Opinions on 19 Speaker Harman Kardon sound system

[Bcovish]

Thanks for the reply.
Oh and the million dollar question is how does it sound? Initial thoughts with the limited amount of time for tuning?

 

[Dartswinger]

My HK system got much better after a couple updates in my 2015 Scat pack. I had the same problems I see reported here. It wasn't loud enough, and a lot of times it just didn't seem adjusted correctly no matter what settings I tried. At this point I can say I am very happy with the system, although the sat. never sounded good. But after years of working at a dealer I found this true with all Chrysler sat. radio for the most part.

Try cleaning up your source. Make sure your settings are high quality on whatever app you stream with. Also try messing with the apps internal equalizer. Google play lets you enable/disable theirs and that alone can make a huge difference, along with those enabled settings.

Bluetooth is great, especially with the convenience of steering wheel controls and info displayed. But the king of sound quality for me is the wired aux connection with my LG V20 phone (it has built in amplifiers specifically designed for high quality audio)

You are mainly waiting on updates, and be sure to ask as sometimes they aren't offered unless you do. Lastly, someone once told me speakers have a break in period... with some people leaving theirs on playing certain music to speed that up. I can't say for sure that its true but it did seem that way for me.

 

[Doxmia]

Thanks for the reply.
Oh and the million dollar question is how does it sound? Initial thoughts with the limited amount of time for tuning?

Don't have subs in so didn't really dump a ton of time tuning.

The DSR1 is insanely buggy with this truck for now, though. Apparently this is the first '19 Ram that has had one installed in it as per their tech support.

So far seeing these issues:

No notification sounds through CarPlay (ringing, text message, etc)
BLIS sensor sounds not audible at all
Reverse / Front sensor volumes can't be adjusted independently meaning that if you gain your front stage and rear stage differently at your amplifier they will be different volumes with no way to adjust them.
Audio just likes to not work for no reason. Music will be playing fine and you'll tell Siri to play a new song and it will show that it's playing but no audio will come through. Replugging the phone fixes it.
Audio will just not play at all until you get close enough to make one of your sensors go off and then music starts playing.

These are just the things I've noticed in the last ~6 hours of messing with it, so if you were thinking of installing one I'd hold off until they get.. most if not all of the above issues taken care of.

 

[DRkNESS]

Thanks for this heads up as for now I’ll cancel my order of it and wait to see about updates.

 

[Doxmia]

As an update to the DSR1 issue list:

Selecting a seat memory pauses music and doesn't resume.
Sensors alerts doesn't dim the music at all just plays through it so can be hard to hear.
Tonight my Apple CarPlay just stopped working completely. I plug a phone in, nothing. I plug my Wife's phone in, nothing. Stopped the truck, opened the door to power off the infotainment. Started it back up, still no CarPlay.

They need to stop selling this thing for our truck immediately, heh. Likely going to go back stock this week.

 

[andremedeiros]

Don't have subs in so didn't really dump a ton of time tuning.

The DSR1 is insanely buggy with this truck for now, though. Apparently this is the first '19 Ram that has had one installed in it as per their tech support.

So far seeing these issues:

No notification sounds through CarPlay (ringing, text message, etc)
BLIS sensor sounds not audible at all
Reverse / Front sensor volumes can't be adjusted independently meaning that if you gain your front stage and rear stage differently at your amplifier they will be different volumes with no way to adjust them.
Audio just likes to not work for no reason. Music will be playing fine and you'll tell Siri to play a new song and it will show that it's playing but no audio will come through. Replugging the phone fixes it.
Audio will just not play at all until you get close enough to make one of your sensors go off and then music starts playing.

These are just the things I've noticed in the last ~6 hours of messing with it, so if you were thinking of installing one I'd hold off until they get.. most if not all of the above issues taken care of.

Not sure if this will make you feel better or not, but I notice some of these CarPlay issues on my 2018 Chevy Cruze. If you haven't experienced these in another vehicle then by all means, be pissed. But if you haven't, keep in mind that it might be the norm (and Apple might have some fixing to do too.)

