Premium sound systems not delivering.
Discussion
I am becoming disillusioned with premium sound in cars.
I had Bose in one of my Porsches and it was massively overrated, in my opinion, and worse than standard. I had to turn the bass right down to make it bearable. It is beyond me why people consider it a "must have".
So in the next Porsche I got Burmester. It too was a let-down, nothing special and something odd happened on some radio channels. It sort of echoed.
I was pretty confident that Naim for Bentley was going to be the business. After all it's aimed at wealthy, probably older, buyers. So I tried that today and it was.... horrible. Booming and undefined bass. I had to turn the bass down 3/4 to get it sounding acceptable. The mid and top were okay, but nothing to spend £4k on.
Of the cars we currently have, the best sound is in the Range Rover, which is a Meridian setup - it was standard I think. Our Bentley with standard sound is second and third is a Fiat 500 Lounge. The other cars are much of a muchness.
Has anyone else found this, or conversely found a manufacturer sound upgrade to be worth the money?
I find the Harmon Kardon pretty good in my F30. Bass not heavy, male speech clear and not boomy or chesty. To be honest, I only listen to music on long trips, then I tend to listen to the multiple albums I have stored on its internal memory. I must load some more on, it was about 52% full, when I loaded all I had at the time.
complete opposite opinion here.
Gen 2 panamera with the bose system was brilliant. I tried a lesser spec car but had the Burmiester and it was outstanding.
I paid extra for the 1700watt 'signature' meridian system in an RRS Autobiog and its by far the most dissapointing system i've heard. Great in its own right but by no means worth £4k.
Horses for courses and quite a subjective matter seen as everyones ears are different! But for me the Burmiester in the Panamera was a proper quality premium system over standard.
Gen 2 panamera with the bose system was brilliant. I tried a lesser spec car but had the Burmiester and it was outstanding.
I paid extra for the 1700watt 'signature' meridian system in an RRS Autobiog and its by far the most dissapointing system i've heard. Great in its own right but by no means worth £4k.
Horses for courses and quite a subjective matter seen as everyones ears are different! But for me the Burmiester in the Panamera was a proper quality premium system over standard.
Bose in my old Gen 2 Cayenne was very average but in my current Gen 3 one is excellent
I paid extra for what I think was the Meridian upgrade in my F-Pace SVR which was a bit underwhelming but I put it down to it basically being a top end variant of a not top end model if you see what I mean.
B&W I think system (first level upgrade, not the bonkers reference system) in my parents L405 is good
Burmeister in my old man’s previous 991 was also very average
In conclusion, 42
I paid extra for what I think was the Meridian upgrade in my F-Pace SVR which was a bit underwhelming but I put it down to it basically being a top end variant of a not top end model if you see what I mean.
B&W I think system (first level upgrade, not the bonkers reference system) in my parents L405 is good
Burmeister in my old man’s previous 991 was also very average
In conclusion, 42
Can’t comment on the Porsche set-up, but lady in office has a Rangie Sport with Meridian, was terrible. No ‘guts’ or real decent sound out of anywhere. She paid £1800 for an aftermarket amp, speakers and Sub to be installed. A women!!! paid this, so it must have been bad..!!
Had Bose in (new 2013) TT – was OK/Good. Bose again in an S6 (New 2017) was excellent/perfectly balanced – dare I say it, perfect – was mightily impressed…! Conti GT (I spent 2 weeks in ) back in 2008 – remember this being good, but not as good as the S6 Bose.
On a serious note, (and no pun intended) you sure it’s the cars sound system..? Maybe your ears prefer different sounds to the norm/everyone else.
I’ve tried several earphones over the years that are What HiFi best buy/approved etc. Some of them OK, some I just don’t agree with. Was at a Nile Rogers/Chic Concert back in 2019, found the sound to be too ‘toppy’ with not enough bass and vocals, still think about it now and how it should have been better. Maybe I’m too critical and it was in fact me though..?
jj
Had Bose in (new 2013) TT – was OK/Good. Bose again in an S6 (New 2017) was excellent/perfectly balanced – dare I say it, perfect – was mightily impressed…! Conti GT (I spent 2 weeks in ) back in 2008 – remember this being good, but not as good as the S6 Bose.
On a serious note, (and no pun intended) you sure it’s the cars sound system..? Maybe your ears prefer different sounds to the norm/everyone else.
I’ve tried several earphones over the years that are What HiFi best buy/approved etc. Some of them OK, some I just don’t agree with. Was at a Nile Rogers/Chic Concert back in 2019, found the sound to be too ‘toppy’ with not enough bass and vocals, still think about it now and how it should have been better. Maybe I’m too critical and it was in fact me though..?
jj
The harman kardon stereo in my F31 330d was very disappointing, you'd listen to some songs and think "yeah, this doesn't sound too bad" and then others you'd have to turn it down as it sounded so harsh.
I had a 2019 V60 hire car for a bit longer than a month and it was head and shoulders better with its standard stereo.
Again, the bose stereo in my CX5 didn't even have a sub and was very average.
Surprisingly my wife's L200 has an above average stereo if you don't mind the door cards rattling
I had a 2019 V60 hire car for a bit longer than a month and it was head and shoulders better with its standard stereo.
