Sound System in 22' GT1 is subprime.

[Striker's Stinger]

Anyone else notice that they downgraded the Harman Kardon sound system in the new GT1's? 2018-2021 GT1 all had 15 speaker HK systems. I have a 9 speaker system right now that's not bad, but not great. I'm not very impressed. I noticed this at the dealer when I was getting my GT1 and was kind of shocked they did this. It wasn't a deal breaker obviously, but it does bother me a bit that Kia downgraded the sound system on the 22' GT1's. Has anyone heard the difference between the 2 sound systems? Is it that big of a difference that I should upgrade my sound system to try to match? I love music when cruising and I feel shorted by this because the HK system was one of the biggest things I was excited about going to the dealership.

 

[NYBIOMED]

Anyone else notice that they downgraded the Harman Kardon sound system in the new GT1's? 2018-2021 GT1 all had 15 speaker HK systems. I have a 9 speaker system right now that's not bad, but not great. I'm not very impressed. I noticed this at the dealer when I was getting my GT1 and was kind of shocked they did this. It wasn't a deal breaker obviously, but it does bother me a bit that Kia downgraded the sound system on the 22' GT1's. Has anyone heard the difference between the 2 sound systems? Is it that big of a difference that I should upgrade my sound system to try to match? I love music when cruising and I feel shorted by this because the HK system was one of the biggest things I was excited about going to the dealership.

Some of what I've seen and read here indicates that cost effectiveness/better sound works with limited scope (i.e.: powered subwoofer) The powered sub can be tapped fairly easily from the battery in the trunk. Speaker upgrades are easy and will be a bang-for-the-buck choice, after that, not so much. Adding an amp wil be difficult....there's a couple threads of people putting in ALOTTA work to make it work right.

GL

Car speakers buying guide: What to look for in full-range and component speakers

What to look for in full-range and component speakers

www.crutchfield.com

 

[MerlintheMad]

Hi. I've compared the nine speaker "in-factory" sound system to the HK in my GT1, using this song: Tennessee Whiskey - DJ Russticals (28Hz-51Hz) bass boosted.mp3

His bass was turned all the way up to 10, and I keep mine at +8. Yes, there was a difference in the output, but not a "deal breaker" level of difference. It was the amplifier, I'm guessing: the HK system having a stronger amplifier. The speakers (as far as I can tell) are identical: there are just six more of them in the HK system: the subs under the front seats are the same.

 

[NYBIOMED]

This is from Kimberly Lazarski, seems like they really know what they're talking about!


"I've been reading pretty much every thread I can make the time to read and there are a few things I'd like to clarify:

• Speaker drivers are broken in, in mere seconds at anything at or above moderate volume. The idea of a speaker's taking weeks to break in is nonsense and attributable to the placebo effect (you expect it to sound better with time, so it does). Want to break it in quickly? queue up some metal and crank it up for a few seconds. Bang. Done. It's broken in as soon as the spider (the stiff bit that dampens and limits the voicecoil's movement and keeps it centered around the magnet) flexes a few times and the ferrofluid is dispersed. It only degrades from that point forward in time.
• Impedance cannot measured with an ohmmeter; impedance is a measure of a combination of resistance and reactance, and varies with frequency. A 4 ohm driver may or may not measure 4 ohms with an ohmmeter. It will not present 4 ohms at every freqeuency, but if you average impedance at different frequencies throughout a driver's rated frequency response range, it will average 4 ohms. Some frequencies may have 2 ohms impedance, and other frequencies may have 6 ohms impedance, for the same driver
• The sound system can sound only as good as the worst-quality component. The head unit + amp are the weakest link here since the Stinger's head unit doesn't seem to put out a standard S/PDIF signal but a proprietary superset so you need to tap through the proprietary amplifier made components where the final selection was by beancounters rather than engineers

I already have my mods planned out: pulling felt out of the speaker grills, possibly replace all the drivers, possibly adding tweeters (with inline attenuators) on the dashboard, and a custom MDF+fibreglass woofer enclosure in one of the corners of the hatchback driven by an amp with a high damping factor, knowing it will only sound as good as the incoming signal through the Head unit - > stock amp -> LOC, with both the stock amp and the LOC degrading the signal somewhat post-DAC.

Also, I saw BOSE mentioned in here and questions about how GM's systems sound: zr1.net members were always fond of saying "No highs, no lows, must be BOSE." Those GM systems sound like utter crap, with the only reason for keeping it being that the system coordinates nice in the interior. The drivers in the speaker enclosures were crap, the amps built into the speaker enclosures were crap and prone to repeated failures, and the sound quality was total crap. When I see the BOSE name in a car I do not expect much, and I am therefore never disappointed. I do expect more from HK, B&O, etc. and for a factory system the Stinger sounded pretty OK, but doesn't compare to even to a $3,000 aftermarket system.

Also, don't waste big money on monster cable or any other boutique brands; they don't improve your sound. Just get some shielded monoprice interconnects, and spring for monoprice OFC speaker cable because it tends to be more flexible but don't expect the sound to be any better than zip cord, and be done with it and put the money you saved toward an EVC exhaust or other go-fast items.

My first business was doing custom car audio and alarm systems... until I got tired of dealing with teenagers."

 

[Ohiocruiser]

With today's marketing scheme, i wont be surprised to see new cars like that...