Forget your Lexus, Mercedes or totally-Linned Aston Martin... How about your plain old domestic family sedan "music system"? My father gave me his well-serviced '87 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra because it wasn't worth much on the used car market or as a trade-in towards a NOS Mercedes. This Olds comes stock with a "Delco-GM/Bose Music System"...a "Delco-GM ETR (Electronically Tuned Receiver) Music System(s) which ha(s) been specially matched with Bose speaker systems to fit the acoustics of your car" (from owner's manual). This is your basic in-dash AM/FM radio/cassette tape player with two mid/woofers behind the back seat and tweeters at either end of the front dash. With clear reception and a good FM station, or carefully recorded tunes via Linn LP12 to Nakamichi deck, and Left-Right/Front-Back balance dialed in, the overall listening experience is surprisingly, quite good. It's like listening to a decent set of headphones only with a lot more "air". At low to medium volume, the sound is centred in the middle of my head; any louder, there's distortion and the pinpoint imaging breaks up. During this past summer, a drive by the ocean on a warm night took on an additional pleasure that I never expected from the old family sedan.
Forget your Lexus, Mercedes or totally-Linned Aston Martin... How about your plain old domestic family sedan "music system"? My father gave me his well-serviced '87 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra because it wasn't worth much on the used car market or as a trade-in towards a NOS Mercedes. This Olds comes stock with a "Delco-GM/Bose Music System"...a "Delco-GM ETR (Electronically Tuned Receiver) Music System(s) which ha(s) been specially matched with Bose speaker systems to fit the acoustics of your car" (from owner's manual). This is your basic in-dash AM/FM radio/cassette tape player with two mid/woofers behind the back seat and tweeters at either end of the front dash. With clear reception and a good FM station, or carefully recorded tunes via Linn LP12 to Nakamichi deck, and Left-Right/Front-Back balance dialed in, the overall listening experience is surprisingly, quite good. It's like listening to a decent set of headphones only with a lot more "air". At low to medium volume, the sound is centred in the middle of my head; any louder, there's distortion and the pinpoint imaging breaks up. During this past summer, a drive by the ocean on a warm night took on an additional pleasure that I never expected from the old family sedan.