Audio Upgrade for BMW X5 E53
 

Hey y'all: Anyone have their eardrums burst from the muffled and dry sounds in their audio system. Any advice on a upgrade -- the BMW sounds suck!

BMW Audio, BMW iPod, Speakers, Subwoofers, & more | BSW: Bavarian Soundwerks

They sell speaker upgrades, enclosed subs, Dice ipod kits, etc.

Are you happy with your sound system? I am just making sure that it's not me -- sounds ok tuned lower, but once turned up it's muffled and midrange is a blurrrrrr.

Its ok. Its not great (I have the non-DSP system) but its also not bad. I don't turn it up too much, nor do I blast music that requires base.

My last SUV had a factory Bose system, the X5 is not as good as that was, but I also can't say its "bad."

I would be curious if anyone has done the speaker upgrade from Bavarian Soundwerks. Not that I would ever do it, as that $600 would be better spent on other mods/upgrades.

Yup the factory stereo sucks balls

I'd recommend skipping the Bavarian Soundwerks option because it retains the factory DSP amp which has the built in crossover, one of the main reasons for the horrible sound.

I went with a set of DynAudio 6.5" components up front (doors & dash) with the crossovers in the factory amp location (retained the factory speaker wires).

The used a JL Audio HD900/5 bridged to power the Dyns, with the sub channel going to a Kicker 10" L5 in a box in the hatch area.

Sounds AMAZING. Let me repeat. AMAZING

Amp: $600
Speakers: $450 (used)
Sub/box: $150
Wiring: $40
Labor was done by myself... total was under $1300, probably the best money I've ever spent on audio.

Yes, I read the reviews and most are very pleased with the results, but as you say a whopping $600. I actually HATE the sound system! I will have to see is I can cough it up!!

How did you mount the door speakers? I have tried to find a speaker adapter but no luck.

How did you tap the factory speaker wires? Did you cut them?

The oem door speakers are basically dropped into a cylindrical pod and then glued into place.

I simply cut out the glue and removed the oem speaker basket from the pod, and then dropped the DynAudios in their place using some silicone.

The only difficult part, for my situation, was machining the DynAudio basket to fit the factory location (they were quite a bit larger than most 6.5" speakers)

For the wiring, I cut the wires at each speaker location and crimped on some female spade connectors to fit the new speakers. At the other end, I removed the pins from the factory harness clip and put them directly into the terminals on the crossovers.

It actually went much smoother than I ever imagined. Even the signal from the factory tuner was directly compatible with the amp.