power rating of stock amp

[DocMike]

Does anyboy know rating of stock amp?

[Brian-bmw]

DSP or standard amp?

[DocMike]

non dsp

[DouglasABaker]

It is about 15W per channel for DSP, w/ 10 channels in the interior and 4 more for the DVC subs.

D-

[DocMike]

Originally Posted by DouglasABaker

It is about 15W per channel for DSP, w/ 10 channels in the interior and 4 more for the DVC subs.

D-

Non DSP?

[Brian-bmw]

The DSP amp is 330 W total power across 14 individual speaker channels:

* 4 tweeters at 15 watts per channel
* 2 midrange speakers at 15 watts per channel
* 4 woofers at 30 watts per channel
* 4 subwoofers at 30 watts per channel

I have never seen any specifications for the standard X5 amp. However, the standard E38 amp, which is probably very similar, is 10 channels at 15 watts per channel (4 tweeters, 2 midrange, 4 woofers)

[DouglasABaker]

From what I understand the 30W per channel is at 10% distortion. The numbers I quoted are are the more recognized 1% THD.

d-

[Brian-bmw]

Originally Posted by DouglasABaker

From what I understand the 30W per channel is at 10% distortion. The numbers I quoted are are the more recognized 1% THD.

I have not found anything that difinitively states the distortion and other metrics of the amps. (The official BMW documentation I have found only quotes wattage and nothing else.) There are a few posts on other web sites that have speculated distortion figures, but those have been pretty controversial posts. And the individuals did not actually measure anything, they just took a guess based on a visual observation of the components on the circuit board.

[DouglasABaker]

Fair enough, although i haven't seen any controversy regarding the posts...

d-

[Brian-bmw]

Here is one of the best example posts I have read. Bob Hazlewood is probably one of the smartest guys to objectively explore the DSP amp . Most of the statements in this post and others are internally and externally verifiable. In this post, he is correcting a guy who makes a random statement that the DSP amp channel is comparable to a 5 – 10 WPC amplifier. Essentially, Bob says that the bigger channels are built on amps rated at 55W at 10% THD. Bob normalizes those to 40W amps at “low distortion.” This is actually 30% more power than the BMW's figures (30W per channel on the big channels). Bob’s analysis of the DSP amp is comparable to other similarly powered car audio systems that I have enjoyed—that the BMW system is probably comparable to a 300W to 500W total power system. The major weakness of the BMW system DSP is the subs, but that is because BMW went with space saving rather than audio performance on that decision.

There are probably a couple other posts like these in the Internet ether, but this one sums it up the best.

http://bimmer.roadfly.com/5series/me...w28/63184.html