stereo upgrades? need advice. BSW
 

Im looking to upgrade my stereo sytem in the X5. I dont want anything crazy. But the X5 stock system is pathetic. I saw one of the advertisers here and was wondering if anyone has used any of there stuff here. Its Bavarian soundwerks or BSW. Im thinking of going with their subwoofer upgrade and stage 1 speaker upgrade. Does anyone currently have this set up, or know anything about it. Can you recomend this system? I dont have DSP in my 06 because my 04 had it and i thought it wasnt worth the money and figured i would get better sound if i put that money towards an aftermarket system. If you dont like BSW what systems do you recomend. I am also looking for something that will directly replace oem. I dont want to do custom fabrication at all and I want an oem appearance.

There have been a plethora of discussions about BSW products in the A/V forum lately...their customer's are very happy with the products.

In my experience, start by changing the Amplifier. The stock speakers are OK if you feed them a decent signal. Get it done by a shop that understands how to tune the crossovers (I was told the OEM amp has active crosovers built in). The sound will be a massive inprovement and then you can always upgrade the speakers/sub at a later date.
I found that on a new car (1 month old) it took about 2 weeks to get the best from the upgrade and the amp and speakers "loosened up".
Doesn't matter how good the speakers are if the signal from the amp is poor the sound will you hear will be compromised. Garbage in/garbage out.

Oscar.

I disagree or may be the audio system of the European versions is different. The stock speakers, particularly the mid bass and the Subs (for the DSP version) are not OK. Also BMW speakers and amp are paired in frequency and therefore you just cannot change the amp and not change the speakers. The best would be to replace both the stock amp and speakers. However you can already significantly improve the sound of your X by 1) adding a sub amp and decent sub woofer (these DSP stock 6" subs are pathetic), 2) Replace the current speakers by better ones. Since the stock amp and speakers are paired it is very difficult to find after market speakers which will fit the BMW stock amp. BSW has a speaker replacement package which enables to keep the stock amp and improve the sound. All the people who I know (including me) have tried BSW products have been very happy.

I have read somewere that the European version is different.

One of the key issues when replacing the amp is to add some passive crossovers. The shop that did mine have spent a lot of time getting these right for the X5 and I am happy with the result. (And I am fussy) I have been in touch with BSW and they recommend better speakers than their Stage one if the amp has been changed (They were really helpful and I'm sure the Stage one does the job very well) so if you intend to change the amp later then you may need to change the speakers again.

Your point about the Sub is spot on, and will be my next mod. I want to take the low frequencies away from the door units so they can concentrate on the mids.

Thanks for the feedback

Oscar

I just finished increamentally upgrading the basic 6 speaker setup to

BSW mids
BSW stage 1 MB quarts
BSW sub
New 4x 50w amp for the door speakers
200w amp for the sub

results are fantastic. Will post a writeup and pictures over the next few days.

Chris

I would get BSW primarily because they have wonderful customer service. They also have a great return policy

I havent seen a negative review either.

If you can afford it, go for it.

Chris,

That sounds just like the system I want to get to in the end. Which amp did you use

Oscar,

BSW put together a package with a Alpine V series amp and a plug and play cable. The cable went between the head unit and main wiring socket using plugs and sockets compatible with the BMW units. The amp had high pass filter adjustments and gain on the front/rear channels. The stock 6 speaker head unit signal improves markedly when its not driving any load.

Write up and pictures here.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bavarian-soun...tml#post228110

Chris.