A premium audio system. If already in place what audio system is In play?
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Audio system
- Thread starter mbeadnell
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Once upon a time stock systems were a joke - and I was as bad as the next person building custom systems for my vehicles. But a LOT of stock systems now sound pretty good. My LJ did not come with stock, so I did upgrade that a little - not so much for sound, as features. I do enjoy wireless carplay now - not to mention navigation and front and rear cameras. I probably should deal with the sound, but the stage is terrible, so it is a loosing battle. Now in all fairness, I guess my experience with modern systems might be bias - my last 4 vehicles were not exactly budget (3 were pretty much as optioned out as I could get them), so they DID come with the companies premium system. The only one that was midstream was the minivan - and it was still completely acceptable. Rubicon I think was Alpine, VW I think was Fender, I don't know what my King Ranch has - but it was fine as well.
I endorse Bowers and Wilkins as a top-end option. I very much enjoy the system they have in my current XC90 (there are multiple types of sound settings including one that simulates the experience of sitting in the Gothenburg concert hall). B&W does marine and outdoor speakers and might be able to engineer some pretty unique options with Scout. With the ability to open the roof, it would be cool to have a “boombox” mode that might allow the car to be your audio system when parking on a beach.
I still think partnering with a U.S. audio company would be a good fit for Scout.
Klipsch do very good car audio, and haver a modern-vintage vibe that I think is a perfect fit.
see
https://www.klipsch.com/news/all-ne...egment-exclusive-klipsch-premium-audio-system
If Scout are looking for a U.S. based audio transducer manufacturer to meet their U.S. supply chain goals, there are few options. I work for one, but we are very small volume and specialize in large compression (horn) drivers, not the ultra lightweight drivers needed for vehicles. For a stateside transducer supplier Scout should talk to Misco.
Klipsch do very good car audio, and haver a modern-vintage vibe that I think is a perfect fit.
see
https://www.klipsch.com/news/all-ne...egment-exclusive-klipsch-premium-audio-system
If Scout are looking for a U.S. based audio transducer manufacturer to meet their U.S. supply chain goals, there are few options. I work for one, but we are very small volume and specialize in large compression (horn) drivers, not the ultra lightweight drivers needed for vehicles. For a stateside transducer supplier Scout should talk to Misco.
British companies tie in pretty well to the retro feel of the brand, however. Think the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd. “Big sound. Built to tour America.”
My first thought was Klipsch as well. They’ve got impressive history, and a good reputation.
I grew up with a father who was pretty into stereo systems. And every house we moved to had to have a place for the Klipschorns we had (still have).
I also had a crazy uncle who had a very impressive audio room. He had photos with Paul Klipsch, had his hand in developing the LFE output that is now common, and had an incredible sound system that forever changed my perception of sound and what a “home theater” was.
He had 32 channels, 16 subwoofers (including some from theater which where installed for the movie “earthquake” premier event, but had to be removed as they were destroying the theater…) , and over 30k watts of power packed into a 1960’s normal size suburban basement room. And the mains for that whole setup, were again, Klipshorns.
McIntosh is another brand that would match the vibe that scout is going for imo.
@Chaparral @Logan - Having looked at Klipsch’s current aesthetic, I’m on board with it now. Hopefully, the system will pack some OOMPH 
Since we are on the road a lot, and even for commuting, I like my vehicles to be a nice place to be while I'm driving. Having a good sound system is essential. EDIT: all of my audio is through Amazon Music HD.
The middle-tier Meridian (850W / 14-speaker) system in my 2017 Land Rover is superb. Granted, the LR is already a quiet highway traveler and built like a brick sh*thouse, so there's little sound intrusion anyway, but the tuning is amazing - tight bass with excellent low end response even at low volumes, and the highs are crisp without sounding tinny or buzzy. It fills the cabin just so, and it never seems like it's too loud - but has plenty of power to give amazing sound even with the windows down and sunroof open.
The middle-tier Harmon/Kardon in my wife's Volvo XC60 is nice, but doesn't hold a candle to Meridian. The H/K system in my Polestar is subpar to the same system in our Volvo - probably because the cabin is so much smaller.
I've sampled the Bowers & Wilkins in top-tier Volvos and they are stunning, but not that much better than my Land Rover's. I can't justify spending $2,000 or more for marginally better sound.
I think the biggest difference is that the truly top-tier systems are developed and tested in real-world driving, with engine, road noise, wind, etc - whereas lower-tier "premium" systems such as the Bose system we had in a loaded 2019 Mazda 6 were probably developed only in a cabin mockup.
The middle-tier Meridian (850W / 14-speaker) system in my 2017 Land Rover is superb. Granted, the LR is already a quiet highway traveler and built like a brick sh*thouse, so there's little sound intrusion anyway, but the tuning is amazing - tight bass with excellent low end response even at low volumes, and the highs are crisp without sounding tinny or buzzy. It fills the cabin just so, and it never seems like it's too loud - but has plenty of power to give amazing sound even with the windows down and sunroof open.
