BSW Midranges... got cold feet

[Sablotny]

I had a bit of time yesterday to start my Stage 1 speaker upgrade (thanks for the great deal Halston), and figured I'd do the easiest part first- the dash midranges. Upon removing the stock drivers, however, they didn't look as cheap as I expected. Decent butyl surrounds, with a bigger magnet and seemingly longer excursion that the BSW units. I was also concerned that there are already high pass filters in the stock leads, the BSW units come with another capacitor, and I didn't like the idea of wiring these both up. So- can anyone tell me if the BSW units truly sound better?

[chris_barry]

My 06 3.0d australian delivery had mids that looked like they had come out of a handheld transistor radio and sounded about the same. The BSW mids made a huge difference. Maybe your model has uprated mids as standard.

Chris.

[broknlgs24]

i'm quite pleased w/ the BSW Stage I kit.
the improvement was quite surprising.

[LexNBimmer]

The BSW midranges are a certain improvement over the stock unit. I purchased the Rainbows and initially I thought heh a little better, but as I played them more and more--wow!! I never knew audio could sound so good in a car! My next project is to add a aftermarket amp and a McIntosh MX-406 HU. I may even upgrade further to Dyna or Morel, but hey the law of diminishing returns kicks in real quick now.

[Halston Pitman]

Originally Posted by Sablotny

I had a bit of time yesterday to start my Stage 1 speaker upgrade (thanks for the great deal Halston), and figured I'd do the easiest part first- the dash midranges. Upon removing the stock drivers, however, they didn't look as cheap as I expected. Decent butyl surrounds, with a bigger magnet and seemingly longer excursion that the BSW units. I was also concerned that there are already high pass filters in the stock leads, the BSW units come with another capacitor, and I didn't like the idea of wiring these both up. So- can anyone tell me if the BSW units truly sound better?

No problem, glad I could assist. The others have said the things that I was going to say but they are definitely going to make an improvement over the factory midrange speakers in the dash of your X5. Our midrange speakers feature the following benefits:

-Our midrange features a Neodymium Magnet that is smaller but more powerful than the OEM Magnet
-The Cone in the center of our of midrange gives better off axis frequency response
-More rigid cone material
-Greater Durability

I can assure you the sound will be an improvement.

Let me know how the install goes and if you need ANY other help!

[Micah D. Cranman]

Just wanted to mention that you are also protected by our guarantee:

http://www.bavariansoundwerks.com/ourguarantee.php

Install them, and if you aren't happy, take them out and send the back for a full refund.

I can honestly say that we have never had that happen with our midranges, though!

[Halston Pitman]

Originally Posted by Micah D. Cranman

Just wanted to mention that you are also protected by our guarantee:

http://www.bavariansoundwerks.com/ourguarantee.php

Install them, and if you aren't happy, take them out and send the back for a full refund.

I can honestly say that we have never had that happen with our midranges, though!

Oops forgot about the guarantee!!!

[el_duderino]

Originally Posted by Halston Pitman

-Our midrange features a Neodymium Magnet that is smaller but more powerful than the OEM Magnet

But a speaker's magnet material does not affect the sound directly. It affects the size - whether it fits or not - but not the sound itself. So how is this a sonic benefit?

Originally Posted by Halston Pitman

-The Cone in the center of our of midrange gives better off axis frequency response

Since off axis dispersion drops as a function of frequency as a physical law (it's a relation between the wavelength and the piston diameter) the only way ANY speaker has "better" off-axis response compared to another is if it has rising HF response relative to the other speaker.

So - have you measured the off-axis response of the BMW OEM speaker? Have you measured the acoustic response of that speaker in an X5, with windshield reflections of the on-axis output included?

Originally Posted by Halston Pitman

-More rigid cone material

Is hysteresis a sonic issue with the X5 mid?

Originally Posted by Halston Pitman

-Greater Durability

Are X5 mids prone to fail? This is a known problem with E36 mids... especially HKs. But I've not heard of X5 mids being failure prone... so I'm not clear how you can say that yours are more durable than something that doesn't break.

Customers say they sound better - so they sound better. But I don't think this bullet list is why, Halston.

[Sablotny]

The night the speakers arrived, I figured I'd start with the easiest bit first- the dash mids. I was working in my cramped garage (dark outside), and as I said above, I wussed out. Per my separate post, I dedicated this Saturday to doing the install right, and am very pleased with the results. I didn't do a direct comparison between the stock & BSW mids, but I did try a left/right comparison half way thru the install with the complete stock vs. BSW kit.

Again, the stock mids don't look like bad drivers. This is based purely on my 20 year history of "kick the tires" stereo component judgement, wherein heavy amplifiers get the nod over light ones, and speaker drivers with cast frames get more attention than stamped sheet metal. On the other hand, the stock midbass units looked like they came out of somebody's clock radio (as another poster said), with flimsy plastic cones, and I had no problem beating them out of the speaker pods with a hammer, as detailed in BSW's instructions.

[alpac]

Originally Posted by Sablotny

I had a bit of time yesterday to start my Stage 1 speaker upgrade (thanks for the great deal Halston), and figured I'd do the easiest part first- the dash midranges. Upon removing the stock drivers, however, they didn't look as cheap as I expected. Decent butyl surrounds, with a bigger magnet and seemingly longer excursion that the BSW units. I was also concerned that there are already high pass filters in the stock leads, the BSW units come with another capacitor, and I didn't like the idea of wiring these both up. So- can anyone tell me if the BSW units truly sound better?

The BSW drivers are indeed smaller than the stock ones but after having replaced the stock midranges with the BSW ones this week-end (see my other post) I can confirm that the BSW midranges sound much better