# Classical Music CDs in the Car



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Anyone struggle with volume issues while attempting to listen to Classical music in the car? The quiet parts are too quiet, and the loud parts too loud making it hard to find a proper volume.

Any solutions or advice from anyone that has experienced and overcome this issue?


Thanks!

:tiphat:


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Anyone struggle with volume issues while attempting to listen to Classical music in the car? The quiet parts are too quiet, and the loud parts too loud making it hard to find a proper volume.
> 
> Any solutions or advice to anyone that has experienced and overcome this issue?
> 
> ...


This is a major issue with classical music in the car. Because of this, I don't usually listen to classical music in the car. There are workarounds though. You could rip your CDs and run them through software that will compress the levels (not to be confused with file compression). That way the soft parts will be made louder. Radio stations do this to make things easier for the listener. You can then burn the compressed files to a CD-R or play them back on a phone or something. I'd recommend using CD-Rs in the car over the original CDs anyway as cars can get very hot/cold inside and that can damage the CDs. Also, they seem to scratch more in the car due to it being a tad bit more difficult to handle discs in the car.

Some car stereos have a dynamic range compressor option. It's not common, but you may want to see if yours has a DRC option in the menu. Some phone playback software may have DRC as well.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Klassik said:


> This is a major issue with classical music in the car. Because of this, I don't usually listen to classical music in the car. There are workarounds though. You could rip your CDs and run them through software that will compress the levels (not to be confused with file compression). That way the soft parts will be made louder. Radio stations do this to make things easier for the listener. You can then burn the compressed files to a CD-R or play them back on a phone or something. I'd recommend using CD-Rs in the car over the original CDs anyway as cars can get very hot/cold inside and that can damage the CDs. Also, they seem to scratch more in the car due to it being a tad bit more difficult to handle discs in the car.
> 
> Some car stereos have a dynamic range compressor option. It's not common, but you may want to see if yours has a DRC option in the menu. Some phone playback software may have DRC as well.


Thanks for the input! I'd rather not have to burn all my music and compress the audio. Unless someone else has an another solution, I'll continue to resist listening to classical music in the car.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Some car stereos have volume and equaliser customization presets that conceivably allow you to change settings at the punch of a button, but such arcane programming exceeds my diminished skill/inclination. What I do is just manually raise the volume before I start, and remember to lower it to avoid speaker damage when I'm done listening. It's become second habit for me to do this. As for choosing classical music to listen to, I tend to avoid music with soft passages. It's best to listen to those works in a quiet atmosphere without distraction. I like wind symphony productions, as it doesn't seem to get lost with the road noise. I like to listen to the Canadian Brass: they have a CD of Gabrieli and Byrd that I find enjoyable, and any passengers seem to like as well. Another suggestion: try the local classical radio station (if you are fortunate enough in this diminished age to have one) as they either knowingly or unknowingly play music that seems to carry through. It may be their studio equipment.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Some classical labels are known for being more dynamic (loud and soft) than others. Chandos and BIS come to mind immediately. You may want to avoid these labels if you want to listen to classical music in your car. You just can't avoid the dynamics with many/most classical pieces though. There are exceptions of course. Some Baroque music isn't as dynamic in nature.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Antiquarian said:


> Some car stereos have volume and equaliser customization presets that conceivably allow you to change settings at the punch of a button, but such arcane programming exceeds my diminished skill/inclination. What I do is just manually raise the volume before I start, and remember to lower it to avoid speaker damage when I'm done listening. It's become second habit for me to do this. As for choosing classical music to listen to, I tend to avoid music with soft passages. It's best to listen to those works in a quiet atmosphere without distraction. I like wind symphony productions, as it doesn't seem to get lost with the road noise. I like to listen to the Canadian Brass: they have a CD of Gabrieli and Byrd that I find enjoyable, and any passengers seem to like as well. Another suggestion: try the local classical radio station (if you are fortunate enough in this diminished age to have one) as they either knowingly or unknowingly play music that seems to carry through. It may be their studio equipment.


I do have a local Classical station, fortunately. I do enjoy listening to it! Definitely a solid option for me.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

When I buy a car, I look especially for a quiet cabin and a decent stereo. Even then, most car listening is piano solo and the like, without the extreme dynamic range of much orchestral music.

Bach and Beethoven solo keyboard make great traveling music.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Klassik said:


> Some classical labels are known for being more dynamic (loud and soft) than others. Chandos and BIS come to mind immediately. You may want to avoid these labels if you want to listen to classical music in your car. You just can't avoid the dynamics with many/most classical pieces though. There are exceptions of course. Some Baroque music isn't as dynamic in nature.


