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Harman-Kardon Sound System Tips?

46K views 122 replies 39 participants last post by  mboylan 
#1 · (Edited)
Starting a new thread on the Harmon-Kardon sound system to share settings and thoughts.

I think the system is very good to amazing, depending on settings. My previous car had a Fender-licensed system, which I also liked. This seems better. And it’s certainly better than my wife’s previous VW or current Volvo (stock system). FWIW I listen to a super wide variety of music, from minimal classical to jazz to ambient to rock to doom. I’ve really tested everything. It all sounds good.

So…my general settings are:
Driver
Surround Off
You can see my tone and equalizer settings below.

I tend to jump back and forth between Driver/All/Rear in sound optimization. Generally whenever I switch, I say “oh, that sounds better!” No matter what I’m switching from or to—weird.

I’ve found that there’s a very slight muffling to the sound that I can’t dial out. Though I think the system is great and look forward to jumping into the car to listen to it, it could use a bit more clarity and “sparkle.” Not sure how to achieve that without some sort of preamp driver or buffer maybe?

Also, I’d love a fader that would allow the user to reach halfway points between Driver, All, and Rear.

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#2 ·
Starting a new sound system thread because why not.

I think the Harman-Kardon system is very good to amazing, depending on settings. My previous car had a Fender-licensed system, which I also liked. This seems better. And it’s certainly better than my wife’s previous VW or current Volvo (stock system). FWIW I listen to a super wide variety of music, from minimal classical to jazz to ambient to rock to death metal. So I’ve really tested everything. As I type this, I’m listening to new releases from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Deafheaven. It all sounds good on the system. Also, fwiw, I’m a musician though not really a home audio obsessive.

So…my general settings are:
Driver
Surround Off
You can see my tone and equalizer settings below.

I tend to jump back and forth between Driver/All/Rear in sound optimization. Generally whenever I switch, I say “oh, that sounds better!” No matter what I’m switching from or to—weird.

I’ve found that there’s a very slight muffling to the sound that I can’t dial out. Though I think the system is great and look forward to jumping into the car to listen to it, it could use a bit more clarity and “sparkle.” Not sure how to achieve that without some sort of preamp driver or buffer maybe?

Also, I’d love a fader that would allow the user to reach halfway points between Driver, All, and Rear.

View attachment 10426
Agreed that a fader will help. Sometimes I feel like the rears need more punch. But overall I like the sound system, it pretty good ( until I jump into my wife’s xc60 with a B&W….) [emoji1787]


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#5 ·
I have my lows dropped a bit more and the sub cranked about double what you have, and I also don't have the mids bump up, and usually leave it on "all". Of course surround off. There's a thread where @stevelup posted his setup a while ago, and then an update after an OTA that changed things a bit. I start from his setup and then tweak it a bit for my old age hearing loss (mostly highs and more in one ear :cry:). I may try the mids bump a bit from my setup and see how it goes. Oh, and I also don't mess with the standard treble and bass sliders. I wonder if they even work when the advanced EQ is enabled? I'll have to try it and see.
 
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#7 ·
Thanks, I'll have to play with them a bit then. I might be able to flatten out my Advanced EQ settings and just use them to fine-tune the frequencies where my hearing has degraded. Might not sound as good for any passengers though, but my wife thinks the sound from the Google Mini in her "she-shed" and the speakers in her TV are just fine so probably no worries there. ;)
 
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#10 ·
You're right, it is a very good system, it's not perfect because a car is a very difficult listening space in which to create perfect sound. I am definately what you would call a HiFi enthusiast (my current system cost more than my PS2) and my last car was a W213 E-Class with Premium Plus Pack which included the Burmester sound system. Whilst if I'm being critical, the Merc system did have the slight edge on the Polestar (especially in the low frequencies which were a little more defined and tuneful) , overall the difference is not massive and I have no trouble living with and enjoying the PS2's system. What I have found is that the best way to screw it up is to keep obsessively trying to tweek it! I think it actually sounds as good as it's going to get straight out of the box and the best thing to do is just accept it for what it is and enjoy it!:) I do know whatyou mean about a certain lack of top end "sparkle" sometimes but I tend to think that it is usually down to bit rates getting squeezed a bit when the LTE signal is not perfect. I haven't actually tried it with AudioWagon and a USB stick yet so that would be an interesting experiment but I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as some people accuse of being.
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#20 ·
You're right, it is a very good system, it's not perfect because a car is a very difficult listening space in which to create perfect sound. I am definately what you would call a HiFi enthusiast (my current system cost more than my PS2) and my last car was a W213 E-Class with Premium Plus Pack which included the Burmester sound system. Whilst if I'm being critical, the Merc system did have the slight edge on the Polestar (especially in the low frequencies which were a little more defined and tuneful) , overall the difference is not massive and I have no trouble living with and enjoying the PS2's system. What I have found is that the best way to screw it up is to keep obsessively trying to tweek it! I think it actually sounds as good as it's going to get straight out of the box and the best thing to do is just accept it for what it is and enjoy it!:) I do know whatyou mean about a certain lack of top end "sparkle" sometimes but I tend to think that it is usually down to bit rates getting squeezed a bit when the LTE signal is not perfect. I haven't actually tried it with AudioWagon and a USB stick yet so that would be an interesting experiment but I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as some people accuse of being. View attachment 10429 View attachment 10430
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#16 ·
Playing with upgrading car audio for so many years there are consistently the following observations. P*2 is ordered so haven’t lived with it yet.
  • oem tuning and soundstage have improved greatly.
  • the imaging is different for car and home 2 channel. Car sounds better with a bit of rear speaker output. It is really hard to throw the soundstage in front of you over the hood.
  • EV is awesome for car stereo because the car is so much more quiet.
  • the DAC is such a weak point for most car systems. I have tested in multiple cars (BMW, VW and Porsche) and using my ownDAC through the auxiliary input yielded a really good improvement. My favourite is the Audioquest Beetle. Simple for its BT connection and cheap upgrade. Using the Chord Mojo and Chord Hugo were even better but I didn’t like having $1-2k DACS in a car that could easily be taken.
  • when I did change speakers and amps the main gains were much more clarity in the mid range and ability to get louder without distortions.
  • didn’t upgrade my last car (eGolf) Except for the DAC. The DAC gave me the sparkle and mid range clarity already. The quietness is so good for sound systems.

