Abstract: A motor vehicle includes headphones having two speakers. The headphones are selectively retained by the seat of the motor vehicle or worn by a human passenger of the motor vehicle. An audio source is communicatively coupled to the headphones and provides audio content to the headphones. A characteristic of the audio content as received by the speakers is dependent upon whether the headphones are being retained by the seat or worn by the passenger.

Abstract: The present invention includes a method of and apparatus for optimizing the reproduction by an audio system of audio source content. The method includes the process of determining the configuration of the audio system and the process of determining the format of the audio source content. Mixing parameters are determined dependent at least in part upon the configuration of the audio system and the format of the audio content. The mixing parameters are applied to the audio source content to create mixed signals optimized for reproducing the particular audio format on the audio system.