[JessM36MT]

Tried to find a related thread but came up with one from 2 years ago and not in a ton of detail.

I have two sides and no in between when having audio playing while enjoying the drive….
1) Silence. Pay attention to feeling and hearing the car. Appreciate every shift point to the fullest.
2) Play the best driving playlist ever and get really close to actually jumping the empty car trailer in front of you as you downshift and think “I can totally make it.”

For the 2023 M3 owners, if you ever experience a #2 moment, how’s the sound coming from the stock HK? I realize some drivers never touch the factory settings which also can greatly play into the feeling that it doesn’t sound great. Does the engine and road noise take over any ability to hear the sound? Is it tinny or hollow? If it’s bad, what’s bad about it?

Thanks for the feedback!

[V1L3]

The HK sounds a little "hollow" (?) in my G82. I have a B&O in both my Raptor and RS5 and the bass is more full in both vehicles. The mids are slightly clearer on the B&O as the volume increases.

I spent a couple hours trying to get the sound acceptable to me last night and I moved the fader to just behind the front seats. I then moved treble up 3 ticks and the bass a couple ticks beyond that.

As long as I don't go crazy on the volume it's decent.... but in the end I would prefer a different sound system.

Edit - I just noticed that you mentioned M3 owners specifically, so take what I said with a grain of salt. The interior dimension differences between the cars could make things sound different.

[JessM36MT]

Originally Posted by V1L3

The HK sounds a little "hollow" (?) in my G82. I have a B&O in both my Raptor and RS5 and the bass is more full in both vehicles. The mids are slightly clearer on the B&O as the volume increases.

I spent a couple hours trying to get the sound acceptable to me last night and I moved the fader to just behind the front seats. I then moved treble up 3 ticks and the bass a couple ticks beyond that.

As long as I don't go crazy on the volume it's decent.... but in the end I would prefer a different sound system.

Edit - I just noticed that you mentioned M3 owners specifically, so take what I said with a grain of salt. The interior dimension differences between the cars could make things sound different.

This is still very helpful. Very accurate that the interiors can play a big role in the sound, but you have amazing detail (extremely appreciated) in your description of the system itself and the tweaks you’ve made.

[Znomorph4theWin]

There are folks who claim bmw tweaked the HK amplifier when they moved from ID7 to ID8.

I’ve listened to both, and would agree that the ID8 version seems to have more low end punch and clarity.

[madpistol]

Not sure if this is a thing on iD8, but on iD7 you could code in the Bowers and Wilkins DSP into the HK sound system using Bimmercode. It made a huge difference in the sound quality and sound stage in my car.

[Forzanerazzurri]

OP do you live in a Fast and Furious movie? I don't really care much about car sound systems but I can see how it's gotta be good when you're rolling with the windows down pumping Billie Eilish on the way to the 'Bucks drive thru.

[JessM36MT]

Originally Posted by Forzanerazzurri

OP do you live in a Fast and Furious movie? I don't really care much about car sound systems but I can see how it's gotta be good when you're rolling with the windows down pumping Billie Eilish on the way to the 'Bucks drive thru.

May not be Fast and Furiois but once moving to Florida, there is zero else on the roadway to keep you motivated….no major winding roads or major hills.
It’s more or less playing some Kickstart My Heart while the kids are getting some wind in their hair and I’m trying to share the joy of the road.

[astroricardo]

Not a strong point for sure... I hate to admit we have an Odyssey, not even the top model and the sound is much, much better. It's OK though

[madpistol]

Originally Posted by astroricardo

Not a strong point for sure... I hate to admit we have an Odyssey, not even the top model and the sound is much, much better. It's OK though

You mean Honda has a better sound system than a BMW? I remember having the standard sound system in my '17 Civic, and boy oh boy... it was awful. I think my Ford Ranger from high school had a better sound system.

(discounting the ELS system in new Acuras. Those things are possibly the best factory systems in any car today.)

