Harmon Kardon?

[Jim Agar]

Looking at various nearly new SL's and as I enjoy music in the car and have HK in my "other car" just wonder what the views are on here of the HK audio over the standard one. It's a £1k option new and I'm veering towards dismissing any car without it. Not found any used SK's with the £5k B&O option!

 

[Hi RX7]

I had a 2008 SL63 with the Harmon Kardon and I thought for a small cockpit the sound was pretty good once adjusted to your taste. Although I've never heard one myself I'd read a few comments on forums saying the B&O wasn't that good and as you say never seen an SL with it specified.

 

[Monday]

I had a 2008 SL63 with the Harmon Kardon and I thought for a small cockpit the sound was pretty good once adjusted to your taste. Although I've never heard one myself I'd read a few comments on forums saying the B&O wasn't that good and as you say never seen an SL with it specified.

I looked at a 2013 R231 SL500 with B&O sound but somebody put down a deposit on it before I could drive it. It had rather delicate looking tweeters in the corners of the windscreen. They seemed very fragile but very easy to see that the car has that option. And, as you say, a >£4K option. I have have HK sound on the 2016 car I bought eventually; sounds fine to me.

 

[cubbyq]

I have H/K in mine, and it’s well worth having.

I had a Audio 20 in my first E and it was a massive upgrade from the pathetic standard stereo in my BMW E60, however the HbK is in a different league...loads of control, loads of power and fantastic imaging - sounds like singers are in front of you, like a well dialled in hifi

Logic 7 is fun for a while, but switch it off for a purer listening experience!

Wouldn’t be without it!

Nick

 

[Jim Agar]

Thanks all, confirmed my opinion to hold out for one with it if buying used and spec it if buying new.

 

[John Laidlaw]

I know I’m in the minority here but I’ve not found the HK in my last two cars all that special! But then I like bass and lots of it and I don’t find HK delivers that adequately for me. Same can be said of the Bose I had in my last Audi A6
My previous 212 had a standard set up and the set up worked better for me personally

 

[Jim Agar]

I'm more of a classical/jazz fan so hoping the lack of bass is less of an issue to me! Thanks for the input though.

 

[cubbyq]

I know I’m in the minority here but I’ve not found the HK in my last two cars all that special! But then I like bass and lots of it and I don’t find HK delivers that adequately for me. Same can be said of the Bose I had in my last Audi A6
My previous 212 had a standard set up and the set up worked better for me personally

Hah!

Funny you say that...I tried to Top Trumps my Volvo owning mate the other day as I finally own a car with what to me is a decent hifi...needless to say, within seconds he put me in my place saying it had no bass

That being said, I still think it’s superb and can certainly rattle the panels.

What I would say, from brief experience with Audio 20, that appeared to have more boomy bass than H/K, but needed to be dialled down a couple of notches below flat, as the amp had no guts.

Get it and enjoy it

 

[bembo449]

Remind yourself that the HK my fail and rape your wallet of a large amount ! Decent enough sound but shocking reluability

 

[Jim Agar]

Not heard of a modern Hifi unit failing,even in a car. Had various upgraded ones on present and previous BMW's with no problems. What was your experience?

 

[bembo449]

well let me tell you pal , the HK system in the mercs is well known for failing and for my part , both my merc and range rover have issues with the HK systems , one needs a new amp at over a grand the other a new head unit at over 500 quid so don't take it for granted it will work for ever and a day without failing , you have been warned

 

[Jim Agar]

Crikey,thanks.

 

[Submariner1]

well let me tell you pal , the HK system in the mercs is well known for failing and for my part , both my merc and range rover have issues with the HK systems , one needs a new amp at over a grand the other a new head unit at over 500 quid so don't take it for granted it will work for ever and a day without failing , you have been warned

well let me tell you pal , the HK system in the mercs is well known for failing and for my part , both my merc and range rover have issues with the HK systems , one needs a new amp at over a grand the other a new head unit at over 500 quid so don't take it for granted it will work for ever and a day without failing , you have been warned

IMO essential as the std. systems are very mundane.
But boy are these HK amps flaky!
Its not a question of do they fail? but when will yours go!
And they are an arm and a leg to mend.
I had hoped the Burmeister might be OK. But hear that is pretty flaky too. And that upgrade on a CL 63 is like £5,000 ... ridiculous for sound quality of a £400 amp!

 

[JBell]

I had hoped the Burmeister might be OK. But hear that is pretty flaky too. And that upgrade on a CL 63 is like £5,000 ... ridiculous for sound quality of a £400 amp!

All B&O now in the SL / S class and that is £5k which is ridiculous, I would have the standard stereo and upgrade the speakers myself

 

[Submariner1]

All B&O now in the SL / S class and that is £5k which is ridiculous, I would have the standard stereo and upgrade the speakers myself

First you would have to get a decent amp, without that, any improvements would be very marginal. And never deliver any sort of rich bass tones.

Probably need 3 of these http://dls.se/en/car/prod.html?produkt=en_1078
And 4 of these http://dls.se/en/car/prod.html?produkt=en_1161
plus a decent > 10" Subwoofer.

Plus more work than its worth

 

[cubbyq]

Still living in the rose-tinted glasses view of a working H/K system, what percentage of the cars that have these H/K, Bose, Burmeister, Levinson, B&W, B&O, Dynaudio, etc., options have them ticked when specced up? Maybe 5% at most?

In the grand scheme of things, that's still worth the manufacturers investing in developing them, but it's still relatively low quantities, so of course the price is going to be higher than an aftermarket solution, but not everybody wants that, and Submariner1's absolutely right...Cr*p in = cr*p out; a poor source and amp is never going to be improved just by fitting better speakers, and cars these days aren't as easy to tap into as they were 20 years ago...

How many standard fit, cheaply built headhunts fail? I'd hazard a guess that it's a similar, or higher percentage than the optional units, but because there are 80 gazillion standard units out there, nobody gives a damn or reports it when they go wrong.

And from my brief experience with 2 standard fit MB systems in my first E & brand new courtesy car C, both had instances where the volume control froze at a low volume and couldn't be adjusted without cycling the power - 100% failure rate there!

So for me, to have the enjoyment of good sounding music in a factory-fit solution (that may or may not be more prone to failing), than having a mediocre bog-standard system which gives me no enjoyment while spending hours behind the wheel is worth it.

And, no I don't work for any of the companies above, I'm just loving the performance of the MB's H/K system after having spent 5 years and 120k miles listening to BMW's pathetic standard fit systems...

We're all chatting about this as we're lucky enough to afford these toys, so put that into perspective when they go wrong...first world problems and all that...If I'm ever in a position that I can't put food on the table or keep a roof over my family's heads, I'll sell all this materialistic sh*t in an instant and concentrate on what really matters, but luckily right now I don't need to, and will enjoy life and treat myself while I can

Couple of strong Dutch beers philosophical rant over!

Have a good evening all,

Nick

 

[sl500amgsport]

I have the HK in my R231 SL, plenty of bass built into the footwells, I am used to a Mark Levinson in a Lexus, B&W in a Jag, yes the B&W had the best bass but the HK is a close 2nd!

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