[proflex957]

Man, after driving my '04 330ci Monday's through Friday's with HK stereo to my m235i HK stereo on the weekends is soooooo disappointing. I can't image how bad the base models stereo must sound.

Pretty much a waste of money for this option IMO.

Since I'm going to probably do a trade-in for a M2 on its second year of production I don't plan on doing any upgrades.

Did anyone figure any HK stereo setting to make this thing sound better??? I listen mostly to indie/alternative music.

[2msport]

Originally Posted by proflex957

Man, after driving my '04 330ci Monday's through Friday's with HK stereo to my m235i HK stereo on the weekends is soooooo disappointing. I can't image how bad the base models stereo must sound.

Pretty much a waste of money for this option IMO.

Since I'm going to probably do a trade-in for a M2 on its second year of production I don't plan on doing any upgrades.

Did anyone figure any HK stereo setting to make this thing sound better??? I listen mostly to indie/alternative music.

Are you using the USB connector? = best sound quality by far.

I increase the bass and treble up to 75-85% for each. Also, speakers need time to burn in and sound their best. Give it 20 hours or so. The soundstage in the 2 is different than my last car as well, and initially I was disappointed. But using high res sound with the USB gives a pretty well balanced sound. Give it time and let your ears adjust. All this might not give you the results you expect but it will help. You say it was a waste of money, but would you really be able to live with considerably worse speakers?

[proflex957]

Originally Posted by 2msport

Are you using the USB connector? = best sound quality by far.

I increase the bass and treble up to 75-85% for each. Also, speakers need time to burn in and sound their best. Give it 20 hours or so. The soundstage in the 2 is different than my last car as well, and initially I was disappointed. But using high res sound with the USB gives a pretty well balanced sound. Give it time and let your ears adjust. All this might not give you the results you expect but it will help. You say it was a waste of money, but would you really be able to live with considerably worse speakers?

Dynamics seem pretty poor to me.

Right now I'm just using the FM radio...occasionally Sat. radio but that's really compressed so I rarely listen to Sat. and won't pay for the subscription.

I bought a USB to lighting/mini-USB cable (for cell phone) and am now in the hunt for a used iPod Touch 64GB to load with my CDs ripped to Apple Lossless files to play in the car.

I have only added more output level to the rear speakers which helped some.

Do you know what is the Watt output difference when settings at 50% bass/treble level vs. 85%?

[2msport]

Originally Posted by proflex957

Dynamics seem pretty poor to me.

Right now I'm just using the FM radio...occasionally Sat. radio but that's really compressed so I rarely listen to Sat. and won't pay for the subscription.

I bought a USB to lighting/mini-USB cable (for cell phone) and am now in the hunt for a used iPod Touch 64GB to load with my CDs ripped to Apple Lossless files to play in the car.

I have only added more output level to the rear speakers which helped some.

Do you know what is the Watt output difference when settings at 50% bass/treble level vs. 85%?

LOL. You're using the worst possible sound source to determine how antiquate your system is.. Get that cable and try again. USB will sound worlds better. Good plan with the iPod touch.

I don't know the Watt difference. Put on some music, close your eyes and turn the dial until sounds right. I stream most of my music from my iPhone, and around that % sounds the best to me.

Stick in a USB stick formatted to FAT32. Copy and paste some digital music and give it a whirl.

[Zooks527]

I will confess to mine being underwhelming, running HQ audio from the hard drive.

It's OK with the volume up when I'm alone in the car. However, at lower levels to allow conversation with my wife when she's in the car, it's just flat.

[alz0rz]

Originally Posted by 2msport

LOL. You're using the worst possible sound source to determine how antiquate your system is.. Get that cable and try again. USB will sound worlds better. Good plan with the iPod touch.

+1....!

[DJRobNM]

It is a little disappointing in the convertible because I was expecting the tweeters (not available in the base package) to compensate for the highs when the top is down. The tweeters actually sound underpowered compared to the wildly loud center speaker. I might consider replacing the center speaker with slightly higher impedance to take it down a notch.

I was also listening via Bluetooth and found that slapping some high bit rate mp3s on a 64GB USB and pluggin' it in resulted in far better sound quality and easier track manipulation. Now I have to figure out playlists.

Leasing I would order HK again, buying I would go aftermarket.

[DanG]

You actually get better sound by unplugging the center speaker.

[Stockholmarn]

Unfortunately the HK system is still miles better than the "Hi-Fi" option...

[proflex957]

Originally Posted by DanG

You actually get better sound by unplugging the center speaker.

[hyperzulu]

Originally Posted by Stockholmarn

Unfortunately the HK system is still miles better than the "Hi-Fi" option...

But then again I dropped in a set of speakers for the price of the HK option and have much better sound than HK. So.... HK is still disappointing.

[Jonathan95]

I have preordered my 228i with the hifi loudspeaker option and im wondering if its worth paying an extra 600 euros to upgrade to harman kardon before its too late. Obvious hk is better but is it worth the extra money? How good is the hifi? What do you guys recommend me?

[SteveAustin]

Just get it....so many people hate on it but honestly I quite like it. The standard hi fi is weak.

[mcom]

Spend the $600 euro's on aftermarket, will get much more for the money. I too am totally underwhelmed with the HK sound, that and the input differential from sirius and radio is maddening... going from one to the other causes massive loudness changes (I would say 20-30%). My 2007 Infinit G35 stock has better sound than this... but still love the car, has made driving an activity again... best car I have had eva.

