So when Lexus wanted a new stereo for their "new" breed of vehicle and they went to the engineers at Fujitsu Ten and said give us a revolutionary new stereo for our revolutionary new car, why did the engineers give them a stereo system out of a Camry. Now you know why Lexus (owned by Toyota who also have interests with Fujitsu) went with Nakamichi. Rockford supplies engineers to Nissan for their vehicles? Bose supplies engineers to all of the crap stock systems like the one in the Mazda RX8, the engineers must all have been sniffing glue then as that is one of the most pitifull factory systems I have heard in my life. I will agree though that the factory system in my MR2 rocked, it was great and it stayed that way for over 10 years until first the body kit and wheels and then I had better upgrade the stereo. An upgrade it was, much better tonal response and a whole crapload more power on tap. There are some of us out there that can and do build great systems, sadly though, the old dogs of the industry are getting fewer and far between.

Business is business. If for example Rockford has grown their wholesale business to it's limits, then it needs to go and find a new revenue stream. Why not **** out some gear to a vehicle manufacturer and earn their business as well? Just another way for a manufacturer to grow their business is all. It has nothing to do with engineering, business first, then build a system for the application at hand. Yes there are engineers involved as well, but some of the engineered systems are just plain wrong but it is what the retailer is paying for that counts.

Here is a really good laugh as well. Our local Honda dealer says to me that there is no way that my factory trained technicians broke that door panel. I asked him why it had been taken off in the first place. Because the factory trained technicians were installing a Sony system to make it a "Street Edition" complete with two screws holding the speaker in. I stopped the work on the customers keyless entry at that point and with the customer again present (like he was when I went to remove the door panel that was broken), we noticed the same tell tale marks of a improper tool used to pop the plastic pop ins that hid the mounting screws. Factory trained technicians at their best. This dealer had a visit from the customer and has refused to send me business now for 6 years. Good for him as I refuse to deal with a liar.

 

I didn't say I had all the answers...but the same engineer doesn't do the work for all the manufacturers, I'm sure. This may be why not all engineered systems are good I guess. Reallizing now, I found it took a lot of time to accept and understand that the stock system sounds great. Sure, it's missing a great deal of the dynamics a diy custom instal can bring, but I feel that there is something the factory system does better and that's to make it all work together and reproduce real music.

 

I'm using the factory radio in my new monte carlo. I'm way impressed with the sound quality after i replaced the factory speakers and amp.
The little panasonic amp wasn't up to the task and the no-name brand speakers just aren't good enough.
I used the original factory speaker mounts, i think they were designed by Bose and they are angled just about prefect. The factory grills are good enough, so their was no reason to replace them.
So, I went with MB Quart RCE-216 in the doors (they were on a clearance sale, couldn't afford the focals), Pioneer 4-way 6x9's rear and Kicker CVR 15's behind the rear fold down. Used lots of dynomat, doors and trunk. Now i need to do the roof panel to get rid of wind noise.
Sounds awsome. I still can't believe the factory HU sounds as good as it does. And the whole thing looks just like factory stock, until you look in the trunk.
I listened to a lot of 6x9's before buying the pioneer, i have them on the kicker crossover, so they never go below 90Hz. I had them at 125 wrms each, but wasn't loud enough to match the subs, so i bridged the amps. And the 4-way sound better than the 5-way.

 

