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      12-14-2018, 03:41 PM   #1
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Standard Hi-fi vs Harmon Kardon

Does anyone know the major differences? The CA I talked to said the standard system is made by Harmon Kardon, but without the name plates and the only major difference is that the upgraded system has premium Logic 7 surround-sound. I find this hard to believe. Just trying to understand the spec differences.

Edit: Title should say standard "hifi"
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      12-14-2018, 03:45 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by Bills Oil Company View Post
Does anyone know the major differences? The CA I talked to said the standard system is made by Harmon Kardon, but without the name plates and the only major difference is that the upgraded system has premium Logic 7 surround-sound. I find this hard to believe. Just trying to understand the spec differences.

Edit: Title should say standard "hifi"
I don't know about the stock system but I have the HK optional stereo. It sounds phenomenal. I'm very impressed. I wonder what the B&W sounds like now.
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      12-14-2018, 05:05 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by tqbmw View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bills Oil Company View Post
Does anyone know the major differences? The CA I talked to said the standard system is made by Harmon Kardon, but without the name plates and the only major difference is that the upgraded system has premium Logic 7 surround-sound. I find this hard to believe. Just trying to understand the spec differences.

Edit: Title should say standard "hifi"
I don't know about the stock system but I have the HK optional stereo. It sounds phenomenal. I'm very impressed. I wonder what the B&W sounds like now.
I have a better HK system in my X3 (600W) and it's mediocre at best. I ordered the B&W because that one truly sounds phenomenal
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      12-14-2018, 05:06 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Bills Oil Company View Post
Does anyone know the major differences? The CA I talked to said the standard system is made by Harmon Kardon, but without the name plates and the only major difference is that the upgraded system has premium Logic 7 surround-sound. I find this hard to believe. Just trying to understand the spec differences.

Edit: Title should say standard "hifi"
Looking at the technical docs that user ynguldyn provided (https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1563063) here's what I see.
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      12-14-2018, 05:16 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Bills Oil Company View Post
Does anyone know the major differences? The CA I talked to said the standard system is made by Harmon Kardon, but without the name plates and the only major difference is that the upgraded system has premium Logic 7 surround-sound. I find this hard to believe. Just trying to understand the spec differences.

