[The Dutch Joe]

Anyone with a Harman Kardon system noticed that the rear right speaker has a less full and more "clunky/metal" sound than the rear left speaker?

I'm wondering if this speaker might (also) be defective, or that the releasebutton of the cargo cover is resonating or something. As that is a difference between (the housing) of those 2 speakers.

(Dealer already replaced the front center speaker, which is also used for voicecontrol and phonecalls, because it was no good).

[Tchgrif]

In general I was very disappointed in the HK speakers in the 2019 x4, my previous x4 seemed to have much richer sound quality. I replaced all my speakers with bavsound and it is much better. I was surprised once I had removed them, at how poorly made the HK speakers were. if you have a bad one I would not be surprised.

[The Dutch Joe]

Going to setup the equalizer with RTA tool and Pink Noise this weekend.
Think that will improve the overall sound dramatically.
Although standard it's already better than my B&O opted set in my 2014 Audi A4...

It's just that rear right speaker that has a poor sound compared to the right one.

[Campro435]

Originally Posted by Tchgrif

In general I was very disappointed in the HK speakers in the 2019 x4, my previous x4 seemed to have much richer sound quality. I replaced all my speakers with bavsound and it is much better. I was surprised once I had removed them, at how poorly made the HK speakers were. if you have a bad one I would not be surprised.

did you also replace the rear speakers or just the doors and center dash?

[Tchgrif]

Originally Posted by Campro435

did you also replace the rear speakers or just the doors and center dash?

I replaced all 16 speakers 4 doors single dash and two rear as well as both sub woofers under front seats, doors and dash are a mid and tweeter each.

[Alias1431]

Damn, what did that set you back?

[Tchgrif]

Originally Posted by Alias1431

Damn, what did that set you back?

about 1500.00, for me worth every penny

[jlin101]

I was initially very disappointed by the tinny sound of the HK system in my wife's '18 X3, but after 1 year's light use (7k mile at low-medium vol), I recently sat in her car and noticed the sound has become much fuller/warmer than 1 year ago. In fact, I can't honestly say that it's inferior to the B&W in my '16 G12. Both systems were played without any equalization tweaks.

[The Dutch Joe]

Originally Posted by jlin101

I was initially very disappointed by the tinny sound of the HK system in my wife's '18 X3, but after 1 year's light use (7k mile at low-medium vol), I recently sat in her car and noticed the sound has become much fuller/warmer than 1 year ago. In fact, I can't honestly say that it's inferior to the B&W in my '16 G12. Both systems were played without any equalization tweaks.

Yeah, I hope 'breaking in' will fix the sound of this specific speaker.

Was just wondering if anyone else with HK noticed this.

[The Dutch Joe]

Front center speaker was replaced after 2 weeks driving the car.

Now both rear speakers, think the tweeters, are sounding really bad with some specific tones..
Can't tell if it's the casing/enclosure or the surrounding plastic that's resonating, but with some specific songs it's really awful.

Bringing the car to the dealer the 16th and they just need to figure it out.

[Alias1431]

Anyone think the satellite radio has built in EQ settings to "sound better?" Sound characteristics are night and day compared to when I play over BT.

[The Dutch Joe]

Originally Posted by Alias1431

Anyone think the satellite radio has built in EQ settings to "sound better?" Sound characteristics are night and day compared to when I play over BT.

Streaming audio over BT only, degrades the quality of the music a lot...

[LITflyer]

Originally Posted by Alias1431

Anyone think the satellite radio has built in EQ settings to "sound better?" Sound characteristics are night and day compared to when I play over BT.

Satellite radio is severely compressed and put through an algorithm that strips most of the nuances in music, and leaves you with a general approximation of what, for example, instruments sound like. So if you're just casually listening, it's very possible that the compression algorithm makes satrad sound "better" when compared to playing music that wasn't specifically processed with the compression of Bluetooth in mind.

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by The Dutch Joe

Anyone with a Harman Kardon system noticed that the rear right speaker has a less full and more "clunky/metal" sound than the rear left speaker?

I'm wondering if this speaker might (also) be defective, or that the releasebutton of the cargo cover is resonating or something. As that is a difference between (the housing) of those 2 speakers.

(Dealer already replaced the front center speaker, which is also used for voicecontrol and phonecalls, because it was no good).

I had a glitchy left speaker for 2 years, acting worse over bumps. In the end, only replacing it resolved it but took a while for BMW to 'buy in' service wise. I was getting an intermittent crackle. Yes they are poor quality and even the cheapest honda or toyota speaker never known them to be as .. fragile..

[Alias1431]

Originally Posted by The Dutch Joe

Streaming audio over BT only, degrades the quality of the music a lot...

If you have Android, you can go into the developer options and force it to stream at a higher bitrate, etc.

[The Dutch Joe]

Originally Posted by Alias1431

If you have Android, you can go into the developer options and force it to stream at a higher bitrate, etc.

As far as I know...
The reason why I chose Apple CarPlay...
Is that BT doesn't have enought bandwith to stream with highest quality.
That's why APC uses both BT and WiFi to enhance bandwith.

In previous cars I almost never used BT streaming for 3 reasons;
- Lower quality music
- Slow with changing tracks
- Drains battery