The audio engineers that design factory audio systems I'm sure are well-educated as to how a system should sound. But, they are also constrained in areas that we are not. The have to deal with the bean counters and others who are designing the cars interior and infrastructure, which is impacted where speakers go and what size they are, etc. Ever look at pretty much any fancy factory stereo speaker? They are pretty hurtin' units. You usually never get anything beyond what the aftermarket would describe as low-end for factory speakers. The Volvo Dynaudio system is one exception that comes to mind. So the engineers have to do the best with what they can with cheap speakers, probably a tight design budget since it's all about man-hours spent on the project, small amplifiers to adequately fit under that parcel shelf, whether or not that factory 'subwoofer' will get an enclosure or not, etc. So they also get by as much as possible with internal circuitry in the head units and amps so the system can sound relatively decent but also not blow itself up, which would lead to more warranty claims. Hence the built-in equalizers that boost bass at low volumes and cut it down at higher volumes. And, look at how the OEM follows what the aftermarket is doing. We see lots of factory a-pillar tweeter installs now in vehicles, only because the aftermarket has been doing it for years now. Same with subwoofers, outboard amplifiers, DSP, video, etc. It seems more or less that the OEM gives an aftermarket trend about 5 years before they implement it. The only thing I havent' seen used is kick-panel mounting (besides BMW).

 

Yeah, some factory systems are not bad, but can always be improved drastically. My '94 stang with the Mach 460 was a good factory system, that needed additional tweeters( real ones, not cones), and a subwoofer/amp combo. It then was a very good system for under 500.00 additional dollars. Could I have built a complete system for the 1500.00 total cost of that system? Hell yeah! but I bought it used and it came with the system, plus my ex-wife was not going to let me spend too much at the time( notice I said "ex"). My current car is a '04 Chrysler 300M that came with the factory Infinity, 9 speaker, 260 watt system. Is it good? well, it's not bad, but it's not good, at least not as far as audiophiles,or audio enthusiasts are concerned. It's decent up to 1/2 volume, it's convenient, it's vitually theft proof, and it offers no distractions while in the car( nothing to look at, has steering wheel controls). After replacing it, I noticed how light the amplifier was(maybe 2 lbs)... can't be too much in there. The stock speakers are decent looking( infinity), but the system lacks a true tweeter( just a 2.75" midrange in the sail panels, and no subwoofer. Actual rms output is probably 80-85 watts, which is o.k. for most. Initially, I replaced all the electronics, amps, deck, processor, and added a pair of 12's and a set of 1" soft dome tweets. I was waiting for the new front and rear speakers to come in. What I found was that the factory infinity speaks were actually quite good, they had no problem handling the additional power and they did sound really good. Even after replacing them with the aftermarket Infinity's, I still think they did a good job, not as good as the new ones, but still good. I think for a lot of people, some components can be retained from a good factory system, and just added to. Others, just have to be replaced, amps, some head units that don't offer the features or performance, and some speakers. For the retailers out there, talk to your customers, he/she may just need some tweeters, and a sub/amp combo to really make them happy, and make you a great person to deal with. By the way, the 1670 watts that's now in there, makes me want to stay in the car way too much, and that can be a bad thing.

 

my sister owned a 94 chevy corsica, it had stock kickpanel speakers. crappy sounding, but kickpanels.

The other day on TV they were saying that designing a car starts 4 years on the average before the car will come out on the market.

I once was told that automobile manufacturers spend on the average $15 per audio setup, the whole setup. I can believe it when you rip apart a stock speaker and see how cheap some of them are made, and HU's....

My LS400 has nakamichi sound in it and that is left untampered with. It sounds great and that car isn't one i'm willing to just rip at.

 

WOW now that was a world class rant! Great job Rob

 

When I choose components for an SQ system, I look at the specs for each component, and then if I can, listen to each type and combinations of each on the sound board. >>>I ask lots of questions<<<. Check forums and feedback on product, and then make my decision based on that. Price is seldom a factor, if I don't have enough, I save till I do. In the past, I wasted a lot of cash on systems that I thought were good, but in retrospect, I would not make that mistake twice.

Clean SQ starts with the HU, then is processed by the amps, then finally the speakers. Common sense... if you have a super clean sq deck, but cheap out on the amps, and speakers....it's like building a computer, it will only run as fast as it's slowest component. Wiring is also extremely important. Again, what I have learned over the years is this.... keep your eyes on the goal, if SQ is what you want, and you are going to enter comps, then save enough to build THAT system, and keep your install clean, neat and up to SQ standards.

My 2 cents