 99 Vette convertible and the local place did a great job. I did stress highs-mids quality before they did it, not just so many subs that you sounds like a bumble bee coming down the street. Even at 80 with the top down it sounds awesome.
A lot of people will go for prepackaged sound with a new car because if you lease for finance, that gets folded into the costs instead of having to replace the factory system and then out all new stuff in. My best advice is to get any new car with the best stereo options available and then only if it's crap, replace it with aftermarket.

B&O: Philips in pretty clothes. Nothing impressive.