Most pleasing sound vs most hifi sound

Not ridiculous at all. Some car system just right balance. Just over the weekend I was driving in my Boxster with stock DSP system with Bose subwoofer behind seat. The dash speaker are damn cheap Nokia 4 inch paper cone mids and highs, the door has 5.5 inch woofers- far from very expensive after market really good system I used to have in my 88 Prelude Si, But the sound is dynamic, clear, and very involving that makes me want to accelerate even faster ;-) and almost always scratch my head why this 4 " mids/high sounds so good. Sure there is plenty of grain but still takes me by surprise every single time.

Not so in all Bose and Harman Karden systems in my other two cars, which are just too electronic sounding and irritating, even though they might be a lot smoother than my Boxster. May be it is the EQed sound of DSP!

I tend to agree with TVAD. I have what I consider to be a very dynamic and detailed system which I love. Sometimes though, I find myself drawn to tubey, warm sounding systems. I know the highs are being rolled off and that the midrange is being exaggerated but there is something very seductive and inviting to me. I am even thinking about putting together a second system that has these attributes.

I don't think this is so uncommon--I got chills listening to the opening to "So What" on an NPR feature on Kind of Blue on my kitchen radio a while ago. And how many times have I listened to that album? And how many times has that happened to me while I was sitting down and "critically" listening to it? Not as often as I'd like. Got the same this afternoon listening to The Who on the classic rock station on the drive home. Here's to the lo-fi!

Do you have a bose system in your car? =8^)

Rodman, if you had to live about a hundred yards down the street from a biker bar, you would not think the exhaust note from a Harley was the sound of freedom. It was the sound of torture for my wife and me. We had to sell our home and move to escape the "freedom", and to keep our sanity. Try listening to your home system with those bikes constantly tearing up the neighborhood, with ninety percent of them taking out the baffles to make them even louder. They say they do it to make drivers of cars know when they are coming. But you don't hear the noise until they are going away, since it's coming out the back of the exhaust. The sound of "freedom"? The sound of "Hey,look at me."