 

[Doxmia]

Not sure if this will make you feel better or not, but I notice some of these CarPlay issues on my 2018 Chevy Cruze. If you haven't experienced these in another vehicle then by all means, be pissed. But if you haven't, keep in mind that it might be the norm (and Apple might have some fixing to do too.)

CarPlay was fine in the truck till the day I switched to the DSR1. Not to mention I had CarPlay in my ‘17 F150 and Santa Fe.

 

[DRkNESS]

Thank you for saving me from the associated hassles of this. I’ll just keep building up my audio gear until an actual working unit is made for us.

 

[andremedeiros]

CarPlay was fine in the truck till the day I switched to the DSR1. Not to mention I had CarPlay in my ‘17 F150 and Santa Fe.

OK so these are new problems. Gotcha.

To be honest I’ve never heard notification sounds when messages come in either, and the music issue you’re describing sounds awfully familiar.

Apple has mentioned that, after they release iOS 12, one of the things they’re going back to the drawing board with is CarPlay. We’ll see what happens then.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kendrell]

I have the 2019 Dodge Laramie Longhorn with the HK system. Interesting enough, via Sirius XM, or spotify, the volume isn't loud at all. Via Amazon music, the volume is much better. In regards to crisp sound, the HK is great. But I had 2015 Laramie Longhorn with the Alpine and it was 100 times better than the HK. Dodge should stop boasting about the 900 watt system.

 

[adrianp89]

CarPlay was fine in the truck till the day I switched to the DSR1. Not to mention I had CarPlay in my ‘17 F150 and Santa Fe.

So have you taken the dash out on the '19?

 

[Doxmia]

So have you taken the dash out on the '19?

No there’s no reason to take the dash out. The factory amp is under the driver seat.

 

[adrianp89]

No there’s no reason to take the dash out. The factory amp is under the driver seat.

Do you have pics of the build? Would love to know what set-up you went with. There is almost nothing for guides for stereo upgrade on these trucks yet, it would be very beneficial to the forum.

 

[MarvinK]

Try cleaning up your source. Make sure your settings are high quality on whatever app you stream with. Also try messing with the apps internal equalizer. Google play lets you enable/disable theirs and that alone can make a huge difference, along with those enabled settings.

I’ve noticed a DRAMATIC difference between how great my iPhone (Apple Music, high quality) sounds and how mediocre SiriusXM sounds on my HK system.

 

[Doxmia]

Do you have pics of the build? Would love to know what set-up you went with. There is almost nothing for guides for stereo upgrade on these trucks yet, it would be very beneficial to the forum.

Nothing yet, because I'm so frustrated with stuff in general I haven't really been in the picture taking mood. Once I get stuff working then I'll take some pics.

 

[DRkNESS]

Trust me I definitely feel that “ frustration “ mood, but my wife says I’ll get past it. I’m about to spring for this unit so that I can start moving with the rest of my gear.

 

[adrianp89]

I have contacts at Pac, and they have not confirmed this yet. I have offered my truck as a test vehicle but no go. They are 10 minutes from me.

 

[DRkNESS]

Well crap there goes THAT balloon lol. 10 minutes from them and they won’t take you up on that kind offer, what are they thinking ?

 

[Doxmia]

Technically speaking the Maestro product should be better than the PAC product. Historically that has been the case with the canbus interfacing. That being said I had the AP4 in my F150 and didn't have any real issues with it. You just have more options (even ignoring the built in DSP) with the Maestro and their engineering team is extremely responsive to getting out firmware updates.

My truck is kind of the guinea pig for all of your guys' which I'm fine with I guess it had to be someone. I talked to a tech today and he's confident that we can get all of the issues ironed out.

 

[DRkNESS]

Please keep us informed as more gear is arriving daily and I need / want to start making some audio moves. [emoji4] [emoji2]