Yes, a car is a critical place to check mixes. The bass response is often exaggerated and the noise floor from road noise is high, giving you less dynamic range within which to mix.

I just bought the Steven Slate VSX headphones, which have software to emulate many mixing environments including bad places like a car. So far I’m finding this helpful to not only check mixes, but for the first time ever, actually do a mix using headphones.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.