ROLL CALL: Who has surround sound in their car(s)?

[scottm18]

Member

What year, make and model of car:
2006 Infiniti M35 w/ 14 speaker Bose Studio Surround (including seat shoulders)

Did you install it yourself (if not factory installed):
Factory install with Dynamat doors

What surround formats can you play:
Discs-DVD and DVD-Audio 5.1 MLP
6-disc CD Changer

Definitely one of the top Factory systems ever made, this sound really really good with the right discs. At 6'8", this is literally one of the only cars that fits me on the planet (no joke)...so I searched and searched for the rare audio system to go with it.

 

[Pontoneer]

if you have a car with a factory installed surround system or one you installed yourself (DVD-Audio, SACD, DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, Q8 or something else), please respond to this thread and tell us:

What year, make and model of car:

Did you install it yourself (if not factory installed):

What surround formats can you play:

How would you rate the system, and would you recommend it to others:


If you have more than one car with a surround system, please respond twice (you can keep it in the same post or a second post).

If it's a system you installed yourself, let us know what you used for equipment and the details of the head end.

THANKS!

I have several sets of audio equipment that have been transferred from one car to another .

I have always driven Mercedes-Benz, after growing up with them as the family cars in the 1960s ; the first car I bought with my own money was my 1957 ‘Ponton’ 219 and I have had every generation of Mercedes since then up to my current W140 S Class , W124 estate car and R129 roadster .

I always had a keen interest in audio and while many of the systems I installed had multiple speakers , the first truly surround system was the Sony XR-C900RDS cassette head unit , with the XDP-U50D DSP unit , 2x CDX-91 CD changers , can’t remember which amplifiers and JBL speakers , which went into the W123 280TE I had at the time .

The DSP unit simulated the acoustics of about a dozen different environments, allowed for balance , eq and time delay of any of the speakers , allowed you to simulate any listening position within the auditorium, and optimised the sound for front , rear , either front left or right seats , or for all seats .

This system was so good , I bought another two and had them in various cars at different times , ranging from my three 190Es , numerous W123 and W124 saloons , coupes and estates ( the estates always had a separate sub which sat in the luggage area but could be unplugged and removed to carry large loads ; in the other cars I had bass units installed in the parcel shelf , using the boot as an IB enclosure ; most often I used KEF B139s either single ones in place of the first aid kit , or dual ones in my three W126 S Class cars where there were two apertures available .

loudspeakers ranged from factory units , through JBL , KEF , B&W to the optional Bose units currently in my W140 .

While the first two head units were the XR-C900RDS cassette head units , the third one I bought was the CDX-910RDS which was a CD head unit , sadly without the DI-Diversity FM tuner that the cassette head units had .

These remain , however , the best car audio systems I have used , although Sony did later bring out their X-ES system I never bothered upgrading .

 

[shokhead]

2014 Audi SQ5
Factory Bang & Olufsen
DVD-A, DVD,
Solid B

 

[TLXctasy3D]

2021 Acura TLX A-SPEC
ELS PRRMIUM 3D SYSTEM
USB 6 CHANNEL FLAC

 

[HIBY]

2021 Acura TLX A-SPEC
ELS PRRMIUM 3D SYSTEM
USB 6 CHANNEL FLAC

You're Probably only one with the TLX using surround lol. I'm waiting for the integra to arrive.

 

[ddahl44]

Not the only one - I’m driving the same as TLXctasy3D.

 

[HIBY]

Not the only one - I’m driving the same as TLXctasy3D.

Still a small amount lol I'd bet only a dozen owners even use surround. The rest use Bluetooth and serious xm

 

[ddahl44]

You might be correct. Certainly the salesmen in the dealership knew nothing about it and a delivery guy who had one didn’t either.

 

[DuncanS]

You might be correct. Certainly the salesmen in the dealership knew nothing about it and a delivery guy who had one didn’t either.

I had to tell the Audi dealer that the B&O system option I wanted had surround, as I asked about the 5.1 FLAC Level playback & sample rate - which did puzzle them

 

[CPR]

Not the only one - I’m driving the same as TLXctasy3D.

me too!

 

[bgf1973]

Hi:

My car is a Mazda CX-5 with Bose audio system with 9 speakers and subwoofer. It would be great convert it in a surround system with an external Flac player

 

[bluelightning]

I have the burmester 3D sound system in my E63 S. Very clean sounding system. It plays all the stereo and multichannel flac files very well. Only thing I have that it doesn't do are dts encoded files, which is a bit of a bummer.

https://www.burmester.de/en/Automotive/E-Class/

 

[marpow]

I am still bug fixing my discontinued My First 5.1 Decoder (Discontinued)
At the same time I am working on my replacement with RIBBON WIRE unlike the discontinued model had a two wire, easy to replace the screen from glove box to center console, the ribbon wire a little more tricky with MY NEW DECODER not installed.
So far my 5.1 and stereo system in my 2021 Challenger, home made sounds fantastic in stereo, 5.1 and 4.0. I find very nearfield listening opens another dimension in surround sound listening, I have a lot of years listening to surround at the home rig and the car rig is the same music flavored differently, I hear things better, because of the closeness of the speakers.
Major things I don't like about my current decoder that I hope to conquer with the new decoder.
1. Does not show albums, only shows tracks, lets say I have 180 tracks I have to scroll through what I want to hear if I have say 7 albums to make up those tracks.
2. Even worse, every time on start up, the decoder starts at track 1, so when I turn off say at song #40, I have to look and remember to scroll back to that #, real pain.
3. Seems to want to play in alphabetical order, A-Z even when not in shuffle, pain.
I have tried many variants of formatting my USB for surround. I use the factory head unit and plays stereo no matter what DSP I throw at it as long as it is FLAC takes anything.
USB FAT32 128G
For SACD (DSD) whether stereo or surround I reformat to zero compression, 24bit X 44.1KHz, plays great.
For all other FLAC, DVD, BLu Ray, etc for surround only I reformat to 6 compression, 24 bit X 48KHz, plays great.
I think I found a way that will work on my current decoder to play songs in order.
1. On the drive I list albums as 1Electric Ladyland, 2Sextant, etc.
2. I have tried many versions of listing tracks with track titles
1- Title
01- Title
1 Title
01 Title
(1)-Title, etc plus more
I think I found the right combo to work
1Title
2Title
3Title (no space, no hyphen, parentheses, etc).
I understand why others buy a car with factory surround, but I am real close, great sound in stereo and surround, just hoping that the new unit will improve the function, I did not say but both decoders work via remote, which is nice.