[astroricardo]

um. yeah a 2011 Odyssey. To be fair it does have like factory sub woofer and made for entertainment... but yeah. Sorry if that offends

[bri1042]

There are a few major compromise with what car companies are doing with car audio systems, in general. I went down quite the audio rabbit hole with my last few BMWs, and learned a lot from an expert in the field (which I am not).

1. Passengers are too close to one driver set in a multiple-driver environment that's too small. This is less of an issue in larger vehicles than in smaller vehicles. In BMW's, the door sail placement of the tweeters is an issue. Humans echo-locate based on higher frequencies, not lower ones, so being too close to a tweeter will throw off the balance.

1a. Cars are loud and have too many different materials. The noise floor is higher than a living room, and the audio reflects differently off of every material in the car.

2. Center channels are the devil when it comes to listening to two-channel music. They CAN be useful, but not in a "for everyone in the car" setup, and not the way car companies are doing it. Stereo separation is deeply important for 2-channel audio, so mushing Left and Right into the center the way HK and other companies do it is awful.

3. Up-mixing 2-channel to multi-channel is really problematic in general. I think more folk dislike their car audio because of this without realizing why it sounds wrong.

4. BMW under-seat woofers are chronically under-powered. Without altering the hardware, a lot of us end up raising up the bass frequencies to compensate. If you also crank the treble, any system will sound hollow since that comes from a weak midrange...which you'll have if you crank everything but the mid-range. Also, the human voice is mostly mid-range so cranking both basic controls ruins the balance that vocals are supposed to have.

5. Taking anyone's word for it with audio quality is problematic. You could have the most perfect audio system, producing reference quality sound, and still hate it 'cause you don't have reference quality ears. Or because reference quality isn't what you've trained your brain to expect so it sounds off to you. Or because reference-quality isn't what the music you're listening to was engineered for. "You" doesn't mean OP, it means whichever random person is trying to judge the system.

5a. The music you listen to matters. A nice, balanced system will sound better if you're listening to a 4-piece standard rock band than if you're listening to music that's all treble and bass. In other words, a car system can sound OK playing something like Queen and sound horrid to someone who likes stuff that would work great at a rave.

My iDrive7 G80 is tolerable, more so than any of the F-chassis cars that I had. I listen to a wide variety of music, but not a lot of the "all treble and bass" genres. Bass taken up several notches, and a few other minor tweaks on the EQ. Balance to the right and slight to the rear centers the sound on my head well enough. I can listen to NiN's Pretty Hate Machine without it causing the car to rattle and without me feeling like I'm loosing too many of the lower notes. REM sounds pretty good. The Beatles sound almost correct.

I haven't felt that putting effort into changing hardware on my G80 was as necessary as my 3 Fxx cars (with the M2C holding the crown of worst-sound-system-ever).

I do wish I still had access to the audio folk who I worked with on previous cars to make it better, but my last experience with that shop was utterly disappointing and I haven't been willing to call them since I got my M3. Oh well.

[madpistol]

Originally Posted by astroricardo

um. yeah a 2011 Odyssey. To be fair it does have like factory sub woofer and made for entertainment... but yeah. Sorry if that offends

Not offended at all. Just surprised.

[Autoaddict]

I’ll be honest, I’m disappointed in the sound system. If I’m spending this much money on luxury sports sedan, I should have an option for a high end stereo. Unfortunately, there was no choice. The H&K is under powered and just sounds flat to me. I listened to a friends B&W in his 550 and it sounded amazing! I wish we had that option.

[LuvMyE92]

Originally Posted by JessM36MT

For the 2023 M3 owners, if you ever experience a #2 moment, how’s the sound coming from the stock HK?

Does the engine and road noise take over any ability to hear the sound?

Well, I've got an M4, so I guess I can't reply to the first question.

Absolutely engine and road noise affect the sound! There's a huge difference in what you can hear sitting at a traffic light versus doing 75 down a cement highway.

