Having always had ML as integral to top-spec IS models, I never previously gave much thought to whether it represented value for money
in respect of the system or systems in lower-spec packages. But now, because it will be offered only as an optional with a current list-price
of €1250 were I to replace my present 300h with another (as one day I probably shall), I thought it would be useful to try out the 8-speaker
system I would otherwise be getting. And, on the basis of a same-car, same-device, same-music and same-environment comparison, I
concluded, quite emphatically, that I would still go for the ML. This is not to say that I would be overjoyed to pay the high asking price.
It means, rather, that I am satisfied that the ML justifies a premium figure. Whether or not this is excessive is a question for individual
customers, and raises the broader issue of why anyone should want premium car audio in the first place, especially when the standard
system on offer is in itself an acceptably good one.
My own justification for wanting premium car audio in any car I might ever own rests on the availability of 10,000+ titles imported to iPod
from a library of 950+ CDs collected over many years and which itself represented a not insignificant investment. The music ranges from
early Blues and Rock (mostly remasterings of original recordings of primitive quality) through modern Jazz and "quality" Pop (mostly
excellently recorded) to various types of Classical (almost all of it superbly recorded). And, if the selection were not heavily weighted
towards the latter areas, I would reckon that just about every car stereo I have ever heard would be good enough. As far as my own
repertoire of tastes and desires is concerned, the selection is pretty much definitive, meaning that I very rarely add to it (typically by
iTunes or Amazon download when I do) and then only if tempted by rave reviews of new performances of what I usually already have.
Therefore, in effect, I view my iPod purely as a means of carrying what is almost my entire music collection from my house to my car
and back again. And while I acknowledge that this amount of content is ridiculously large for anybody's needs in a car, I nevertheless
find its availability "on tap" to be strangely comforting (especially when supplemented by a good number of automatic podcast downloads
which, fortunately, are self-limiting in number since my discovery of the delete-after-listening setting) and, as such, deserving of as
good a system as I can afford in order to play it.