First off, nice to meet you gIzzE 
. We had a spot of business to take care of 
. He also listened to the system in the car park (we didn't get kicked out).
I don't normally do reviews so you'll excuse any mistake(s) in protocol I make! Also, I'm not a technician. I probably can't answer any serious technical questions. I'm a music loving punter and my car is my iPod. I don't really listen to my music anywhere other then my car so I like a good system.
Vehicle = 2010 Mercedes W212 E350CDi Sport Saloon
Vehicle drop off = 8am
Vehicle ready = 1pm
Kit installed
1x Pioneer TS-WX110A Subwoofer 150W (under glove compartment)
2x Morel MT220 Tweeter 80W (direct replacement for stock tweeters)
Total Cost = £650 inc vat
I could probably have bitten the bullet and tried to do it myself (and save some money) but I wasn't going to play around with this car's system. With modern cars everything takes longer and causes more pain (literally) than expected. AutoAudio is a great outfit. Car in for the morning, out for the afternoon. No issue.
I had the chance to drive it properly this evening. The first thing I'll say right off is that it's an awesome upgrade. Well worth the money. The unit doesn't take up as much space under the glovebox as I feared it might (see pics 1&2). As long as you're not wearing size 16 clown shoes you won't notice it's there (and even if you do it looks like it should be there). One major advantage of having it in the cabin with you is less worry about timing. The bass is right there with you.
The bass from the subwoofer is deep and rounded and can be controlled using the remote unit. The remote unit has been installed on the shelf in the glovebox (see 3rd pic) next to USB or iPod. The remote unit controls gain, phase and LPF. Phase is very interesting here. Normal produces very clear bass guitar notes while reverse offers more of a 'boom' output. The difficulty with the possible permutations is finding a 'one size fits all' setting. I've only had it for less than 12 hours though so I'm sure I'll be spending endless hours twiddling away at this. I should have a perfect setting for next summer.
One thing I really like about this sub is that it seems to 'wrap' the entire lower end of the musical scale. I've heard systems where the bass is pounded out at you like it's not part of the body of music. With this sub the whole lower end seems deeper and rounder.
The tweeters add to the high end. There was something missing before. Treble had to be left at max, and even then it didn't seem enough. It seemed muffled with the stock tweeters. The Morel tweeters have enhanced the top end of the music in a very subtle but expansive way. There's not much more I can say there. Treble is still left near maximum but, once again, sound quality is far beyond what was there originally.
It's easy to reach the limit of the system though. Increase the volume until you hear the midrange start to struggle (sub and tweeter will be fine). After that point it's really just very loud and not enjoyable to listen to. It's probably at that point that it might be interesting to get more powerful midrange's, but it's mighty loud just as it is (enough to irritate any living thing nearby). I won't be adding any more kit to the system.
What I particularly like about the new setup is that the bass is active at very low volumes. In my previous setups, you generally needed more input to get any real bass output. This sub produces deep low bass at very low volumes. It's head-noddingly impressive.
For music quality, this setup IMHO easily beats the Logic 7 setup I had in my 2005 BMW 525 M Sport. And it beats it by quite a long way.
In summary, it's not a competition system by any stretch of the imagination but if your music means a lot to you, and you think your E Class's system is lacking, I recommend this upgrade. It will transform your system beyond what you thought was possible, without taking anything away from it's integrity.
4/5 - Sound quality is astonishingly great, but midrange puts the brakes on volume
. We had a spot of business to take care of . He also listened to the system in the car park (we didn't get kicked out).I don't normally do reviews so you'll excuse any mistake(s) in protocol I make! Also, I'm not a technician. I probably can't answer any serious technical questions. I'm a music loving punter and my car is my iPod. I don't really listen to my music anywhere other then my car so I like a good system.
Vehicle = 2010 Mercedes W212 E350CDi Sport Saloon
Vehicle drop off = 8am
Vehicle ready = 1pm
Kit installed
1x Pioneer TS-WX110A Subwoofer 150W (under glove compartment)
2x Morel MT220 Tweeter 80W (direct replacement for stock tweeters)
Total Cost = £650 inc vat
I could probably have bitten the bullet and tried to do it myself (and save some money) but I wasn't going to play around with this car's system. With modern cars everything takes longer and causes more pain (literally) than expected. AutoAudio is a great outfit. Car in for the morning, out for the afternoon. No issue.
I had the chance to drive it properly this evening. The first thing I'll say right off is that it's an awesome upgrade. Well worth the money. The unit doesn't take up as much space under the glovebox as I feared it might (see pics 1&2). As long as you're not wearing size 16 clown shoes you won't notice it's there (and even if you do it looks like it should be there). One major advantage of having it in the cabin with you is less worry about timing. The bass is right there with you.
The bass from the subwoofer is deep and rounded and can be controlled using the remote unit. The remote unit has been installed on the shelf in the glovebox (see 3rd pic) next to USB or iPod. The remote unit controls gain, phase and LPF. Phase is very interesting here. Normal produces very clear bass guitar notes while reverse offers more of a 'boom' output. The difficulty with the possible permutations is finding a 'one size fits all' setting. I've only had it for less than 12 hours though so I'm sure I'll be spending endless hours twiddling away at this. I should have a perfect setting for next summer.
One thing I really like about this sub is that it seems to 'wrap' the entire lower end of the musical scale. I've heard systems where the bass is pounded out at you like it's not part of the body of music. With this sub the whole lower end seems deeper and rounder.
The tweeters add to the high end. There was something missing before. Treble had to be left at max, and even then it didn't seem enough. It seemed muffled with the stock tweeters. The Morel tweeters have enhanced the top end of the music in a very subtle but expansive way. There's not much more I can say there. Treble is still left near maximum but, once again, sound quality is far beyond what was there originally.
It's easy to reach the limit of the system though. Increase the volume until you hear the midrange start to struggle (sub and tweeter will be fine). After that point it's really just very loud and not enjoyable to listen to. It's probably at that point that it might be interesting to get more powerful midrange's, but it's mighty loud just as it is (enough to irritate any living thing nearby). I won't be adding any more kit to the system.
What I particularly like about the new setup is that the bass is active at very low volumes. In my previous setups, you generally needed more input to get any real bass output. This sub produces deep low bass at very low volumes. It's head-noddingly impressive.
For music quality, this setup IMHO easily beats the Logic 7 setup I had in my 2005 BMW 525 M Sport. And it beats it by quite a long way.
In summary, it's not a competition system by any stretch of the imagination but if your music means a lot to you, and you think your E Class's system is lacking, I recommend this upgrade. It will transform your system beyond what you thought was possible, without taking anything away from it's integrity.
4/5 - Sound quality is astonishingly great, but midrange puts the brakes on volume
