A
Anonymous
Guest
Another one in a series from moi..comments welcome..
BMW E89 AUDIO SYSTEMS
The E89 audio systems were largely a carry-over from the then normal range of BMW audio systems offered across the BMW/Mini range and reflected the then current packaging. There weren’t many changes over the production run. There were a perplexing number of variations in user options which often results now in second owners not quite able to manage their music in the way they prefer.
There were 3 basic systems, not all were offered in all markets.
Using the Z4 E89 names there were:
BMW Professional Stereo aka BMW Base (not offered in US)
BMW Business Speaker Package aka BMW Hi-Fi aka 676 option
BMW Professional Speaker Package aka BMW Top-Fi aka HK aka Logic 7 aka 677 option
676 amp showing 42 pin connector
All versions used two head units that looked like a single ‘DIN’ type panel but were in fact much larger modular boxes that could hold a variety of sub systems including CD player, GPS, hard drive, DAB/Sirius-XM/TV tuners, one version was used for the non-pop up screen version (BMW Professional RAD2) and the pop up screen version (Car Information Computer, CIC aka BMW Professional Navigation).
These were connected optionally to the Bluetooth, USB and 3.5mm jack plugs in the arm rest plus the built in off-board GSM phone /data system (in the boot) and optional user GSM phones, optionally in a cradle in the arm rest.
The on-board disc in the CIC version offered storage for a navigation database, a rights database and a 12GB area for WMA encoded music to be loaded into the system via the central USB port in the armrest and/or CD unit.
Depending on further user purchased options music could be streamed via the USB interface supporting track/artwork using either a 32GB or less USB drive with MP3/WMA/AAC encoded information or an iPhone or similar functioning in iPod mode.
Base level versions had a 3.5mm jack socket in the centre arm rest.
Separate extended Bluetooth options offered similar functionality for Bluetooth connected devices.
Base level Bluetooth does not support music streaming, but aftermarket vendors do offer a software only upgrade.
Playlist support allowed iTunes/WMP playlists to be imported in addition to ones created on-board the car.
The base system had 4x15W, no external amp/DSP, a frequency response of 50Hz-14KHz and had the front two channels heavily biased.
The basse system drove two door mounted speakers of two channels with two subwoofers wired in parallel acroos them, with two rear shoulder position speakers fed by two channels with a marked high freqency cut off.
The reference curve /equalisation was built into the head unit and can be altered with BMW software to the 'hi-fi' flat profile.
The latter two units had off-board DSP/amps rated at 2x40W/4x25W and 2x70W/4x25w respectively with frequency responses of 40Hz-20 KHz and 30 Hz-20KHz. It looks like those were the RMS power figures not the sexy marketing peak figures.
The off-board amp versions had their equalisation / reference curves embedded in the amps themselves, ie the head units provided linear outputs.
The base system drove 6 speakers in the E89, the Hi-Fi drove 11 speakers and the Top-Fi drove 14 speakers as shown in this graphic.
A simple way to assess which unit was fitted is to shine a torch into the tweeter speaker area set in next to the A pillar. If there is no tweeter present then the system is a base level version.
Popping the speaker cover of the rear central speaker between the two seats will reveal the two speakers of the 677 version and/or popping the centre speaker cover on the dash will show a separate tweeter if the 677 version is fitted.
Some of the wiring to the channels seemed to be unusual compared to lounge type Hi-Fi set-ups, e.g. on the Hi-Fi version both foot well woofers were driven off one channel. The Hi-Fi version was described as 6 channels but on the E89 the unit drove 8 channels!
Similarly the high end version described as 9 channels drove 10 channels in the E89. The user could access the DSP setup in the 677 but not in the 676 where there were simple fader/tone/balance options only.
The speakers were of different quality levels in the various versions, e.g. the door mid-range was of lower quality in the base version. Digital signal processing (DSP) was heavily used and tailored to compensate for the cabin audio dynamics and the various speakers /amplification attributes.
The speakers all use a BMW mounting hole format that is unique, again an issue if trying to fit non BMW orientated speakers.
