As many of you probably know by now, I'm not impressed with the stock Harman Kardon Logic 7 audio system in the 221. I solved the problem in my own car by replacing most of the cabin speakers at a cost of a couple grand.

But after all was said and done I realized that the front door 4" midrange speakers were the source of a lot of the problems and maybe my set of $750 Focal components was overkill. The issue was that there are very few 4" aftermarket woofers to choose from. The ones I found were either less desirable coaxials (woofer and tweeter in one) or very expensive 2 way components (separate woofer and a tweeter) like the Focals.

A couple weeks ago I was browsing a wholesale speaker component catalog (what can I tell you...I'm not a big sports guy and I need something to read in the crapper when my wife throws away the Victoria's Secret catalogues) and I came across the Goldwood GW-204 4" woofer. Goldwood typically makes 8 ohm drivers for home speaker building, but the 204 is a 4 ohm version, which is the standard for car audio.






As you can see, the Goldwood is quite a bit heftier than the stock Harman 4", with a huge shielded magnet and motor assembly. Some of that heft is actually the shielding but overall it's quite a bit more robust. But the best part is that the speaker cone on the Goldwood is conventional treated paper while the Harman is a plastic coated aluminum material Harman calls "Alumaprene". The metal cone material is why the Harman system sounds as thin and harsh as it does. There are five 4" Alumaprene speakers, and two 6.5" Alumaprene speakers in the W221.

I went ahead and ordered one and did a quick A/B listening test, adding a 1" silk dome tweeter to replicate the set-up in the front doors of the 221. My concern was that the much heartier Goldwood would be a power hog, but it was fine, taking only a little more volume than the Harman. It sounds warm, full and even develops a bit of midbass where the Harman bottoms out and distorts. Paired with the tweeter it sounded great. I wouldn't hesitate to install the Goldwoods in my car.

Mounting wise I tested the depth in my spare 221 front door module and it's fine. The Goldwoods (and every replacement 4" including my Focals) have a square 4 hole mount, where the stock speaker is a 3 hole triangular mount. You'd need to Dremmel off two of the mounting ears, like so:


Goldwood on left.

Now the price. Understand that Goldwood has no marketing expense at all. They don't have the hype of a name like "Bose" or "Harman/Kardon" where they could charge exorbitant prices for otherwise cheaply made components.

The Goldwoods are $22.56. For a pair. If you want to buy four and replace the two surround speakers on the rear deck, the per unit price drops to $10.19.

Link: http://www.parts-express.com/goldwoo...4-ohm--290-370

Here's a matching set of 6.5's for the W221 rear doors, $46.20 for the set.

Link: http://www.parts-express.com/goldwoo...4-ohm--290-351

 

Nice! Who cares what they cost of they sound good and have decent quality and longevity!

Great price

How does it sound in concert with the rest of the speakers once you finished the install

 

Well I'd have to guess, since I installed a set of $750 Focal 4" components a couple of months ago before I found the Goldwoods. I can tell you that on the bench in isolation the difference in quality was very evident.

If you play something in your car and put your ear up to the smaller of the two openings in the front door speaker grilles and you hear what those 4" Alumaprene speakers are putting out you'll know instantly what I'm talking about. It's just plain shrill and unpleasant.

I need to find an owner who's comfortable opening up his own door panels and giving these a go. Not a big risk given the price.

 

What does it take to open the door panel and what are the risks? I am also not thrilled by the HK in my 2011 either.

 

I've done them on my 220 but I had a pro shop do the 221. I believe you pry off the wood trim to expose the retaining torx screws, and then there are two "hidden" torx screws in the armrest, then it's a matter of prying the panel off (it's clipped on) and unplugging the various connectors for the controls. I guess I need to find a good online DIY for it and add it to the thread.

Edit: Here ya go! Just go slow when pulling the panel off the door to make sure the clips don't get broken.

 

Door panels are very easy to remove and put back on. No wood trim to remove, they are torx screws in the back and you'll damage them if you pry on them. On both doors there are two torx screws, one below the arm rest and one inside the cover of the armrest. It's camoflauged in the black flock. Use a thin flathead and slide upwards, do not full forward. The tweeter housing must carefully be removed as it wraps around the door frame so start from the edge facing the glass. If you try to pry the cover, you'll have a chance of breaking the tabs. The difference between the passenger door and driver door (2010 model) is on the passenger you pop the side cover from the front door panel to remove the wire plugs. On the driverside you cannot do that, you have to remove the door panel to access the plugs to remove. The doors have an alignment catch so slide upwards, do not pull otherwise again you'll have a chance on snapping that catch. Other than that, it is very easy to remove these door panels. Literally can be done in a minute on each door if you do it again. First time took a bit of time so I know I do it right, about 5 minutes. One of the easiest door panels to remove. Rear ones are a bad design although easy, the two tabs towards the front of the door panel uses a hard snap type and you have to be very carefull using a long flat pop type panel popper otherwise just replace with conventional slide and snap types. They are very hard to pop off and can break easily but replaceable. The stock uses a two piece snap type insert. This should help out.

 

^Thanks! I also added a PDF to my last post from MB on the procedure for door panel removal (Illustrated)

Here are two audio samples of the Harman and Goldwood. These were recorded using an IPhone so quality isn't the best but you can make a relative comparison. (I was also a little too close so the highs sound over modulated)

Listen to the fuller mid bass reproduction and smoother mids and highs on the Goldwood, and how the mids are overemphasized on the Harman with a lack of bass.


Both clips were recorded with the speakers in free air. In the W221's enclosures each will produce more bass.

