I got the HK system on my 06 Mini and it has proved to be well worth the money - and saves the hassle and expense of installing a decent system.

Here is the problem (and I know a lot of you will find this funny) - I cannot get rid of the bass! I'm not a big fan of boot-rattling bass, but I do like good, punchy sound. The HK/Mini setting sounds great with most songs, but some of my more bassy tracks are a bit boomy. Has anyone experimented with settings and found something that keeps the 'clean' bass and 'feeling' which is so great on the HK system, but eliminates the 'boom'?? I have tried simply turning the bass down, but that makes the music sound a bit wimpy.

Thanks

 

Try taking it off the "driver" oriented setting, it does something to direct the sound more towards the driver and may be what is effecting the music the way you do not like it. I can't recall the how to right now but it should be in the manual or probably not hard to figure out when playing around with it.

 

You can also try increasing the treble. I found that helped.

 

And there are a number of digital signal processing options, e.g. Rock, that may be boosting the bass. I find the H/K to much more bass-moderate than the Monsoon system on my Passat. On my Passat, I've turned the bass down 3 notches.

 

I agree. The HK is rather bassy. Try listening to a JayZ song. I have my BASS turned down because of it.

I thought H/K setting was a default. ie: no change

 

I love the HK in my '05 MCS. You have to play and fiddle with the different digital sound processing settings and the basic EQ settings (Bass/Treble, etc). Most people encounter problems properly fine tuning the HK to their listening tastes, because (At no fault of their own) they don't understand the key differences between each DSP sound setting and, in general, what is the promise of the HK system as a whole. This is a very nice factory audio system that seriously lacks in good user documentation, thus making it even more frustrating to adjust and enjoy.

Your music source (CD/Tape/iPod, etc) also plays an important role in the sound quality. The H/K does not "Fix" recording problems in your source material, rather it amplifies them because the H/K is a very crisp system it is very unforgiving to crappy music or poorly recorded source material.

Below, please find a nice "H/K tutoring" website that will give you very good insight into what the H/K stereo is all about and explanations on what each DSP setting is supposed to accomplish:

http://www.in2guitar.com/minihkreview.html

Hope this helps!

 

In the H/K system, the rears handle a lot more bass, almost being treated like subwoofers.

There's a magic solution that it usually doesn't occur to people to try: FADER. Just run the sound more towards the front, and you get less bass from the rear. Try it and you will be amazed!

 

or use the "Instrumental" sound mode.

 

My settings after reading the site linked above and expirementing.

MINI H/K
Driver
Bass -4
Treble center
Fader 3 or 4 clicks to the front.

This really cut out on teh objectionable bass and I can listen to electronic music and enjoy myself while still feeling really hard bass hits.

It is very important to never ever put bass or treble above the center point as the amp lower the volume to protect the speakers when you do this. You can even just move treble one click and the difference is audible.