For what it's worth, I like the HK system myself. As an audiophile and lifelong musician with a recording studio and numerous Marantz and McIntosh system in my house, the HK performs pretty well. Have I scoped it, no. Are my ears shot from 50 years of live music, you bet
My golden ears have turned to tin
Will it win a stop light music battle.., no way. Does it sound reasonable for connected hi-res MP3, yes. (BTW, XM is so compressed, I don't even use it for comparison). As far as "factory" systems, it beats my factory C7 vette, Lexus Levinson and my Cadillac AKG hands down. Even my brother commented he liked it better than anything else I own including his own Subaru HK system. It "feels" nice to me and that's all that matters
YMMV.