Auto Audio Industry Overvalued
by Paul McGoldrick
I have a young neighbor (don't we all) whose greatest passion is his black, custom-treated Honda. The amount of money that has been put into this vehicle to make it more shiny, lower, and growlier can only be compared to the amount of Watts that emanate from the moving vehicle. The fact that the total harmonic distortion is well into the higher teens seems irrelevant to the driver -- who does his best to avoid hearing it by attempting to beat the sound barrier.
With every incarnation of a catalog from a Crutchfield-like supplier I am truly astounded by what people will spend on car audio. My rather up-market vehicle (far from prestigious) features an audio system with the "B" name on it, which rather than conjuring up quality in my mind rather suggests affectation. What truly can any audiophile do in the confines of a small vehicle to deliver quality sound?
Yes, you can do all the standard things that you would do in any audio set-up: Reduce distortion in each of the sources, increase signal-to-noise ratios, provide flat and selectable frequency response characteristics for different types of audio material … but how do you control the delivery?
I remember seeing a couple relaxing in a vehicle in a car showroom once. They had brought their favorite CD and were checking it out sitting in the model they were contemplating purchasing; this was an upscale import vehicle boasting a superb sound system, and although neither of the couple was sitting in an audio "sweet spot" (you can only do that in a hearse) they were evidently very satisfied by what they could hear.
How can you compare that audio test drive with the real world? Sure, you can have systems to increase the volume of the audio system as vehicle speed increases, overcoming some of the increase in road and wind noise at the cost of increased distortion (and driver fatigue?) But such systems are only a patch on an inherently inadequate platform.
I am not saying that vehicle audio users should be ignored as customers; I certainly wouldn't want to go back those early days of in-vehicle transistor radios where thermal runaway was a daily consequence of driving with the heater turned on. But the value that is put on vehicular audio systems is truly absurd. An option, for example, on my vehicle is an in-trunk CD changer (it was standard on the last vehicle of the same model) at a cost of $950. Excuse me? $950 for a $300 product? Plus mounting charges to an already-installed factory cable? It is impossible to identify the exact changer that is used, as the vehicle manufacturer goes to extraordinary ends to hide the vendor and model. And if my experience with another luxury car model is to be extrapolated to other suppliers, they even have different pin-outs on the cable compared to the unit you would buy in your local audio store.
The alternative is to install an FM changer -- one that delivers an RF signal to the car radio -- but why would I pay good money just to give up the quality that I thought I was getting from a CD?
And power, particularly at the lower frequencies, is an extremely expensive commodity. Apart from the amplifier and the sub-woofer, both amazingly overpriced when you understand the BOMs, you have to beef up the vehicle's electrical system and take your power almost directly from the battery terminals. The return hardly seems worthwhile: You certainly don't get a return on quality, although that might be argued by some users who "cruise," and you lose marks on the don't-destroy-your-hearing-front.
But I have an idea so that users of such equipment can compare value.
The government already determines what size a car is by the volume in the
passenger compartment -- not by the length, or width -- and those numbers
are published: Systems that are designed to reproduce (isn't that a suggestive
Darwinian word in context?) audio below 100 Hz should be required to define
their system power in W/cm³ or W/in³ for the particular vehicle
in question. That way buyers can compare value of power density, which is,
after all, what they are buying.