Because of the channel mapping and DSP programming, a 676 /677 unit from one BMW model may well not work in an E89 without sophisticated BMW factory tool reprogramming.
Communications between the head units and the 676 amp was via conventional audio cables, the 677 unit used a fibre optical link.
Voltage levels for audio signalling used a BMW ‘standard’ of 2.5volts versus the normal standard of 600mv which can cause issues when fitting alternative amps.
An additional complication arose with the introduction of the N20 engine versions in most markets, the use of BMW’s Active Sound Design (ASD) which was an inline amp/DSP that generated artificial engine sounds into the speaker systems, based on throttle/RPM/top up or down/Sports mode sensors irrespective of whether the radio/CD was turned on or off. In the E89 it is not user possible to defeat/adjust the unit. Removing the unit disables the rest of the audio /amp subsystems.
ASD unit in N20 versions, box to the left, other box is onboard GSM unit
The ASD also injects noise and distortion into the audio system so ideally needs to be bypassed with any substantial audio upgrade, either by re-routing the relevant wires or by fitting a bypass harness.
https://technicpnp.com/product/asd-bypass-harness/
Audison also now provide an ASD defeat harness at a mcuh cheaper price..£10 ish available in the UK direct.
This system is not related to the mechanical exhaust valve fitted to the N20 variants as well.
AFTERMARKET OPTIONS
There are no simple, cheap options!
Due to the high level of integration into other on-board car subsystems most changes end up either cosmetically or operationally compromised or as expensive upgrades.
The other obvious point is that users are notoriously fickle about their audio preferences and their cosmetic and operational tolerances and predilections. One person’s bass is another’s boom.
Listening to music in an E89 especially top down is a challenging environed for accurate music reproduction!
If you have the 677 version then it’s going to be very expensive (over £2,000) to gain a substantial improvement.
The base version in most people’s estimation is poor and needs upgrading.
Starting at the easiest lowest point.
Some owners have enjoyed noticeable improvements by using BMW Mini door speakers in place of the OE versions. If using a ‘premium’ version of a Mini speaker compared to a base level version in an E89 it’s possible to see how that works. Similarly a higher spec tweeter from a Mini may offer better special imagery as well. Prices for a pair of Mini speakers could be around £25-£50.
Because BMW used their own layout of screw holes and pattern to the speaker frame most standard sized speakers won't line up. There are a number of suppliers who sell adapter rings or the rings and speakers to get around this problem.
Next up is replacing the OE mid-range door /rear speakers and tweeters with OE compatible and tweaked versions from Eton, Audison and Focal which have brought good results. Figure on around £150-£200 for a pair of mid range speakers.
https://www.eton-gmbh.com/en/products/car-hifi/upgrade-audio/bmw-upgrade/
https://www.audison.eu/news/the-perfect-audio-system-upgrade-designed-for-your-bmw/
These are plug and play and work well with the existing 676/677 amps.
There is an issue on the E89 door speakers in that the plastic mounting tray for the speaker that also acts as water shield to top water cooming from the window side to the speaker is to shallow to accomodate the larger magnets of Eton and some other replacement speakers, in this case drilling out the centre is a solution, otherwise the speaker is distorted as its screwed down causing temporary ifnot permanent damage / poor sound..
The next two stages are either to upgrade the foot well woofers and/or the rear bulkhead subwoofers. With the 676 amp at this stage you will have run out of steam so this upgrade usually goes with new amplifiers too! The foot well woofers usually need custom adapter plates due to the unique nature of these woofers.
Again Eton and others provide almost OE fitment amplifiers, however due to the unique E89 speakers and wiring these fall short on plug n play and need a fair degree of skill and electrical knowledge. The rear sub-woofers are a major physical headache to get to, to replace as the rear bullhead needs to be almost completely dismantled first. Figure on around £350-£400 for subwoofers and £200 for woofers,
The final stage is to replace the OE amp with a more powerful DSP and amp. Again Audison and Audiotec Fischer provide options.
https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/match/amplifiers/up-7bmw
Match 7 DSP/amp with 7 power amp channels plus 1 extra channel for driving sub woofer amp (of many permutations)
Figure on £600-£1,500 for these amps.
