Harman Kardon > No Harman Kardon

Hi subie dudes (and gals), ..and others as well (if any non subie dudes are in here). I wanted to share the crazy time I had looking for a solution to the ear shredding, brain melting highs from the stock tweeters, compounded by the next-to-no-mid door sound in my wrx premium.

So, being a total OCD guy, the idea of having to take the car apart to get to the speakers was painful. I thought who better to put their hands on my brand new-ish car than the Subaru dealership, so I first went with the Kicker upgrade. It cost a bunch, but it was a total waste to me. Got it all taken out (which cost a little more).

Second attempt was a well known, high-end, car audio place. That cost EVEN more, again the result was very disappointing. Had that removed too.

By now, I had come to the realization that what I was looking for (i.e. good over all sound, not overwhelmed by bass, and not having to play with the equalizers with every song or genre that was different) , may not be possible with the aftermarket set ups which had too many components, sounded loud but not uniformly loud. I salute the cabin audio engineers for what they do. Never thought it would be hard, but it really is a science I see now.

Had to make a tough choice. The only choice (that's how I saw it), keep trying the after market route (cos the task of getting a Harman Kardon system adapted into the premium wrx seemed very difficult), or swap the car itself. Going to hurt a bit, cos it's 2016 and the difference would probably hurt.

Well.. I gotta tell u guys, it's either money or peace of mind. (although losing money also is counter productive for the "peace of mind" thing). I had to make a choice. And I have..

Had to say good by to my non-HK beauty, and have welcomed a HK newborn into the family. I must say, it is all I had wanted.

So the motto here is folks, if you are a picky bastard, get exactly what you like. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know what I'd like (or ..dislike) until I had already bought the first car. Hope it doesn't take ya'll two attempts to get it right like it did me. Buying a car can be a pain in the ..you know what, and x2 didn't make it any easier.

Moe.

 

Soooooo.......Did you trade the car in? If so..what did you get? What stereo shop did you go to? I always had great luck w/ Boston acoustics and focals...if those brands even exist anymore.....

 

Yeah, traded and got one w the HK option. The aftermarket route, didn't work for me. I wasn't happy with the sound, went back again and again (to get it right), till I was basically ..banished from there (by the owner ). Don't want to name any names, but it's a place that rhymes with Shmenchmark.

 

There are a ton of aftermarket options that sound sick if you do it right. Robb Sutton had a killer setup in his old WRX.

 

I didn't have that luck. Also, from my previous experiences, one of my main issues was the bass control. If the vol. were to be turned up high vs low, I had to constantly increase or decrease the bass with the bass knob. It's a little thing, but it still bugged me.

 

2008-2015 WRX/STi non-nav Clarion HUs have that capability. Feature probably gone in 2015-up Impreza & Crosstrek and 2016-up WRX/STi (all the ones with the OEM HUs with the gloss black fascia).

None of the OEM Fujitsu Ten nav models had that, so the latest FT models (both non-nav and nav) probably don't either. The new Clarions (w/ 6.2" screen) might still have it, but nobody has found a magic key sequence to access it yet.