Ya Baroque and even Classical are pretty good for the car overall.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Haydn string quartets sound great in the car.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

KenOC said:


> When I buy a car, I look especially for a quiet cabin and a decent stereo. Even then, most car listening is piano solo and the like, without the extreme dynamic range of much orchestral music.


Clearly OP should go out and buy a new Lexus LS with a Mark Levinson audio system. That should take care of the problem! But, seriously, even very quiet cars are not quiet enough to create a good listening environment. Picking the right music to listen to is probably the easiest and best advice.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm kind of OCD though, if I can't pick whatever I want to listen to at any given time, I'd rather just not listen to anything at all. In other words, my OCD wouldn't allow me to restrict it to simply Baroque and Classical era music, I'd rather listen to nothing.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

We've tried a number of times. but indeed only baroque and early classical seem to work reasonably well because of the more even dynamics. 

In the end, we decided to go pop/rock full time in the car. We got a 32 GB USB stick with thousands of great songs suitable for the road (from ABBA to Uriah Heep).


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I'm kind of OCD though, if I can't pick whatever I want to listen to at any given time, I'd rather just not listen to anything at all. In other words, my OCD wouldn't allow me to restrict it to simply Baroque and Classical era music, I'd rather listen to nothing.


I understand where you're coming from. I rarely listen to classical in the car. Aside from the dynamic range, I don't like that I can't put a lot of focus into listening to the music when driving like I can at home. Also, unless you have a long commute or are taking a long road trip, it would be difficult to listen to a whole symphony or something in one sitting in the car.

I usually listen to jazz or pop in the car. My car as a USB port so I just load stuff up on a flash drive and let it shuffle through it. I don't really like a lot of pop, but I can usually find enough stuff that's good enough. Sometimes I just go without music. I'm surprised that my hearing is even decent still after years of driving very noisy Hondas. The shame of it is that my last Honda actually had a pretty good sound system. Anyway, my current car is much quieter than anything I had before and I do kind of like the peace and quiet at times. It keeps my ears fresh for when I can turn on my home stereo!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Klassik said:


> I understand where you're coming from. I rarely listen to classical in the car. Aside from the dynamic range, I don't like that I can't put a lot of focus into listening to the music when driving like I can at home. Also, unless you have a long commute or are taking a long road trip, it would be difficult to listen to a whole symphony or something in one sitting in the car.
> 
> I usually listen to jazz or pop in the car. My car as a USB port so I just load stuff up on a flash drive and let it shuffle through it. I don't really like a lot of pop, but I can usually find enough stuff that's good enough. Sometimes I just go without music. I'm surprised that my hearing is even decent still after years of driving very noisy Hondas. The shame of it is that my last Honda actually had a pretty good sound system. Anyway, my current car is much quieter than anything I had before and I do kind of like the peace and quiet at times. It keeps my ears fresh for when I can turn on my home stereo!


Definitely! I'll just listen to my other CDs that aren't Classical, my OCD doesn't mind that solution or turn on the classical radio station, but I prefer listening to stuff from my collection, it feels more personal.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Solo piano music and piano concertos tend to work the best for me in the car. However, I mostly listen to classical radio instead of CDs while driving.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

The problem is the stereo systems included in cars. The tweeters are cut and the bass poops out in the midrange. The digital amps are of the cheapest variety and noisy so at low listening levels the music gets obscured by the background noise of the amp. The manufacturers then add a filter to eliminate noise that takes a lot of music with it. It doesn't effect pop as much, but it does have an effect on pop, so they remaster pop recordings at a higher level so that they can have a zing factor, leading to something called the loudness wars.
The best audio upgrade I ever made was adding a pair of $29 speakers to my car. They weren't refined but they were at least full range. I later added a new receiver, mainly for it's navigation ability, but it had a better amp. Problem solved


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## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

My ride has volume controls on the steering wheel, so it's right there and easy to control. Hence, MANY classical CDs in the car.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Omicron9 said:


> My ride has volume controls on the steering wheel, so it's right there and easy to control. Hence, MANY classical CDs in the car.


This helps, but it can be a lot of work to keep fiddling with the volume while driving. Also, you may have the volume turned up and then get blown out of the car when the music turns loud if you don't see it coming. So it's not a perfect solution.

Plus, it can take a while to get from a high volume to a low volume using the steering wheel controls. The knob is faster, but unfortunately some car manufactures want to be trendy and eliminate basic ergonomic features like the volume knob in favor of wonky touchscreen volume sliders (I'm looking at you, Honda).



