IStern

quick question for those of you with the multimedia package: do you only have a subwoofer in the parcel shelf?

I asked and my SA said this is the case, but when I checked harman kardon's site it said the c class should have 2 mid range speakers in addition to the subwoofer back there.

bhamg

While, in the C-Class sedan and coupe, the oval subwoofer and a surround speaker are installed together in the parcel shelf, the acoustic experts placed the subwoofer box on its side in the rear of the station wagon. The discrete positioning behind the side panel delivers impressive bass reproduction without impacting the cargo capacity. The interior of the station wagon called for a special solution in positioning the surround speaker, too – Harman Kardon sound specialists mounted two 80 mm surround speakers in the upper part of the D-pillar. On the sedan and the coupe, these sound transformers are located at the outer ends of the parcel shelf. In the more compact coupe, four tweeters and four low/mid-range speakers in the doors and rear side trim make for a balanced sound. In the sedan and the station wagon, the rear doors feature coaxial speakers that, with two highly specialized sound transformers in one casing, generate a broad frequency spectrum.

bhamg

Speakers for the C-Class
12 high-performance loudspeakers with optimum position in the car.
1 × 80 mm ALumaprene center speaker, in the instrument panel
2 × 43 mm dome tweeters, in the mirror sails
2 × 165 mm ALumaprene midwoofers, in the front doors
2 × 43 mm dome tweeters, in the rear doors
2 × 165 mm ALumaprene midwoofer speakers, in the rear doors
2 × 80 mm ALumaprene surround midrange speakers, in the parcel shelf
1 × 200 mm × 270 mm racetrack double voice-coil subwoofer, in the parcel shelf

IStern

2 × 80 mm ALumaprene surround midrange speakers, in the parcel shelf

I don't hear any audio from my parcel shelf other than the subwoofer. Can other owners verify?

late_bloomer

I sat in the back of my car recently and noticed I did not hear any music from the rear speakers. The music was not turned up very loud cause we had a sleeping baby in the car, but I do remember having the balance equal for F and R..

When I get a chance I will test moving the balance to the rear and turning the music up and see if that makes a difference. I thought there was 12 speakers and it sounded like there were only speakers in the rear doors only..

I do have the HK option..

morganb

I tried this a week or so ago, the rear parcel shelf speakers (if there are any) hardly seem to emit any noise. The noise seems to come from the subwoofer.

bhamg

Sorry, kinda forgot about this thread but with the fader favoring a complete rear bias there's plenty of midrange coming from the rear shelf. It doesn't reach quite the same volume as the front but I've got working mids back there.

SurfSwitch

I sat in the back of my car for the first time this weekend and noticed this too. Sounds OK from the front, but if you're a passenger in the rear it's about 30% quieter than the front seat. Pretty poor design in my opinion.

ZephyrAMG

The sound system and quality flat out is a FAILURE in the C Class....HK or no Hk it is terrible...

My Nissan sounds better....

norb

The only thing I hear in the back is the glorious exhaust!

m a x i m u s

... as does the stereo in the POS chrysler 300 i rented before. i love the performance and exhaust note on these cars, but i hate how they've cut corners with basic things.

khmergod

Forgot that I have HK...my favorite Orchestra is AMG from Germany.

ZephyrAMG

I get so jealous of the AMAZING sound system my brother has in his 550 M Sport....BMW got it right.

I have tried everything. Better quality MP3, increase treble slightly, decrease bass, fade to back to roll sound to front, logic on, off, etc, etc...nothing has worked. I just give up, roll the windows down and just enjoy the exhaust. No melody or lyric is worth missing the roar of the engine...NO SONG IS WORTH IT.

jvanbrecht

Unfortunately the Sound system is lacking in our cars, even the HK system. FYI.. HK is the same crap as Bose, it's over priced and for some reason they appear to have somehow made people believe they are awesome, when in fact they are no better than a decent Panasonic/Pioneer set of audio equipment.

The problem with out cars, and most modern cars is that the damn system is integrated into the cars to the point that going aftermarket is ***** and a half.

Zeee_Q

Yep our speakers are horrible. The BMW Harmon Kardon 3 series and Audi Bang & Olufson A4 sound much better.

ChrisSmooth

Man I have been all over this site looking for people that have the same issue as me.. I def and not getting sound from my sub in between my rear seats??? Anyone else tackle this and success or failure????? Thanks Chris

HoozyerdaddyC63

Has anyone upgraded their HK system speakers or installed new speakers with amp?

RalphSmithIII

I'm interested to know as well. I've replaced every single car stereo system in every car I've ever owned but I'm on the fence on this once. It's "decent" compared to the crappy Bose systems I've had in previous cars yet it still leaves much to desire.

I think the problem with this setup is that in order to get a much better sound, you'd have to spend more money than normal because it comes with a "decent" setup. I don't think simply replacing the fronts/rears with anything less than a mid/higher end speaker will make it worth doing. Then, you'd have to look at adding aftermarket amps at which you would probably need to add some type of processor to cut over the signal from the headunit to the amps since these cars run fiber in the head units, from what I understand.

Sincity

No kidding. Especially if you either have LTs or different manifolds, the exhaust noise will dominate.

Mike5215

Sorry to dig up an old thread. I just went through a HK Logic 7 speaker replacement in my 2010 S550. Harman's "ALumaprene" speaker, which is a special metalized plastic speaker cone material designed to F with Mercedes owners, is the problem. ALumaprene speakers sound incredibly thin, shrill and bright, which is not surprising since the cones are made of brittle metal, and they're not very efficient so they sound weak as well. (It's not just us. They're used extensively in Harman's BMW installations as well).

