mtiede

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Maybe the Alpine people were spouting a load of *******.

I suspect their opinions might be biased. Before doing any change to the audio system, YOU should decide how it sounds and whether YOU will like it.

There are many audio tastes. I think the HK system is quite nice. Certainly nice enough for a car running on the highway with the top down with road noise. I think it is far better than is required in a convertible. Admittedly, I liked the Bose system in my SLK320 slightly better, but the HK is respectable.

I personally don't like the large boomy speakers that people turn up loud so that others will notice their car's unnatural musical noises. Just because it goes loud doesn't make it a good sound system, IMHO.

Go to a dealer and listen to the sound. I have an audio test CD from Denon that I always take to the dealers, plug into the car and test the sound system that way. In addition to testing things such as phase, frequency range, balance and the like, it contains music from a wide range of types. Piano music, operatic stage performance, Nancy Wilson, jazz quartet, etc. That gives you a really good feel for what the sound system is like.

So find yourself a test CD and decide for yourself. I wouldn't recommend determining how they sound from speaker systems on a wall in a store though. Acoustics will change a great deal based on its surroundings. A large echoy room will sound far different than a convertible car with everything else remaining the same.

On the boomy noise note, I was quite surprised one day when my wife was waiting for me in the car with the top down and listening to music that, as I approached the car, I could barely hear the music. But once in the car, the sound was quite loud enough. I like that the music doesn't have to be listened to by others that don't want to hear.