Rear Speakers...

I'll chip in with my 2p's worth. Not really relevent cos I got Pro Nav and Professional sound upgrade (because I know from previous experience that retrofitting to BMW can be an arse!).

anyway, I read this thread last night and when in the car today, I played with the fader - when I moved it to the rear, the volume was very low, similar to what you describe.

On my sound settings (on the idrive...dont know if you have the same on the stereo headunit) I have an option called "Surround". I ticked this, and the rear came too life! The volume was fine and now I have what you would expect.

I wonder if your cars have anything similar? I've seen Andrew's posts about the technical reasons, but that went over my head!
 
Maniac said:
I doubt it, its likely a hardware thing as part of the head unit...
Click to expand...

I looked through the long long list of radio part numbers on realoem.

For a Feb 2012 build date with USB Audio (all UK spec cars have it now) There are two part numbers. One for cars with Professional HiFi and one for all the rest.

UK cars all have the "Professional" head unit now. Or at least I think they do. Ours does.

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=LL32&mospid=53585&btnr=65_2250&hg=65&fg=05


Hmmmm. I'm not in the mood to go hacking my head unit.


On the + side, Base and Business audio use the same head unit. But both have nothing but midrange speakers on the rears.
 
Update:

Looks like the head unit limits the rear channel band width in hardware (ick)

New plan:

Stage 1: Add tweeters in the front doors
Stage 2: Blaupunkt THA 475 Plug and Play amplifier and upgrade all four drop-in mid ranges.
Stage 3: Upgrade kick panel woofers using part number 65139192367

Worth investigating adding a series inductor to the kick panel woofers. It could be the woofer is designed to not need one, or there could be one included with the part.
 
Right what we need now is a costing exercise, someone to write a detailed DIY instruction and a willing participant to be the trend setting pioneer (No pun intended) and go do it...

Simple really... :thumbsup:

List of volunteers :o :tumbleweed:
 
kevinmarkwhite said:
I'll chip in with my 2p's worth. Not really relevent cos I got Pro Nav and Professional sound upgrade (because I know from previous experience that retrofitting to BMW can be an arse!).

anyway, I read this thread last night and when in the car today, I played with the fader - when I moved it to the rear, the volume was very low, similar to what you describe.

On my sound settings (on the idrive...dont know if you have the same on the stereo headunit) I have an option called "Surround". I ticked this, and the rear came too life! The volume was fine and now I have what you would expect.

I wonder if your cars have anything similar? I've seen Andrew's posts about the technical reasons, but that went over my head!
Click to expand...

I have the same system as you Kevin but no Idrive. I do have a setting called Dolby though.

Without Dolby turned on my rear speakers are also rather quiet, the subs more so than the central rear speaker and the rear speakers directly behind your ears. I will try the system faded to rear with the dolby option ticked and see how that fairs..

I think the sound is better without the dolby on though, especially with vocals. It seems crisper somehow.
 
Yeah, it is the surround that does it. When I posted earlier, I had only read the 1st 2 pages, so missed the description.

The comment about soundstage being in front makes sense as well, as that is where it would be at a concert etc.

Must admit though, I've had mine on today playing deadmou5 and aerosmith and had it quite loud. I quite liked the sound coming slightly from behind, and I think it was clear enough to hear new things in the music. Cant wait to get my Satriani in the car!

Will have to experiment I guess with surround on and off. I want the ability to push it hard without distortion, and if surround is off, do you still get the rear subs?

TBH, I was expecting some pre-sets for the equaliser, instead I just have a screen with lots of slide bars on it for different frequencies, which is not something that means much to me!
 
I have been out this evening to have a little play around with the sound set-up, took a USB stick with a variety of different genres all mp3 and ripped at 320kbps to test the wider gambit of what might be listened to.

I started with some classic 80s tracks and moved up from there...first off I adjusted the various tone levels, bass, treble etc. trying to improve the depth and clarity. Using Massive Attack (Collected) as reference I then used the fader and faded everything to the rear pair of speakers, no miracle occurred, they still sounded pretty weak. I then had an epiphany moment, as I moved the fader back to the neutral position quite a bit of bass and mid tone moved forward however I got some really sweet highs from the rears, with them positioned high up near the ear it was perfect...I played around some more until I got a balance that suited, faded to the rear +5 works for me. The only thing is the volume needs to be cranked up but it does give a pretty good sound stage, much better than it was.

