I think we are on the same page. The bass is the part that makes a lot of difference. From working in automotive amplifiers i remember that there are tricks to make the bass sound louder and deeper with a limited amount of voltage difference. Usually the mac diff is +14 to -14 volts due to the battery limitation, which seems plentiful but for low tones, the energy efficiency as well as human perception is very low with audio. One of the tricks is introducing first and second harmonics. I've experienced plenty of in-car demos that we would present to customers e.g. in Munich.
Other tricks are speed adaptive eq and volume.
But in the end most quality yield boiled down to tuning. Cars full of, rather low quality speakers (BOM cost a few dollars per channel) could create a quite immersive sound.
That's very interesting to me. Because of this specifically being so weirdly pleasurable. I have now driven a lot of different cars because where I'm locally, you can use an app to rent cars for very temporary times and they are everywhere, within walking distance. Maybe it's in other countries as well, I don't know. But in any case, this has given me so much opportunities to try out various cars from 2021-2023 year release. I only recently got a license, and the car I bought is my first, so I don't have much historical experience, or experience in general, but to me when driving a car this particular audio quality is the main thing to affect my mood and perception. I either feel hyped for the rest of the day or frustrated and disappointed. And I usually don't think of myself as a music fan or anything like that. Also don't think I'm very young, I'm just a late bloomer in terms of getting a car.
Because of that impact, and because of my lack of knowledge, it was very difficult and concerning to find a car, because we are kind of trying out Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, bluetooth without anyone really giving advice on the topic. And car sellers don't seem to be mindful about the topic, neither any relatives that we tried to consult on which car to buy. The best advice car sellers have had on the topic is to "just always use the original cable" which I don't even know what it means. Well I know what it means, manufacturer likely put the proper USB with optimal transfer rates and all, but it doesn't really answer to what the factors are or anything like that.
Are we using wrong settings somewhere? Are we using optimal settings in all the apps, the car audio tuner, equalizer? I don't know.
So we have learned a lot and we decided on a car, which we bought, but presently I still feel there's something different about Android Auto, vs Apple CarPlay, that doesn't make it quite as pleasurable. Like I'm not getting this immersive hype feeling, but more of a rigid "boom". Apple CarPlay showing that the car should be capable of it, but I can't really reproduce it with my Android phone.
But surely I can't be the only one in the World, so it seems like a thing that can be this pleasurable would have been obviously solved.
And it's not about the loudness, it's about how it smooths out or spreads, or feels like it's all around you at any volume. Like you are inside the music and the bass.
When I tried to Google for solving this problem, I didn't really find any answers, so I'm sharing this here on hackernews, since frequently interesting perspectives appear here.
If there's a traffic jam or rush hour, but the music is so great and immersive, it wouldn't matter and you never want the music to end, it seems odd that there's not that much focus on it from sellers point of view or people I know in real life.
Or do I just have a weird physiology/psychology that responds to some odd things that no one else really cares about, or is some small setting somewhere?
Other tricks are speed adaptive eq and volume.
But in the end most quality yield boiled down to tuning. Cars full of, rather low quality speakers (BOM cost a few dollars per channel) could create a quite immersive sound.