Another Audio Upgrade

DraizetraiN · Post by **DraizetraiN** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 10:36 am

Hi All,

The forum has helped me find out stuff so thought I'd give something back.

I've had the car (E89) about 3 months now and have just had an audio ugrade completed. The stock system sounded good, best I've ever owned in a car...but it felt a bit flat, lacked depth etc. I knew it could sound much better.

I had an idea in my head of how it potentially could sound but was a bit of a blank canvas as how to achieve it. I took the car to Bromley Car Audio Ltd (SE London) for a chat. They came up with some cracking suggestions/ideas for me to run with and a week later we had a system down on paper so I booked the car in.

Previous `stock' system:

Standard i-drive entertainment unit, 6.5" Subs in the footwells, 4" Mids in the doors and behind the shoulders. It had the tweeter pods and grills in the door struts but no tweeters. Poor from BMW there I reckon. Blank covers fine...but don't put speaker grills in with no speakers behind them!

New system:

Obviously the i-drive entertainment unit remains but all speakers upgraded to Audison products. Prima APK 163 set (2x6.5", 2x4", 2x26mm Tweeters and crossovers) for the front and Prima AP 4 (2x4") for the rear shoulder corners.

Audison again for the big bits. Prima AP4.9 bit DSP/Amp with a Prima AP1 D dedicated Sub Amp.

The footwells were Dynamatted too for good measure.

BCA did a great job from start to finish, very impressive. Build time was 2 days with the Amps positioned side by side beneath the passenger seat. They are surprisingly small considering what they do. Very neat and understated pieces of kit. Visually the cars interior is exactly the same as it was previously, just how I wanted it. You'd never know anything had changed...until you put the key in. Then you know!
The system is tweakable if you're that way inclined so comes with a configuration program for a laptop but has Audison presets already set if like me you're not brave enough to fiddle with it...yet.

Total cost £1850....I know, I know....things got a bit out of hand at the planning stage but I adore the car and love my music so thought sod it, you're a long time dead.

Result:

I've had the car back a month now and all I can say is, f*** me thats good. It sounds absolutely gorgeous. Soundscaping, depth, detail and clarity is just amazing. The system is soo good it shows up imperfections of the media/sound files. You want to play the best quality bit rate files you can get or direct CD play, just to hear what it can do.

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Stark · Post by **Stark** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 10:54 am

Am sure it sounds amazing. I had a decent system in my E89 but only until you go for something better.

The BOSE in my Porsche is the best ever. The test is roof down and my music sounds just as good.

Job well done mate

john-e89 · Post by **john-e89** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:35 pm

Sounds a good set up there, the amps are very neatly tucked away, excellent. Only thing seems missing is bass, ok you've got the 6.5" floor woofers but does'nt the system need some further bigger woofers, a single 10" in a custom designed box in the boot as an example, or are you getting enough from the floor ones?

DraizetraiN · Post by **DraizetraiN** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 2:21 pm

Well its all personal taste of course but for me its plenty bassy yeah. My aim for the system was clarity of sound over volume and I didn't want it too `boomy' anyway, if you know what I mean.

Personal taste again but I didn't want a separate box in the boot. I did consider a flat sub at one stage to be positioned under the seat or maybe on the back wall but ultimately decided against it due to aesthetics. Once I'd decided to go with Audison for the whole system that dictated things as well.

I know the 6.5"s are maybe a touch on the small size (for bass) but the quality of the speakers themselves coupled with the quality of signal going through them makes up for their lack of size I reckon. The bass feels full and deep and with the right tracks very atmospheric. Its fab.

john-e89 · Post by **john-e89** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 2:48 pm

If you're happy then it's a job well done. I know what you mean about boomy crap, ruins a decent system, I do like a bit of tight controlled thump though, something like a non ported box so it does'nt boom. Nice to see a well done system in an E89, I've got the 14 speaker thing but it lacks depth, if I keep the car I'd do as you have but add a sub.

Cheers for posting, it's an interesting topic.

metal licker · Post by **metal licker** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:08 pm

Good post and work

DinosaurEyes · Post by **DinosaurEyes** » Mon Sep 05, 2016 12:05 am

DraizetraiN wrote:The system is soo good it shows up imperfections of the media/sound files. You want to play the best quality bit rate files you can get or direct CD play, just to hear what it can do

Nice write up! What's your main method of playing music then? High quality mp3's loaded onto the hard drive? How do you find it compares to the aux input? I find it slightly muffly through the aux when playing from files from my phone.

DraizetraiN · Post by **DraizetraiN** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 12:31 pm

DinosaurEyes wrote:What's your main method of playing music then? High quality mp3's loaded onto the hard drive? How do you find it compares to the aux input? I find it slightly muffly through the aux when playing from files from my phone.

Yeah I've been ripping loads of my CDs to 320kbps, transferring them to the HD. Original CDs are the best though. They transfer at something like 1150kbps so sound better but you obviously lose a bit of the convenience factor keeping discs in the car.

I hadn't played anything from my phone through the Aux port but have just given it a go....and you're right. Theres a noticeable drop off of quality. Mind you, that doesn't really surprise me. The phone itself won't be a great player and the cable running from the Aux socket to the entertainment unit will be cheap crap.

R.E92 · Post by **R.E92** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 1:10 pm

I think the system will compress the music files when importing on to HD.

The audio system on the car stores the audio files in a different format altogether, you can see this when you export the music off the HD and onto a USB.

Most of my music is stored in AAC 192 but if I put 10GB of music onto a USB and import it the system will only show 7GB~ being used.

sammyz · Post by **sammyz** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 5:20 pm

I think the standard system in mine is very good. Seems to be a lot clearer than the DSP one in my previous Zed. I am quite deaf though so maybe it's just better for old half deaf gits like me.

benv6 · Post by **benv6** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:07 am

Hi DraizetraiN

How were the amps fed ? Is there and amp fed from the subs (footwell) and the other one from the Meds ?

