Deceptive Marketing: Harmon Kardon 900 Watt Stereo System

[STINGRAY]

Originally Posted by EricG

I would never buy flowmasters.

I do have Blastion' Bob straight pipes in place of the exhaust resonaters, and yes I can definitely hear the stereo over them. This HK system pounds when you turn it up over half way...

[WCKSRT8YJ]

Don't think stereo system is as bad as some people say, I'm happy with mine.

[thesrt8]

Originally Posted by WCKSRT8YJ

Don't think stereo system is as bad as some people say, I'm happy with mine.

That is great. Maybe there is some variability in the quality. Either way, the sound reproduction is off. Certain frequencies and even instruments seem non-existent at times. For example, take a favorite song that has been reproduced and heard on multiple radios, headphones, etc and then listen to it on the HK system. On mine, and many others, it sounds much worse and totally different.

I've even run distortion tests and at 10% distortion, it sounds the same as 0%. Look at my videos. A stock GM system in a $20K car is worlds better than the HK system.

[MoparOhio]

Originally Posted by TampaBay_2012RT+

You are absolutely correct!

Sirius called me last week (again) asking me to renew my subscription (they have snail mailed, emailed, and called several times).

I keep telling them that I have No Interest in renewing because of the over compression of their signals. She did not understand what I was saying and said "We are always adding more content" I told her that is exactly the problem. You can only squeeze so many stations into limited bandwidth and that means that you must sacrifice audio quality by compressing it every time you add more channels).

SiriusXM quality rating of music audio falls somewhere between AM and FM to me. Not Acceptable to my ears.

(If you have experience with MP3's you can easily tell the difference between 128bps and 320bps audio files or better yet MP3 and Flac* <-*not playable on these head units).

You can play overly compressed signals on a $20K system (Audio or Video) and it is not going to make it sound great.

Throwing money into a more powerful system for your home or car will not fix SiriusXM's issues...Like they used to say "You can polish a turd all you want, but in the end it is still a turd."

The answer: SiriusXM needs to spend money on an upgraded SAT Transponder with more bandwidth such as Dish & Direct TV did to carry the new HDTV signals.

It is a shame that SAT companies such as SiriusXM overly compress their audio signals and think that everyone will accept it as a good option for music. All that profit that they rake in, they should spend some to improve quality for their customers. Until they do that SiriusXM isn't a good option if you are wanting to listen to music. Now if Talk Radio is your style then you probably will not mind the severe signal compression.

The shame is that I really want to like SiriusXM, but as far as their music quality is concerned, I can not bring myself to enjoy it at any price.

I would have to disagree with you on this topic. The reason is that my wifes Beetle has the Monsoon stereo and her XM/Sirius sounds better than FM in her car. It isn't satellite vs FM.. it is the RECEIVER. In my Challenger I have the 6 speaker system.. FM sounds better than any other car stereo i have ever had... but Satellie is weak and tinny sounding. It isn't Sirius... it is the receiver.

[jmatero]

This system confuses the heck out of me. I've only used Sirius and my iPhone 5 via USB to date and it consistently sounds terrible. And any volume setting under 25 is lame as well. Shocking, as the HK system in my better half's MINI Cooper (iPhone and Sirius) sounds pretty amazing.

Fast forward to today: for giggles, I converted 2 dozen songs in iTunes on my Mac to MP3, and burned them to CD as "MP3 Disc".

Popped the disc into the car and when it started playing, my ears almost blew out as the volume was at the usual 25. I was totally shocked. AND the sound quality was AMAZING... I thought I was in a different car. I copied the whole disc to the HD and they still sound AMAZING. Flip to the iPhone via USB, same songs, CRAP. Flip to Sirius, have to boost the volume back up and CRAP.

I'm at a total loss. Of course I'm still frustrated as all heck that I can't get the system to recognize any USB drive.

[dachrist]

I've found that if I put 320kbs MP3 songs on a USB stick, they sound amazing in the car. However if I then copy the same songs to the HD, they sound like crap! Almost like when they are put on the HD they are reduced to 128kb or something like that. The treble is very "warbly" (like super compressed) and the midrange is very muddy.

[LarryR]

I mentioned this a few posts ago but it's worth mentioning again......the issue could also be the playback device.......i.e. Itouch/Ipod. I've had to use an EQ program on my iTouch to get it sounding decent when going directly into the Aux input of the stock stereo in my Toyota.

[TampaBay_2012RT+]

I have not copied any of them over to the HDD on the Mygig 430N RHB in my wifes 2012 Challenger SXT...i did not try it yet in my 730N but I can confirm that the .M4A Format works and sounds excellent from my USB Stick in the 430N RHB.

M4A music is as close to CD sound quality as you are going to get and I just did a quick test of a song I downloaded a few minutes ago and it is Revolution from the Beatles White Album in .m4a...The Clarity is awesome for the same size as an MP3 and virtually lossless.

I will test sometime later on a HDD Transfer to see if I lose any of the clarity on the M4A Format.

[db_ohno]

I have installed Sirius units made by almost every aftermarket manufacturer under the sun, including some factory units. Every one of them sounds the same-----over compressed and tinny. Funny thing though, almost every XM unit I put in (when they were a separate company) sounded a million times better.........

[Madcoder]

I see what this thread is all about now.

I just picked up my 12 SRT with the HK option and it's not impressive in the slightest.

I tweaked the EQ and tried both sound modes and it's about the same as my 09 SRT system.

Waste of $2k