Why Are Some New Car Audio Systems Simply Disappointing?

      Adam Ismail

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      “What would not having a poor audio experience be like?”

      This was Ken Ward's answer to the question I posed, which this article seeks to explore. It’s 2025, and while some stock audio systems in vehicles sound incredible, I think back to the Lincoln Nautilus I tested nearly a year ago or the Mercedes E350. They are exquisite vehicles, but they come with a price tag exceeding $70,000. In an era when spending $400 on high-quality headphones is common, why do the sound systems in more affordable cars typically sound inferior?

      Ward, the technical marketing manager at Elettromedia, trains dealers and installers on maximizing the company’s car audio products and founded the online trade community Educar. A few weeks ago, he explained how a minor wiring mistake could compromise the audio experience for numerous Kia EV6 owners. As I considered his question about what "not sucking" would entail, he elucidated what basic automotive sound systems lack and why.

      Tone and Space

      “People who care about how [a car] sounds typically care about two aspects,” Ward told me during our phone conversation. “They focus on spatial presentation—which not everyone prioritizes—and tonality, meaning, ‘Do I find the relative levels of sounds pleasant?'”

      Surprisingly, Ward noted that humans generally have a favorable preference when it comes to sound. We tend to enjoy a similar distribution of frequencies and volumes. This aligns with research that's been established for over 50 years, based on a study from the 1970s shared by Ward. Matt Figliola, founder of the high-end car audio studio and consultancy firm Ai Design in Tuckahoe, New York, echoed this sentiment.

      “The higher the frequency, the more directional sound is,” Figliola explained. “Lower frequencies are less directional. A subwoofer can be placed in the trunk due to this principle, while a tweeter needs to be positioned higher and aimed at the listener.”

      “This explains why many people adjust their equalizers to create a valley in the mid-range, boosting the tweeter and subwoofer for that typical U-shaped curve,” Figliola noted. “This is because our ears perceive mid-range sounds better than treble or bass. Therefore, we feel the need to increase treble and bass due to our natural deficits in those areas.”

      The common U-shaped EQ adjustment people tend to make in their vehicles, as I've done in my Corolla here. Side note: I'm not particularly fond of this car's JBL “premium” optional audio system. Adam Ismail

      Consequently, our sensitivity to directionality is heightened in higher frequencies while we seek more bass at lower frequencies. However, an additional challenge arises: although bass is relatively less directional, its perception suffers in confined spaces. “The smaller the room, the more difficult it is for us to enjoy bass as we desire,” Ward explained.

      Combining these insights—and recognizing that unless you're driving the ultimate supercar, seating in a vehicle is never perfectly positioned like in a home theater—means that a car is one of the least conducive environments for listening to music.

      “The sound from the nearby speaker reaches you before the sound from the distant speaker, causing some notes to be louder while others are quieter,” Ward said. “Once this misalignment occurs, it can't be corrected with an EQ. You can't compensate with bass or treble controls, or with some cars' EQ settings. If the speakers aren’t aligned to your position, you're out of luck.”

      The challenge is that car audio specialists can address this issue—albeit for only one passenger. Fixing it for a single seat can worsen the experience for others. “OEMs, for various reasons, prefer not to produce cars that sound good only in one spot,” Ward stated. He cited a German luxury automaker with a policy that their audio systems must have uniform tuning for both left- and right-hand-drive markets. “They would rather implement sound modifications that improve symmetry than create a superior system for one seat while compromising the other,” he added.

      Power and Equipment

      While tone and space are crucial, they affect all vehicles to some extent, even the high-end ones. Figliola highlighted the Porsche 911 as a notably challenging environment. “They have tweeters placed on the dashboard, and they're squeezed closely between the dashboard and windshield, with the glass mere inches above the tweeter, directing sound at it. That’s an audio nightmare,” he said. “This is problematic because the speaker directs sound straight at the glass, causing the driver to hear a reflected sound from the tweeter.”

      If those two factors don’t sufficiently explain the shortcomings of stock car audio systems, what does? Cutting corners on power and components is a major factor.

      “The primary issue I encountered early on with these premium brands was that manufacturers exert substantial