Hello all,
As I look ahead to a R56 build, let me ask you this about your R56 stereo.....
My current R53 has the "base" stereo, with the majority of my listening being MP3's on a CD...very basic stuff. For me, the sound is fine.

My question to you, with all the discussion on the R56 stereo being disliked, would you at least consider it to be as good as the old one in my R53???

Or would i be better served upgrading for $500 to the Hi-Fi system when I move into my R56??

Thanks...

 

IMHO, don't get the Hi-Fi and upgrade the speakers yourself if you're not happy. From what I've read, you don't get $500 worth of improvement.

I was happy with my "base" speakers until I started reading this forum. A complete newbie, I upgraded the front sets myself based on info here. For $160 it made a world of difference in terms of clarity and fullness.

 

I have the HiFi upgrade and it's not as easy as it sounds to answer your question. I had the upgraded stereo in my 2004 and I liked it. Great? No, but decent. The HiFi in my 2007 is another story. Sometimes, it sounds great and sometimes it sounds awful. Had I known that, I probably would not have gotten the up-grade and spent the money on an after-market. Problem is, a really good after-market upgrade is a grand or more. The one I was considering was about $2400.

 

I've not heard the R53 sound system, but I've read comments about the R53 HK system sounding better than the R56 HIFI.

I have the HIFI system in an R56 and replaced the speakers myself. My cost was around $400 for Infinity Kappas. So, around $900 over the basic radio. I think this sounds quite good for a car system. I believe I would have had to pay $2,500 to $3,000 to improve on it.

The caveats with the HIFI system are:

1. Very little bass goes to the rear speakers in the HIFI system. This may be true for the standard system as well. I haven't heard a definitive answer on that.

2. Replacing the rear speakers is a fair amount of work, since the rear seats and all side panels have to come out.

3. Later replacing the amp may cause software problems as the amp is part of the system that software updates look for.

On the positive side:

1. The HIFI provides an amp, so more power than the standard system to drive 3rd party speakers.

2. The HIFI has two tweeters that the standard doesn't.

For a DIY speaker replacement, I think the HIFI is a good option. For having a third party install and amp, better speakers, and perhaps a sub, you may be better off with the standard system.

 

The R53's harman/kardon option does indeed sound much better than the R56's hi-fi option. The base R53 audio is pretty similarly poor to the R56's base stereo audio quality.

Since you're used to the R53's base stereo, just get the base R56 stereo and let it break-in for a while. In a few months after delivery if you find it needing improvement, consider a set of replacement loudspeakers that don't need a ton of power so you can run them off the factory internal amp. That's my suggestion!

 

One interesting piece of the HiFi question I think is what music is being listened to. I would think in a perfect world every type of music should sound good on a good system although I don't know if in real life that is true. I find that with the HiFi something like Greenday is a little abrasive sounding and I might not like the system if that's all I was listening to. On the other hand Downtempo/Chilled music sounds great on it IMHO and that's what I listen to all the time. Therefore I think the HiFi sounds great. So opinions might be jaded in relation to the music being played.
After doing test drives with both systems the HiFi was an easy choice as I thought the Base unit was kinda muddy in general regardless of the music.

 

Double post. Somehow.

 

Thank you all!