[Kabrich]

Originally Posted by Framamind

Excellent data in this thread. I tested out both EQ settings for preference (with some subtle tweaks), and I'm liking L7 OFF for my sound needs. The clarity took a significant jump after the adjustment. Thanks!

Exactly. L7 causes massive distortion.

[Revelator]

This is one of the most informative threads on theboard. I don't have my 340 yet but am looking forward to hearing the HK system when it's delivered in April. Been surprised at how many ppl seem to complain about HK in general because I fully expect this system to be significantly better than the HK in my STI. For those that may not know, Subaru interiors leave a lot to be desired but they've improved over the last few years.

So I listen predominantly to rock; a good mix of classic, indie, blues, stoner, etc. What settings would you recommend for a powerful rock sound? I'll name a few popular bands to give perspective: Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, Black Angels, etc. Your recommendations are appreciated!

[tympj]

I love my HK sound system because it is very loud at 1/2 volume, clear from distortion to my ears, and very adjustable based on the music you're playing. FYI, I use mp3 high quality files from you tube installed on my hard drive in idrive. Overall, excellent sound quality generated from this technology in my opinion compared to vinyl, 8track, cassette or fumbling around with CD's.

Here are my EQ settings and I'm not an audiophile by any means. Just enjoy various types of music for 55+ yrs. Not sure if these would apply to your music.
Treble -8 from center
Bass -3 from center
EQ 100HZ +5 from center
200 +4
500 +3
1KHZ +2
2 +4
5 +3
10 +4

For example, a song I like is Phil Collins-Something Happened on the Way to Heaven,
heavy drums and lots of brass. Other favorite music is 60's DC5, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Paul Revere
and the Raiders, 70's Chicago, BeeGees, Earth Wind and Fire and Kool and the Gang. 80's Genesis,
Michael Jackson, Van Halen and Smooth Jazz like Rippingtons, Peter White, Paul Hardcastle, Richard
Elliot, Vincent Ingala, George Benson, Steve Cole and Norman Brown. Most of this music is heavy
drums, guitar, heavy bass and some brass based on the era.

Many other experts have given their EQ settings in other threads like GlenNYC and
HKD126 at the beginning of this thread. Check those out as well for comparison.

[Revelator]

^^Awesome, thank you much sharing the insight. I will definitely try out those settings and take a look at GlenNYC's and HKD126's as well. I also use higher quality mp3 files (around 320kbps), even though I know the experts will say that mp3s are no good since the files are highly compressed. FLAC is normally the way to go but the files are so damn big it's hard to fit a lot of music onto a car HD or USB drive, and I have a ton of music I like to mix up. Much like you I'm all about musical variety, too, but wanted to provide examples of the kinds of music I listen to most of the time so I can get my levels right upfront when I get my new 340 . Also glad to hear you love the system, was really surprised at how many people seemed down about it on this board. For a stock system, it sounds pretty amazing, and I mean hell anything will sound better coming from an STI stock system (it's an HK system but with less than half the 'power' of the Logic 7).

[tympj]

Revelator- Listened to Pearl Jam version of Last Kiss hit #2 in 1999 like it. Knew of Pearl Jam but never heard their music before today. Same song was done by J Wilson and the Cavaliers 1964 was a faster up tempo version.

This song is about Jeanette Clark and J.L. Hancock, who were both 16 years old when their car hit a tractor-trailer on a road in rural Barnesville, Georgia. They were on a date a few days before Christmas in 1962. A local gas station attendant helping with the recovery of the bodies did not recognize his own daughter. Hancock and Clark's friend Wayne Cooper, who was riding with them, was killed instantly. Their two other friends, Jewel Emerson and Ed Shockley, survived with serious injuries. Wayne Cochran's drummer had been dating Jeannette Clark's sister at the time of the wreck.

This was written by Wayne Cochran, who lived on Route 1941 in Georgia, which was about 15 miles away from the crash. It was a busy road, and Cochran saw lots of accidents on it. He was working on a song based on all the crashes he saw, and was about halfway done with it when he heard about the wreck in Barnesville. There was an intense emotional response from the community after the tragedy, and Cochran used those feelings to finish the song, which he dedicated it to Jeanette Clark.

[SandalsExpectorate]

Excellent thread

I also use HKD126's settings which sounds great with either L7 on or L7 off.

L7 itself doesn't change the music too badly imho (a piano still sounds like a piano) but it does appear to do what your home surround system does - almost like an "ambient" setting.
The main effect to my ears is simply to lift the soundstage from roughly where the steering wheel is (L7 off) to the lower area of the windscreen and slightly forward (L7 on) - music remains good regardless of what you choose here so I guess it's down to personal taste .

Overall compared to my previous sound system (same-ish price) this one is miles better once EQ'd with no distortion even beyond half way volume.

[Revelator]

Great to see some positive reviews on the sound system.

tympj--oddly enough, Last Kiss, is Pearl Jam's biggest and most successful single to hit the radio...and they even didn't write it! It was a song they recorded back in 99 for their fan club as their annual Christmas single. They never imagined at the time it was recorded that it would blow up to be a world-wide hit.

