roonui

Hello all I am new here, just recently purchased an E55 AMG and am loving it.

I noticed however that there doesnt seem to be any sound coming from the rear subwoofer in the boot. I have had a look through the instruction manual and tried playing with the settings in the audio menu but there doesnt seem to be a control for the subwoofer.

Could anyone suggest what the problem might be? Or how to control the subwoofer?

Thanks.

AMGAffalterbach

There should be a bass setting on the COMAND interface that essentially control the rear subwoofer. But the one thing I would make sure of is what audio mode you have the car in. With the Harman/Kardon Logic 7 sound system you can have the input set to "Standard" or "Speech" versus "Logic 7 Surround" - from what I remember the Speech setting changes the dynamics of the system to a very right/left stereo setup that may use the subwoofer very little, so be sure of what setting you are on.

Keep in mind also that the bass setting under the audio button and the sound mode are input-dependent: you have different settings for the radio, versus xm, versus aux input so when you change the bass level or audio mode make sure you are doing it for the input you are testing. If these trouble-shooting methods don't work and you don't see any movement of the speaker from inside the trunk (look up to where the rear decklid is and you can see a series of holes, through which you can see the speaker) then you might have a faulty connection or blown speaker.

Hope this helps,

Joey

roonui

I have just been having a look through the COMAND manual, and some photos online, and it seems that the unit that is installed in my car is different from most. It has a much smaller screen, the CD player below the screen, and very different buttons. And I couldnt find any corresponding settings in the car itself.

I actually was quite dissapointed with the quality of the sound system in the car, especially since my 2005 TDI VW Passat had a far superior sound quality. Could it be that I have an inferior system installed in the car?

Thanks.

roonui

Ahh ok, I have the Audio-20-CD unit fitted. Damn. Seems like it quite a mission to upgrade it is that right?

AMGAffalterbach

Upgrading, or rather changing out, the head-unit to the stock or a better quality one isn't too difficult of a task - the prevalence of after-market head-units for the W211 shows this. Personally, it is not work I would do myself on my car. I'm the type of person that has his headlights replaced by the techs at the dealer for fear of breaking a component or doing something improperly.

As to the quality of the Harman/Kardon Logic7 sound system (let me start out by saying that quality is subjective), it is one of the best sound systems I have come across - and I am a big fan of car audio. My father had an older Volkswagen which didn't compare, the Bose sound system in my mother's car doesn't compare, nor does the aftermarket (entry-level) Alpine system that my M6-owner friend has. It is a very crisp and well-balanced system in my opinion that is SURROUND sound system (either 5.1 or 7.1, I've seen different things from Harman/Kardon and Mercedes-Benz), so I would certainly attribute that to the Audio-20 headunit that is in there now. Probably doesn't support all of the speakers in the car that's why you're not getting sound out of the rear ones. Isn't that a B-Class model anyway or fitted to older W211s? Because if it doesn't have the larger colored LCD screen with all of the features I mentioned, it isn't the standard W211 head-unit. I would say it is VERY worth it to upgrade and is a fairly easy install.