2000 E46 Harmon Kardon Radio - Ycch

[jfriedman]

2000 323ci convertible with premium radio

Wondering what everyone else's experience has been with the premium Harmon Kardon radio. This is not a gps, just a radio with tweeters and woofer in the trunk that came with the car for about $700 extra.

The sound from the speakers has been terrible. At levels loud enough to hear on the highway with the top down the speakers crack and distort the sound so much that it is disturbing. Am I the only one who has had that experience. When it was new, I took it to the dealer and they told me that it worked properly. I have lived with it.

The radio on AM has never been great, but it is terrible now. The strongest station in Chicago has a whistling noise in the background that changes as I accelerate or when the brakes are engaged.

My guess is that I could purchase a used radio on eBay and have it installed. And I could change the speakers that are cracking (I am going to keep this honey for a while.)

Any advice?

Thanks,

JAF

 

[newbold1]

I agree. The Harman Kardon speakers are terrible. Taking the speakers out I found that they seemed to be pretty cheaply made. The speakers are made out of compressed paper and plastic.

BSW - Bavarian Soundwerks makes replacement speakers, woofer, and amp that are a direct fit to our BMWs. They provide excellent instructions for doing the replacement job yourself. I was nervous about taking apart my interior components to do this but took a shot at it and I don't regret doing it one bit. It's been nearly a year now since I did this and I wish I had done it a long time ago... back when I bought the car.

It really is incredible what a difference this made and I didn't have to change out the radio in the dash and the appearance of the inside of my car is no different than before. The only way you can tell that I did the job is that when you remove the middle rear seat cusion you now see a much improved looking subwoofer.

The only bad thing but not such a big deal is that you lose the ability to use the trunk pass-through. The new subwoofer mounts solid to the frame and doesn't have a hinge or anything in order to "open" it. The good thing is that it doesn't take up any of the trunk space.

You should check out their site. The speaker and subwoofer package was a total cost of about $1,200 - $1,300. But, it was well worth it.

 

[jfriedman]

GREAT to know.

Thanks a lot.
JAF

I agree. The Harman Kardon speakers are terrible. Taking the speakers out I found that they seemed to be pretty cheaply made. The speakers are made out of compressed paper and plastic.

BSW - Bavarian Soundwerks makes replacement speakers, woofer, and amp that are a direct fit to our BMWs. They provide excellent instructions for doing the replacement job yourself. I was nervous about taking apart my interior components to do this but took a shot at it and I don't regret doing it one bit. It's been nearly a year now since I did this and I wish I had done it a long time ago... back when I bought the car.

It really is incredible what a difference this made and I didn't have to change out the radio in the dash and the appearance of the inside of my car is no different than before. The only way you can tell that I did the job is that when you remove the middle rear seat cusion you now see a much improved looking subwoofer.

The only bad thing but not such a big deal is that you lose the ability to use the trunk pass-through. The new subwoofer mounts solid to the frame and doesn't have a hinge or anything in order to "open" it. The good thing is that it doesn't take up any of the trunk space.

You should check out their site. The speaker and subwoofer package was a total cost of about $1,200 - $1,300. But, it was well worth it.

 

[William330]

Also found the HK "premium" system to be below average at best. Certainly not equivalent to $600 of aftermarket parts.