Anyone else underwhelmed by HK Audio?

[voodoogeek]

I wouldn't wonder if BMW starts selling individual audio with some facelifting in 4 years time, same option as you get in 5/6 series.

[phantome46]

Has anyone heard the BMW loudspeaker system yet? I have this in my previous e93 and it sounded good? Need to go listen to the HK one in the M4

[Andrew115]

Comparing the HK to the Hifi in the F30 is a massive improvment. The F30 Hifi was not good in my opinion. I think the Hifi is better than 70% of factory cars today but not ideal if your into audio systems at all.

That being said the HK is much louder but with it's own problems also. Would be nice to have some way to auto adjust the settings by song, it seems as soon as it's dialed in for one type of music it's not very suitable for another type of music.

Maybe allowing the user to save settings for the EQ in the memory buttons would solve some of the complaints here, this way you can with one touch change the EQ settings to a configured setup that you like.

For me when I hear some of my favorite old rock and then switch over to something new or more in the pop family vs. more bass heavy music the settings are always all over if I really want to optimize the sound to its best potential. This is what I have always been dealing with - no matter what sound system I have. I will be thankful though, the HK is a great system overall, it's not going to win a competition but you can (as others have stated) add a 10" or preferably a quality 12" sub and have a very solid system in your car. Try to build one from scratch that's better and I bet your paying 2-3x as much as you have invested in the HK upgrade.

[phantome46]

If nobody likes it why is nobody logging complaints with BMW?

[jc05e46m3]

Originally Posted by phantome46

If nobody likes it why is nobody logging complaints with BMW?

I changed my previous post after having owned it and spent time with it now....

[Np2014]

I think the hk system sounds good especially with the xm radio on i am hooked on the bpm station!

[Oakleyguy]

I was a little underwhelmed with low end response, but after slightly adjusting the EQ, I was happy. Not bad for $700 which wouldn't buy you much in the way of aftermarket audio anywho.

[Squddie]

Originally Posted by phantome46

If nobody likes it why is nobody logging complaints with BMW?

The HK is cheap. If you do the math it's obvious they can't spend much more than $10-15 per speaker.

Apparently not enough people demand better below the 5-series.

But hey over in Mercedes land the whole E-class doesn't offer anything better.

[Mandi90TT]

Curious if the speakers in the HK system just use standard connections, which means they can be replaced by decent aftermarket speakers without changing out the amp, or if you will need to put in new amps along with new speakers.

Of course, that partly depends on the quality of the amps, as well.

[ASAP]

what r people's opinions on the base stereo? is it as good as the Hifi non logic7 stereos in the older 335s?

[Squddie]

Originally Posted by ASAP

what r people's opinions on the base stereo? is it as good as the Hifi non logic7 stereos in the older 335s?

I listened to what is base in the US (and middle in Germany). It was unbearbly bad. It doesn't even have full range speakers, high treble is entirely missing.

However since the HK isn't great either I am having discussions whether it might be better to get the base stereo and rip the car apart the first weekend and put in better speakers.

There are some question marks on that, including:
- at this time there is no BSW set for either 4-series or 2-series
- it in unclear to me whether all speaker positions are available with the base stereo or whether some interior trim is different
- even if the latter applies, it is questionable whether more speaker positions make for better sound. Really good sound is single-source. There isn't any phase correction available either to fix up multi-speaker

[Squddie]

Originally Posted by Dave 90TT

Curious if the speakers in the HK system just use standard connections, which means they can be replaced by decent aftermarket speakers without changing out the amp, or if you will need to put in new amps along with new speakers.

Of course, that partly depends on the quality of the amps, as well.

You can't code passive speakers.

I have been told the head unit with US base audio and HK is the same with just some features disabled. You don't need any of that BS anyway for good sound with good speakers, as long as they don't go far enough to actively damage sound if you don't have the extra bits, such as putting a LPF. That's unlikely, though.

[Mandi90TT]

Originally Posted by Squddie

You can't code passive speakers.

Not sure what you are saying there.

Just so it is clear, I am curious whether the speakers in the HK system can be replaced, plug and play, with decent speakers for better sound without having to replace the amplifiers, or if you have to replace the speakers and amps at the same time.

Or, third option, the amplifier is integrated into the head unit, which gives you two choices: replace the speakers, still using the stock head unit amplifier, OR replacing the speakers, intercepting the signal and using a line level module to convert the signal to line level, and then installing good quality amps.

