Quote:
Originally Posted by mdt
So, is there consensus on this?
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Just had a lengthy play around with the system....tried a few different settings, a couple of different codecs and various bit rates.
The best tone settings I could find were flat. I tried all 8 combinations of +1 and +2 on treble and bass but the effect was always to subjectively depress midrange information...flat gave me overall the most musically pleasing result. Similarly any minus setting was subjectively subtractive at the frequency extremes...bass lost drive and treble lost sparkle. Logical. Whatever was selected, the music improved when switched back to a flat setting.
Then to codecs. I used dBPoweramp's CD Ripper multi-encoder to prepare a few files in FLAC, WMA (Windows Media Audio) and MP3 format. In FLAC I used Lossless level 5 to achieve reasonable file size, whereas in WMA I selected Quality level 9.2 giving a lossless file with 1411 kpbs bit rate. For MP3 I used 320, 256 and 192kbps. Straight away, I can tell you that if you want anything even close to a good performance from the HK set-up, then lossless is the way to go. The difference is not subtle.
MP3 at the lower bit rates is, for me at least, absolutely unlistenable..... boring, compressed, unresolved, harsh, homogenized, irritating....horrible. In these days of cheap memory there's absolutely no reason to use low bitrate, compressed files.
In terms of WMA and FLAC, I could hear no difference between the 2 formats. The sound of either was big and dynamic with excellent width and reasonable depth perception (good for a car). Instruments and voice occupied their own acoustic space, were uncoloured and contained high levels of timbral information. Bass was quite rich with excellent articulation, and drive but not particularly extended. Treble was clear but lacked a certain airiness and sparkle of a good home audio system. The sound overall was presented forward of the listening position and I was not aware of any sounds coming from the rear of the car. In my domestic hi-fi I'm never aware of sounds coming directly from the loudspeakers, which often sound like they are producing no sound whatsoever despite the room being full of music. The effect in the car was similar in that music was spread across the front of the listening position, with some layering and depth perception i.e instruments could be heard further back in the mix behind voice and lead instruments.
All in all, with lossless files, the HK system gave a good account of itself....certainly not the very best but excellent value nonetheless when compared to the Business System that came in my E70 X5, which was way less capable