Bavsound post-woofer upgrade project

[poss]

Well, the woofer/sub-woofer upgrade was such a success it made it obvious that the rest of BMW's 'premium' shyte speakers had to go.

The tweeters are the biggest remaining culprits - but the most difficult to find a substitute for - so I succumbed to Bavsound's expensive offering in this department. Like in my M3, it is their tweeters that offer the major improvement - but their tweeter comes with a high-pass filter of average quality, so like the M3 this will be replaced with a very good quality part that will make the tweeter more silky smooth (along with a high-quality attenuating resistor instead of the cheapo one in the Bavsound circuit.

I recommend the Mundorf Evo Supreme 4.7 uF capacitor as the replacement (and a high quality 3.9 Ohm attenuating resistor) - but it's size means you may have to relocate it in the door panel card where there is enough room as it is substantially larger than the stock Bavsound cap

 

[poss]

So the initial listening tests pick the Bavsound tweeters as clear improvements over the harsh stock tweeters - but what about the midrange drivers?

Bavsound's tweeters are silk dome - and that makes them far easier on the ear than the harsh aluminium foil stock tweeters - even though they are otherwise very similar in construction and the strength of their magnets (both very good magnets)

So how do the midrange offerings compare? They are both nearly identical in size and construction, with the Bavsound being a couple of mm deeper perhaps - and both have cheap plastic spiders instead of metal that you'd expect in high-quality speakers.

Cone construction differs, but both are lightweight and stiff, and we're only talking 4" speakers here, so I can't se anything here that would cause a substantial difference in sound quality. Edit: stock cone seems to be aluminium - advanced for its time, but not anymore. Bavsound appears to have a composite cone construction.

Now the all-important magnet strength that determine the power/punch a speaker can deliver. Knock me over with a feather, but the factory speaker magnet is noticeably stronger than the Bavsound's. The Bavsound's magnet looks far beefier at a glance - until you realise its because of a 'fake magnet' rubber ring - it's actually around the same size as factory - but not as good. Forgot the pickup weight test - factory is clearly heavier (more magnet), so that explains it!

Edit: The stock speaker's magnet can hold its own weight when lifted magnetically even on it's edge - whereas the Bavsound's magnetic attraction cannot easily hold it's own weight. But magnetic force is not everything - the stock subs have fantastic magnets but the CT Sounds subs wipe the floor with them due to other factors - let us see...

If I were in a shop making a choice between the two then I would NEVER choose the Bavsound over stock.

Actual listening test now required of course

 

[poss]

Initial listening test conducted - and here are the results!

Bavsound midrange by a country mile. No real comparison between the two - factory sounds muffled/ poor dynamic range - particularly bottom end - whereas the Bavsound 4" would serve quite nicely indeed as a high-quality headphone speaker (which is how I tested both - a couple of inches from my ear out of the removed door card), as it had reasonable extension into the lower range and did a pretty good job into tweeter range (I had the tweeter unplugged during the test)

A quantum leap over the stock 'premium' midrange'. Highly recommended from this audiophile possum.