I've had the same experience. Early in my hi fi journey, I bought records with songs I'd heard on the car AM radio, and was disappointed in the LP stereo version. The sound quality there was fine, but there just wasn't the same impact. For example, I would have to listen for guitar parts that were right out front over the radio. I think bdp24 has a good reason, in that the mix was different. There are a couple of other possibilities:
- Car radio receivers are pretty darn good. They have to be, operating in a very noisy (ignition system etc.) environment.
- Dashboards and car doors actually make decent baffles for speakers. Again, the environment (road noise) demands some good audio engineering there.
Listening to music over a hi fi system is very different from listening to tunes in the car, as djones51 points out. The demands of driving require looking and thinking about the outside environment, not listening for musical detail in amongst the road noise. Hence the need for strong vocals and midrange elements.
- Car radio receivers are pretty darn good. They have to be, operating in a very noisy (ignition system etc.) environment.
- Dashboards and car doors actually make decent baffles for speakers. Again, the environment (road noise) demands some good audio engineering there.
Listening to music over a hi fi system is very different from listening to tunes in the car, as djones51 points out. The demands of driving require looking and thinking about the outside environment, not listening for musical detail in amongst the road noise. Hence the need for strong vocals and midrange elements.