Under-Seat Subwoofer Issues

[Never thought]

GT2. I filed a complaint with Kia corporate. We shall see

 

[Kia Stinger]

There are definitely issues with the subs. We're going to get to the bottom of it...

 

[Jayce]

Hopefully something that can be easily fixed.

 

[Kazz]

My current favorite songs is from an anime named Deadman Wonderland, One Reason and From the Heart and they have very good highs and that kick drum.

I enjoyed that anime! Didn't even think about any music from it. I'll try to remember this tune! Nice write-up, btw!

 

[StingerGTandMe]

I agree with others. You need to use a quality audio source. The satellite is not good in my opinion. We switched to my Amazon music and through on some "Downtown" and our seats came alive instantly. I honestly wish this had a, CD player. That may sound old school now but the audio was not compromised.

 

[Kia Stinger]

I agree with others. You need to use a quality audio source. The satellite is not good in my opinion. We switched to my Amazon music and through on some "Downtown" and our seats came alive instantly. I honestly wish this had a, CD player. That may sound old school now but the audio was not compromised.

Welcome aboard, @RugmasterQ! Thank you for signing up! Yes, I agree with you and others - the quality of the source is very important. Generally, satellite radio isn't the greatest. Amazon is good, huh? I do have Amazon Prime Music. I should give it a try in my car. I wonder if Pandora is good as well...

 

[StingerGTandMe]

Welcome aboard, @RugmasterQ! Thank you for signing up! Yes, I agree with you and others - the quality of the source is very important. Generally, satellite radio isn't the greatest. Amazon is good, huh? I do have Amazon Prime Music. I should give it a try in my car. I wonder if Pandora is good as well...

I would think pandora and Amazon music would be pretty close in quality. Let us know if you notice a difference. If you can find the same song on both sources it might help with a true result. Also does anyone know of the best mp3 settings for the stinger. Or if there's a better kind of file to use.

 

[tofu]

I agree with others. You need to use a quality audio source. The satellite is not good in my opinion. We switched to my Amazon music and through on some "Downtown" and our seats came alive instantly. I honestly wish this had a, CD player. That may sound old school now but the audio was not compromised.

Amazon Music through what, Apple Carplay?

 

[Kazz]

Amazon and Spotify through Bluetooth and Android Auto both sound much better than radio or satellite to my ears in my car!

 

[StingerGTandMe]

Amazon Music through what, Apple Carplay?

Also go into your Amazon music app or on the computer. There you can change your streaming music quality from auto to High which will give you there top quality. It's found when you click on your name in the Amazon app and a setting box will show up.

 

[Chris]

Just did a little research
Satellite radio - interisting but this depends on the station but anywhere from 96kbs to 160kbs
Spotify - depends on setting normal 96kbs, high 160kbs, extreme 320kbs (I don't have Spotify but I'm pretty sure you have to pay for premium to get the extreme option)
Amazon prime audio - by default it is variable and adjusts based on your available bandwidth, you can change it to high quality which maxes out at 256kbs.
Apple iTunes 256.
Mp3 - anywhere from 32kbs to 320kbs depending on how it was encoded.
CD audio - 1.44 mbs
There will be some minor differences that bit rate can't account for including what codec was used but this should be a pretty good estimate on the quality of each.

 

[eljay]

I agree with others. You need to use a quality audio source. The satellite is not good in my opinion. We switched to my Amazon music and through on some "Downtown" and our seats came alive instantly. I honestly wish this had a, CD player. That may sound old school now but the audio was not compromised.

Nothing wrong with old school when it comes to sound quality. I'm going to miss the CD player, too. One sales mgr. told me they can install one in the glove box for me. I'm dubious, since he was wrong about other things, and I wonder how--or even if--that would sync with the rest of the infotainment system. Luddite here; my current car doesn't even HAVE an infotainment system.

 

[moinmoin]

old school

A portable CD player combined with cable that has a male earphone plug on one end and a male USB plug on the other and a 12V to 4.5V transformer could be a possible solution. And it wouldn't be hi-tech LOL
Merry Christmas!

 

[AnyVare]

Now this is an interesting thread....

Do you guys really think an OEM stereo system is "truly" going to be awesome? It's all marketing and bling. HK makes "good" sound systems, period. But who wouldn't think that 15 speakers were impressive, especially with a 720 watt amp! Wait, 720 divided 15 = 48! So that's less than 50 watts per channel, and that's probably peak. Also, the diagram lists that the amp is 12 channels.

How do you think 15 speakers are powered with 12 channels? I'm going to guess.....each door (4) as a woofer and mid powered by 2 channels, so that's 8 of 12 channels; then the 2 8" subs, so that's 10 of 12 channels; and then the dash's center speaker is 11 of 12. I bet the 12th channel is un-used completely. Like all factory audio systems, their OEM and always just "good". If you really want a "awesome" sounding stereo system, wait a couple months for the after market.

Personally, I'm skeptical of an 8" sub flush mounted in the floor under the seat. Even shallow throw subs need 3-6" of throw for the cone and basket. Unless it extends past the floor pan into a special enclosure under the car....it's marketing. Or, its a simple tactile sub like an aura bass shaker hidden behind a grill. Any owners willing to grab some tools and look?

