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New f55 - Need to upgrade stereo

35K views 39 replies 13 participants last post by  24seven 
#1 ·
Hi,


Just got my new 5-door diesel. To get a good deal I bought a demo-car which did not have the HK stereo option (Basic - 4 door speakers and small under seat subs). Love the car so far apart from the sound system which is really poor.


I plan to start with a building a under-boot-floor-sub, this weekend and then upgrade the door speakers later on.


My first thought was to get speaker signal from one of the rear door speakers, but I guess they have a lowcut at 100hz or so, does anyone know? I could off course remove a seat and get signal from one of the under seat subs, but I would prefere to tap in to a full frequecy source.


Any suggestions regarding tapping into the factory audio system are welcome!


Regards
Martin
 
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#2 ·
I don't believe the underseat speakers are actually subwoofers, just normal woofers. The crossover in the basic speaker setup is integral to the head unit so I'm not convinced it's possible but could be wrong

The HK setup is completely different and takes a digital feed from the head unit into a DAC amplifier and then filters the frequencies to the various speakers and subwoofers.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for your reply!


I guess my best bet is to take the signal from a under seat woofer, and hope that I have enough frequency adjustment on the amp that I´m adding to make it sound decent.


Read somewhere that the door speakers where 2ohm? which narrows the selection of replacement speakers down...
 
#7 ·
this happened to my f56, had the whole gear shift assembly replaced.

also, if you do keep the car, can you keep us informed on your stereo upgrade? i have the same issue, have the non-HK stereo and its crap. would love to upgrade door speakers, subwoofer and add an amp. i don't have a clue on how to and what to buy...
 
#11 ·
The biggest issue with the standard stereo besides lack of clarity, engagement and volume, is that it seems to have some sort of auto leveling loudness. Lets say you listen to a track at a certain volume, when the bass drum start playing (does not really matter what typ of music it is), the music sounds like you would expect for about 3 seconds and then the stereo cuts the lower frequencys changeing the sound drasticly. If you then lower the volume the lower frequencys are "reactivated" but if you raise the volume again they will drop after about 3 seconds. I know that this is done to eliminate distorsion, but other car stereos have a much more refined way of doing this, the inconsistansy is killing me.

All in all I would say that the standard mini stereo is about the worst sounding system of all cars In the price range.

I dont think that the under seat woofers are fullrange, there is some kind of high cut involved. Sorry the "taking feed from a underseat woofer" to get correct signal you would offcourse have to get signal from booth under seat woofers to the amp.
 
#17 · (Edited)
The biggest issue with the standard stereo besides lack of clarity, engagement and volume, is that it seems to have some sort of auto leveling loudness. Lets say you listen to a track at a certain volume, when the bass drum start playing (does not really matter what typ of music it is), the music sounds like you would expect for about 3 seconds and then the stereo cuts the lower frequencys changeing the sound drasticly. If you then lower the volume the lower frequencys are "reactivated" but if you raise the volume again they will drop after about 3 seconds. I know that this is done to eliminate distorsion, but other car stereos have a much more refined way of doing this, the inconsistansy is killing me.

p.
Ok, before I contradict my self regards saying I thought the sound was good, I listen to the radio mostly and have not heard this effect you speak of.
BUT using the USB input I have, and I am so glad you've mentioned it (you cannot believe how glad, as I though I was going mad as I've had problems with my ears lately and thought it may be that).
I have in fact borrowed music on an SD card and it's the same as through my Iphone.
Is it the same for you on the radio? Although I feel it's cuts the highs and sounds less clear but it's seems more to sound like a subtle volume lowering.
It bugs the f**k out of me, if I'm not the only one! I'm going to complain to the dealer.
Thanks
Matt
 
#13 ·
Interesting, I asked the salesman if there is an option for speed controlled volume and he said no.
 
#14 ·
Pretty sure he's wrong. It was on our r56 s with std stereo our roadster s with std stereo and is on mine f56 cooper with the hk system.. Have a look in settings it's called something silly like sdc rather than svc!
 
#15 ·
Yes there is a "speed volume control" on the standard f56 sound system, I've tried it in off, max and middle position, but it does not solve the "auto loudness" issue.

The current situation with my car is that it will probably go back to the dealer next weekend at the latest. They've had it since yesterday trying to replicate the popping out of gear issue, and investigating the high fuel consumption.

There will subsequently not be a subwoofer build or audio upgrade, atleast not in this car.

However, I now drive a Countryman SD Worx loaner and find the Harman Kardon sound System in that car pretty good!
 
#20 ·
Thanks for the encouragement, good to hear that it is possible get back to liking the car again, It has not really felt that way lately...

In an effort to get the feeling back i started and finished (almost) the under boot flor sub. The space under the boot floor is 5" deep, I'm using a shallow 10" Hertz sub and a hertz amp, there will be about 15mm space between the boot floor and speaker. The box is 15 litres, which is on the small side but the speaker is made for small enclosures and has 17 litres as a sweet spot so I guess it will be close enough to sound decent.
 

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#22 ·
As I dont want to cut in the wiring loom, the plan is to make 3-way splitters that plugs in to the under seat woofer (high level) signal, with one end still connected to the woofers and the the other to a longer cable going back to the amps high level input. The amp has auto start when a high level signal is detected.

Have not found any info on if the signal to the underseat woofers are fullrange with a high pass filter on the speaker or if the frequencys are cut in the headunit. If it is fullrange I will most likely get a 4-channel amp instead to drive booth sub and new front door speakers.

Fokal makes replacement speakers for BMW which looks like they could fit the Mini.
 
#27 ·
I am glad I found this thread, I have an F56 That was spec'd by a local BMW rep and has everything but the HK/upgraded stereo. I first noticed it clipping after using spotify and it was annoying as ****. The dealer said it was the amp failing, so they replaced it. 2 days later its back. my 2010 S had the base stereo as well with never so much as a hiccup. The car is getting looked at again this week. :/

Btw hi! I'm Chad. nice to meet everyone!
 
#28 ·
Ok, installed Sws 8xi subs under the seats driven by an amp, helix Match 4" coaxials in the doors and its a HUGE improvement. Still have some testing to do with setting levels on the amp.

I would suggest everyone with the standard soundsystem to at least change the front door speakers to quality coaxials as this makes a real differance in sound quality.
 
#32 ·
Looks like a good kit. Looked at all the simular kits (without included amp) but ruled them out because I did not want to make a hole in the windscreen pillars for the tweeters, and went with coaxials instead.

The speaker signal from the factory stereo is very tweaked EQ-wise (to make the oem $2 speakers sound anywhere near decent). This means that an external DSP or Amp with DSP is needed to to correct the signal or it will never sound really good.

I'm trying to solve this myself at the moment and right now a Mosconi DSP amp looks like the best solution.
 
#34 ·
Have not seen any sites that sell them, and I guess they would be on backorder as everyting else, or did your dealer sort you out with a pair?

Have so far spent half of the HK-option, but not keen on spending alot more since getting a really noticably better sound than the HK-package would involve rebuilding the doors to accept 6,5" and a 10-12" sub in the trunk.
 
#35 ·
If its like the BMW units then you wont be able to drop the subs in per say, the HK setup uses the MOST network with fiber optics, whereas the standard stereo more than likely wont.

In BMW world most people code down to stereo and remove their digital amp and put in their own to power the speakers, so assuming its just the usual stereo interface in the back of the unit, you can supply an amp and have as many speakers as you want.
 
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