Harmon Kardon woes

[CarbonGTD]

Nope.  I can't do it.  I've had my 8.5 GTI for over 2 months now - I've been out in it again today and I STILL can't get the HK to sound anything other than pretty awful.  It's clear enough and loud enough for sure (and I have no problem with the sub) but however you set the EQ you just cannot dial out the screechy mids - they are always there, always scratchy, always making the system sound harsh.  I had an R Line 8.5 Golf for 8 months before this with the standard audio and - honestly - the standard audio was better (certainly more relaxing to listen to).  My advice to anyone considering spec'cing HK would be try it for yourself first (and whilst driving, not sat engine off in the showroom) as - pretty A pillar speaker grills aside - I think it is a dud to be honest.  Frankly if I could I would pay someone £700 to remove it and put the standard audio back in. A real disappointment. (Yes I did have Dynaudio in my 7.5 GTI and it was miles better).

[Exonian]

Blimey, is it really that bad?

I had Dynaudio in a mk6 and wasn’t that impressed. Then had it in a 7.5 and absolutely loved it.
Moved to an F40 M135iX with HK which had literally tons of speakers and I wasn’t particularly impressed at all.
Since then I’ve had 3x mk8’s with standard audio and don’t hate it. Would’ve had it in the middle car but it wasn’t available to order at that time for some reason and the other two were pre-built cars.

[fredgroves]

Things to try...

1) Different audio source (bluetooth vs streaming vs something on a USB stick). I actually found streamed music sounded better?

2) Different types of track - yes some things sound terrible, but they probably did sound terrible anyway. Some of my 80's stuff has horrific production.

3) Do you have the surround sound activated? It can make some tracks you know well sound bad. I mainly have it turned off for anything retro.

4) The different mode buttons work in conjunction with the EQ. Try the different mode buttons....

5) The centre speaker even with HK is the same one made by Amstrad in about  1983. Swapping it out I think would make a lot of difference (there's a guy on here who sells the upgrade kit). I reckon you can hear that tinny speaker above everything else. It was the same experience I had with a BMW 128Ti that had HK - all i could hear was that centre speaker.

[Hertsman]

Blimey, is it really that bad?

I had Dynaudio in a mk6 and wasn’t that impressed. Then had it in a 7.5 and absolutely loved it.
Moved to an F40 M135iX with HK which had literally tons of speakers and I wasn’t particularly impressed at all.
Since then I’ve had 3x mk8’s with standard audio and don’t hate it. Would’ve had it in the middle car but it wasn’t available to order at that time for some reason and the other two were pre-built cars.

Have the standard in the 128Ti and its hands down the worst system ever listened to, my father red transistor radio we took to football in late 80's was better and actually not stretching that!

Wife has Dynaudio in her R and as much as always stated the standard stereo in my own R and TCR were decent, the Dynaudio lives up to its billing and does Heaven 17 Penthouse and Pavement real justice.

Did not have enough £ in bin for the Sennheiser upgrade on the incoming Cupra, but it really cannot be worse than the outgoing 128Ti system.

There must be a technical way of measuring the performance of the HK aside from ears?