The middle-tier Harmon/Kardon in my wife's Volvo XC60 is nice, but doesn't hold a candle to Meridian. The H/K system in my Polestar is subpar to the same system in our Volvo - probably because the cabin is so much smaller.
I've sampled the Bowers & Wilkins in top-tier Volvos and they are stunning, but not that much better than my Land Rover's. I can't justify spending $2,000 or more for marginally better sound.
I think the biggest difference is that the truly top-tier systems are developed and tested in real-world driving, with engine, road noise, wind, etc - whereas lower-tier "premium" systems such as the Bose system we had in a loaded 2019 Mazda 6 were probably developed only in a cabin mockup.
My home audio is a high end Yamaha receiver with top-tier Bose monitors and surround. Amazing sound. But I've never been in a vehicle with a Bose sound system that sounded anywhere as nice. I think most automakers buy the Bose name and probably don't pay for the best experience Bose could offer.
I will say I like Sennheiser cans better than any Bose headphones - Bose headphones always sounds too muddled.
Is Jeep using McIntosh? Not that I care but thought one of the manufacturers this last year or so was McIntosh?
Correct.
The Jeep Wagoneer sub brand seems to use McIntosh, and maybe a few other models as well?
It is relatively recent development.
Despite having been exposed to pretty good audio in my life, and even having built my own subwoofer for my home theater system (I was inspired by my crazy uncle, and built a subwoofer disguised as an end table that takes up the space between my couches. It’s a 15” and will do 17hz at 120db… with only 300w
). I've so far never splurged on a high end audio system in a vehicle. We”ll see what the pricing looks like for the Scout. My problem is often the nice audio system is locked into a trim that has a lot of other features I don’t care about.
When we were buying the Tucson we have now, the mid trim without the nicer audio was $8k cheaper than the next trim up. And the while I appreciate good audio, $8k is more than I can stomach.
Perhaps more important to me, is good sound isolation in the vehicle. Road noise gets bad at speed, and on long drives it can be its own kind of fatigue. Plus trying to carry conversation between rows at speed can be hard.
Marshall does do audio for Automotive Industry i thought they didn’t. Somehow BMW hoped on that train. Never seen it in person since i only work on the 4 wheeled vehicles from BMW.
Welp, as I said, I’ve got no experience with their car audio. My dad had Sennheiser cans for watching TV (he went deaf from being a tank driver in the army) and they were pretty good. My ex-husband was also a fan of Sennheiser. I’m more partial to the Bose headset and a certain tonal quality that I don’t have a word to describe, like a richness or depth or realism that I like. Let’s call it uncanny valley audio? I like that about my Bose audio products.
I know that there are a zillion things inside of a car that will mess up noise and interfere with signal that could potentially make stunning audio sound like hot garbage. I have JBL speakers and I know that these speakers,—which were thrown into the premium option package for all three of the Prii my ex and I bought together—fail to convey notes in songs that I’ve heard a million times. I leave the U2 channel on SiriusXM by default and I’ll notice that some layer is missing from “Sunday Bloody Sunday” as an example. The bass always seems buried. I mess with levels a bit but not a lot because I don’t love playing audio engineer when I don't fully know what I’m doing and also find that I’ll have fixed the issue for exactly one song and that everything else subsequently sounds shitty. The audio controls are also very limited. There’s probably an answer about how to tweak the audio settings somewhere that I just need to go look up.
My dads Chevy Silverado had the BOSE upgraded package. We listened to one song when we got it. We had the volume at a reasonably loud volume and once the bass kicked in the song all we heard was a thumping and buzzing sound which was all the speakers and subs that blew. That led us to upgrading it to a Kicker sound system which has been flawless.
Excellent point and you are absolutely correct. The sound system must be better than good in an EV. I have the Harmon Kardon in my BMW iX. It is the entry level stereo, but it is very good. The Bang and Olufsen option sounds even better, but was just not worth it to me.
Perhaps a vote with several brands (like the color poll) is in order. It seems like there are enough Scouts on here that know some stuff about audio, and there are plenty that just like the sound of certain brands they've had in vehicles.
As someone who listens to high-end audio normally I would vote for Focal or JL Audio speaker system setup for the premium range of sound. Hopefully Scout doesn't overlook this and we can add it in to any build as an option.
A vehicle provides a completely different acoustical environment to what most audio companies are used to working with. It requires specialist experience. So any partner would need to have experience designing in-vehicle systems, or else it’s just a branding exercise.
Apple CarPlay now supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio. So I’d hope any partner also needs to have experience building for spatial audio systems.
Apple CarPlay now supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio. So I’d hope any partner also needs to have experience building for spatial audio systems.
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