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      09-16-2012, 05:44 PM   #1
Koer
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F30 HK sound system experiences

Hi guys! Just a quick note to anyone who might find this useful.

My 335 came with the HK and i was very displeased at first. Here are a few ways i made the whole system a bit better

In settings, lower the bass to about 1/4 of the total indicator and keep the high note in the default 1/2 location, open the equalizer and put the 200 and 500 Hz indicators to a bit less than 3/4 ( try with 200 then if you want more bass response move the 500 setting)
This will sharpen the subwoofers' response and it will sound a lot cleaner.

If your car makes an ugly vibration sound from the outside when you kick up the music then the above solution will fix it.. Sort of.. The sound is made by internal car parts vibrating to each bass note so no real solution is available.

The L7 setting will sometimes distort some notes, disable it to get more direct feedback from your speakers.

I'm not a sound engineer or anything of the sort, just found that these little details made my sound system a LOT better. Feel free to add in your tips.

Also, give the sound system some time to break in, funny thing you will notice is that everyday it will sound better!
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      09-16-2012, 05:47 PM   #2
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Will give this a try. I believe it is the side skirts that rattle the most.
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      09-16-2012, 06:12 PM   #3
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The way I've always set up speakers is in a very non-technical way but very effective in my opinion.

1. Listen to your favorite track at the moment, probably is from the genre you listen to the most. Best to set up the speakers for that genre

2. Tweak the equalizer while that track is playing to make it sound better.

3. Start the track all over and repeat, two attempts is enough.

Two things happen with this stupid method of mine. Firstly, your equalizer is set for the genre you most listen to, there is no escaping this and REMEMBER - each genre DOES require a different setting to make it sound better, so this is good. I was told this by someone who configured sound at large concerts.

Secondly, you'll be able to identify what you like to listen to most within the genre, for me it turned out to be high mids, low base and low treble. I listen to progressive house and trance mostly. Stuff like Jaytech, Above and Beyond, Armin, etc.
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      09-16-2012, 07:01 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Koer View Post
Hi guys! Just a quick note to anyone who might find this useful.

My 335 came with the HK and i was very displeased at first. Here are a few ways i made the whole system a bit better

In settings, lower the bass to about 1/4 of the total indicator and keep the high note in the default 1/2 location, open the equalizer and put the 200 and 500 Hz indicators to a bit less than 3/4 ( try with 200 then if you want more bass response move the 500 setting)
This will sharpen the subwoofers' response and it will sound a lot cleaner.

If your car makes an ugly vibration sound from the outside when you kick up the music then the above solution will fix it.. Sort of.. The sound is made by internal car parts vibrating to each bass note so no real solution is available.

The L7 setting will sometimes distort some notes, disable it to get more direct feedback from your speakers.

I'm not a sound engineer or anything of the sort, just found that these little details made my sound system a LOT better. Feel free to add in your tips.

Also, give the sound system some time to break in, funny thing you will notice is that everyday it will sound better!
Thanks for the tips, I'll probably try your method out tomorrow. I have to say that I was initially disappointed with the HK system also. Part of this, I think, has to do with the crappy source music coming in through Satellite (ugh) and FM (meh). I need to load up some quality mp3s or put in a CD that I know should rock and set up the equalizer. So far it's not blowing me away like I had hoped it would.
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      09-16-2012, 07:11 PM   #5
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its all about the source. i love the HK system
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      09-16-2012, 08:16 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by justinnum1 View Post
its all about the source. i love the HK system
So its safe to say that I should buy an iPod of some sort to enjoy the full experience of this sound system? Because my Samsung SIII comes no where near as close to the sound quality of my old iPod touch, unless its more of the downloaded song quality itself and I just download crappy music compared to the rest of my friends with iPhones lol.
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      09-16-2012, 08:23 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by Valentin View Post
So its safe to say that I should buy an iPod of some sort to enjoy the full experience of this sound system? Because my Samsung SIII comes no where near as close to the sound quality of my old iPod touch, unless its more of the downloaded song quality itself and I just download crappy music compared to the rest of my friends with iPhones lol.
yea, ipod would work. i use a usb thumb drive
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      09-16-2012, 09:50 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Valentin

So its safe to say that I should buy an iPod of some sort to enjoy the full experience of this sound system? Because my Samsung SIII comes no where near as close to the sound quality of my old iPod touch, unless its more of the downloaded song quality itself and I just download crappy music compared to the rest of my friends with iPhones lol.

Maybe buy your favorite cd first to see the difference between a crappy source to an almost lossless format, it happened to me and it blew me from my seat.. Really we cant complain about sound systems if we feed them downloaded junk

I find that 320 format mp3s from itunes stored in the hard drive are good enough, but old fashioned CDs will sound spectacular.
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      09-16-2012, 10:36 PM   #9
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What about HD Radio? Does it sound as good as a high quality source or is that too compressed as well?

I really hope the HK system is worth the $875. I currently have HK in my e92 and think it's really great with iPod and HD Radio sources (way better than what I have heard in a 3er loaner I've been in). Just want it to meet or exceed that standard!
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      09-16-2012, 10:41 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by webdither View Post
What about HD Radio? Does it sound as good as a high quality source or is that too compressed as well?