The US supplied Bavsound is a re-branded earlier Audoitec Fischer model..
Again, these are not for the faint hearted as the DSP aspect needs serious work to setup, baseline and adjust, the unique E89 wiring harness means some cutting and shutting for the Audiotec Fischer, the latest Audison version gets around the problem by ignoring the footwell woofers unless you start with the basic car unit in which case they wire them in parallel with another set of speakers..
Some people have tried to simply splice in an off the shelf amp, but because of DSP issues and logic wiring and signal levels these have not always been successful.
A common step in many other cars is replacing the head unit with an off the shelf unit from Alpine/JVC/Pioneer etc,, however as the unit is tailored and non-DIN compliant, plus all the logic and power control is challenging, although there are adapter cables, it’s a brave step for most and cosmetically the car struggles to retain its cabin interior looks.
There are now some Android based units that hold promise,non AFAIK offer a fold down option but there are some that appear to be suitable if you either have already a CIC unit or the folding cubby shelf. Audio quality is open to judjement but gadget score is high!
See.. https://hifimaxnavi.com/
When using signal sources the onboard CD player is the highest quality, followed by the USB fed device assuming the external source is capable..as an aside iPhones have some of the best music playback circuitry around!
USB sticks can be played back from the central armrest USB or devices like iPhones are supported through an iPod look alike interface.
USB artwork and track information is stored internally with the CIC unit.
Bluetooth is next, BMW does not support aptX so compared to CD/USB feed the quality is poorer.
Using USB/Bluetooth allows artwork to be rendered on the CIC screen and playback/track search/ volume control from the steering wheel controls.
Finally for those that have the CIC system you can load music into that unit for playback, it's stored in a poor version of WMA with low bit rate so is the poorest quality.
The 3.5mm jack plug provides a reasonable source but lacks any ability to control the media from the car.
Music can be loaded vis USB or CD into the intenal hard disc of the CIC unit,however storage space is very limited and a very aggressive compression algorrthm is used resulting in poor quality playback.
BMW E89 AUDIO SYSTEMS
The E89 audio systems were largely a carry-over from the then normal range of BMW audio systems offered across the BMW/Mini range and reflected the then current packaging. There weren’t many changes over the production run. There were a perplexing number of variations in user options which often results now in second owners not quite able to manage their music in the way they prefer.
There were 3 basic systems, not all were offered in all markets.
Using the Z4 E89 names there were:
BMW Professional Stereo aka BMW Base (not offered in US)
BMW Business Speaker Package aka BMW Hi-Fi aka 676 option
BMW Professional Speaker Package aka BMW Top-Fi aka HK aka Logic 7 aka 677 option
676 amp showing 42 pin connectorAll versions used two head units that looked like a single ‘DIN’ type panel but were in fact much larger modular boxes that could hold a variety of sub systems including CD player, GPS, hard drive, DAB/Sirius-XM/TV tuners, one version was used for the non-pop up screen version (BMW Professional RAD2) and the pop up screen version (Car Information Computer, CIC aka BMW Professional Navigation).
These were connected optionally to the Bluetooth, USB and 3.5mm jack plugs in the arm rest plus the built in off-board GSM phone /data system (in the boot) and optional user GSM phones, optionally in a cradle in the arm rest.
The on-board disc in the CIC version offered storage for a navigation database, a rights database and a 12GB area for WMA encoded music to be loaded into the system via the central USB port in the armrest and/or CD unit.
Depending on further user purchased options music could be streamed via the USB interface supporting track/artwork using either a 32GB or less USB drive with MP3/WMA/AAC encoded information or an iPhone or similar functioning in iPod mode.
Base level versions had a 3.5mm jack socket in the centre arm rest.
Separate extended Bluetooth options offered similar functionality for Bluetooth connected devices.
Base level Bluetooth does not support music streaming, but aftermarket vendors do offer a software only upgrade.
Playlist support allowed iTunes/WMP playlists to be imported in addition to ones created on-board the car.