[zipphreak]

I have HK and overall the quality is meh. But i added a Sundown 1000w watt ClassD amplifier and a single 12" SA-12 sub in a ported box at 34hz and it complements it well.

I was thinking of replacing the underseat woofers with better ones to enhance midbass and add a 2 channel amp for them.

-Paul

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by Zooks527

I will confess to mine being underwhelming, running HQ audio from the hard drive.

The hard drive is hardly high quality: it automatically downsamples better files to 256Kbps. But it does it work well in iDrive ...

The car's CD player is not the greatest, either. It must have a crap DAC in it because it fizzes, then distorts, dense rock and orchestral music at moderate volumes ...

The best sound I've come across is Spotify fed through the USB input on Extreme (320Kbps). But I have yet to try AIFF files fed from my iPhone (and I, too, am seriously considering an iPod touch to keep in the car). Looking forward to that.

[kmusk01]

I guess my ears must be terrible as I actually like the HK setup. I will admit I am no audiophile person, but do like to listen to my music loud. I actually have Sonos is nearly every room in my house and love blasting it.

I think the HK in the 2 is great for what it is. I do wish we had an equilizer option though. I normally play everything via bluetooth from my phone. I know its not the best source, but it has my most up to date music. I have a thumb drive, but I upload new music all the time to my home server where I stream everything from, so using the thumb drive isn't always up to date. I have yet to store anything on the internal HDD to see if that sounds different, and probably won't.

Overall I am happy I got it and think it was worth it.

Ken~

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by kmusk01

I guess my ears must be terrible as I actually like the HK setup. I will admit I am no audiophile person, but do like to listen to my music loud. I actually have Sonos is nearly every room in my house and love blasting it.

I think the HK in the 2 is great for what it is. I do wish we had an equilizer option though. I normally play everything via bluetooth from my phone. I know its not the best source, but it has my most up to date music. I have a thumb drive, but I upload new music all the time to my home server where I stream everything from, so using the thumb drive isn't always up to date. I have yet to store anything on the internal HDD to see if that sounds different, and probably won't.

Overall I am happy I got it and think it was worth it.

Ken~

I have the HK audio with Logic7 and eq in my 335i, and frankly it's not that great. There is plenty of bass and low end, but highs lack clarity and warmth, while the mids are somewhat harsh and incorrectly "pushed". No amount of eq'ing can fix the not so great system.

Is it "hi-fi"? Not really imo, but it can get loud thanks to the high wattage amps in the 3 series HK.
That it's only saving grace, the fact that I can crank it up and it won't distort or compress that way the extra cost optional audio system did in my 135i.
I even installed new higher efficiency subs in my 135i and it only helped to get a bit more low end definition. The new subs couldn't do much with the over all sound as the amps were crap, the speakers were crap, and the HU was crap.

Sounds like not much has changed for the 2 series.
They charge the same $875 for the HK audio in the 3 as they do in the 2 and from what you guys are saying the 2's HK system is nothing like the 3 series.
That's a major RIP OFF imo, and BMW needs to address that BS.

Audi's B&O audio is about the same upgrade price and is much better than HK. Also, I hate the Logic7 surround crap. I don't have any sources that can use it. When I turn it on it's all artificial surround and it sounds like crap. The center speaker is also way too freaking loud, and frankly, when I set my system to "stereo" there should NOT be a center speaker working at all. Center speakers don't help the stereo image, and worse they can produce out of phase frequencies that can ruin the system.

The 2 series HK uses 7 channels, so can you turn off the "logic 7" processing? In my 335i I can and it sounds better without it.

[proflex957]

Originally Posted by zipphreak

I have HK and overall the quality is meh. But i added a Sundown 1000w watt ClassD amplifier and a single 12" SA-12 sub in a ported box at 34hz and it complements it well.

I was thinking of replacing the underseat woofers with better ones to enhance midbass and add a 2 channel amp for them.

-Paul

Although you can produce a class D 1000w amp with a much smaller size than with class A/B, class D usually sound like crap....sorry. Hope you didn't blow too much money.

[proflex957]

Originally Posted by DJRobNM

It is a little disappointing in the convertible because I was expecting the tweeters (not available in the base package) to compensate for the highs when the top is down. The tweeters actually sound underpowered compared to the wildly loud center speaker. I might consider replacing the center speaker with slightly higher impedance to take it down a notch.

I was also listening via Bluetooth and found that slapping some high bit rate mp3s on a 64GB USB and pluggin' it in resulted in far better sound quality and easier track manipulation. Now I have to figure out playlists.

Leasing I would order HK again, buying I would go aftermarket.

Why would you use bluetooth and MP3 to what you think is better sound quality....that's a oxymoron. Why not use stereo out and FLAC, or AIFF, or Apple lossless?


BTW: Will this system play FLAC files from an external player (eg. Astell&Kern AK100) via USB?

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by proflex957

BTW: Will this system play FLAC files from an external player (eg. Astell&Kern AK100) via USB?

It's worth a shot. AIFF files on iTunes play, but I wouldn't be surprised if the HU's decoding doesn't support FLAC (and I can't remember if it's listed in the Owner's Manual).

[hyperzulu]

Originally Posted by proflex957

Although you can produce a class D 1000w amp with a much smaller size than with class A/B, class D usually sound like crap....sorry. Hope you didn't blow too much money.

There are plenty of class D amps that sound just fine for tweeters and mids, but for sub frequencies you would need a great ear and a very detailed sub to tell the difference between class D and A/B.

With that being said, this is the Internet. You don't need to apologize for making silly comments. It goes with the territory.