Tinny Audio, HK System

[Longhorn1500]

I recently purchased a 2019 2500 Longhorn that has the Harmon Kardon audio system. The audio seems very tinny to me. I have used the equalizer to increase bass and reduce treble, but it still has tinny sound. I'm wondering if some speakers are blown, or an amp is bad or disconnected. Thoughts? Thank you!

 

[canadiankodiak700]

No that's just the garbage "premium" system they put in vehicles. OEM rolls off bass and cuts high signals as volume increases to keep the junk components from blowing. Your best bet is replace it with a full system, a start for now would just be new speakers as the OEM are junk

 

[Tulecreeper]

Or, you could be like boring yours truly and only turn on the radio about 1% of the time because you prefer quiet when you drive.

 

[Longhorn1500]

The truck I recently sold ('14 1500 Longhorn) had the Alpine system. It seemed to sound pretty good. Oh well, a new project I suppose.

 

[skates15]

I'm streaming my music from spotify on my mobile via the usb-c port to the aux in on the alpine 9 speaker system. Maybe its my imagination but there is more pretense in the sound stage and I can feel the bass thumps on the driver floor. The center speaker is more prevalent than the corner dash. The output on my phone goes usb-c to a small DAC which has a lowly Realtec series 5 DAC, but is 32 bit, high res. The 3.5mm headphone cable plugs into the DAC and the Aux in on the radio. You change the source to Aux in and also within settings there is an six in offset slider bar. Hit that + a couple of times and you get much more volume.
I don't know if the perceived improvement is due to the digital to analog conversion and feeding the radio analog input or.it.could just be my imagination.
The mobile DAC was $16 on Amazon so I thought I would try it and am happy enough until I can afford a legit amp/dsp. I'm curious now about getting a good mobile DAC with a good chip and a little more power.