The base system had 4x15W, no external amp/DSP, a frequency response of 50Hz-14KHz and had the front two channels heavily biased.
The basse system drove two door mounted speakers of two channels with two subwoofers wired in parallel acroos them, with two rear shoulder position speakers fed by two channels with a marked high freqency cut off.
The reference curve /equalisation was built into the head unit and can be altered with BMW software to the 'hi-fi' flat profile.
The latter two units had off-board DSP/amps rated at 2x40W/4x25W and 2x70W/4x25w respectively with frequency responses of 40Hz-20 KHz and 30 Hz-20KHz. It looks like those were the RMS power figures not the sexy marketing peak figures.
The off-board amp versions had their equalisation / reference curves embedded in the amps themselves, ie the head units provided linear outputs.
The base system drove 6 speakers in the E89, the Hi-Fi drove 11 speakers and the Top-Fi drove 14 speakers as shown in this graphic.
A simple way to assess which unit was fitted is to shine a torch into the tweeter speaker area set in next to the A pillar. If there is no tweeter present then the system is a base level version.
Popping the speaker cover of the rear central speaker between the two seats will reveal the two speakers of the 677 version and/or popping the centre speaker cover on the dash will show a separate tweeter if the 677 version is fitted.
Some of the wiring to the channels seemed to be unusual compared to lounge type Hi-Fi set-ups, e.g. on the Hi-Fi version both foot well woofers were driven off one channel. The Hi-Fi version was described as 6 channels but on the E89 the unit drove 8 channels!
Similarly the high end version described as 9 channels drove 10 channels in the E89. The user could access the DSP setup in the 677 but not in the 676 where there were simple fader/tone/balance options only.
The speakers were of different quality levels in the various versions, e.g. the door mid-range was of lower quality in the base version. Digital signal processing (DSP) was heavily used and tailored to compensate for the cabin audio dynamics and the various speakers /amplification attributes.
The speakers all use a BMW mounting hole format that is unique, again an issue if trying to fit non BMW orientated speakers.
Because of the channel mapping and DSP programming, a 676 /677 unit from one BMW model may well not work in an E89 without sophisticated BMW factory tool reprogramming.
Communications between the head units and the 676 amp was via conventional audio cables, the 677 unit used a fibre optical link.
Voltage levels for audio signalling used a BMW ‘standard’ of 2.5volts versus the normal standard of 600mv which can cause issues when fitting alternative amps.
An additional complication arose with the introduction of the N20 engine versions in most markets, the use of BMW’s Active Sound Design (ASD) which was an inline amp/DSP that generated artificial engine sounds into the speaker systems, based on throttle/RPM/top up or down/Sports mode sensors irrespective of whether the radio/CD was turned on or off. In the E89 it is not user possible to defeat/adjust the unit. Removing the unit disables the rest of the audio /amp subsystems.
ASD unit in N20 versions, box to the left, other box is onboard GSM unit
The ASD also injects noise and distortion into the audio system so ideally needs to be bypassed with any substantial audio upgrade, either by re-routing the relevant wires or by fitting a bypass harness.
https://technicpnp.com/product/asd-bypass-harness/
Audison also now provide an ASD defeat harness at a mcuh cheaper price..£10 ish available in the UK direct.
This system is not related to the mechanical exhaust valve fitted to the N20 variants as well.
AFTERMARKET OPTIONS
There are no simple, cheap options!
Due to the high level of integration into other on-board car subsystems most changes end up either cosmetically or operationally compromised or as expensive upgrades.
The other obvious point is that users are notoriously fickle about their audio preferences and their cosmetic and operational tolerances and predilections. One person’s bass is another’s boom.
Listening to music in an E89 especially top down is a challenging environed for accurate music reproduction!
If you have the 677 version then it’s going to be very expensive (over £2,000) to gain a substantial improvement.
The base version in most people’s estimation is poor and needs upgrading.
Starting at the easiest lowest point.
Some owners have enjoyed noticeable improvements by using BMW Mini door speakers in place of the OE versions. If using a ‘premium’ version of a Mini speaker compared to a base level version in an E89 it’s possible to see how that works. Similarly a higher spec tweeter from a Mini may offer better special imagery as well. Prices for a pair of Mini speakers could be around £25-£50.