Edit: Title should say standard "hifi"
I ordered the HK on mine because I have HK on my 2016 M4 and it sounds great to me. But, looking at the comments here I think I should have ordered the B&W speakers. I’ll defintely do on my next car
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      12-14-2018, 05:23 PM   #6
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I demoed the HK Logic and it was outstanding even at higher volume levels.
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      12-14-2018, 05:45 PM   #7
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I ordered the HK on mine because I have HK on my 2016 M4 and it sounds great to me. But, looking at the comments here I think I should have ordered the B&W speakers. I’ll defintely do on my next car
No you dont need the B&W. Now you do need the HK over the wifi all day long, but BW, for the upgrade price its laughable.
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      12-14-2018, 05:55 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdaveindubai View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcc285 View Post
I ordered the HK on mine because I have HK on my 2016 M4 and it sounds great to me. But, looking at the comments here I think I should have ordered the B&W speakers. I’ll defintely do on my next car
No you dont need the B&W. Now you do need the HK over the wifi all day long, but BW, for the upgrade price its laughable.
HiFi is nothing to write home about nor is the HK. I've played with the EQ and tried FLAC audio files from a flash drive, nothing makes it sound 'great'. The audio quality is ok, nothing noteworthy and I hate saying that. I feel the HK system should be much better but it's not. This is of course my opinion and every person will have their own, to some it might be great.
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      12-14-2018, 06:07 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdaveindubai View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcc285 View Post
I ordered the HK on mine because I have HK on my 2016 M4 and it sounds great to me. But, looking at the comments here I think I should have ordered the B&W speakers. I'll defintely do on my next car
No you dont need the B&W. Now you do need the HK over the wifi all day long, but BW, for the upgrade price its laughable.
HiFi is nothing to write home about nor is the HK. I've played with the EQ and tried FLAC audio files from a flash drive, nothing makes it sound 'great'. The audio quality is ok, nothing noteworthy and I hate saying that. I feel the HK system should be much better but it's not. This is of course my opinion and every person will have their own, to some it might be great.
All these systems are made by Harman international which is now owned by samsung. Incremental profit margins are huge as you move up in price.
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      12-14-2018, 06:33 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by like2short View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdaveindubai View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcc285 View Post
I ordered the HK on mine because I have HK on my 2016 M4 and it sounds great to me. But, looking at the comments here I think I should have ordered the B&W speakers. I'll defintely do on my next car
No you dont need the B&W. Now you do need the HK over the wifi all day long, but BW, for the upgrade price its laughable.
HiFi is nothing to write home about nor is the HK. I've played with the EQ and tried FLAC audio files from a flash drive, nothing makes it sound 'great'. The audio quality is ok, nothing noteworthy and I hate saying that. I feel the HK system should be much better but it's not. This is of course my opinion and every person will have their own, to some it might be great.
All these systems are made by Harman international which is now owned by samsung. Incremental profit margins are huge as you move up in price.
I know Samsung owns Harman which includes a lot of high end auduo brands. There is an actual difference in the speakers besides the price. B&W makes some incredible sound systems in cars, HK does too just not the ones for BMW lately. B&O, which Samsung owns in part (only the Autos portion) has great sound systems like the one in my previous Audi.
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      12-14-2018, 07:31 PM   #11
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For what it's worth, my hifi system sounded subpar for the first few days and I've researched some replacement amps and speakers. However, I was surprised how much better it sounds now. I believe there is a break in period. The EQ is basic but turning the bass up a few notches and the treble up one notch while listening to tracks from Tidal HiFi (Flac) sounds much better to my ears than it did a few days ago. Another lossless service, Deezer, offers a built in EQ that could be beneficial but lossless doesn't work on mobile devices yet.
To clarify, I'm getting nice clean sounding music with punchy bass. There is some decent low end response. My test song is "late night tip" and although my G05 doesn't rattle like the last system I installed in a vehicle, the low end response is noticeable.
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      12-14-2018, 08:03 PM   #12
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I am huge fan of HK and the nicer grills do look nice. I think the B&W will support DA and has the speakers on the roof too.
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      12-14-2018, 08:58 PM   #13
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I am huge fan of HK and the nicer grills do look nice. I think the B&W will support DA and has the speakers on the roof too.
USB + FLAC is the best way to hear B&W's system. using BT even with FLAC is not the same since BT has a limited bandwith. Time to get all of my music back onto a few 128GB flash drives
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      12-14-2018, 09:45 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by like2short View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdaveindubai View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcc285 View Post
I ordered the HK on mine because I have HK on my 2016 M4 and it sounds great to me. But, looking at the comments here I think I should have ordered the B&W speakers. I'll defintely do on my next car
No you dont need the B&W. Now you do need the HK over the wifi all day long, but BW, for the upgrade price its laughable.
HiFi is nothing to write home about nor is the HK. I've played with the EQ and tried FLAC audio files from a flash drive, nothing makes it sound 'great'. The audio quality is ok, nothing noteworthy and I hate saying that. I feel the HK system should be much better but it's not. This is of course my opinion and every person will have their own, to some it might be great.
All these systems are made by Harman international which is now owned by samsung. Incremental profit margins are huge as you move up in price.
I know Samsung owns Harman which includes a lot of high end auduo brands. There is an actual difference in the speakers besides the price. B&W makes some incredible sound systems in cars, HK does too just not the ones for BMW lately. B&O, which Samsung owns in part (only the Autos portion) has great sound systems like the one in my previous Audi.
Samsung owns Harman International and before Samsung acquired Harman, Harman bought B&O auto and B&W.

Yes the systems are different, but it's generally the same team working with the auto oe. The cost difference of each system to bmw is nowhere close to the price of the option.
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      12-14-2018, 10:30 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by like2short View Post
Samsung owns Harman International and before Samsung acquired Harman, Harman bought B&O auto and B&W.

