Please excuse my Newb-ness, but where the hell are my 12 speakers? Just picked up my 2005 C230 SS with Entertainment Package and I only see the following:

1) Front Center Dash Speaker
2) Front Left Door Speaker
3) Front Right Door Speaker
4) Front Left Mirror Speaker
5) Front Right Mirror Speaker
6) Rear Left Door Speaker
7) Rear Right Door Speaker
8) Rear Left Headrest Speaker
9) Rear Right Headrest Speaker

Where are the other 3?!?!

I had this debate with my dealer and they couldn't answer that question either. There isn't even a rear right speaker. It's just the rear left (which they call the subwoofer) and a channel that leads sound to the rear right side. You can see this if you open the trunk and look under the back panel at the speaker. The dealer "claims" that the other phantom speakers are in the front door, making the front doors have 2 speakers apiece. They also count the little speaker in the cluster with the interior lights, even though that speaker is just for the tele-aid emergency calling system.
maxxx

I asked 2 service personnel awhile back concerning this issue also and they were clueless. I think MB thinks we're stupid and can't count, so they hope we won't notice.

Its been said on here that the rear door speakers are either coaxials or dual cone which in MBs infinite marketing wisdom count as 2.

1) Front Center Dash Speaker single speaker 1
2) Front Left Door Speaker coaxial 2
3) Front Right Door Speaker coaxial 2
4) Front Left Mirror Speaker tweeter 1
5) Front Right Mirror Speaker tweeter 1
6) Rear Left Door Speaker coaxial 2
7) Rear Right Door Speaker coaxial 2
8) Rear Left Headrest Speaker subwoofer 1
9) Rear Right Headrest Speaker port for sub 0

That totals 12....

Thanks to everybody that helped me out! Thought for a minute that I couldn't count but obviously there's some Marketing Mathematics going on at Mercedes.

Thanks again.

Rick and amdeutsch are both 100% correct! I remember the HK sound pamphlet I got at LMT. The front speakers are coaxial with the main speaker being lows and the second being mids with the tweeter by the mirror. The back doors have the main speaker doing mids and the second is a tweeter and then the sub. That is why there is alot more bass comming from the front speakers then the back door speakers.

When ever did a coaxial is considered 2 speakers? That is just plain ridiculous on MB's part. Also, where's the rear right headrest speaker port? All I see is just an empty spot where the 2nd subwoofer should have been.

A true Co-Axial is two speakers. One is the woofer part and the other being the tweeter. There are two seperate speakers there with two seperate voice coils. They are normally called Two-Way speakers in the car audio world. Of course there are also 3-Ways out there as well. Now a true audiphile want seperates and not co-ax's, but sometimes there is only so much room in a cars interior to put speakers. So for the best sound balance sometimes you need to use a co-ax! Never seen a 3-Way factory speaker though....

You are absolutely right, two voice coils means two speakers. Some fairly high end home audio speakers also choose the co-axial design (Uni-Q by KEF for instance) to have a consistant phase relationship betweeen the tweeter and bass / mid speakers.

glad that several people on here explained the setup of visually only 9 speakers. i was wondering why the rear speakers (towards the truck)...the left side grille only had the "harman/Kardon" label on one. It was only when I looked in the truck only to see one sub.

this is what i see
1 on front dash center
1 on left mirror tweeter
1 on right mirror tweeter
1 on left front door panel
1 on right front door panel
1 on left rear door panel
1 on right rear door panel
1 tweeter on top of the left rear door panel
1 tweeter on top of the right rear door panel
3 on rear dash, 2 speakers and 1 woofer. (might be wrong i wonder maybe just 2 speakers, and the woofer is somewhere under the seat?!)also the Amp is mounted on the deck.

Here you go...

Or

the new sport coupe (2005) harman kardon sound system has only 10 speakers, with a litle less power then the E class with 12 speakers