Just an FYI, and this might be personal preference, but the sound appears a lot better with spatialization turned off in sound settings. Not sure if this is a Harmon Kardon specific thing. There are a lot of good virtual surround and sound stage algorithms out there nowadays but whatever Mini decided on definitely takes away from the quality of the sound instead of adding to it. I don't usually have passengers so I just used balance toward the driver to even out the sound and it sounds a lot cleaner now.

 

I have the spatial turned up one click. Just enough to hear it. But all the way up sounds odd to me. All the punch is lost.

 

Yeah I tried dialing it back but it still sounded hollow and fake. I like a wide sound stage but their implementation added too much "processed" sound to it. A bit hollow, as I think you were say.

 

Good info, I didn't even realize my surround was on until you mentioned it. Turned that off right away, much better.