I am interested in which you think is better: Car audio equipment
developed by Japanese companies, or equipment developed by German
companies? To be honest, both have their strong points, but I would
have to say the German engineered equipment is far more solid,
reliable, and if it's speakers we're talking about, German engineered
speakers blow all others out of the water!

In article , keith4355_
says...
I am interested in which you think is better: Car audio equipment
developed by Japanese companies, or equipment developed by German
companies? To be honest, both have their strong points, but I would
have to say the German engineered equipment is far more solid,
reliable, and if it's speakers we're talking about, German engineered
speakers blow all others out of the water!

Sounds like you have heard both and like the German brands best, so go
for it. You are the one has to be happy with your choice.

I think there are more Japanese companies and they offer more of a variety.

--
Mark
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"Keith Murphy" wrote in message
m...
I am interested in which you think is better: Car audio equipment
developed by Japanese companies, or equipment developed by German
companies? To be honest, both have their strong points, but I would
have to say the German engineered equipment is far more solid,
reliable, and if it's speakers we're talking about, German engineered
speakers blow all others out of the water!

"MZ" pam
wrote:


I think there are more Japanese companies and they offer more of a variety.

--
Mark
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"Keith Murphy" wrote in message
om...
I am interested in which you think is better: Car audio equipment
developed by Japanese companies, or equipment developed by German
companies? To be honest, both have their strong points, but I would
have to say the German engineered equipment is far more solid,
reliable, and if it's speakers we're talking about, German engineered
speakers blow all others out of the water!

What German autosound audio companies are there other than Blaupunkt? Isn't it
interesting that Volkwagen vehicles use Monsoon a Delphi brand for their
premium systems. BMW had an American brand for its premium system
(Lexicon/Harman).

Nousaine wrote:
What German autosound audio companies are there other than Blaupunkt?
Isn't it
interesting that Volkwagen vehicles use Monsoon a Delphi brand for
their
premium systems. BMW had an American brand for its premium system
(Lexicon/Harman).


hmmm, let's see:

Rainbow (RAC)
Blaupunkt
MB Quart (Their slogan is "German Engineering")
Audiohaus
X-Pulse

There's more, but those are just the ones I could think of off the top
of my head.

What German autosound audio companies are there other than Blaupunkt?

Audiotec-Fischer is one. Where's MB Quart? They're overseas, right?

BMW had an American brand for its premium system

Many of them do. Mitsubishi uses Infinity, Lexus uses Mark Levinson and Toyota
uses JBL. All Harman Kardon companies, actually. VW and certain GM models get
Monsoon, Acura and countless others use Bose. Very few of these companies get
their equipment from non-American sources. Porsche uses Blaupunkt and Lexus and
Acura have used Pioneer in the past (Lexus still does for the non-Levinson
systems), and a few manufacturers use Alpine (the Alpine system in the Jaguar
XJ8 is great). But the vast majority get their equipment from American
companies. Kind of odd considering that the American cars are so rarely on par
with the imports.
Steve Grauman

"MZ" pam
wrote:



What German autosound audio companies are there other than Blaupunkt?

Audiotec-Fischer is one. Where's MB Quart? They're overseas, right?

MB Quart describes themselves as having "German Engineering." But the more
famous speaker manufacturing companies seem to be Danish and Norwegian. A few
years ago Onkyo was said to manufacture more speakers than anyone else.

But back to the original post where it was claimed that German speakers were
the best. I see no reliable evidence to suggest that this is true or that
German autocompanies rely on German speakers in any special way although it is
true that I don't know for sure the country of origin of the speakers used in
German cars. I was just asking for more information.

(Steve Grauman) wrote:

BMW had an American brand for its premium system

Many of them do. Mitsubishi uses Infinity, Lexus uses Mark Levinson and
Toyota
uses JBL. All Harman Kardon companies, actually.

DCX has plenty of Infinity branded systems and use lots of Harman (who also now
owns Audax) speakers in non-branded systems.

VW and certain GM models get
Monsoon, Acura and countless others use Bose. Very few of these companies get
their equipment from non-American sources. Porsche uses Blaupunkt and Lexus
and
Acura have used Pioneer in the past (Lexus still does for the non-Levinson
systems), and a few manufacturers use Alpine (the Alpine system in the Jaguar
XJ8 is great). But the vast majority get their equipment from American
companies. Kind of odd considering that the American cars are so rarely on
par
with the imports.
Steve Grauman

Alpine supplies speakers to Ford in non-branded systems. Pioneer is working
hard to become a supplier for GM and Ford. There are also a few other
suppliers who are in the mix. F-10 anyone?