Yes the systems are different, but it's generally the same team working with the auto oe. The cost difference of each system to bmw is nowhere close to the price of the option.
Of course it's not, most options have higher profit margins. Regardless of who works on a certain team designing X speaker doesn't matter. The components, quality etc of B&W are better than the HK system. It's like comparing a pair of Sennheiser HE1's to Beats Studio headphones. (This comparison is exaggerated) They are both overpriced but one sounds significantly better. Is the price difference worth it? That depends on the person buying it
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      12-14-2018, 11:11 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by tqbmw View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bills Oil Company View Post
Does anyone know the major differences? The CA I talked to said the standard system is made by Harmon Kardon, but without the name plates and the only major difference is that the upgraded system has premium Logic 7 surround-sound. I find this hard to believe. Just trying to understand the spec differences.

Edit: Title should say standard "hifi"
I don't know about the stock system but I have the HK optional stereo. It sounds phenomenal. I'm very impressed. I wonder what the B&W sounds like now.
I have a better HK system in my X3 (600W) and it's mediocre at best. I ordered the B&W because that one truly sounds phenomenal
I've heard the X3 HK system and in my opinion the one in the x5 sounds much nicer. I'm impressed with the HK system in the x5. I also agree the B&W system is laughable for the price of upgrade. The $900 or so for the HK is definitely an upgrade from stock and at a reasonable price.
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      12-14-2018, 11:39 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tqbmw View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by tqbmw View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bills Oil Company View Post
Does anyone know the major differences? The CA I talked to said the standard system is made by Harmon Kardon, but without the name plates and the only major difference is that the upgraded system has premium Logic 7 surround-sound. I find this hard to believe. Just trying to understand the spec differences.

Edit: Title should say standard "hifi"
I don't know about the stock system but I have the HK optional stereo. It sounds phenomenal. I'm very impressed. I wonder what the B&W sounds like now.
I have a better HK system in my X3 (600W) and it's mediocre at best. I ordered the B&W because that one truly sounds phenomenal
I've heard the X3 HK system and in my opinion the one in the x5 sounds much nicer. I'm impressed with the HK system in the x5. I also agree the B&W system is laughable for the price of upgrade. The $900 or so for the HK is definitely an upgrade from stock and at a reasonable price.
If it sounds better than the X3's HK system then we are on the right path. Most things are pretty arbitrary in terms of cost/benefit especially for car options. I doubt I'll regret spending $3400 on the B&W even if the newer HK system is fine.
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      12-14-2018, 11:45 PM   #18
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Hell, I spent $5000 on my Burmester upgrade for the E63 and I don't regret it one bit, even if most of my music is through BT. Some of it is cosmetic with the rotating tweeters, ceiling speakers, and ambient lighting but it also sounds way more immersive than the other options that were available.

I will definitely be getting the B&W system on the X5.
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      12-15-2018, 01:40 AM   #19
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Is there a certain break in period or a product that helps with the break in of the car speakers? I know for my headphones there was an audio file from JMLabs that I played for several hours and it “seemed” to open things up a bit...

I’m just not sure if there is something like this for the X5 car audio systems...

Do you do anything special to break-in your audio systems?
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      12-15-2018, 05:24 AM   #20
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Sure - it’s about every speaker. It’s always playing better after some time.
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      12-16-2018, 12:07 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by like2short View Post
Samsung owns Harman International and before Samsung acquired Harman, Harman bought B&O auto and B&W.

Yes the systems are different, but it's generally the same team working with the auto oe. The cost difference of each system to bmw is nowhere close to the price of the option.
Of course it's not, most options have higher profit margins. Regardless of who works on a certain team designing X speaker doesn't matter. The components, quality etc of B&W are better than the HK system. It's like comparing a pair of Sennheiser HE1's to Beats Studio headphones. (This comparison is exaggerated) They are both overpriced but one sounds significantly better. Is the price difference worth it? That depends on the person buying it
The Harman guys told me they think a b&w system can add 3-4000 of extra gross profit to the car. Yeah, it's up to the buyer if they want it or not. If one spends a lot of time in the car and wants the best, go for b&w!
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      12-16-2018, 08:29 AM   #22
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I wonder if the BavSound upgrades for the G05 would be worth it compared to the stock HK speakers. They have it listed on their site now, but the HK is okay for me so far (after using pink noise and an RTA to calibrate the equalizer). It isn't a great curve, but it's at least where I can hear the high end now.
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