B&W Name Change Theory

Mark Levinson never made car stereos. He sold the company to Harman International who took one of their Harmon Kardon designs and put a Mark Levinson label on it.

Ignoring the fact that HK does make decent car stereos; if you bought a Lexus because it had a Mark Levinson system in it; then you have fallen for the same market hype that Joe Consumer falls for when he buys a car because of the Bose system.

It's not a name change. They have always been Bowers and Wilkins; they just choose to stop using their initials. I do agree that B&W sound too similar to BMW so I always say "B&W speakers" to avoid confusion. I also think Bowers and Wilkins sounds more elegant.

The cars that are hardest to sell are at opposite ends of the spectrum. They are the ones fully loaded with every option (too expensive) and the ones that come bare bones (no options).

I can remember getting a deal on a Corolla back the in 80s because it did not have the AM/FM/Cassette/4 speakers system that everyone wanted even in an economy car. It only had AM/FM and two cheap speakers in the lower dash. I took the car down to a car audio outlet, and with the savings put in a system that made the better one Toyota gave you a joke in comparison.

I like them using Bowers and Wilkens. The initials probably do sound too much like BMW. Now they can put a Richard E. Lord (REL) subwoofer in the trunk ... :-)

"IT IS A CAR, GET OVER IT!"

My car stereo is almost as fun to listen to as my home stereo, granted I've spent a decent amount of cash and time/work on it.

It seems that the vast majority of audiophiles completely dismiss the possibility of enjoying music in their car. I would like to emphasize that if done well, car audio can be just as dynamic as your high-end home system, and just about as fun to listen to. It's kind of like headphones, in that you have drivers very close to you on either side. There are a couple of comprimises, namely imaging is tricky (but who cares) and road noise, though both can be dealt with.

I doubt they are even Bose systems, it is probably a Delco unit wearing the Bose badge because of its reputation with the masses.