I have played around with many different tracks and managed to get them all to sound reasonable good, certainly improved over the disappointment of my experience last weekend, as mentioned the volume does need to be cranked up. I think this arrangement would really benefit from the tweeter install that Andrew has performed.

It's not perfect but it is better... :)
 
Kev R said:
Right what we need now is a costing exercise
Click to expand...

I'd already looked at most of it.

I paid £53 for a pair of tweeters.
Blaupunkt THA 475 £199 -- Adapter Cable £29. Extension Cable £40

Mid Range 65139240641 (from Buisness HiFi) 82.61€ but the shipping from that source was more than the speakers
Mid Range 65139141501 (from Professional HiFi) are 75.38€ each (yikes)

Woofer 65139192367 105€ for two including shipping.


The mid ranges are in a several BMWs and maybe MINI as well. Might be able to find a good set on eBay or from breakers.


, someone to write a detailed DIY instruction
Click to expand...
Maniac has already done that for the tweeters. The front mid ranges have to come out when you add the tweeters. THere are some threads out there for the Blaupunkt amplifier.



List of volunteers :o :tumbleweed:
Click to expand...

Not us. At least not this month :)
 
If that works as it says on the tin, that's well worth the money, that, along with a nice amp and new speakers would probably set you back a grand, but you'd have some serious sound. Makes the BMW option cost look like a bargain tho...
 
Been thinking about this, although slightly off topic cos I've got the surround option, so can have volume.

I set the surround option and get much louder volume in the car, but it doesn't seem to stress the front speakers as much, cos some of its coming from the rear, if that makes sense - no distortion last night, whereas previously the front left has distorted.

Now, people think that the surround option in turn reduces some of the sound quality, I'm not sure about that cos I'm not that much of an audiophile, but my question would be, that in a convertable car, with the roof down and all the other noises around (traffic etc), and the fact that in a car you are not in a true stereo position (i.e. in the centre) then with those compromises anyway, how much is it worth striving for perfection?

Last night I had the roof down, doing 60 with traffic and the stereo was loud enough, but with the wind buffering I dont know how much I would be able to appreciate perfect audio?

Regarding the module that Andrew has found....that is why I went for the Pro speaker package, cos I know from other BMW's that to upgrade the audio can be a pain and I like things integrated and dont want to be doing additional installs (one of the reasons for passing on the smarttop module, even though I would like its features).

But for those of you in this situation, then it is looking promising that there are solutions.
 
kevinmarkwhite said:
Last night I had the roof down, doing 60 with traffic and the stereo was loud enough, but with the wind buffering I dont know how much I would be able to appreciate perfect audio?
Click to expand...

You can't. In any case, I don't want a sound system that can overpower the top down 60mph noise levels. Listening to music that loud long term can cause hearing damage. Been there, done that and I want to save what I have left.

Top up is another matter. The tweeters weren't expensive and go a long way to improving the top-up sound quality.
 
I do find... top down.. that audio is appreciably better with the windows up. Taking the windows down as well as the top, drops off a lot of the power and frequencies.
 
Yeah, I find the wind buffeting is less with the windows up.

With the roof up I can see it is a different story as more of the "outside" noises are blocked out.
 
I think actually that the windows up means sound is deflected back at you from the opposing sides. When the windows are down, the sound goes literally straight out of the window!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Upgrading speakers - especially the rear, behind the headrest ones
Replies
1
Views
306
caius
caius
Lynchy
Rear Speakers
Replies
4
Views
2K
Lynchy
Lynchy
U
Z4 E85 Rear Bass Speakers and Grilles
Replies
11
Views
324
Umfaan
U
C
Z4 rear sub woofer speakers grill part
Replies
0
Views
191
chemical.equal277
C
R
How to access rear midrange and footwell speakers?
Replies
1
Views
247
Darkangelv2
Darkangelv2
Back
Top Bottom