[bimmer_335]

Originally Posted by bim2er

Harman Brands - Good Company to Be In

Aha™
AKG®
AMX®
Becker®
BSS®
Crown®
dbx®
DigiTech®
Harman Kardon®
Infinity®
JBL® - Lifestyle
JBL® - Professional
JBL Synthesis®
Lexicon® - Lifestyle
Lexicon® - Professional
Mark Levinson®
Martin®
Redbend®
Revel®
Selenium®
Soundcraft®
Studer®

wow... this is an eye opener to me. They are everywhere.

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by bimmer_335

wow... this is an eye opener to me. They are everywhere.

Indeed. Even its nascent brand, Harman Kardon, has been watered down over the years. In the 1970 and 80s, it was at the sonic and functional forefront of the coming home theater craze, and its receivers were among the mid-fi cream of the crop. They've pretty much been junk since the early 1990s.

Even as a musician, I avoid Harmon brands like AKG, dbx and DigiTech. AKG mics and headphones are still decent, but the quality has been going downhill in recent years ... and Crown power amps are nowhere near the bulletproof workhorses they used to be.

[Crashnbrn5]

Originally Posted by akhter

lol dude you are the people bmw marketing targets and the sad reason we have 16/20 speaker 2k watt systems that are crap. you obviously think the more speakers and number of watts the better. go enjoy your 40 speaker hk system in your 1 series....

I have the Logic 7 by HK in my X3, the $875 option. It's pretty good for the price and I know for sure that more speakers and more watts are better. But when there is an over abundance then that is just plain stupid, for ex: 23 speakers.

And why you are harping on my make believe 1 series that I don't have, You are the sad one here.....

I think the Max that any car should have including separate tweeters and subs is 16.... so F8ck up with your rude, immature comment.

[Crashnbrn5]

Originally Posted by AW335TT

To be honest, if you want a really good sounding system. All you need is a 3 way up front and sub.. no center channel, no rear speakers.

You probably like that surround sound.

Love the surround. Like I said to someone earlier, I believe 16 speakers is the max an automaker should go..

I remember back 10 years ago when I pumped so much money into 3rd party car audio..

I had the "JL 12w7" (google this thing) in my trunk, which was completely dyno-matted for SPL enhancement. Then on the inside, just 4 hard hitting Diamond Audio speakers connected to a 750w amp, and the sub had one Class D mono 1000w amp. Just 9 speakers total (with twitters). It was amazing...

but now those days are gone, people grow up....and we have nicer cars, and just better factory sound out of the gate...

[Crashnbrn5]

Originally Posted by sor

Don't be so hard on your brother. He hasn't yet learned that MOAR speakers == better tunes. I guess you two didn't go to the same school.

I'm holding out for the eight channel surround subs, four in the roof just above everyone's head and one under each seat. Bonus points for a center sub in the dash. They need to be at least 12" each with a 20mm excursion so they thump against the top of my head.

funny...

[BMWrules7]

Originally Posted by bim2er

Harman Brands - Good Company to Be In

Aha
AKG
AMX
Becker
BSS
Crown
dbx
DigiTech
Harman Kardon
Infinity
JBL - Lifestyle
JBL - Professional
JBL Synthesis
Lexicon - Lifestyle
Lexicon - Professional
Mark Levinson
Martin
Redbend
Revel
Selenium
Soundcraft
Studer

Soundcraft---amazing live consoles.

JBL --- good live audio drivers

TAD --- Pioneer Technical Audio Division --- the best live 2" drivers in the world!

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Crashnbrn5

Love the surround. Like I said to someone earlier, I believe 16 speakers is the max an automaker should go..

I remember back 10 years ago when I pumped so much money into 3rd party car audio..

I had the "JL 12w7" (google this thing) in my trunk, which was completely dyno-matted for SPL enhancement. Then on the inside, just 4 hard hitting Diamond Audio speakers connected to a 750w amp, and the sub had one Class D mono 1000w amp. Just 9 speakers total (with twitters). It was amazing...

but now those days are gone, people grow up....and we have nicer cars, and just better factory sound out of the gate...

LOL. "Back in the day", most cars came without radios and were options to add in (or option out as desired).

[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by Crashnbrn5

Love the surround. Like I said to someone earlier, I believe 16 speakers is the max an automaker should go..

I remember back 10 years ago when I pumped so much money into 3rd party car audio..

I had the "JL 12w7" (google this thing) in my trunk, which was completely dyno-matted for SPL enhancement. Then on the inside, just 4 hard hitting Diamond Audio speakers connected to a 750w amp, and the sub had one Class D mono 1000w amp. Just 9 speakers total (with twitters). It was amazing...

but now those days are gone, people grow up....and we have nicer cars, and just better factory sound out of the gate...

I think you have a different definition of what amazing sound is.

I'm running ScanSpeak for my front stage, no rear speakers, no center channel, Zapco amp, arc PS8 sound processor and a Audison Bitplay going fiber optic into the ps8, that sounds amazing to me.. Not just about SPL. I personally hate surround sound for music. I want music only in front of me with a clear sound stage, that places individual sounds in specific locations on the stage. I leave surround sound for movies.

[Dog Face Pony Soldier]

Originally Posted by AW335TT

I think you have a different definition of what amazing sound is.