[Squddie]

Originally Posted by Dave 90TT

Not sure what you are saying there.

Loudspeaker chassis don't have any chips on them that would allow BMW to make you unable to change them without putting their "code" back into the system.

You should match the original impedance, but that is standard audio system lingo.

[BlackCobra08]

My last three cars were Subarus with OEM/no name speakers, so for me it's like going from McDonald's to a Juicy Lucy. (if you don't know what a Juicy Lucy is, it's what were famous for food wise here in MN...it's amazing!)

[Mandi90TT]

Originally Posted by Squddie

Loudspeaker chassis don't have any chips on them that would allow BMW to make you unable to change them without putting their "code" back into the system.

You should match the original impedance, but that is standard audio system lingo.

Okay; I defintely know about matching the impedance, but what I was concerned about was if the amps were directly on the speakers, or if the speakers used some weird connections, or possibly completely non-standard impedance (I've seen 16 ohms on some car systems!!!)

If the speakers are just standard speakers, should be easy to replace them with higher quality speakers. Of course, the speakers might not be the problem either, might be poor quality amps.

Ah well.

[AYF80]

I feel that my 2008 335i sounded better than the F80 with HK. Kinda pissed, i can't get it to sound good with all types of music like i did with my 335i.

[slavearm]

Spectrum analysis and tuning results tomorrow. Initially, my impressions are pretty good. Especially compared to my E92 premium. It't not the 15K monster I had in my RX8, but its pretty dang good across teh board.

[JDMunoa]

First post. First BMW.

I thought the HK was a bit disappointing until I adjusted the equalizer... That made a HUGE difference.

[nullrouted]

Originally Posted by Dave 90TT

Not sure what you are saying there.

Just so it is clear, I am curious whether the speakers in the HK system can be replaced, plug and play, with decent speakers for better sound without having to replace the amplifiers, or if you have to replace the speakers and amps at the same time.

Or, third option, the amplifier is integrated into the head unit, which gives you two choices: replace the speakers, still using the stock head unit amplifier, OR replacing the speakers, intercepting the signal and using a line level module to convert the signal to line level, and then installing good quality amps.

Dave, I wonder this too -- I have an E92 M3 with Individual (EPS) audio that has several upgrades. In the EPS system, the factory amp was in the trunk and in order to replace any of the speakers, you had to eliminate the amp (at least from those speakers you were replacing).

I am looking to migrate as much of my existing M3 upgrade as possible into the M4 I'll be ordering, current setup is a JL HD900/5, 2x Jehnert XE200's under the seats, and a Morel UltimoSC 12" in the trunk (500 to sub, 2x200 to mids). The rest of the speakers are driven by the factory amp, and I've got Technic's harness to split off the sub/mids -- goes to a line-level converter (the 2-channel little silver box one... can't remember model) and then into the JL amp.

IMO, -any- factory system at an absolute minimum requires a bass upgrade, if not a full upgrade. I went the EPS route which was supposedly "harder" mainly because the components had real active crossovers and the quality of the speakers was pretty great from the factory -- just had no good mids or bass. So most of this bickering about whether X factory system is better than Y factory system is pretty silly to me... they all suck (at least to some degree) =)

I'm gonna have to catch up on the M4 audio and figure out what we need to do, so far I haven't seen MusicarNW come up with anything for it and I think Technic has only gotten as far as creating an ASD-disabler harness (to kill the stupid engine noise 'feature')... Will be interesting to see what people start doing though, looking forward to it.

[Mandi90TT]

Good to hear. One of the things I am going to do when I get back from Afghanistan in 2 months and pick up my M4 is dig into the sound system, and likely upgrade it. Last car had about $7k in the sound system, and that was relatively low for some of the systems I have seen out there.

[BEMR]

Still awaiting delivery of M4, but was really looking forward to the sound system with HK to be better than my 2012 6 series, but find that it could be otherwise from this thread. In my 08 M5 BMW contracted with a company in Sweden, DIRAC, their system was about a 1500 option and created the most amazing sound I became spoiled. 16 speakers, 2 subs under front seats and 750 watts sounded awesome.

I have in a communication with DIRAC now to see if their offering any simple solution for M4's at this point and will post answer soon.