Again, the bose stereo in my CX5 didn't even have a sub and was very average.
Surprisingly my wife's L200 has an above average stereo if you don't mind the door cards rattling
I’m of the belief that you can never get decent acoustics in a car due to the lack of space for the sound to travel through the air, reflect off surfaces, etc and the way that cars are designed. Even a modestly prices home system will outdo the most expensive car systems in terms of sound quality.
Bose ive always found awful in cars.
Meridien in Jag was better than the Previous Bowers & Wilkins (not as bassy but better TDH, midrange and clarity)
Mark Levinson in Lexus LS was good but not better than the Meridien in the Jag
Bang & Olufsen in Aston, not brilliant.
Naim in Bentley 2020 was good (ish) but bass too fluffy as you say, not a tight sound
Burmester 3D in S Class is better than anything i’ve ever heard in a car, i used to do sound offs back in the day that concentrated on quality (not the spl comps) £2-3 k head units, £10k installs & this was 20 years ago! & the 3D Burmester is very good, much better than the std Burmester in the S class & completely different to the e,c class.
Meridien in Jag was better than the Previous Bowers & Wilkins (not as bassy but better TDH, midrange and clarity)
Mark Levinson in Lexus LS was good but not better than the Meridien in the Jag
Bang & Olufsen in Aston, not brilliant.
Naim in Bentley 2020 was good (ish) but bass too fluffy as you say, not a tight sound
Burmester 3D in S Class is better than anything i’ve ever heard in a car, i used to do sound offs back in the day that concentrated on quality (not the spl comps) £2-3 k head units, £10k installs & this was 20 years ago! & the 3D Burmester is very good, much better than the std Burmester in the S class & completely different to the e,c class.
james6546 said:
The harman kardon stereo in my F31 330d was very disappointing, you'd listen to some songs and think "yeah, this doesn't sound too bad" and then others you'd have to turn it down as it sounded so harsh.
As before. Mine sounds fine. Perhaps it’s the source? Nothing can beat a home system, though.Pica-Pica said:
As before. Mine sounds fine. Perhaps it’s the source? Nothing can beat a home system, though.
Granted it is Spotify streaming over Bluetooth, but it sounds OK on my office stereo or Bluetooth headphones. I tried aux and that was strangely worse.
I did find in the volvo that audio over android auto was vastly better sounding than Bluetooth so it is a contributing factor.
I spent ages messing with the eq settings, especially after getting back into it after the volvo and I just never got it sounding anywhere near good.
I had 2 F31's in a row so it wasn't just the car. I've heard others complain about it too.
I did some research and apparently it is partly because the system can't produce a certain frequency, so they just turn up the ones either side of it
james6546 said:
Pica-Pica said:
As before. Mine sounds fine. Perhaps it’s the source? Nothing can beat a home system, though.
Granted it is Spotify streaming over Bluetooth, but it sounds OK on my office stereo or Bluetooth headphones. I tried aux and that was strangely worse.
I did find in the volvo that audio over android auto was vastly better sounding than Bluetooth so it is a contributing factor.
I spent ages messing with the eq settings, especially after getting back into it after the volvo and I just never got it sounding anywhere near good.
I had 2 F31's in a row so it wasn't just the car. I've heard others complain about it too.
I did some research and apparently it is partly because the system can't produce a certain frequency, so they just turn up the ones either side of it
Pica-Pica said:
I don’t have great HiFi knowledge, but doesn’t Spotify has a very low bit rate? I use my HK from original CDs burned onto HK internal drive, or DAB. They are fine. At home my Sony supports FLAC files, so very little loss there. I noticed a scratchy sound on one track on my home system, only to realise that it was percussion brushes being dragged on the snare drum! I had never heard that before.
FLAC is lossless so the same quality as the original CD and you can stream this via Bluetooth. Spotify uses variable (low) bitrate and just isn’t compatible with any decent hifi. I find the Bose in my Porsche fine, pretty good in fact, it’s just it has to be tweaked properly to get the best sound. The default settings on many of these systems are usually set way off, seemingly to try to impress some boombox wielding teenager.
I’ve never heard the Naim in a Bentley but Indistinct and Woolley bass isn’t a trait would would typically associate with Naim, so something is wrong…..I do wonder whether the audio manufacturers are actually involved with the sound system design or whether parts are just requested. Seems strange that Naim would allow any system with its name on to have a sound that doesn’t fit with its typical house profile!!.
I’ve never heard the Naim in a Bentley but Indistinct and Woolley bass isn’t a trait would would typically associate with Naim, so something is wrong…..I do wonder whether the audio manufacturers are actually involved with the sound system design or whether parts are just requested. Seems strange that Naim would allow any system with its name on to have a sound that doesn’t fit with its typical house profile!!.
Louis Balfour said:
Of the cars we currently have, the best sound is in the Range Rover, which is a Meridian setup - it was standard I think. Our Bentley with standard sound is second and third is a Fiat 500 Lounge. The other cars are much of a muchness.
I'm surprised that a Fiat 500 Lounge gets a mention - my wife has one and the one in hers is unobjectionable but unexceptional.The best I've had was the HK in my last E Class. Best I've personally had by a significant margin.
The "premium" set up in the current one is good at what it does - mid range and high frequency - but really missed the sub my last one had.
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