Help on car audio set-up

This has been bothering for a long time, but haven't asked for advice before.

My job includes a lot of driving time, so Music is always on, mainly CDs but also Ipod or USB drives.
The listen-while-driving, very often, is also the last chance for a CD before being rejected and sold as used at some shop.
Fact is, I can't help but notice that the sound coming out of my car speakers is not very good, as most CDs sound like crap, lifeless and boring, but when I am home and put them on the Hi-fi system, I like them a lot more.
I also easily feel the ear-fatigue because I try to set the volume a bit louder than necessary, as I could avoid sound deficiencies doing so, but usually after a few minutes I turn it down again.
The car is a Nissan Qashqai, with basic audio system, and the only set-up audio options are for bass and high tones... (No middle range!).
Listening to iPod or USB actually sounds better!
I really can't change the audio system as it is a company car...

Any suggestion? I know this is the right place to get advice on getting the best sound out of crappy hardware.

 

Sometimes (nothing against Nissan) the audio systems they put in the cars aren't all that great. I have a Camry and I yanked mine completely out and started over (nothing all that fancy, ampliefier, HD Radio/CD that plays mp3s, and Polk Speakers) and enjoy it. I wanted something good enough to listen to classical music in the car.
You also have to watch the installers, several times they have messed up the polarization of the speakers, and I had to go back and fix it.

If you can't change the audio system in the car, what can you change ?
I don't really know of any suggestion that would help except listening to headphones (which I do not like at all, hard on the ears), if the USB feed into the amp gets a better sound than the CD player, rip all your CDs to there.....

If you drive the car that much, would the company let you upgrade the system ? Would it hurt to ask ?

 

Buy a 4x100 amp and a 200ish x1 amp. Also buy a new headunit which accepts ipod or headphone jack for android. Also need preouts in the back.
buy a pair of component speakers for the front and a pair of 2 ways for the back and wire them up to the 400w amp. Wire a 10" sealed box sub to the smaller 1 channel amp.
Presto done. She will sound great.
Edit: NM didnt read the last sentence.

Short of replacing the oem speakers, yer beat son

 

What's your budget? Do you love your music enough to buy planar speakers, and the
proper power and wiring they require?

 

Don't know what kind of suggestions you're expecting here, Rikkiii. This kinda limits your options, maybe a higher-end bluetooth speaker you could power from the car's "lighter" input.

 

Do you have an AUX port? I have a FiiO X3, a hi-res portable player with its own amplifier and a line-out. It makes my stock Honda audio system sound better than I ever would have expected, no doubt due to the built-in amp and high quality DAC. It costs $170.00 online at B&H Photo/Video.

 

A car is a bad listening environment. If you have a half decent home system, it will always blow away any top end car system.

 

When using an iPod or iPhone you could experiment with the built-in equalizer and various presets to see if you can tweak the sound to suit the car better than just adjusting the stereo's tone controls.

Do you stream through Spotify? I haven't tried it yet, but I believe the app has EQ controls now as well.