Because BMW used their own layout of screw holes and pattern to the speaker frame most standard sized speakers won't line up. There are a number of suppliers who sell adapter rings or the rings and speakers to get around this problem.
Next up is replacing the OE mid-range door /rear speakers and tweeters with OE compatible and tweaked versions from Eton, Audison and Focal which have brought good results. Figure on around £150-£200 for a pair of mid range speakers.
https://www.eton-gmbh.com/en/products/car-hifi/upgrade-audio/bmw-upgrade/
https://www.audison.eu/news/the-perfect-audio-system-upgrade-designed-for-your-bmw/
These are plug and play and work well with the existing 676/677 amps.
There is an issue on the E89 door speakers in that the plastic mounting tray for the speaker that also acts as water shield to top water cooming from the window side to the speaker is to shallow to accomodate the larger magnets of Eton and some other replacement speakers, in this case drilling out the centre is a solution, otherwise the speaker is distorted as its screwed down causing temporary ifnot permanent damage / poor sound..
The next two stages are either to upgrade the foot well woofers and/or the rear bulkhead subwoofers. With the 676 amp at this stage you will have run out of steam so this upgrade usually goes with new amplifiers too! The foot well woofers usually need custom adapter plates due to the unique nature of these woofers.
Again Eton and others provide almost OE fitment amplifiers, however due to the unique E89 speakers and wiring these fall short on plug n play and need a fair degree of skill and electrical knowledge. The rear sub-woofers are a major physical headache to get to, to replace as the rear bullhead needs to be almost completely dismantled first. Figure on around £350-£400 for subwoofers and £200 for woofers,
The final stage is to replace the OE amp with a more powerful DSP and amp. Again Audison and Audiotec Fischer provide options.
https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/match/amplifiers/up-7bmw
Match 7 DSP/amp with 7 power amp channels plus 1 extra channel for driving sub woofer amp (of many permutations)
Figure on £600-£1,500 for these amps.
The US supplied Bavsound is a re-branded earlier Audoitec Fischer model..
Again, these are not for the faint hearted as the DSP aspect needs serious work to setup, baseline and adjust, the unique E89 wiring harness means some cutting and shutting for the Audiotec Fischer, the latest Audison version gets around the problem by ignoring the footwell woofers unless you start with the basic car unit in which case they wire them in parallel with another set of speakers..
Some people have tried to simply splice in an off the shelf amp, but because of DSP issues and logic wiring and signal levels these have not always been successful.
A common step in many other cars is replacing the head unit with an off the shelf unit from Alpine/JVC/Pioneer etc,, however as the unit is tailored and non-DIN compliant, plus all the logic and power control is challenging, although there are adapter cables, it’s a brave step for most and cosmetically the car struggles to retain its cabin interior looks.
There are now some Android based units that hold promise,non AFAIK offer a fold down option but there are some that appear to be suitable if you either have already a CIC unit or the folding cubby shelf. Audio quality is open to judjement but gadget score is high!
See.. https://hifimaxnavi.com/
When using signal sources the onboard CD player is the highest quality, followed by the USB fed device assuming the external source is capable..as an aside iPhones have some of the best music playback circuitry around!
USB sticks can be played back from the central armrest USB or devices like iPhones are supported through an iPod look alike interface.
USB artwork and track information is stored internally with the CIC unit.
Bluetooth is next, BMW does not support aptX so compared to CD/USB feed the quality is poorer.
Using USB/Bluetooth allows artwork to be rendered on the CIC screen and playback/track search/ volume control from the steering wheel controls.
Finally for those that have the CIC system you can load music into that unit for playback, it's stored in a poor version of WMA with low bit rate so is the poorest quality.
The 3.5mm jack plug provides a reasonable source but lacks any ability to control the media from the car.
Music can be loaded vis USB or CD into the intenal hard disc of the CIC unit,however storage space is very limited and a very aggressive compression algorrthm is used resulting in poor quality playback.