As for source, source will impact quality sure...but it's not really going to impact the crossover points or eq in the system. Either the seat subs are decent, or they're not. I'm gonna go with not.

I bet in less than 6 months, someone will develop replacement speaker sets, separate amps and some killer subs in the hatch that will make girls hair fly.

 

[Kia Stinger]

Now this is an interesting thread....

Do you guys really think an OEM stereo system is "truly" going to be awesome? It's all marketing and bling. HK makes "good" sound systems, period. But who wouldn't think that 15 speakers were impressive, especially with a 720 watt amp! Wait, 720 divided 15 = 48! So that's less than 50 watts per channel, and that's probably peak. Also, the diagram lists that the amp is 12 channels.

How do you think 15 speakers are powered with 12 channels? I'm going to guess.....each door (4) as a woofer and mid powered by 2 channels, so that's 8 of 12 channels; then the 2 8" subs, so that's 10 of 12 channels; and then the dash's center speaker is 11 of 12. I bet the 12th channel is un-used completely. Like all factory audio systems, their OEM and always just "good". If you really want a "awesome" sounding stereo system, wait a couple months for the after market.

Personally, I'm skeptical of an 8" sub flush mounted in the floor under the seat. Even shallow throw subs need 3-6" of throw for the cone and basket. Unless it extends past the floor pan into a special enclosure under the car....it's marketing. Or, its a simple tactile sub like an aura bass shaker hidden behind a grill. Any owners willing to grab some tools and look?

As for source, source will impact quality sure...but it's not really going to impact the crossover points or eq in the system. Either the seat subs are decent, or they're not. I'm gonna go with not.

I bet in less than 6 months, someone will develop replacement speaker sets, separate amps and some killer subs in the hatch that will make girls hair fly.

Some stock car audio systems are pretty amazing - but you're right - there's really not a whole lot of power to go around with the one we're talking about here. For most people it'll actually be WAY OVERKILL. But if you want something extreme, you're going to have visit the aftermarket. Cars are designed to impress the masses. Outside of the norm, you have audiophiles who need more, what do you call the people obsessed with lighting? You know, LEDs inside the car - there's those. There's people who drop the car to the floor, add spoilers, etcetera.

What I'm saying is - the audio system in this car is intended to please the average person who wants a nice car with a great audio system. That's not going to be enough for everyone.

 

[Never thought]

I just want it to sound as good as the system in my 5 year old Optima. That’s not asking much... lol. Although, it’s definitely not a bad system.

 

[Kia Stinger]

I just want it to sound as good as the system in my 5 year old Optima. That’s not asking much...

You're right - it certainly is not too much to ask...

 

[davebo]

One thing I dislike about the audio system. It takes a good 2-3 minutes to auto index the songs on the USB drive each car startup.

Wait, why is it indexing the songs every time the car starts? Or are you changing the drive's content between each drive? My Optima only reads all that when I change something. Also has anyone tested the base sound system? If the 15 speaker isn't that amazing I'm wondering if the base is really base or just not much different.

 

[tofu]

Now this is an interesting thread....

Do you guys really think an OEM stereo system is "truly" going to be awesome? It's all marketing and bling. HK makes "good" sound systems, period. But who wouldn't think that 15 speakers were impressive, especially with a 720 watt amp! Wait, 720 divided 15 = 48! So that's less than 50 watts per channel, and that's probably peak. Also, the diagram lists that the amp is 12 channels.

How do you think 15 speakers are powered with 12 channels? I'm going to guess.....each door (4) as a woofer and mid powered by 2 channels, so that's 8 of 12 channels; then the 2 8" subs, so that's 10 of 12 channels; and then the dash's center speaker is 11 of 12. I bet the 12th channel is un-used completely. Like all factory audio systems, their OEM and always just "good". If you really want a "awesome" sounding stereo system, wait a couple months for the after market.

Personally, I'm skeptical of an 8" sub flush mounted in the floor under the seat. Even shallow throw subs need 3-6" of throw for the cone and basket. Unless it extends past the floor pan into a special enclosure under the car....it's marketing. Or, its a simple tactile sub like an aura bass shaker hidden behind a grill. Any owners willing to grab some tools and look?

As for source, source will impact quality sure...but it's not really going to impact the crossover points or eq in the system. Either the seat subs are decent, or they're not. I'm gonna go with not.

I bet in less than 6 months, someone will develop replacement speaker sets, separate amps and some killer subs in the hatch that will make girls hair fly.

I personally definitely don't expect a car to sound really good, since it's a pretty tough environment to actually get good acoustics in with so many things getting in the way. That said, it's sounded alright to me so far, an I almost exclusively listen to music from Google Play Music via Android Auto.

 

[corradoMR2]

Trying to think back... in the multitude of automotive journalist reviews on the Stinger, I don't believe anyone deeply commented on the sound system?

I'm no audiophile but I have had Bang + Olufsen (A4) and Mark Levinson (RCF + RX) which are both very good even with radio sources but were they the best sound I have heard in a car? No. You can still get better aftermarket as someone above mentioned. So my expectations, especially after reading this thread, are not as high with the Harmon Kardon on the Stinger. I will be checking different sources and songs with heavy bass to check the subwoofers. I'll post in a week or so hopefully if my car arrives on time by the end of this month.