The muddy sounding Harmon kardan system

[FlaKeysRHO]

First of all, I really love this truck, enjoying every aspect of it. I haven’t had all the glitches that people have however I’m really disappointed with the sound system. I have a Harmony card in system in my Jeep grand Cherokee, which I really enjoy the sound. However, in this RO, it sounds like the speakers are playing through mud. I’ve tried all the system settings surround sound lower the mid range that I can do and I’ve heard off the other forums but just can’t get any decent sound out of it. Has anybody done just a simple speaker exchange without going into amplifiers and equalizer etc.?. I just thinking changing the speakers in the doors might help and give it some mid range and highs. .

 

[Space Truckin]

The system sux....Agree

 

[Dano]

Make sure surround sound is on and I move the balance a little rearward because the dash speaker is so loud. Aside from that bass treble mid are all up. P.S. After updates and battery disconnects the surround sound turns off and well as auto and custom drive modes revert to factory options. For instance in auto I use rock steering, that changes back to street. Custom changes as well.

 

[Mikey Swift]

100% garbage.

 

[bkilby]

Mine sounds great.

 

[Dano]

100% garbage.

No shot you think B&O is better…

 

[BigBadRN]

My HK sounds good. However, I've been listening to factory honda accord speakers for the last 13yrs...so I've got that going for me. lol

 

[lapoolboy]

I come from a youth spent on building car audio systems for a living and for fun. Although, everything I did was for SPL and not SQ. My truck sounds just fine to my 48-year-old ears. I'm sure my ears are permanently damaged from all the years sitting in vehicles getting blasted but oh well - it sure was fun back then!

My last build was an extended cab Dakota with a floor-to-ceiling wall right behind the front seats with 6 twelves in a ported box with three MTX 2300 amps (one on each pair of subs). Ahhh the good 'ol days! Best I could manage out of that setup was mid-150's on the dash. That's child's play nowadays with some of these setups.

 

[rpr]

The stock system is complete garbage in my opinion. You can do things that incrementally improve it but most upgrades are not simple plug and play swaps.

Most of the speakers have the woofers and tweeters wired separately with different signals being sent to each. So if swapping speakers you need to pick which signal to use, neither of which will likely have an ideal frequency spectrum for replacement speakers.

All the signals come from the factory amp which is essentially a cheap DSP and the cause of most of the muddiness. The speakers are crap also but they’re being fed crap signals.

I bypassed the factory amp and replaced everything. It was tedious time consuming and expensive. Despite installing excellent equipment I STILL could not get the system sounding as good as it should and I’m decent at tuning DSPs. I had to hire someone to do a professional tune after the install to get it sounding right. So the cab itself is likely also introducing some strangeness that takes skill to tune around, more skill than I had.

That’s more info than you asked for but trying to swap the speakers can be slippery slope.

Good place to start but you’re still working with crap signals.

 

[Space Truckin]

^^^In essence, Garbage in, Garbage out^^^

 

[RiviantoRHO]

I think it sounds great.

 

[Mikey Swift]

No shot you think B&O is better…

The B&O Unleashed is 100% better...hate to say it. More clarity on the highs and more consistent bass across multiple genres.

That being said, the 1st Gen TRX HK system was great...something happened between that one, and the one we got in the RHO.

 

[JeeperJohn]

The B&O Unleashed is 100% better...hate to say it. More clarity on the highs and more consistent bass across multiple genres.

That being said, the 1st Gen TRX HK system was great...something happened between that one, and the one we got in the RHO.

Your hearing got a few years older Mikey.

 

[rpr]

I could be wrong but there seems to be a few different part numbers for the factory amp under the driver seat. Using my VIN on Mopar’s site it shows a few different part numbers for the amp that all “Fit My Vehicle”, but unless I missed it it does not list the Part number on mine which also doesn’t show up on a search on Mopar’s site (but it’s still available on 3rd party sites).

Maybe there’s an off chance that Stellantis improved something along the way that might explain why folks either like the system or hate it. If anyone’s willing can you check the part number on your factory amp and post it here along with your thoughts on your system?

My amp is 68719336AA and my system sounded like crap.

 

[lowellp25]

I could be wrong but there seems to be a few different part numbers for the factory amp under the driver seat. Using my VIN on Mopar’s site it shows a few different part numbers for the amp that all “Fit My Vehicle”, but unless I missed it it does not list the Part number on mine which also doesn’t show up on a search on Mopar’s site (but it’s still available on 3rd party sites).

Maybe there’s an off chance that Stellantis improved something along the way that might explain why folks either like the system or hate it. If anyone’s willing can you check the part number on your factory amp and post it here along with your thoughts on your system?

My amp is 68719336AA and my system sounded like crap.

Same part number, November 2025 date code. Using lossless sources always, I'm pretty happy with the system. I compared it like-to-like with the Klipsch system and couldn't discern a significant difference, other than the lousy rattling from the front tweeters on a new on the lot Tungsten. I have Klipsch, Martin Logan, and Yamaha in various areas in my house, so I have a decent level of quality with which to compare. My RAM's HK system is miles better than the horrid HK system in my Palisade Calligraphy.

 

[rpr]

Thanks for the reply. My date code is 2835. Don’t know what that translates to but my truck was built in November 2025 so probably the same or similar.

 

[lowellp25]

Thanks for the reply. My date code is 2835. Don’t know what that translates to but my truck was built in November 2025 so probably the same or similar.

Likely the 283rd day of 2025, so within a few weeks of mine.

 

[bkilby]

11/24 Build. Level 1. 68537832AE Mine sounds fine.

 

[kubauer]

The cheap Alpine system in my 2019 Laramie was better. Very disappointed with the H/K system.

 

[Dano]

The B&O Unleashed is 100% better...hate to say it. More clarity on the highs and more consistent bass across multiple genres.

That being said, the 1st Gen TRX HK system was great...something happened between that one, and the one we got in the RHO.

I'm starting to think there a audio discrepancy between RHO's, what's new... My HK systems is definitely better than my brother's 25 raptor B&O system. It doesn't "blow it out of the water" by any means but it's definitely cleaner/crisper all the way to max volume and the sub hits way harder. Obviously both trucks are phenomenal and i'd be happy with the B&O system but we played the same song in both trucks with the stock systems optimized and jumped in and out of the two trucks, and the HK system sounded better to the both of us.

Just add it to the list: headlights, batteries, uconnect, paint, struts, tires, modules, gauge clusters, miss fires, drive shafts, park sensors, adaptive cruise, hands free driving, blind spot sensors, auto braking, limp mode, whatever else I'm missing... and now audio systems

Beyond grateful to have a problem free truck, 13k miles, zero issues, OE batteries. So far...