ciscobigot

Why is MB switching from Bose to Harmon Kardon for the premium sound system? I just bought my wife a Bimmer w/ Harmon Kardon premium sound, and it's premium crap. I hope the MB and HK engineers do a better job than BMW. I thought the Bose systems in prior MB models sounded quite nice.

northbenz

I believe it is because of a tie-in that Harmon has with Becker. I understand Blaupunkt and Bose have a similar tie-in, but Mercedes has always favored working with Becker since I suspect Becker is somehow financially allied with Daimler-Benz. It was probably just a matter of time before Merceds would gravitate to Becker and they probably didn't do it sooner because of patents or licensing agreements that had tied Becker's hands. This is all somewhat speculative based upon prior experience.

ciscobigot

Yep, I agree that the change has to do with some type of existing relationship. Not sure if it is actually Becker, but more like JBL which owns Harmon Kardon and Infinity.

I remember that Chrysler used Infinity products quite heavily and with that relationship I would bet that had some influence on price points for the Daimler/Chrysler Execs. In fact, I read an article sometime back which stated that Chrysler accounted for 50% of Infinity's revenues. Plus, since Infinity and Harmon Kardon consider themselves "high-end" (I beg to differ), they [JBL] are probably salivating from the marketing aspect on this partnership with MB.

Go figure, Lexus has partnered with Mark Levinson audio. Now that seems more of a "high-end" complimentary partnership. I guess MB can learn somethings from the Lexus product development folks.

SCwolf

Levinson was purchased by Harmon International (who owns JBL, and HK) several years back (much to the grief of audiophiles). This link gives you a list of their brands:
http://www.harman.com/brands/index.jsp

here's a short list of the brands owned by Harmon: JBL, Proceed, Infinity, Lexicon, Revel, Levinson, Becker, Harmon-Kardon

Mark Levinson sold his name and company to Harmon, and has started a smaller more focused company called Red Rose; you can check out his new site at www.redrosemusic.com .

My surprise is that Mercedes chose to go with HK rather than Levinson, since both are sister companies under the same umbrella parent. Quite possibly, they're reserving Levinson as a high priced option?

Juke-box

Didn't Red Rose Music change their products b/c the main designer of the Tube Amplifier(which is awesome) leave the company? and the R3 speakers were also changed because Dynaudio wouldn't supply the woofers to other companies??

just curious

Juke

SCwolf

i havent been in touch with the audio world for a year or so, and was wondering why their product lines looked so different

makes sense now... it's too bad about the tube gear, it looked promising

Silver_Lana

Its probably because Levinson audio in automobiles is almost synonymous with Lexus now... MB probably doesnt want to be seen as following in the footsteps of Lexus now do they..

MarcusBenz

This is a great point, MB likes the reputation of being innovators not replacators.


MarcusBenz
House of Imports, MBZ

SCwolf

closely tied to BMW, since they've been the hi-end audio option for BMW for the last several years? the new 745i HK audio matches or even surpasses Lexus' ML option from what i've read in the magazine reviews

Juke-box

but do we know which unit from HK that we're getting? will it be the same as the BMW unit?

Juke

ciscobigot

I hope it's not the same HK model or line that is in my wife's 2002 330ci. I'm not impressed by it. The Bose system in my 2000 CLK430 sounds 100 times better than my wifes Bimmer.

I'm not a proponent of Bose, but I just want something that sounds pretty good, especially if I'm paying extra and it is classified as "Premium Sound". Maybe the world "Premium" only refers to the price.

SCwolf

the optional HK that's the "best" available on the 3 series isnt "bad" but it's not that much better than the good Bose systems around; I believe MB will at least have that standard HK one, the real question is whether MB will also offer the true "high end" version only available on the 745i

merc

The Harman Kardon Logic7 - 12 Speaker-System makes a very good Sound.

Greetings from Germany

merc

ciscobigot

Thanks for the info regarding the HK Logic 7 showing up in Germany. Lets hope that the same system makes its way to U.S. shores.