I really hope the HK system is worth the $875. I currently have HK in my e92 and think it's really great with iPod and HD Radio sources (way better than what I have heard in a 3er loaner I've been in). Just want it to meet or exceed that standard!
hd radio is better than sirius, but not as good as a high quality mp3 imo
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      09-16-2012, 11:14 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by justinnum1 View Post
hd radio is better than sirius, but not as good as a high quality mp3 imo
Good to know. I never have had a car with an active Satellite radio subscription (and don't plan to extend the free year I'll get either) but I always assumed it would be HD/CD quality. Sad that isn't the case and also adds to the reason to not extend the free year.
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      09-17-2012, 12:41 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Koer View Post
Maybe buy your favorite cd first to see the difference between a crappy source to an almost lossless format, it happened to me and it blew me from my seat.. Really we cant complain about sound systems if we feed them downloaded junk

I find that 320 format mp3s from itunes stored in the hard drive are good enough, but old fashioned CDs will sound spectacular.
I know exactly what you mean, I would rather listen to a blank CD than anything that comes off of my phone. I just got this phone so I've been trying to test out higher quality music but I feel it may just be the phone, I tested out the difference between my friends iPhone and it is so much better audio wise. So I guess its time to make Google my friend for a bit and learn about this lossless format. Thanks for the advice! I'm trying to get the most out of this car and be fully prepared for when it comes in
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      09-17-2012, 02:18 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by justinnum1 View Post
its all about the source. i love the HK system
^^^this^^^
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      09-17-2012, 08:17 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Koer View Post
In settings, lower the bass to about 1/4 of the total indicator , open the equalizer and put the 200 and 500 Hz indicators to a bit less than 3/4 ( try with 200 then if you want more bass response move the 500 setting)
You are lowering the bass in the bass control and then turing it back up on the equalizer. You should really leave the bass and treble control in mid range and then play with the equalizer.
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      09-17-2012, 01:59 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by The X Men

You are lowering the bass in the bass control and then turing it back up on the equalizer. You should really leave the bass and treble control in mid range and then play with the equalizer.
Well, thats the thing, the bass setting will manipulate the sound output on a different way than the low freq equalizer settings. Dont take my word for it, try it yourself.

By lowering the bass and setting a higher 200Hz response i am bypassing whatever setting the system has for the bass setting which causes the crappy sound
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      09-17-2012, 02:44 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by justinnum1 View Post
hd radio is better than sirius, but not as good as a high quality mp3 imo
+1.

I just put half a dozen quality mp3 folders on a usb drive. Amazing difference in audio quality immediately. Satellite sounds like an overly compressed mp3 file, 64k maybe. HD radio is a tad better, almost like a 128k file. It's almost akin to watching a 480i video source on a large 1080p HD screen, the system is so good that you hear all the digital artifacts.

This is a fantastic realization, now I feel like the extra $1k was worth it for the HK.
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      09-17-2012, 02:52 PM   #17
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By the way, I used mp3tag to look up album covers and save them to the id3 tags. The bimmer read the covers perfectly. Also used mp3tag to generate a playlist that worked on the f30. I set a button shortcut to random for easy access to that commonly used feature.
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      10-20-2012, 08:59 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Koer View Post
Maybe buy your favorite cd first to see the difference between a crappy source to an almost lossless format, it happened to me and it blew me from my seat.. Really we cant complain about sound systems if we feed them downloaded junk

I find that 320 format mp3s from itunes stored in the hard drive are good enough, but old fashioned CDs will sound spectacular.
This is 100% true, I have been using pandora and rdio lately, put a cd in and was blown away... In my wife's x5 with premium audio and my a6 (just sold) with morel elate/supremo/ultimo/jl system (also just sold for down payment on f30) both systems came alive when I put an old fashioned cd in for the first time in a year or two

I just ordered with the HK, I heard it on the test drive and it was the best sounding stock system I can remember
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      10-22-2012, 10:29 PM   #19
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After some time of listening to my HK sound system... I found There is a BIG problem!!

You will start notice how every other sound system in any other car sounds like crud!! Seriously, try pumping up the volume in any other car... You will be disappointed!!

Its like tasting fine wine and then going back to drinking Budweiser haha
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      10-22-2012, 10:33 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Koer View Post
After some time of listening to my HK sound system... I found There is a BIG problem!!

You will start notice how every other sound system in any other car sounds like crud!! Seriously, try pumping up the volume in any other car... You will be disappointed!!

Its like tasting fine wine and then going back to drinking Budweiser haha
yep, the HK really is fantastic.
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      10-22-2012, 10:38 PM   #21
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yep, the HK really is fantastic.

BMW 8 speed transmissions are fantastic. N55, kinda fantastic. HK, while good, not exactly...
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      10-22-2012, 10:42 PM   #22
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BMW 8 speed transmissions are fantastic. N55, kinda fantastic. HK, while good, not exactly...
compared to some other sound systems i have heard in cars, including the B&O in the S4 and S5, i thought the HK was the best
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