Speaker upgrade

[Chippie]

That should have read ‘ the head unit offloads the amplification duties to the external power amp’ but a fish finger buttie got in the way..

I could have droned on about impedance, damping factors, over driving Class AB amplifiers, harmonics, total harmonic distortion, linearity, power rail sagging, input noise, noise floors, ringing, Q, reactive circuits, transient response, inter modulation distortion, matching, phasing, time alignment, active vs passive crossovers, butterworth vs chebyzhev filters, pass band, octaves etc…but I didn’t…

Just about get impedance but the rest just went straight over my head and into the stratosphere

Was that the stratosphere…or maybe the ionosphere or the troposphere?

I’m afraid anything over 5’ 11 1/2” in old money is over my head

 

[Kiwi_Mike]

Also has anyone replaced their speakers with the Bimmertech Alpha One set up?

I have.

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=130069

Replaced all the mids and tweeters. Did it myself, pretty easy job. I'd recommend them, not the cheapest but they have free international delivery so made sense for me.

 

[Silverstar]

Here's how to setup the AMP once installed:

To correctly set the gain control of the amplifier to match that of the source (headunit) use the following setup routine:
• Turn the gain control to minimum on the amplifier.
• Ensure the bass boost on the headunt is set to 0 dB.
• Set all crossovers on the headunt ( if applicable) to flat and both bass and treble to zero.
• Turn up the source (headunit) to approx 3/4 volume.
• Very slowly turn up the gain on the amplifier until distortion can be heard in any of the speakers or until the volume reaches an uncomfortable listening level when this is reached turn the gain control down slightly.

The gain control is now set.
The setting of the crossover will depend on what kind of speaker you are installing.

Note: The smaller the speaker, the less bass it can handle, so for a larger speaker FULL would be preferred, and HPF for a smaller speaker..
By using the crossovers correctly you will not only lengthen the life of your speakers but you will also get better performance from them.

Since BMW do not show the volume level on the screen it's quite difficult to know what is 3/4 volume. When I did my install I asked Audio Control about this and they said in the case of BMW you can just turn the volume all the way up (speakers disconnected of course!) and then set the gains.

 

[BeardyJon]

Ordered a bunch of B&O speakers from aliexpress and did the upgrade myself today too. Pretty impressed with the build quality of the speakers and they sound good. I had the basic 6 speaker setup so the tweeters were very noticeable. Will take some getting used to but there’s a lot more volume available and the quality sounds clearer. £150 all in. I ended up buying 2 tweeters too many so probably could hve gotten all speakers needed for £100 ish. Amazing value given the prices bavsound & co charge for speaker upgrades (£1000-£2000).

 

[Deepseaskateboard]

I added the tweeters today.

Drivers side works ok, passenger side has no sound.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot, or an obvious fix?

I reset the eq, and then boosted treble.

Could it just be a non functioning speaker I wonder…

 

[BeardyJon]

Could try checking the balance? Or checking the connection of the tweeter cable making sure its plugged in properly.

 

[Roddy]

Ordered a bunch of Harmon Kardon speakers from aliexpress and did the upgrade myself today too. Pretty impressed with the build quality of the speakers and they sound good. I had the basic 6 speaker setup so the tweeters were very noticeable. Will take some getting used to but there’s a lot more volume available and the quality sounds clearer. £150 all in. I ended up buying 2 tweeters too many so probably could hve gotten all speakers needed for £100 ish. Amazing value given the prices bavsound & co charge for speaker upgrades (£1000-£2000).

You know they are fakes right? :wink:

 

[BeardyJon]

You know they are fakes right? :wink:

WHAT?!

 

[grannyknot]

I changed the 4 mid range and both tweeters for the knock off bang-olufsen from Aliexpress and they are a big improvement over the stock speakers. I know, doesn't make sense but like Beardy Jon says, the build quality is excellent, a fraction of the cost of Bavsound.

 

[AnubisZed]

I added the tweeters today.

Drivers side works ok, passenger side has no sound.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot, or an obvious fix?

I reset the eq, and then boosted treble.

Could it just be a non functioning speaker I wonder…

Could just be a bad speaker. I'd swap them over and see what happens

 

[AnubisZed]

You know they are fakes right? :wink:

WHAT?!

They may be fake, but they are good quality fakes

 

[BeardyJon]

They may be fake, but they are good quality fakes

Very! I've driven about a bit in the last few days with the roof down enjoying the weather and the tweeters make a massive difference to the high-end, and there's a ton more volume and just overall clarity from all the new speakers. WELL worth the upgrade even if they are knock offs. Just goes to show how terrible the basic BMW speakers are if cheap knock offs are THIS much better.

 

[AnubisZed]

They may be fake, but they are good quality fakes

Very! I've driven about a bit in the last few days with the roof down enjoying the weather and the tweeters make a massive difference to the high-end, and there's a ton more volume and just overall clarity from all the new speakers. WELL worth the upgrade even if they are knock offs. Just goes to show how terrible the basic BMW speakers are if cheap knock offs are THIS much better.

When i made the video i never thought for one minutethey were genuine, but then i did state that
Had mine in for over a year now and they are great, love them

 

[Deepseaskateboard]

I added the tweeters today.

Drivers side works ok, passenger side has no sound.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot, or an obvious fix?

I reset the eq, and then boosted treble.

Could it just be a non functioning speaker I wonder…

Could just be a bad speaker. I'd swap them over and see what happens

I really don’t want to take both door cards off again.

Couldn't have done it without your instructions tho!

I will have a look at the passenger side door again and see if I can get it to work!

 

[Roddy]

You know they are fakes right? :wink:

WHAT?!

They may be fake, but they are good quality fakes

Like my Rolex then :lol:

 

[Snowii]

guys have anyone done any of these upgrades to the 677 system? I have that in my Z4 and find the sound to be quite crappy

does the 677 have the same speakers (meaning same low quality) with the "lower" systems and then just added a few more of them (10 instead of 6) or is there any other difference?

thanks!

 

[B21]

guys have anyone done any of these upgrades to the 677 system? I have that in my Z4 and find the sound to be quite crappy

does the 677 have the same speakers (meaning same low quality) with the "lower" systems and then just added a few more of them (10 instead of 6) or is there any other difference?

thanks!

All 3 systems have different spec speakers ranging from utterly crap for the basic 6 speaker system through to just crap on 677..

Easiest win on 677 is upgraded mid range speakers..fronts, centre, rears, rear centre in that order plus uprated footwell woofers..those after the upgraded door and centre speakers..

 

[BeardyJon]

Anyone found a decent upgrade for the footwell woofers? Aliexpress didn't have any of those, only the big 8" woofers for behind the seats if you have those, and as far as I can tell from RealOEM etc is that the footwell woofers are different size & shape.

 

[B21]

Anyone found a decent upgrade for the footwell woofers? Aliexpress didn't have any of those, only the big 8" woofers for behind the seats if you have those, and as far as I can tell from RealOEM etc is that the footwell woofers are different size & shape.

Hertz, Fosgate plus the high end boys like Audiotec Fischer all do very good woofers…with most of them you have to make an adapter ring or buy one to allow normal 6 or 6.5 fit the odd bmw snap recess..

 

[birdy_z4]

guys have anyone done any of these upgrades to the 677 system? I have that in my Z4 and find the sound to be quite crappy

does the 677 have the same speakers (meaning same low quality) with the "lower" systems and then just added a few more of them (10 instead of 6) or is there any other difference?

thanks!

Upgraded front plus added tweeter, doors, pillars(also added tweeters) And added rear centre speaker and tweeter all from Ali and must say the sounds is much better and no amp change either