These are zip files that need to be extracted before playback.

 

Thanks Mike, really sounds like a good improvement and its also cheap.

 

I thought the Goldwoods might be a tough sell for Mercedes guys. I discovered the brand when I owned another car and the forum recommended them. Amazing how good they sound, irrespective of price.

 

Really price does not mean that much at all unless the reliability is lower on these units.

 

Short of the foam surrounds rotting out over time there's not much to affect reliability in either of them. The Goldwood is quite a bit heavier and feels more solid than the Harmon, which is a more delicate feeling piece. Just a very curious choice by Harman in design and cone material. They must have sounded better on paper.

 

Yep

 

Good info Mike! So what's the total price of your total recommended speaker upgraded? Is it down by 700 or so from 1900 because there's no need for expensive focals?

 

Thanks for the info. Sounds interesting.

Anyone knows where you can get these from in Europe?
Preferably the UK.

 

Yeah, it would be stupid cheap using the Goldwoods. Just doing the front doors, which are the main speaker arrays in the car, would be around $20 for parts (2 4" woofers) plus labor. I'd recommend another $25 worth of Hushmat or Dynamat deadening material since the door is opened up anyway. So under $50 total unless I'm way off on the price of Hushmat.

Here's what a Hushmatted door looks like before/after...





If that does it you could stop there, or open up the rear doors and add the 6.5" Goldwood woofers for another $40 and another $25 worth of Hushmat. I haven't had a chance to bench test the Goldwood 6.5's but I expect similar performance vs the Harman Alumaprene 6.5's.

On the rear deck I'm not sure there's the depth for the Goldwood 4" woofers, but you may want to open it up anyway to Hushmat the metal panel behind the rear seat and the deck itself.

All in you'd be around $200.

 

The ears to remove, are they metal or plastic?

 

Metal (thin).

 

what are the benefits/advantages and reasons for using and installing the hushmat backing? Is it easy to do just peel and stick on?

Will it give a quieter ride inside with even less road noise?

 

See that giant aluminum pie plate that covers the door interior? It's one massive rattle generator, so Hushmat will prevent the subwoofer in the door from rattling, which it will do once a little EQ and volume is applied. The door subs are decent and can pound hard but not without the deadening first.

It also firms up the surface where the speakers mount, which improves their performance, especially in the mid bass frequencies. It will also add some degree of sound attenuation in the car against external noises.

I had my shop install the Hushmat on the 221. I believe it's peel and stick and then hit with a heat source to shrink it onto the surface but I'm not sure.

 

Anyone try installing these yet?

 

I'm looking to replace all of the speakers besides the subwoofers and install aftermarket amps. (OEM integration so I can use continue to use the steering controls)

How many different channels on the amp should I be looking for? Alpine or Rockford Fosgate amps only.

Any specific products I should use and any suggestions/tips?

 

Unlike your typical car audio system, the S Class is fiber optic from the HU to the amp. It has 12 channels coming into the factory amp/fiber optic gateway all on a singe fiber optic cable. Nobody makes a 12 channel optical to analog convertor, so you can't take signal from the low (line level) side.

Your only option is to come off the powered side (speaker level), then step down each channel with line level convertors, or use amps with on board speaker level inputs. In any event you need 12 channels of amplification if you want the Logic 7 surround channels to fire.

The newer high end stuff for OEM integration is from companies like Audisen, who make OEM integration processors with built in line level convertors and really advanced digital signal processing. For example, the Audisen Bit 1 allows you to calibrate EQ and delay (time correction) down to the individual speaker (tweet, mid, woofer individually) if you set up your component speaker arrays for active cross over, but the Bit 1 tops out at 8.1 channels. From the Bit 1 you'd come out to your outboard amps, and then to the speakers. The OEM system has all its crossovers internally in the amp/gateway so you'd be running new speaker wires everywhere.

You could parse the system down, eliminating the surround sound speakers in the dash and rear deck, and have active cross overs (each speaker on its own channel) for the front and passive on the rear door arrays, then have a separate amp for the deck subwoofer.

Ch1 Front Left Door Tweeter
Ch2 Front Left Door Mid
Ch3 Front Left Door Sub

Ch4 Front Right Door Tweeter
Ch5 Front Right Door Mid
Ch6 Front Right Door Sub

Ch7 Rear Left Door Components
Ch8 Rear Right Door Components

.1 Sub Out


That would give you a lot of control and tuning flexibility in the main arrays in the front doors.

Personally, I'd leave the amp/gateway alone and do a speaker replacement first, to see how far that gets you. You planned on new speakers either way so it's not an extra step or expense.

 

Could I change all of the speakers besides the 8 inch subs and 8 x 12 then use line high to low adapters? I'd lose "Logic 7" doing that?

I thought the S Class is only a 7 channel amp? That implies that some of the speakers are running in parallel. If that's the case how did you come up with 12 channels?

My main goal is to change the speakers and make the entire system louder while keeping OEM features such as steering buttons.

 

I personally like the way the factory sound system sounds but I download my own music to UHD audio via a program on my computer and haven't had heard the sound that I heard from yours or any other W221. They might use a different equalizer on the W216 vs the W221, I can not actually give an honest opinion. My only complaint is that it isn't loud enough for me. After having the Bentley GT, that was a LOUD sound system. This isn't nearly as loud. I love to hear and feel my music. I wish they had put the UBER B&O sound system in the W216 like the did on the W221 face lift models.

 

Could you elaborate on your process for getting high res audio downloaded into the car?