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I've posted about this previously in this thread and others, but thought I'd add a little more information since this swap seems to be tempting a number of folks. For some measured detail and comparison of the Standard, HiFi, and HK systems, please take a look at this post first: http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...-upgrades.html.
I don't want to step on anyone's toes here and by no means intend to offend anyone who has already done it. However, for the benefit of those considering spending money on this I can assure you that from any objective measure you will end up with a system that performs worse than when you started. Keep in mind I have no horse in this race - I have no products that would compete with this upgrade, and our upcoming Soundstage upgrade will not, for the moment at least, be available for HiFi-equipped vehicles. Even so, these would not be price-comparable alternatives.
If you swap your HiFi speakers for the HK speakers (without swapping-in the HK amp) you will have 1) more uneven frequency response, 2) less volume output than you started with, and 3) higher distortion at anything more than moderate listening levels.
Item 1) is because the speaker correction eq/DSP on the HiFi amp are not correct for the HK speakers.
Item 2) is because the HK speakers are on average about 3dB less efficient than the HiFi speakers. The HK amp is 4 times (6dB) more powerful than the HiFi amp.
Item 3) is related to item 2) and the lower quality of the HiFi amp. The HiFi amp has to work harder to drive the HK speakers than it does the HiFi speakers. The HiFi amp does not handle clipping well, and distorts badly (all distortion is not created equal - our ears are much more sensitive to higher order and odd-order harmonics). The HiFi amp exhibits hysteresis or "sticking" when it clips (bad) and the amp will begin to clip at moderate listening levels and above. Take a look at the power measurements in the link above and note the high levels of high-order distortion in the HiFi amp.
Your system will sound different if you do this upgrade, there is no question about that. Whether or not is sounds "better" is a question for the listeners ears. Again, I don't want to offend anyone who has performed this swap. Fishbert and Strobeyprobey have made a valiant effort to get the HK amp working in the HiFi system. If that were done, you would literally have the HK system, and the above items would not apply. Without that, though, I would really encourage folks to look for other options.
Kevin, Do you have an upgrade option yet for us HiFi owners?
Kevin, Do you have an upgrade option yet for us HiFi owners?
Not yet. It's a question of how we're going to put together the kit and some of the connections. I don't have enough visibility at this point to give you a date. Hoping for year's end, but it could be sooner or later than that.
Just to confirm, has anyone upgraded to the HK speakers *and* the HK amp *and* updated the vehicle order to get the correct EQ successfully? I recall that someone may have done this a long time ago, but I want to see if anyone has accomplished this recently.
Just to confirm, has anyone upgraded to the HK speakers *and* the HK amp *and* updated the vehicle order to get the correct EQ successfully? I recall that someone may have done this a long time ago, but I want to see if anyone has accomplished this recently.
No, the car won't accept the HK amp. It takes more than just updating the vehicle order.
