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Testing the new Harman Kardon Premium vs. Bowers Wilkins

109K views 186 replies 65 participants last post by  inteller 
#1 ·
Having ordered the new XC90 2019, I was pondering about the sound system. I have B&W in my present XC90 2017 that is certainly better sounding that the standard sound system available at that time. I was told that now Harman Kardon came with a new "Premium" sound system. In the current set of "package" this Harman premium system was already a part of something, for B&W there was additional charge $3000. I did not want to make any compromise and today went to properly test and compare both (one car HK premium, other car BW).

Well, to my surprise I have to say that the sound difference was not really big and Harman Kardon Premium is nicely comparable to B&W. Yes, that B&W "design" tweeter in the front of XC90 is missing (HK has just a small flat speaker there) but I can't find the reason to spend $3000 just because of that :) So I will go for Harman Kardon Premium this time ...
 
#157 ·
I have all my music on USB, using uncompressed flac format. I only listen to my own music collection. USB 100% of the time. 256GB USB is about 5,500 flac formatted tunes, so plenty of variety and I iike EVERY song/artist. B&W system sounds fantastic. I could not be happier with it.

Service loaners have had HK. Sounded good but I definitely missed sound quality of my vehicle.

For me, B&W system has been worth every penny. If you have not listened to flac files on USB, I highly recommend it. A whole different level of music detail on the B&W system.
 
#161 ·
Yeah that's totally not true. I used to believe that **** till I got some lossless sources and put them through the same speakers. Night and day difference. You will hear things you didnt even know were in the track with lossless.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
 
#163 ·
Yes they both are, and if you get a hold of lossless test tracks from B&W you can see that all systems sound better.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
 
#164 ·
Well, nice enthusiastic "hifi" theories, but the reality is different. Sure, if you know which is which (mp3 , flac), for sure flac will always sound 10 times better to you :) (the mind is a great magician in this regard - and can easily hear big differences even between identical files). But there is one very cruel and merciless entity called "blind test". I don't recommend you to ever meet it not to lose your illusions :) On a top quality studio monitoring system (comparing to which this car B&W is just a crap) you will not be able to reliably tell which is Flac and which is mp3 320 kbps during the repeated blind test. I can guarantee you this putting my XC90 in stake :) Even the trained professional ears will not be able to reliably distinguish. This test was done many times ... But why not to live in an illusion :)

And yes, HK sounds worse than B&W but the new HK Premium sounds quite similar in the "driver" setting.
 
#170 ·
Bumping an old thread here, but does anyone with the HK system, feels its not as loud?
Not talking about sound quality, but volume. I don't listen to music too loud these days and my volume is around middle... is this normal of should i play with settings?
 
#173 ·
thank you very interesting work!

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#175 ·
I'll try my questions more directly with images to hopefully get a response.

I'm trying to understand what I'm looking at in the wiring schematics of the MY19 V90 B&W system. The driver's side door has redundant wiring for the mid-range speaker. This wiring is not represented on the passenger's side. It's also not present in the HK system. Is this an error in the schematics, or is there a reason that it would be wired that way? This is all isolated to the door card/panel wiring harness.

B&W system, with the portion wiring in question circled in red.

Technical drawing Text Diagram Line Plan


And for comparison, the HK system, with the same section circled in red.

Text Technical drawing Diagram Line Plan
 
#178 ·
So, I had the "Premium Sound System" in my 2012 S60, the HK system in my 2016 XC60 Platinum, and now have the B&W system in the 2017 XC90. Since I'm an audio geek, I attempt for a completely flat EQ setting, as I don't want to falsely color my sound. That being said, the premium system in the '12 S60 was superb, especially with the highs. On the '16 XC60's HK system, I had to bump the highs quite substantially to get that same "sparkle" I got from the '12 S60's system. I also slightly bump the B&W's highs up (+1 db), but to a much less extent than the XC60's HK system. Now I know that each one of these vehicle's cabin configurations are significantly different. The B&W's low end is able to get way deeper than the HK system due to the frequency limiting that they employed in the software due to too much door panel vibration. I was VERY disappointed in that solution, as I think the HK system in the '16 XC60 could have sounded a lot better without that software limitation. The B&W system has a nice low end presence, so much so that I need to actually roll back the lows a bit (-2 db @ 75 Hz).
 
#183 ·
If you want to experience an incredible sonic “kick “ try Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. It starts out soft and quickly builds in volume to loud guitar and then even louder drums. Seems that this recording was designed to show off a sound system.
 
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