I have been meaning to post this for a while. I have had my HS for over a year and never like the quality of the sound. Tried to get the car with the upgraded ML sound but that was impossible. I just couldn't figure out why a car with all those speaker had such rotten sound. Especially that large center speaker. Finally in occurred to me - JUST CLOSE THE MULTIFUNCTION DISPLAY (NAV). As soon as I did that the sound, at least to me, immediately be came clearer. There is much more presence and it seemed to fill the entire front of the car.

Give it a try and see if it makes a difference for you. Sorry I didn't figure this out earlier. I bet the audio designers never considered the Nav display when they designed the system.

 

Great tip!! We need more like this.

Worked for me. As soon as I lowered the NAV screen, I noticed the sound seemed to fill in from the center, and sounded more full.

With that NAV screen going up automatically every time I press the power switch, I truthfully forgot there was even a speaker there in the center!

 

What a great observation! Thanks for sharing. I always wondered why so many people on the forum complained about the sound on the stock system - sounds fine to me (not great, but certainly not bad), but I don't have NAV - so I don't have anything blocking that speaker.