I have a 2011 MCS with the HK stereo. I am a little disappointed with the sound, although it's far from horrible. I think that it could be made better and am looking for people who have upgraded their HK stereos.

I have spend days searching the NAM boards and the interweb, and my head is spinning. too many opinions, too may people who have had experience with different systems. I haven't found anybody who has posted about their experiences with a HK upgrade.

Has anybody replaced just the speakers? I've seen posts that the speakers are matched to the amp output, and replacing the speakers will give an unmatched, unbalanced, sound. Has anybody done this? How was your result?

I feel that the bass is muddy, and the whole system lacks clarity and definition. Would upgrading the speakers fix this or do I need a OEM processor (like clean sweep), and amp, and maybe a subwoofer? I don't have a budget, but it seems that a couple grand seems excessive.

Integral Audio is supposed to come up with a solution in a few months. Is it worth waiting for, or should I pull the trigger now?

Thanks for your help.

Glenn

 

I was curious about this too. I am quite happy with the HK stereo but I wonder if changing speakers would make it even better. I was thinking about putting focal tweeters in. Probably wouldn't bother with the other speakers.

 

The HK system is actually pretty good with respect to treble and midrange, but it cannot reproduce deep bass without throwing off the mix- ie turning the midrange to mud. There are other threads that cover this in more detail, but the addition of a good subwoofer with its own amp makes the entire system shine. I added the Integral Audio sub, and since its designed specifically for the Mini, it looks and works great. Some people may think that it is expensive, but the $899 is including the shipping and no sales tax (at least in Washington). The Arc amp alone would be over $300 ( I checked), the woofer is of great quality, the box is well made, and it comes with all the wires, connectors etc. The new boot floor panel it comes with looks like it was made by Mini.

Try this, turn the bass on your stereo down to -2, and the treble up to +2 and make sure the fade is mostly front speakers. If you like the way the treble and midrange sound, the addition of a subwoofer will fill in the missing bass.
I am sure that I could get better quality tweeters and door speakers, but for my money this was a great fix. I really like my stereo now.

 

Thanks for the info on the integral audio sub. I'll look into that.