FWIW, I had a G12 B7 Alpina with the B&O. The Alpina is super quiet, wind, engine and road noise are basically non-issues, and there were no fewer than 835 different speakers with the B&O.

OK, I might have exaggerated somewhat.

I am a bit of an audiophile, and I was constantly adjusting the system until I got it "just right" but since it's all German electronics, it would often do entirely different things depending on the source. Sirius versus FM versus stored/USB music all had different settings, and I never understood why nor could I make it change settings at will. And yes, I know, I know, Sirius XM sucks, but there are a couple of channels that are compressed less than others and you can get some kind of fidelity out of them. My uncompressed FLAC files sounded fantastic, really phenomenal sounds, at any volume. Then the next day you listen and within 3 minutes you've got a headache from the overbearing subwoofers that you can't adjust.

My long-winded point is, for what it is and what it costs, the "base" HK system in the G8x is pretty good for a factory system, and any improvements that you may make are largely going to disappear once you're on the highway.

[EatThatLunchBaby]

I’m not an audiophile but I feel like I can tell the difference between a good and bad sounds system. I’ll admit that I usually use outside resources to tune my EQ settings based on the genres I listen to. That being said, overall I’d say this sound system is above average.

I had a fender system in my Golf R that was decent but this is much better. The sound system in my wife’s X3 is garbage compared to this. The Volvo XC60 with the upgraded sound system was my favorite I’ve owned. This sits somewhere below the Volvo to me.

Road noise for me is a complete non issue. I’m like you where I have two types of driving (maybe 3).

1. No music or music barely audible and all I want is to hear the car

2a. Music blasted and car set to quiet mode

2b. Podcast going, sipping morning coffee, and car in quiet mode.

I love how this car can go from wild race horse to quiet cruiser. I get very little road noise (unless it’s wind noise coming in at speeds I shouldn’t be going). I find it to be a quiet and comfortable cabin when it needs to be

[Mark Kez]

Originally Posted by madpistol

You mean Honda has a better sound system than a BMW? I remember having the standard sound system in my '17 Civic, and boy oh boy... it was awful. I think my Ford Ranger from high school had a better sound system.

(discounting the ELS system in new Acuras. Those things are possibly the best factory systems in any car today.)

You are correct, my wife has a Honda CRV, no comparison to my sound system. None!

[Autoaddict]

Originally Posted by astroricardo

um. yeah a 2011 Odyssey. To be fair it does have like factory sub woofer and made for entertainment... but yeah. Sorry if that offends

Same here, but a 2015 Odyssey, sounds great!

[Humdizzle]

really just depends where you are on the audiophile spectrum. BMW HK is fine for me. most of the time the source material is more important that what stereo you have. A CD/FLAC file in 3 series sitting a stop light is probably going to sound better than S class burmester listening to sirius xm doing 70mph

[playswcars]

Do have to say the h/k system in the 2023 ID8 cars is noticeably improved compared to the ID7 cars.

Not sure what they did, but the h/k sounds amazing with just a slight EQ adjustment.

[nearwater4me]

Originally Posted by madpistol

You mean Honda has a better sound system than a BMW? I remember having the standard sound system in my '17 Civic, and boy oh boy... it was awful. I think my Ford Ranger from high school had a better sound system.

(discounting the ELS system in new Acuras. Those things are possibly the best factory systems in any car today.)

Definitely one of the best stock sound systems!
The Lexicon in the Genesis sounded good as well.
I'm in LOVE with the Volvo's B&W system.

[Art__Vandelay]

I can't judge the HK sound in iDrive 7 cars, but the one in mine with iDrive 8 impressed me. It is a lot better than the HK system in my F80.

[midlifecrisis]

The sound system in my ‘22 G80 was really disappointing when I first got the car. I don’t know whether the speakers loosened up or there was a software update, but it sounds much better to me now. I had always been very happy with the HK sound in my ‘17 X5. I’m happy with the system in the G80 now, too.