 

[funz51]

2019 aspec rdx. Put a nice Hsu sub in the back to provide a lower octave. Incredible.

 

[superkrups20056]

I do hope Atmos is taken seriously in the automotive industry now and car audio is built around Atmos as many streaming platforms are incorporating it in mainstream music.

 

[JonUrban]

2019 aspec rdx. Put a nice Hsu sub in the back to provide a lower octave. Incredible.

Welcome Funz51 to QQ. Glad to see you made it over here.

 

[barfle]

I am still bug fixing my discontinued My First 5.1 Decoder (Discontinued)
At the same time I am working on my replacement with RIBBON WIRE unlike the discontinued model had a two wire, easy to replace the screen from glove box to center console, the ribbon wire a little more tricky with MY NEW DECODER not installed.
So far my 5.1 and stereo system in my 2021 Challenger, home made sounds fantastic in stereo, 5.1 and 4.0. I find very nearfield listening opens another dimension in surround sound listening, I have a lot of years listening to surround at the home rig and the car rig is the same music flavored differently, I hear things better, because of the closeness of the speakers.
Major things I don't like about my current decoder that I hope to conquer with the new decoder.
1. Does not show albums, only shows tracks, lets say I have 180 tracks I have to scroll through what I want to hear if I have say 7 albums to make up those tracks.
2. Even worse, every time on start up, the decoder starts at track 1, so when I turn off say at song #40, I have to look and remember to scroll back to that #, real pain.
3. Seems to want to play in alphabetical order, A-Z even when not in shuffle, pain.
I have tried many variants of formatting my USB for surround. I use the factory head unit and plays stereo no matter what DSP I throw at it as long as it is FLAC takes anything.
USB FAT32 128G
For SACD (DSD) whether stereo or surround I reformat to zero compression, 24bit X 44.1KHz, plays great.
For all other FLAC, DVD, BLu Ray, etc for surround only I reformat to 6 compression, 24 bit X 48KHz, plays great.
I think I found a way that will work on my current decoder to play songs in order.
1. On the drive I list albums as 1Electric Ladyland, 2Sextant, etc.
2. I have tried many versions of listing tracks with track titles
1- Title
01- Title
1 Title
01 Title
(1)-Title, etc plus more
I think I found the right combo to work
1Title
2Title
3Title (no space, no hyphen, parentheses, etc).
I understand why others buy a car with factory surround, but I am real close, great sound in stereo and surround, just hoping that the new unit will improve the function, I did not say but both decoders work via remote, which is nice.

I don’t have your system, so this is just a guess. The file names are treated differently than the title, which is metadata. You seem to be changing the title instead of the filename, but I could be misreading. Try one, then the other, then both.

All of my streamers show titles, but list by filenames.

 

[bluelightning]

2019 aspec rdx. Put a nice Hsu sub in the back to provide a lower octave. Incredible.

Which Hsu sub did you use ?

 

[par4ken]

The problem with adding surround to today's cars is that manufactures keep putting the rear speakers in the bottom of the rear doors. That works only to provide stereo to rear seated listeners. If you adjust the fader control to the rear speakers all you hear upfront is muffled audio from the rear!

In my old pathfinder, I added tall speaker boxes behind the back seat using them for the back channels. I then connected the rear door speakers up to the front.

My Dodge Caravan worked OK with the stock speaker setup.

Now I come to my Ford F-150. My first step will be to replace the stock (crap) speakers. I can hear the rear speakers from the front but they are slightly muffled due to their low door speaker placement. What is needed are rear speakers mounted higher so as to be better heard in the front. Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

I miss the old cars with the rear deck mounted 6x9s, that arrangement was perfect for surround!

 

[Infomas]

The problem with adding surround to today's cars is that manufactures keep putting the rear speakers in the bottom of the rear doors. That works only to provide stereo to rear seated listeners. If you adjust the fader control to the rear speakers all you hear upfront is muffled audio from the rear!

In my old pathfinder, I added tall speaker boxes behind the back seat using them for the back channels. I then connected the rear door speakers up to the front.

My Dodge Caravan worked OK with the stock speaker setup.

Now I come to my Ford F-150. My first step will be to replace the stock (crap) speakers. I can hear the rear speakers from the front but they are slightly muffled due to their low door speaker placement. What is needed are rear speakers mounted higher so as to be better heard in the front. Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

I miss the old cars with the rear deck mounted 6x9s, that arrangement was perfect for surround!

No. The problem with surround in cars is that the people in the rear seats hear the rear speakers over the front speakers. It is a crappy mix for them. I'm always in the front though, so... I'm okay with that. I learned this from a friend who I was trying to impress with my new car and its surround system. Unfortunately, she was in the rear seat and just said, "I'm only hearing effects". And it wasn't a bad mix. It was Porcupine Tree.