Triplets said:


> The problem is the stereo systems included in cars...The best audio upgrade I ever made was adding a pair of $29 speakers to my car. They weren't refined but they were at least full range. I later added a new receiver, mainly for it's navigation ability, but it had a better amp. Problem solved


Agreed, the speakers that come with many cars are quite poor. A simple upgrade can go a long way, but there's still the dynamics problem with classical music. As far as upgrading head units go, it's becoming more difficult to do as car manufacturers eliminate DIN/Double DIN head units in favor of proprietary designs. Some of these fancy units can be taken out and replaced with a Double DIN mounting kit, but I don't know if this can be done in all cases. Even if it can, I don't know how it would work if the car has other controls (like HVAC) built into the radio screen. Maybe these cars have an empty bay on the dash for a single DIN stereo or something.


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Take public transportation and listen through quality earbuds and iPod? (I know that's not always practical nor is public transportation available everywhere, but thought I'd throw that in as an alternative. )


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I just turn my USB connected car stereo up to deafening levels. Quiet bits come out at normal levels and big crescendos frighten the life out of little old ladies on zebra crossings.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

We listen to classical cds a lot during car journeys. Yes, it certainly is annoying - especially when the piece starts so quietly you can't hear it, but *as soon as *you turn the volume up, it rises to a crescendo & blasts your ear drums out. But I'm sticking with the low tech solution of turning knobs while simultaneously practising yogic breathing.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Cars are perfect environments for old music, stuff recorded before the era of tape, recorded directly to disc. It has more midrange EQ and really cuts through the road noise.

If you thought classical music was not suited for car travel, try some old Schnabel doing Beethoven, old opera singers, The Rachmaninoff Piano recordings on RCA, old Furtwangler, etc.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

You cannot duplicate a piece of recorded classical music in a car as compare to an audiophile grade hi fi system. There are so many parameters when you are driving that could distract you listening to the music. I have a reasonable sound system in my car and often listening to classical music. The objective keep me relaxed when I am driving especially in traffic. I do not listen to a piece intensely when driving. The dynamic that the OP mention is an issue and other listening factors such a depth and breadth are key factors to consider as well.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

There isn't really a good option per-say. When I drive 55 mph or less I don't have too bad of an issue. If I'm on the highway doing 70 mph though the road/wind noise becomes a bit too much to really enjoy things. Solo Instrument works do seem to work better than Orchestral music quite often. Having a quiet cabin makes a big difference too. I have a newer SUV with thick doors, etc. and it's pretty quiet. I can usually listen to whatever I like as long as it isn't pouring rain and I'm just driving on back roads, but if it's pouring rain out or I'm on the highway I usually opt for something different, classic rock, blues or jazz or something else I enjoy.


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## MissKittysMom (Mar 2, 2017)

Like others, I tend not to do classical in the car, although I'm experimenting with it again. Keyboards tend to work well, as do quartets, although chamber music varies as much by composer as by era. It will have to be selective, though, and not my whole collection.

So in the car it's mostly progressive rock, bluegrass, jazz, birdsongs (even the croaking grunts of a great blue heron can be music, if it set your frame of mind), spoken word, and other, less classifiable stuff. That now includes the complete sonatas of Scarlatti, the Well-Tempered Clavier, and probably soon will extend to Shostakovich's 24 Preludes & Fugues. I also tend to keep my phone on "shuffle" so classical music that is complete within a single track works best for me.


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## RRod (Sep 17, 2012)

For anything remotely dynamic you need a compressor, which is essentially what you're doing manually when you ride the volume knob. If your car stereo lacks any compression/loudness capabilities, pre-processing the files is an option. Another option is to play through a device that can do compression (e.g. anything with Rockbox installed on it).


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

My ride came with a Monsoon system with 8 speakers and an amp in the trunk. I have no problem with sound levels out on the road. The radio automatically makes sound level adjustments based upon the speed of the car ('04 Jetta). 

With the fader and balance controls, as well as bass, treble and tweeter controls, I can literally wrap the sound around my ears. The car is very well insulated and the sound cannot be heard outside the vehicle when the windows are closed.


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## Jacred (Jan 14, 2017)

I hate it! Whenever I want to introduce my friends to classical music during road trips, the quiet parts get lost and the music loses its subtlety.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Number of years ago I had a night delivery job requiring driving my minivan 300 miles around northern Vermont five nights a week. The best way to get through it was a stack of classical CDs. Maybe it was a lack of night traffic or maybe just the ease of concentrating in the dark, but I never had any dynamic range problems.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Omicron9 said:


> My ride has volume controls on the steering wheel, so it's right there and easy to control. Hence, MANY classical CDs in the car.


This, always music of our own taste in the car.


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