diebartdie

I just picked up an S3 without the BO.
I haven't listened to a car with the BO but I do have a BMW with harmon kardon.

It's not really fair to compare the HK to a non-BO system but here I go anyways.
The HK is tremendously better than the non-BO.
The non-BO by itself is not bad. It's just once you've listened to and have been accustomed to an upgraded system, the difference it huge.

So if you haven't been exposed to the premium sound options, non-BO is fine.
But if you have then oh boy.

Timmay

B & O > Harmon Kardon. Not even close.

ionian2k

I had the Harmon Kardon on my 2013 Mercedes and I thought it was pretty good until I heard the Burmester speakers that come with the new C class and wow. When I switched over to Audi I heard B&O and they are good but not better than Burmester to my ears. For my money it's Burmester > B&O > Harmon Kardon. In fact I think the unbranded Bose speakers that came on my A3 convertible is on par with the Harmon Kardon. However when I had 2017 Q3 loaner with stock speakers I thought they sounded terrible compare to mine. I wonder if Audi purposely made base speakers bad now to "force" buyers to upgrade. Maybe Audi didn't crippled the stock speakers that came in the convertible? I would had not bought it if it sounded like Q3 base speakers.

tommoran2

I have the Non B&O. I have not listened to the HK or the B&O but I can tell you the Non B&O I have sounds bad to me. Lacks any depth and low end sound stage.

Timmay

Honestly I know of no stock audio system that sounds decent, regardless of brand. For me it's a no-brainer to upgrade the audio and in my case B&O for Audi. To date the best sounding car stereo was in my last S4 sedan and the new S3 comes in second after that. I've owned and listened to a ton of different systems and the Audi B&O systems just sound right for my ears.

For the majority of people, they probably couldn't care less about their stereos and will not opt to pay extra $$ for a premium system.