even though you are posting from caraudioforum.com.......

this discussion definetely should be brought up because there is a lot
of confusion. my basic opinion on things is that if you take low quality
equipment with a low quality install you get low quality sound. take low
quality equipment with a great install and you still might have ok sound
quality but it will look nice. take high quality equipment and a high
quality install - wel lthats how you get great sound quality. basically
crossover settings and all that bulshit well it really takes a lot of
time and effort to tuning a system to sound good. you have to take into
account all types of factors like transfer function, time delay, speaker
placement, equalization. and even all of that is dependant upon the
listeners preferences in music and the sounds that they like best (some
like crisp vocals some like a load of bass). there is really no be all
and end all answer except that sound quality is subjective, it all
depends on the listener.

my two cents.

EFFENDI

You cannot quantify the subjective, and things like crossover settings,
equipment, et al are subjective.

This is like the race car debate, is it the car or is it the driver? The
driver can't win races without a good car, and a good car doesn't go
anywhere without a good driver.

God is in the details.

Front speaker installation is my favorite example.  It's more than screwing
the 4" speakers into their stock locations.  It involves getting real
speakers to work up there and positioned such that the imaging is ideal and
the frequency response best suits your taste.  This is hardly ever a trivial
endeavor.