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Home audio meets car audio
It wasn't too long ago that the average car was lucky to have a radio in the dash and two small speakers in the front doors — more expensive cars would upgrade you to a four-speaker system by adding two 6-by-9s in the rear package tray. Now, the systems in some cars are becoming as good as a basic home audio system. This is all the more impressive when you take into account the obstacles involved in designing a car audio system. Consider the environment: there's vibration, heat and wind and road noise. Consider the acoustic environment: there's glass, leather, plastic trim, etc., each material presenting a different acoustic property to the speakers — glass being highly reflective, leather less so, and so on. Taken together, these factors present a formidable task to car audio designers.
As automakers struggled to improve sound quality, they began looking to home audio for solutions. Home audio manufacturers like Pioneer have been offering car stereos for decades, but only recently has there been a huge influx of home audio names into the passenger car arena. Currently, there are two major suppliers of high-quality car audio systems: Bose Corporation and Harman International. When you hear a good factory sound system, chances are you'll look up and see the Bose or Harman logo. Bose markets under the Bose name only; Harman markets under the JBL, Infinity, Harman-Kardon and Mark Levinson names.
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