My old (now gone) work van had a killer sound system from the factory..... the newer one I now drive not so much...... so I listen to alot of MP3 with buds....(ear buds... not to confuse with the other kind of buds) 

My personal PU has a decent factory stereo but nothing to brag about. 

On the EQ..... generally close to flat but that depends too on the source material.... talk or music...

Talk= lows cut, highs a slight boost.

Music= lows and highs boosted to taste

 
The system in my car is a stock unbranded built in 'Infotainment' (what a vile word ) unit that combines a CD player/radio and Sat Nav. It has eight speakers all in all built into the doors (1 driver, 1 tweeter in each) and sounds pretty good for a stock system.
 
I generally find that I leave the treble boosted to around 40 - 50% to cut through the road noise, and I adjust the bass from about +10% - + 80% according to the CD I'm listening to. It sounds pretty lifeless with the EQ set flat, but a little adjusting does improve the sound significantly. And it's quite loud too, and doesn't distort at higher volumes.
 
One really neat feature is that it 'remembers' different EQ settings for CD, FM radio and AM radio. For CD the settings are much as described about, with FM stations I have the treble pulled down and the bass generally a little higher, and for AM stations (mainly 5Live and Talksport, which are both 'talk' radio) I have a big treble boost and the bass set flat, or even slightly cut.
 
My Vectra's engine is a really quiet V6 Turbo so with all the windows up and travelling at urban speeds, it's quite a pleasant listening environment. The biggest distraction at higher speeds in defintely tyre/road noise, but to compensate for this, the player automatically starts increasing the volume of the music (by a user-determinable amount) as the car rises above a certain speed.
 
I seem to remember that an older version of RealPlayer allowed you to burn CDs and/or mp3 discs that were automatically EQ'd to sound better on car stereos. Does that ring a bell with anyone? I never tried it, either because it was a premium feature (i.e. they charged for it) or because I couldn't be arsed.
 
 
 
 

you guys have tone controls?

Bose factory system with 8 speakers all run with fiber optics. It has a "Driver Optimization" setting that self adjusts faders and balance so it sounds best for me. It sounds so good and clear, that I am always picking up new sounds on older stuff that I never noticed before. I set it "flat" for the eq. It's just how I roll.

Randy

I had a CD player in my mini-van once.  Not anymore.  No vehicular music for me.  Now, when I'm driving, I'm hearing voices I haven't heard since the '70's.

flat as a pancake.

yorolpal

flat as a pancake.

Good album.

It depends on the car and the unit.

rsp@odyssey.net


Bose factory system with 8 speakers all run with fiber optics. It has a "Driver Optimization" setting that self adjusts faders and balance so it sounds best for me. It sounds so good and clear, that I am always picking up new sounds on older stuff that I never noticed before. I set it "flat" for the eq. It's just how I roll.

Randy

Don't know if you're joking about the rest of it, but I have driven in cars with that 'Driver Optimization' feature.

When I was in KC looking at houses, my realestate agent noticed I was clinching on to the seat for dear life because of her driving, so she let me drive her brand new Cadillac-ac-ac-ac Escalade. I was shocked to be honest, but I wasn't going to turn her down. Honestly, I couldn't make it sound bad ... Even when I set the tone controls totally out of whack, with that 'Driver Optimization' thingy on, it sounded good no matter what I did.

You know I was thinking about this last night and I think I got jipped!


I put the key in the iginition (at least the times I can remember) and the music (and voices) start automatically.........

I dont have to do a thing!...........but then I have no control over it either!

My choices are either continue onward with what I have or bike it!

Clifford