As for the relative merits of non-American vs American OEM Autosound systems
I've evaluated several hundred OEM concept, prototype and production systems
over the past 5 years. If I look at the results (Listening Tests with numerical
scoring on sound quality categories in aggregate GM has the most (and best)
premium branded and non-branded systems (by a significant margin) while Ford
and DCX are in the middle of the pack with Japanese brands significantly
behind. Aside from one or two very good systems German cars are somewhere
between Ford/DCX and Japanese cars. It is true that a fairly rare Japanese car
can be found with an excellent system (Harman branded as with the BMW Lexicon.)


If I look at the premium branded systems separately Bose has the better systems
by and large. The better ones sound better than about 95% of the after-market
systems I've evaluated (and only those with significantly more $$$ devoted are
any better and there are damn few with even thousands more poured in that
approach these systems in sound quality....not just SPL) and about 85-90% of
the home audio systems I've been exposed to.

"Sm704" wrote:

Nousaine wrote:
What German autosound audio companies are there other than Blaupunkt?
Isn't it
interesting that Volkwagen vehicles use Monsoon a Delphi brand for
their
premium systems. BMW had an American brand for its premium system
(Lexicon/Harman).


hmmm, let's see:

Rainbow (RAC)
Blaupunkt
MB Quart (Their slogan is "German Engineering")
Audiohaus
X-Pulse

There's more, but those are just the ones I could think of off the top
of my head.

OK keep on going; what is it about these speakers that intrinsically makes them
better than speaker manufactured in the US, China, Japan, Canada, Denmark,
Sweden, Holland, France, England, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, (I left out
Israel because those speakers do fall short) or Thailand?

Nousaine wrote:


If I look at the premium branded systems separately Bose has the better systems
by and large.
You *ARE* joking right?

jeremy wrote:



Nousaine wrote:


If I look at the premium branded systems separately Bose has the better
systems
by and large.
You *ARE* joking right?

No I'm not. Why not do a serious evaluation of some?

If I look at the premium branded systems separately Bose has the better
systems
by and large.
You *ARE* joking right?

I'd agree with Nousaine. The latest Bose systems are superior to the other
premium systems I've heard.

(PS I uninstalled mine)

I've heard quite a number of Bose systems, and the only ones I find worth the
cash are the ones in the Acura TL and Porsche Cayenne. Otherwise, IMO, the Mark
Levinson systems offered by Lexus, McIntosh system offered by Subaru and Alpine
system in the Jaguar XJ8 are superior.
Steve Grauman

I've heard quite a number of Bose systems, and the only ones I find worth
the
cash are the ones in the Acura TL and Porsche Cayenne. Otherwise, IMO, the
Mark
Levinson systems offered by Lexus, McIntosh system offered by Subaru and
Alpine
system in the Jaguar XJ8 are superior.
Steve Grauman


IMO, the Bose systems in the newer Cadillacs (well, at least within the past
6 or 7 years) are superior to the Alpine systems in the Jaguars, though
those Alpine systems aren't too shabby either. I haven't heard the others
you mentioned.

IMO, the Bose systems in the newer Cadillacs (well, at least within the past
6 or 7 years) are superior to the Alpine systems in the Jaguars,

I'll have to go check that out. I happen to know someone with a 2002 Deville!
=)
Steve Grauman

That'd be a wonderful rating if we were talking about battleships,
although as I recall the Allies ended up kicking the German's asses in
that category too.

If you must reduce this to such a narrow, jingoistic focus, dollar for
dollar I'd rank Japanese-developed electronics equipment as more
reliable than German stuff overall but sometimes not as serviceable or
not built to last as long in terms of material choice etc. That's based
on a fairly lengthy career spent in 12V that included stints as an
installer and bench tech at a couple of different business that were
warranty stations for Becker, Blaupunkt, Hirschmann (the power antenna
company from Germany), along with Alpine and a number of other Japanese
brands.

As far as speakers, I think you should look elsewhere for the winner.
Not that you can't find good speakers from these countries, but there
are other places in the world where the overall performance & quality
seem higher to me, Scandinavia for example.

JD

Keith Murphy wrote:

I am interested in which you think is better: Car audio equipment
developed by Japanese companies, or equipment developed by German
companies? To be honest, both have their strong points, but I would
have to say the German engineered equipment is far more solid,
reliable, and if it's speakers we're talking about, German engineered
speakers blow all others out of the water!