I'm running ScanSpeak for my front stage, no rear speakers, no center channel, Zapco amp, arc PS8 sound processor and a Audison Bitplay going fiber optic into the ps8, that sounds amazing to me.. Not just about SPL. I personally hate surround sound for music. I want music only in front of me with a clear sound stage, that places individual sounds in specific locations on the stage. I leave surround sound for movies.

While I generally agree that audio (and video for that matter) systems should reproduce the material in its native format... I'd argue that the F30's factory HK system has markedly better staging and imaging with Logic7 on.

[Crashnbrn5]

Originally Posted by AW335TT

I think you have a different definition of what amazing sound is.

I'm running ScanSpeak for my front stage, no rear speakers, no center channel, Zapco amp, arc PS8 sound processor and a Audison Bitplay going fiber optic into the ps8, that sounds amazing to me.. Not just about SPL. I personally hate surround sound for music. I want music only in front of me with a clear sound stage, that places individual sounds in specific locations on the stage. I leave surround sound for movies.

In my home, when it comes to music, I only enjoy pure 2 channel, then of course I have a nice 7.2 setup for Movies and the like. I have a beautiful MartinLogan EM C2 center for crystal clear voices and action. I know very well what amazing is, but sound as we know is so subjective and everyone has a different "ear". In my X3 BMW, I prefer to hear sounds from everywhere, plus if I only had a front stage, my rear passengers will not get a good direct path to the sound. Yes I do care about them in the back, lol, most of the time it's my kids.

Nice setup you have, but I wouldn't go ScanSpeck, I would go Focal or DynaAudio, or even JL Audio. If I were to get fronts only, they would cost at least $1000, because they have to make a statement. not no $500 components...so much cheap ish out here that people fall into...but I see you spend where necessary also. At least you can listen to some nice FLAC files in there....sounds soo crispy clean

[Crashnbrn5]

Originally Posted by glennQNYC

While I generally agree that audio (and video for that matter) systems should reproduce the material in its native format... I'd argue that the F30's factory HK system has markedly better staging and imaging with Logic7 on.

+1

[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by Crashnbrn5

In my home, when it comes to music, I only enjoy pure 2 channel, then of course I have a nice 7.2 setup for Movies and the like. I have a beautiful MartinLogan EM C2 center for crystal clear voices and action. I know very well what amazing is, but sound as we know is so subjective and everyone has a different "ear". In my X3 BMW, I prefer to hear sounds from everywhere, plus if I only had a front stage, my rear passengers will not get a good direct path to the sound. Yes I do care about them in the back, lol, most of the time it's my kids.

Nice setup you have, but I wouldn't go ScanSpeck, I would go Focal or DynaAudio, or even JL Audio. If I were to get fronts only, they would cost at least $1000, because they have to make a statement. not no $500 components...so much cheap ish out here that people fall into...but I see you spend where necessary also. At least you can listen to some nice FLAC files in there....sounds soo crispy clean

I replaced my Focals with Scanspeak, unless you go Utopia.. Focal doesn't compare to Scanspeak illuminators, they are on a different level, especially when it comes to the tweeters. Scanspeak is about as good as they come.

I had my Focals for about 5 years, and it was night and day when I switched them out. I drive a coupe so rear speakers aren't that important to me.

Speakers I really want at home are the Sonus Faber Olympica iii off some Mcintosh amps. Going to be a while till I can get those haha.

And LOL! at JL audio over Scanspeak

[zx10guy]

Personally, I feel you can never get proper soundstaging in a car audio environment. Too much external noise even with a well damped car...unless you do all your listening with the car off and not moving. Also, without any EQ, you can't over come physics. In the driver's position, you're going to hear the speakers located on the drivers side first before any other speaker...even if there is a center channel.

With that said, I do appreciate good sounding car audio speakers. In one of my past vehicles, I had Canton 2 way separates up front and McIntosh 6x9 2 way speakers in the rear.

Also, there's a misconception about multi-channel audio. Everyone thinks multi-channel audio is having gimmicky surround mixes where sounds are purposely mixed to come from the surround channels instead of having natural sound that is supposed to simulate the actual live performance. There are good multi-channel albums out there which remain faithful to the artistic performance with emphasis on sound quality.

I do have a dedicated 2 channel system but I also have a nice multi-channel system which I would put up against many systems...even ones that cost much more than what I've spent. The reason? It's because I paid very close attention to speaker placement and room acoustics. I can't tell you how many systems I've seen posted on Internet forums where many people swoon and awe over it because the owner spent top dollar buying the greatest speakers/components out there. Yet, they shove these speakers into built ins or into corners in rooms with no acoustic treatments. Yeah, they spent a ton of money to only have an average sounding system.

[hpc3]

Originally Posted by Revcrazy

Agreed. BMW car audio is a joke.

Neither of these two companies are anything special with whats out there overall but the B&O I had in my S4 blew away the 'upgraded' sound in my e92 M3s.

The EPS is a level above the B&O B8 S4 one... no comparison. Just trying to figure out a way to reinforce my B8 package shelf so that ill-placed subwoofer wouldn't rattle was fun enough. Hopefully Audi will get a decent tweeter now with HK components. My head hurt after 30min with the B&O system... way too bright/harsh.