Why is a car such a nice place to listen to music?
After finally finishing the installation of a new head unit and loudspeakers, including new wires, I have noticed that I listen a lot more to music now than in years. Sure, the components are very good, but there are no power amps or subwoofers (yet) so the overall sound isn’t earth-shattering or anything special. But the listening environment is, and the blood sweat and tears that went into the installation matters. And when you season it all with nostalgia, all the planets align for what is close to a perfect listening experience for me.
There are physical reasons why sound can be very, very good in a car. There are no low frequency room resonances that you always get in a listening room, because the car behaves more like a pressure chamber. And just about every surface is curved and irregular which guarantees a diffuse sound field. With proper components, the playing field is a good one. However, you always have the risk of annoying vibrations in the steel plates or interior. At least if the car isn’t built solid.
My W124 isn’t the best option to build a monster car audio system. There are only two loudspeaker positions in the front dashboard and in the rear shelf, and they have special dimensions in mm, not in freedom units, which means that there are very few options if you don’t want to fire up the Dremel. The options you have are a handful of 120 mm speakers, which is a bit on the small side unfortunately. And the speaker holes in the car are not properly sealed, so I get a ton of acoustic cancellation. The 2nd big problem is that the fuel tank is right behind the rear seat. Which means that bass from a subwoofer in the trunk will have a hard time getting into the compartment. The risk is that you will just drive around and vibrate steel plates on your car and annoy the environment.
But this does not bother me at all. After a couple of sessions with audio tweaking I have found some settings that sound very impressive, given the small size of my coaxial speakers. This is nice, because if I can get a proper sound without the sub, the difference will be huge when the system is finished, which probably means a 12” closed box in the trunk.
Designing and building a car audio system has been a wonderful journey. It is immensely more rewarding to listen to music on a system that you have designed yourself, even if I have access to better listening systems and environments, objectively speaking. But music is about emotions, and I can’t help it but smile from ear to ear when I fire up a kick ass song in a car which is the same as I first took my drivers license in. It feels just like coming home.
Slowly, I am reclaiming my grandfathers old Merc from a dirty barn find to an audiophile experience on four wheels. And the car has gotten a lot of mechanical love as well, with new brakes, fluids, exhaust system, glass treatment, modern hands free with car-play… I also bought a bottle of high-end interior cleaner and wiped off some surfaces in the cabin. Even though the car has had a professional interior recondition, the fluid that came out of my polishing cloth was still nasty and brown, after just wiping the basic controls and dashboard... I guess that more than three decades of grime requires more than just one detailing session to get rid of. When entering the cabin, there has been that typical “old car” smell. But now after just 1-2 cleaning sessions, we are getting some more new car smell.
I am constantly trying to find an excuse to go for a drive. That’s a sign as good as it gets. Before summer 2025, I intend to have power amplifiers installed and a nice subwoofer to finally get some full-range sound in the cabin. And then I can go for a drive and listen to all my classic favourite songs from the early 2000s. I can hardly wait and feel like I small boy before Christmas eve again. It feels great!