I am just going to live with what I get in the P*2. Not having an analogue input option takes a critical option away. My brief time in the test drive sounded okay. I just need to take away any obvious “loudness” or BOSE bump and I was able to.
 
#17 ·
Great info! My sense is that most complaints with the audio system don't like how "forward" it is—and it's true that the soundstage seems to be on the dash and windshield. It's tricky to get enough sound coming from the rear. That's mainly because the car doesn't have enough fader options.

How would a DAC replacement work if running Spotify natively from the car itself (rather than using a phone or other device and putting the DAC in between that and the car)?
 
#42 ·
Ok installed Tidal! I knew about it but only from a few years ago when it seemed like just megastars were on it.
But even after selecting like thirty of my favorite artists, the Tidal algorithm is pointing me mainly toward contemporary hip hop—not a huge fan.
 
#54 ·
Starting a new thread on the Harmon-Kardon sound system to share settings and thoughts.

I think the system is very good to amazing, depending on settings. My previous car had a Fender-licensed system, which I also liked. This seems better. And it’s certainly better than my wife’s previous VW or current Volvo (stock system). FWIW I listen to a super wide variety of music, from minimal classical to jazz to ambient to rock to death metal. So I’ve really tested everything. As I type this, I’m listening to new releases from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Deafheaven. It all sounds good. Also, fwiw, I’m a musician though not really a home audio obsessive.

So…my general settings are:
Driver
Surround Off
You can see my tone and equalizer settings below.

I tend to jump back and forth between Driver/All/Rear in sound optimization. Generally whenever I switch, I say “oh, that sounds better!” No matter what I’m switching from or to—weird.

I’ve found that there’s a very slight muffling to the sound that I can’t dial out. Though I think the system is great and look forward to jumping into the car to listen to it, it could use a bit more clarity and “sparkle.” Not sure how to achieve that without some sort of preamp driver or buffer maybe?

Also, I’d love a fader that would allow the user to reach halfway points between Driver, All, and Rear.

View attachment 10426
I updated my Eq settings to something similar to this after finding the audio quality was a little worse to my ears after the 1.7/1.8 updated. I agree boosting the mid-frequencies really seems to help! Esp for the particular form of post punk noise I tend to listen to.
 
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#58 · (Edited)
Native apps are better slightly but the latest Bluetooth 4 and 5 have enough bandwidth and are so good already that the difference is more with the source quality. So use Apple Music (BT) or Spotify/tidal especially in a car if they are lossless sources. Which ever is most convenient for your media bundles.

given my music OCD, I pondered a long time before switching to AM from Tidal after 5+ years. In the end, the stuff I listen to is better found and the recommended stuff is more bang on with Apple. tidal still pushes genres I don’t prefer. Saving over $10 month doesn’t hurt also with Apple One.
 
#60 ·
I always used Apple Music and Spotify equally. The car pushed me toward Spotify and now Tidal—which seems to have a very hip hop centered focus. I like classic hip hop but really can’t stand a lot of the recent stuff. All the auto tuning and formulaic production gets me down.
Would be great to get Apple Music, with or without CarPlay (though I’d love CarPlay too as a backup system.)
 
#66 ·
As others have mentioned here, I find that the source material makes the perceived sound quality of the HK system change drastically. With SXM, it sounds like crap. With a good song on LiveXLive or YTM, I find it quite good.
 
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#70 ·
Two comments:
First, please give LiveXLive a try. In the settings, you can choose a very high bit rate setting. I find it to be very high quality.

Second: I've wondered if there's something wrong with my rear speakers because when I set it to rear bias in the sound experience, the volume is probably half of what the front speakers are. Is this what others have noticed?
 
#76 ·
I tried this with Outkast and Fugazi. For both fairly different sets of music, I prefer the settings at the top of the thread, with mid-freqs boosted.

I wonder if there's something about Polestar's HK hardware implementation that makes the mid-freqs relatively attenuated compared to the usual setup. It's not a huge difference. But with boosting the mid-freqs, especially after v1.7/1.8, I hear vocals and background instruments more nicely.
Or it's all placebo and nothing is actually changing and I'm just convincing myself otherwise.
 
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