I can testify that changing out your ALumaprene speakers will make a huge impact on the quality of your stock Harman/Kardon Logic 7 audio. The Logic 7 in the S Class has a slightly different speaker array, mainly the use of 8" shallow mount subwoofers and a 4" midrange in the front doors where the C gets a conventional 6.5" woofer. Otherwise the same.

I'm guessing your music sounds thin, shrill, hollow and harsh and no amount of adjustment will fix it. No need to replace the amp or head unit, although the amp does have a strangely mid-heavy factory EQ that you'll want to compensate for. If you're an Apple user with a local library I recommend the AudioForge EQ app ($2.99, App Store). You'll be blown away with how much more you can get from the post speaker upgrade by pushing down the mids and adding in bass. (Spend $2.99 now and see how much it can help your existing system)

Here are my speaker replacement recommendations for each driver:

1 × 80 mm ALumaprene center speaker, in the instrument panel

Leave stock.

2 × 43 mm dome tweeters, in the mirror sails
2 × 165 mm ALumaprene midwoofers, in the front doors

Replace with a set of 6.5" 2-Way component speakers, like the Hertz DSK165.3. Dynamat or Hushmat the door interiors.


2 × 43 mm dome tweeters, in the rear doors
2 × 165 mm ALumaprene midwoofer speakers, in the rear doors

Replace with a set of 2 Way component speakers, like the Hertz DSK165.3 Dynamat or Hushmat the door interiors.

2 × 80 mm ALumaprene surround midrange speakers, in the parcel shelf

Replace with a set of MTX TDX35 Coaxials. Dynamat or Hushmat the parcel shelf.

1 × 200 mm × 270 mm racetrack double voice-coil subwoofer, in the parcel shelf

Leave stock.

The Harman Kardon speakers are all conventional 4 ohm and with the exception of the rear parcel subwoofer are standard aftermarket replacement sizes. There are a ton of decent, efficient 6.5" 2 way component speakers out there in a wide price range. The 6.5" Harman/Kardons have a standard 4 hole square mount. Virtually any aftermarket speaker will sound better than stock, and will produce a lot more bottom (which is why you'll want the sound deadening material).

Because the S Class gets 4" midrange speakers in the front doors my options were limited and I ended up with a $750 set of Focal KRS. I used the Hertz DSK in my rear doors. They're efficient and produce decent mid bass. the Focals do sound good, but I would have spent less if I could.

BTW, to answer a question earlier in the thread, the 3.5" speakers flanking the subwoofer in the rear deck are intended as rear surrounds so they don't get a lot of signal and what they do get will sound out of phase if you put your ear up to it. They're most active when Logic 7 is "on". Otherwise they get a minimal stereo signal. They're not really necessary to upgrade but since you have to get at the rear parcel shelf to Dynamat they're an easy swap.

Feel free to PM or post any questions.

Solo wing

What's the Deal with Mercedes and Sound systems? first they started with crappy Bose, HK ? I replaced all of the speakers with Focals = Truly Amazing.


Faiz

Mike5215

Yeah. I owned two prior S Classes (W220) with the Bose surround system and they weren't especially powerful but they were clean sounding. Just adding a powered Sub did the trick. The HK is a total nightmare by comparison.

I love the Focals but I'm hesitant to recommend someone spend $750 on a pair of speakers without hearing them in the car myself.

So what model(s) Focals did you use? I'm guessing you did the doors and left the other stuff alone, or no?

Ingenieur

I seldom 'listen' to mine, usually sirus at a background level
I recently took a long roadtrip and actually listened to it
Now a few qualifyers
My hearing is not what it used to be: guns, airplanes/helos w/o doors, factories
I listen to jazz, classical, older acoustic rock, not too much loud synthesized stuff
I consider my self an audiophile, had a stereophile subscription in the early 70's
Built dynaco tube stuff, etc

I think it sounds ok, can't be compared to a home system obviously
Bass is lacking due to geometry, too small to establish a low freq wave
But overall enjoyable with proper software/media

A test album of mine is Jackson Browne late for the sky
Produced and engineered by a master Al Schmidt (sp?)
Sounds realistic, great voice and piano, a true test of system accuracy
Everyone knows what a voice and piano sound like
Who the hell knows what an over-dubbed, synthetically altered voice backed up by machines sounds like lol

I'm glad they allocated budget to engine/exhaust over entertainment
Because to me engine/exhaust IS the entertainment

Mike5215

I listen to the same stuff. Anything originally recorded and mixed on an analog board to tape is fair game, and that became a lost art in the mid 80's. If you can find the old 70's stuff recorded at Sound City on their Neve console you'll know what I'm talking about.

I've just started getting into hi-res recordings. These are full resolution studio masters encoded in 24 bit/192 htz lossless audio. You need a system with a DAC capable of 24/192 and a good amp and speakers but they do sound better than anything you've heard on LP or CD. I'm going to see if that Jackson Browne album is available in hi-res.

Not sure they saved money on the audio and spent it on the exhaust. I think they probably handed development to Harman with a decent budget and got a crappy sounding system that was still expensive to build.

Razzy

fantastic post Mike. I will look into your recommendations. I am an audiophile and I cannot stand these no matter what I do all my songs at "higher" volume are WAY TOO HARSH AND SHARP. Like what were they thinking? The HK system in my S class was great and hell way back when in my 2002 7-series the system was better.

Now I have no quarrels with HK or even this system in general, besides the harshness. If I can get that fixed than I'm happy.