A method is described for measuring and comparing the perceived sound quality of vehicle audio systems in situ. The process has been refined through use at company facilities for over two decades and has been applied across a variety of internal use cases within the organization. Panels of experienced evaluators, aligned processes, and dedicated facilities are used at multiple sites around the globe to support consistent data collection. The collected data are benchmarked against a periodically refreshed reference population of recent vehicle evaluations, allowing each vehicle to be positioned relative to the contemporary competitive landscape. Hundreds of current vehicle models are available for comparison at any given time. The resulting information is used within the organization to support sound system target setting and validation, competitor analysis, sales pursuits, and product development and prototyping. More recently, the method has also been explored as a basis for sound-quality predictor modeling. This paper describes the overall method, the associated analysis workflow, and a set of anonymized case studies intended to illustrate practical comparability and discrimination in routine use.
