Hmmm... Funny you should say that.
In my recent 4 hour or so taste of the brilliant S60 Polestar I took my 8GB mini thumb drive full of 320kbps music from my V40 along for the ride.

While I'll freely admit music wasn't my top priority at the time I was curious to sound test the premium setup as I have always wondered if I was too hasty in deciding against it & saving myself $1500 in the V40.

As I have ploughed a good $10K into my home theatre setup I do consider myself a bit of an audio nutter!

I didn't fiddle with the settings too much in the short time I had it but I did walk away happy enough with my decision not to spend the extra money on it.
A slightly richer sound from the 10 rather than 8 drivers yes but $1500 better? I didn't really think so :|
I'll be very interested to hear what longer term owners have to say that have had a lot more time to tinker with it.

 

I wonder if the sound quality is affected by the sound insulation of the car. I prefered the sound from my standard Alfa sound system and the nice bit was that people could not hear the music / noise outside my Alfa. However at similar "loudness" I can hear the music noise outside the V40. I don't really like advertising the music that I'm playing, maybe it's an age thing I am note sure what sound system specification level I have but its not entry level and certainly not top level either.

So if the sound insulation of the V40 is not so good, would it affect the performance of the sound system? If it does affect it (e.g. the placement of the speakers and dampening / conduction of soundwaves though the body etc.) then maybe a more expensive sound system may not perform as well as it should.

 

It's alright I think but I have the bass 3/4 of the way up and that's it. I fiddled around with sound stage but can't get the surround to stay on the same setting after the car has been restarted so gave up! I'll admit the last three cars I had didn't have a particularly fancy sound system in anyway so for me there's no comparison!

 

I had 2 trial V40s. 1 with high performance and one premium with harman kardon sound. The premiumwas better than high performance but only just. I remember it wasn't loud even on full chat. I'm glad I saved the £500 extra to have it but I remember thinking have I made a mistake at the time on the run up to delivery. I'm actually really happy with the quality of high performance and glad I opted to get sports pack instead

 

my biggest issue is with rubbish sounding MP3s, they are by far the limiting factor for me. I have the high performance system and the odd time I've used a CD I've been impressed by it. If anyone has any suggestions on which software rips CDs to the best sounding MP3s I'd be interested in knowing!

 

Good point SDP. I haven't really played any CDS. I'll have to compare.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

Reading these posts I'm glad I didn't spec the HK system in the car I'm waiting on. In my current Vauxhall GTC I did spend the extra on the Infinity system and am glad I did but when testing the Volvo I decided the standard system was plenty.

 

Does it rearly matter, your in a car contending with road noise, traffic and the nagging other half with kids. Plus we are volvo drivers so we are all probably Radio 2 listeners lol>>0>
Please be polite in your responses !!!

 

Radio 2 and Absolute radio ill have you know!
(And a guilty secret for Radio 4 with the afternoon play and the Archers!)(Did I just write that out loud! DOH!):nerd::nerd:

I have gone for the HK system and have driven in the cars with the Premium, The Premium is very good for a factory build, Always impressed when I got the Pink Floyd or Led Zep out when on a drive!
When I take delivery of my new one ill be interested to see if the HK sounds better......
Al

 

Ive just been playing a load of northern soul tracks bluetoothed via my phone and it wasnt very good at all but I think this was down to the quality of the CD's I copied from.
My Rolling Stones,Who & Pink Floyd are awesome once I got the bass to the right level which was creating a bit of reverberation at high levels.
Must remember to turn the volume down on the car when I have finished driving though. The other day my wife got into the car before me and when I started it up she was nearly blown into the back seat:grin2:

 

Yep I went for the 500 quid extra hi system other than getting an extra speaker in the top of the dash I too struggle with noticing anything that much better, it could be that dab for me is terrible as all I get is the digital noise unless I'm in a really good signal area and being a little odd the noise really gets to me so it's on fm most of the time I have played CDs and then the sound is excellent but as I tend to listen to local radio stations most of the time and that's when dab is terrible it's back to fm. I have an iPad connected to media and left in the lift up arm container and agree that does not sound brill but I put that down to the low quality of the iPad sound bits. Now the best sound is from the built in tv that on hk is indeed fantastic but it could be as the car is stationary to keep the vision on yes I know the sound stays on when the car is moving but then the screen turns off for safety