[Palmnuts]

Originally Posted by rogerxp

Perhaps it's your ears

Ah damn....why didn't I just think to put on my good ears. You know, the ones I use when I drive the E-Class. That would sort everything

Originally Posted by gangzoom

There might not be much info on it because theres not that many SLSs around??

Quite...it's very quiet on the community front, even on the US forums of which the Mercedes (especially C63) ones are very busy. Seems the SLS isn't a car that is bought by people who like to talk about them!

Originally Posted by MEGA

Lot's of useful stuff....

Enclosure size...it's the thing that's in the back of my mind. It's also the only explanation I can think of as to why the system I fitted in the Maserati, despite being made up of very high quality components, made an almost identical distortion sound.

Yet what do I know? So, today I spoke to Lee at Platinum in-car as you recommended and, as long as it doesn't come back from Mercedes fixed, I'm taking it to show him at the weekend. He reckons it's a relatively easy challenge!

Originally Posted by davyk31

Really can't see enclosure size being a problem, if the manufacturers were involved in development that would be a crazy basic error to make, sounds more like a setup issue to me.

Originally Posted by Bomber

B&O would have spend 1000's of hours testing this before putting it into a car, I worked with Visteon for a few years developing OEM systems and the R&D extensive even before it saw a car!

It is very hard to diagnose a fault without hearing it but from my experience a common problem with oem bass enclosures is trim panels resonating causing all sorts sound issues, I would have MB check this, maybe a tracker or similar has been fitted in a nearby location (usually all fitted in the same place on these)

Plastic bass enclosures are not the best either as they flex, the actual sub cone is located close to your ears which is not the best scenario, bass waves always work better when it bounced from another surface ie the boot side or rear screen

So what would I do, take it to a respected installer and get them to remove the bass enclosure from its location and test away from the car to determine if its the enclosure or the car, then i'm sure they will be able to rectify it not necessarily changing the equipment but maybe some reinforcement or sound deadening.

Originally Posted by briers

So what i'm saying is, i am more likely to believe the base from them is either causing them to rattle against their housing or the frequencies produced is more likely to make surrounding trim rattle. I guess you could eliminate the housing by removing the sub and holding it but it would be more difficult to isolate a piece of surrounding trim. Sounds like you have a new sub coming your way so that might help remove that from the equation. A simple test might be to press down bits of trim to stop the vibration. I'm completely unfamiliar with an SLS interior and dont even know where the subs are.

But i hope you get it sorted!

To all the above, I'm 99% sure it's not trim rattling - the car is fairly solid in that respect but more specifically, a trim vibration is a totally different sound to the sound of a speaker distorting (as Mega described earlier, like a wet fart!). It's such a specific type of sound that I've heard previously in the system I fitted to my Maserati. That was definitely the sub - with all trim removed, you could see the JL 10W3 sub making the noise! Which was most distressing after I'd spend a considerable amount on some fairly expensive kit!

Lets see what the week brings when Mercedes have finished with it and, if then required, what this specialist that Mega has recommended says. He sounded very knowledgeable on the phone and I was very clear to him on my disappointment from the last time I went down the aftermarket route so, hopefully, he'll be suitably well briefed on my expectations!


Interestingly, what do you guys make of this:

I sent the following complaint to Bang and Olufsen HQ....

I am writing to you regarding the B&O installation in the Mercedes SLS AMG.

Having recently purchased this car, I'm very dissatisfied with the audio quality provided by the system which has the B&O branding, and which B&O claim to have developed for this car. Indeed, so bad is the problem that I initially thought it to be a faulty subwoofer but, having now listened to another example which displays exactly the same characteristics, I can only deem the problem to be typical of the B&O audio system in the SLS.

The characteristic in question is an inability to produce bass at medium volume upwards, without a distortion coming from the subwoofer. This is not a distortion of the surrounding trim; it's more typical of the cone vibrating through either poor design, poor installation or incorrect wiring. Given it's unlikely that two different cars have an identical fault, my fear is that this is not a repairable issue and is in fact how the system has been designed and approved by your company and AMG.

I appreciate quality of sound is subjective and personal however, in direct comparison with listening to the same music and source (320kb MP3 files) on more basic audio systems in other cars, including Mercedes' own unbranded and Harman Kardon systems, the B&O branded systems' inability to produce undistorted bass is unacceptable, especially given the considerable cost of this option.

I would therefore like to understand if you feel this characteristic is typical or whether the audio system has been designed to handle low bass frequencies without distorting. The dealer is unable to do anything other than replace any faulty parts, however, if this is how the audio system is designed to sound then there's unlikely to be any faulty parts to replace. Given this problem is a feature of both examples I've listened to, I find it astonishing that B&O and AMG would sign-off such a poor sound quality from what is a very expensive option and would appreciate your response to this feedback and any remedial action that I could take to improve the performance of this system.

I look forward to hearing from you.


I received the following response this morning, which I read as B&O being totally disinterested in a product which they haven't 'directly' sold or....they and Mercedes actually know it's crap....


Dear Mr Palmer

We are pleased to see you are the owner of Mercedes SLS AMG with Bang & Olufsen sound.

I am sorry to inform you that I can not give you any details regarding your problem. We have been giving strict orders from Mercedes that we can not comment on any questions/complaints. We must refer to the dealer or Mercedes.

Sorry I was unable to help you, but hope you understand.