I have just bought the Audissions 163 now trying to figure out the amp !!

Chris_D · Post by **Chris_D** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:37 am

I absolutely guarantee you, without any shadow of a doubt that your fab system is being 'hamstrung' by the quality of your music files.
Get rid of your mp3's and move to FLAC or DSD. 24bit96kHz FLACor 32bit DSD are the only files I will listen to these days. The clarity and quality are unsurpassed and as you say, your brief was quality and clarity of playback over volume.
If you have in aux input this is easily achievable via one of the many portable hi-res players to be found from iBasso, astell&kern etc.
You dont need to link the player up to your head unit via coax or optical as the on-board DACs of the player are usually superior anyway.
Would suggest to borrow one and play only hi-res files for a week. Dont mix between flac and mp3 as you might miss the different nuances.
You'll never want to go back to mp3. Or i'll eat my cat!

DraizetraiN · Post by **DraizetraiN** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:45 pm

benv6 wrote:How were the amps fed ? Is there and amp fed from the subs (footwell) and the other one from the Meds ?

I have just bought the Audissions 163 now trying to figure out the amp !!

I didn't install the system so don't know the technicalities but my understanding is the DSP/Amp chucks out 4 channels. 3 of them drive the mids (doors & shoulders) and tweeters. The 4th gets sent to the Sub-Amp that obviously drives the footwell woofers.

The system could work without the Sub-Amp and BCA tested that out but it didn't work for me, bass being a bit dull/messy compared to the quality of the mid/high stuff. The adding of the Sub-Amp transformed everything though and brought the system together.

DraizetraiN · Post by **DraizetraiN** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 8:34 pm

Chris_D wrote:I absolutely guarantee you, without any shadow of a doubt that your fab system is being 'hamstrung' by the quality of your music files.
Get rid of your mp3's and move to FLAC or DSD. 24bit96kHz FLACor 32bit DSD are the only files I will listen to these days. The clarity and quality are unsurpassed and as you say, your brief was quality and clarity of playback over volume.
If you have in aux input this is easily achievable via one of the many portable hi-res players to be found from iBasso, astell&kern etc.
You dont need to link the player up to your head unit via coax or optical as the on-board DACs of the player are usually superior anyway.
Would suggest to borrow one and play only hi-res files for a week. Dont mix between flac and mp3 as you might miss the different nuances.
You'll never want to go back to mp3. Or i'll eat my cat!

You've got me thinking now and have been checking out the Hi-Res DAPs you suggested. The A&Ks look amazing, fab designs...but this one has caught my eye:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/iBasso-DX80-Re ... B018SDATG0

It has a `mini optical out port'....and my DSP/Amp has an `optical in' port. I could connect the player straight into the Amp bypassing the whole OEM player. I can't see why that wouldn't work...

Alternatively I'm thinking I could simply connect it to the Aux port in the centre compartment but get the cable running back to the OEM player ungraded to something decent. That should be easy enough I reckon.

Chris, what DAP/set up have you got then?

Chris_D · Post by **Chris_D** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 9:34 pm

DraizetraiN wrote:
Chris_D wrote:I absolutely guarantee you, without any shadow of a doubt that your fab system is being 'hamstrung' by the quality of your music files.
Get rid of your mp3's and move to FLAC or DSD. 24bit96kHz FLACor 32bit DSD are the only files I will listen to these days. The clarity and quality are unsurpassed and as you say, your brief was quality and clarity of playback over volume.
If you have in aux input this is easily achievable via one of the many portable hi-res players to be found from iBasso, astell&kern etc.
You dont need to link the player up to your head unit via coax or optical as the on-board DACs of the player are usually superior anyway.
Would suggest to borrow one and play only hi-res files for a week. Dont mix between flac and mp3 as you might miss the different nuances.
You'll never want to go back to mp3. Or i'll eat my cat!

You've got me thinking now and have been checking out the Hi-Res DAPs you suggested. The A&Ks look amazing, fab designs...but this one has caught my eye:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/iBasso-DX80-Re ... B018SDATG0

It has a `mini optical out port'....and my DSP/Amp has an `optical in' port. I could connect the player straight into the Amp bypassing the whole OEM player. I can't see why that wouldn't work...

Alternatively I'm thinking I could simply connect it to the Aux port in the centre compartment but get the cable running back to the OEM player ungraded to something decent. That should be easy enough I reckon.

Chris, what DAP/set up have you got then?

Great choice on the iBasso. Until recently i was using an iBasso DX-90 which sounded insanely good. Dual DACs, relatively compact, good battery life but i found the interface a bit clunky.
I've been using hi-res DAPs for about 6-7 years now and I think i have a good handle on what's hot and good value for money with fantastic sound quality, and on that basis Ive just traded up to the Opus #1, available on amazon for about 450 sponds which is stunning value for what you get. It has the latest dual cirrus 4398 DACs which are amazingly transparent and can handle any kind of music thrown at them.
However, i would advise that you really ought to audition one if you can before you invest as many people arent attuned to the audio quality improvements that can be gleaned from playing 24bit files against mp3's. It took me a while to appreciate the differences and that was also only after investing in suitable amps/speakers and headphones (audeze).
And re the optical connection- don't!! The on-board DACs of any current DAP will be infinitely superior to that of any current car amp, especially the Opus which can play ack true 32bit DSD files. So line out only i would advise. Listening to pink floyd's 'Meddle' at 24bit 96kHz through the Opus and my zed's top-hifi system with the top down was very satisfying recently!
Check out head-fi.org for info too. My go-to website for all things DAP and headphone.
Hope this helps and keep us posted what you end up buying....

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