I'm definitely going to give HDK126's settings a whirl once I get my 340--you guys are GREAT!

[Sullym6]

Does the EQ shift depending on volume? I tune the EQ to my liking and at low volumes it is bass heavy then sounds right at my normal listening level as I set the EQ's at this level. If I turn it up louder the top end is very bright and the base dies off.
Not found a setting that sounds right yet where as my old car with amped components and sub sound right from low volumes to high

Sully

[HKD126]

BMW applies a loudness curve for different listening volumes. I did take measurements of different level and you can see what is happening to the low end and high end in the first post. I EQ'd the system for the volume I generally listen at, which is just under half.

[Sullym6]

Originally Posted by HKD126

BMW applies a loudness curve for different listening volumes. I did take measurements of different level and you can see what is happening to the low end and high end in the first post. I EQ'd the system for the volume I generally listen at, which is just under half.

Apologies I read it all when you first posted it and once it got bumped to the top again I had forgotten the detail.
It's driving me mad as now that I have a 12" boot sub it is way too loud at low volumes and not enough at loud volumes, think I will have to fit a bass remote so I can tweak depending on the volume.
The settings on the first page with a little tweaking has improved the sound massively.

Sully

[HKD126]

I too adjust both the bass and treble a little depending on what volume I'm listening it. I wish I could turn the loudness "feature" off.

[OmOm]

This is a great post with tons of useful information.

Personally though, I have my HK EQ currently at:

Treble: 0
Bass: +1
L7: on
EQ:
100HZ: +6
200HZ: +4
500HZ: +1
1kHZ: +4
2kHZ: +6
5kHZ: +5
10kHZ: +3

I am not an expert on this by any mean and i could be scintefically wrong but I feel this setting to be very good with the majority of the music I listen to (Mainly House music). it has made the sound crisp and rich.

anyone can tryout and share their opinion with me regarding this setup.

[slief]

I have to give some credit and thank to the OP/HKD126 for taking the time to share this with us. It's amazing what you can do with the right tools.

I am a long time audiophile and have built many high end car audio systems in my cars over the years. I've even competed in car audio competitions going back in the original IASCA competitions. One of my friends was one of the founders of IASCA back in the 80's so I have very fond memories of my first car audio competitions at Devonshire Downs here in So. Cal.

I have been very unimpressed with the HK system and am planning an upgrade at some point down the line on my new to me 335i with HK audio. I'll admit that I questioned some of the settings mentioned in their thread before actually trying them out. Now that I have tried HKD's settings, I must say that I am very pleasantly surprised. The improvement is very noticeable over the settings I applied to the EQ and tone settings by ear. Dare I say vastly improved. While it certainly won't be enough to keep me from doing an upgrade down the line to the system, it will hold me over until I bite the bullet on a amp, speakers and sub. I am still debating on which way I will go when the time comes (Mobridge or no mo) but this certainly will make the system more bearable in the interim.

Thanks again HKD126 for documenting your tests and sharing the settings!

[Kabrich]

Originally Posted by SandalsExpectorate

Excellent thread

I also use HKD126's settings which sounds great with either L7 on or L7 off.

L7 itself doesn't change the music too badly imho (a piano still sounds like a piano) but it does appear to do what your home surround system does - almost like an "ambient" setting.
The main effect to my ears is simply to lift the soundstage from roughly where the steering wheel is (L7 off) to the lower area of the windscreen and slightly forward (L7 on) - music remains good regardless of what you choose here so I guess it's down to personal taste .

Correct. L7 changes the soundstage by changing the phasing of the channels, thus making it seem as if the music is coming from all over, which is why most on thread prefer.

Unfortunately, changing the phasing changes the clarity of the source...and thus distorts the source.

While you state a piano sounds like a piano, that's because your brain knows it's a piano.

However, there is a major difference in the a distorted note and the impact of the hammer on the strings, the decay of the vibration, soundboard, petal etc.

As withessed by this thread, most have forgotten what real instruments sound like from listening to MP3 and satellite radio where so much information is discarded.

[monkiboy]

thanks to the OP and all that are sharing. waiting on my 340i and had concerns over all the negative comments on the harmon kardon system. excited to give the eq settings/adjustments here a go when she arrives!

[RRedline]

Originally Posted by Kabrich

Correct. L7 changes the soundstage by changing the phasing of the channels, thus making it seem as if the music is coming from all over, which is why most on thread prefer.

Unfortunately, changing the phasing changes the clarity of the source...and thus distorts the source.

Finding this thread has changed my life.

I've owned my 335 over a year and barely took the time to adjust the EQ settings. I never bothered turning off L7...until I read this thread.

Turning off L7 and using the OP's EQ settings has improved the HK sound so much -- especially the clarity -- I can't believe it took me this long to do it.

[jgoens]

Originally Posted by tympj

I love my HK sound system because it is very loud at 1/2 volume, clear from distortion to my ears, and very adjustable based on the music you're playing. FYI, I use mp3 high quality files from you tube installed on my hard drive in idrive. Overall, excellent sound quality generated from this technology in my opinion compared to vinyl, 8track, cassette or fumbling around with CD's.

Here are my EQ settings and I'm not an audiophile by any means. Just enjoy various types of music for 55+ yrs. Not sure if these would apply to your music.
Treble -8 from center
Bass -3 from center
EQ 100HZ +5 from center
200 +4
500 +3
1KHZ +2
2 +4
5 +3
10 +4

For example, a song I like is Phil Collins-Something Happened on the Way to Heaven,
heavy drums and lots of brass. Other favorite music is 60's DC5, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Paul Revere
and the Raiders, 70's Chicago, BeeGees, Earth Wind and Fire and Kool and the Gang. 80's Genesis,
Michael Jackson, Van Halen and Smooth Jazz like Rippingtons, Peter White, Paul Hardcastle, Richard
Elliot, Vincent Ingala, George Benson, Steve Cole and Norman Brown. Most of this music is heavy
drums, guitar, heavy bass and some brass based on the era.

Many other experts have given their EQ settings in other threads like GlenNYC and
HKD126 at the beginning of this thread. Check those out as well for comparison.

I was wondering what you use to download the mp3's off youtube.

[tympj]

jgoens, I use" Youtube to MP3 Converter" from google. Copy the url link from the song you want to download into the mp3 converter (where it shows paste link here https)and click on convert. Then when this completes you click on download. The downloaded mp3 now goes to your download folder. Keep in mind this procedure relates to Windows 10 PC's. Should be the same procedure for Apple.

The top 2 searches for mp3 converter work great. I use those 2 exclusively. When mp3 file is downloaded, you might need to change the artist and song name so you have a consistent method of displaying mp3's. In my case, artist name first then song name. Now I can import into Itunes by putting downloaded files into a folder named whatever you want and sync to iphone. Then I can also copy same folder to thumbdrive and import to my F30 idrive harddrive. Now all my songs are loaded in my car for easy playback either random or in alphabetical order. Excellent technology for all my music.

Let me know if you need any further help.

[Kabrich]

Originally Posted by RRedline

Finding this thread has changed my life.

I've owned my 335 over a year and barely took the time to adjust the EQ settings. I never bothered turning off L7...until I read this thread.

Turning off L7 and using the OP's EQ settings has improved the HK sound so much -- especially the clarity -- I can't believe it took me this long to do it.

Congrats...you are enjoying the music instead of playing mind games of filling up the car with a distorted reality 👍

[Almaretto]

Originally Posted by tympj

jgoens, I use" Youtube to MP3 Converter" from google. Copy the url link from the song you want to download into the mp3 converter (where it shows paste link here https)and click on convert. Then when this completes you click on download. The downloaded mp3 now goes to your download folder. Keep in mind this procedure relates to Windows 10 PC's. Should be the same procedure for Apple.
....

Quality is not very good...but you can you this one. I use all flac.

[tympj]

Almaretto, I'll be honest with you I think I have a good ear for music and I can't tell
the quality difference between a FLAC file and the same song MP3. For example,
download this url and tell me what you think.

After listening to both versions, the quality seems the same to my ear since my converter can also convert to FLAC as well. However, I have a big problem with FLAC format. This song is 5:21 minutes long and FLAC converted quicker admittedly but it generated 55.6MB of disk space compared to 7.34MB in MP3. That equals approx. 8 times more disk space so for example if I have 100 songs X 55.6=5560MB which equals 5.42GIG. I have 13G available on my Iphone5 so I can get maybe 200-300 songs on my iphone compared to 1100+ now. Obviously, not all my songs are 5 min long but you get my drift. I can't justify fewer songs available for a quality difference I can't hear.

Note- must use download of song from google not bimmerpost version here.

Sway me in your direction or tell me something I am missing with FLAC. I would be very
interested. Thanks.

[jgoens]

Originally Posted by tympj

jgoens, I use" Youtube to MP3 Converter" from google. Copy the url link from the song you want to download into the mp3 converter (where it shows paste link here https)and click on convert. Then when this completes you click on download. The downloaded mp3 now goes to your download folder. Keep in mind this procedure relates to Windows 10 PC's. Should be the same procedure for Apple.

The top 2 searches for mp3 converter work great. I use those 2 exclusively. When mp3 file is downloaded, you might need to change the artist and song name so you have a consistent method of displaying mp3's. In my case, artist name first then song name. Now I can import into Itunes by putting downloaded files into a folder named whatever you want and sync to iphone. Then I can also copy same folder to thumbdrive and import to my F30 idrive harddrive. Now all my songs are loaded in my car for easy playback either random or in alphabetical order. Excellent technology for all my music.

Let me know if you need any further help.

Thank you, I will try that. I used to download from you tube as there was simply a download button on the you tube song. And then they discontinued that download button and since it seemed more difficult I went to downloading torrents, but would prefer the you tube method.