Improve poor sound quality on standard BMW business radio?

[wobblybox]

Hello all I am a new member of the forum and looking for some advice. I recently bought a 2010 Bmw 320d M-Sport touring automatic (great car) but with a few issues... Most annoyingly is the poor sound from the standard business radio and even worse sound from the auxiliary input, this appears to be a common complaint! I have got the auxiliary to sound bearable on audio books but music is still awful. Has anyone managed to overcome this?

I found this topic and wondered if anyone here has tried it out and either had a success or a smouldering heap on the drive

http://5series.net/forums/e60-discussion-2/aux-bas...

Has anyone upgraded their speakers (at a reasonable cost) and if so what's the best route to go? Should I replace the whole heap as in head unit etc? I do about 20k a year and music/audio books are important to me.

I had a 2004 1.9 tdi A4 sport and the audi concert system was 20 times the sound of the bmw... To be honest the A4 beats the beee emmm in a few areas but that's for another day.

Thank you for reading!

Edited by wobblybox on Tuesday 7th April 08:13

[Jedilai]

Must admit I am in same situation. I even came from a B6 Audi A4 but with the Bose sound system which for me was fantastic (I am sure there are much better out there).

I researched upgrading the E90 basic system and as I would rather stay OEM this is the obvious choice, a retrofit kit.

I cant put my finger on it but there is a part number for the whole lot. I think its about £700 and a cooperative parts dept at a main dealer should be helpful. As you can see it is relatively involved but importantly does not look any different (for me). I believe the sound quality is a big step up if not as good as equivalent premium OEM systems elsewhere.


There are lots of forum threads if you google 'E90 alpine upgrade' or similar. e.g...
https://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8...

My complaint has been with the overall sound quality and I have never had any issues with the 3.5mm aux jack being noticeably poor.

[texasjohn]

You want the Mosconi / Gladen kit. Upgrading speakers in isolation is not great as the stereo doesn't have the power to drive them.

Much better than the Alpine and easier to install, no cutting wires and just plug n play.

http://www.monsteraudiodesign.co.uk/shop/bmw-plug-...

I have an unused kit for sale, like the one linked above; bought for an E90 and sold the car before installing it.

[wobblybox]

Ooooooof! £700??? Holy moly that's a bit excessive.. I was hoping around £300! Yeah sold an 04 A4 and got a 2010 Bmw with a ticking time bomb timing chain and a sh't stereo! I would have thought bmw as a premium brand would have had a better standard stereo. I guess I could buy a good set of earphones..? In work so a quick reply thank for taking the time to respond.

[Jedilai]

texasjohn said:

You want the Mosconi / Gladen kit. Upgrading speakers in isolation is not great as the stereo doesn't have the power to drive them.

Much better than the Alpine and easier to install, no cutting wires and just plug n play.

http://www.monsteraudiodesign.co.uk/shop/bmw-plug-...

I have an unused kit for sale, like the one linked above; bought for an E90 and sold the car before installing it.

Thanks for this. Looks a little more up my street regarding cabling abilities. OP I don't think there is any particularly 'cheap' way round this problem.

[westmoorfarm]

I have a 1 series of approximately the same vintage, and like you was appalled by the audio quality (muddy, muffled, wooden) - speakers made out of wet toilet roll would have sounded better. I looked at a number of options and most were just too much money or work. In the end I went for some plug and play upgraded speakers for the front which are designed specifically for BMW 1 and 3 series from a French company (but don't hold that against them) called Focal, bought on-line for about £200 and fitted them myself in about 1/2 a day. The necessary tools and instructions are supplied as part of the kit. Here's a link...

http://www.focal.com/en/dedicated-driverspeaker-ki...

The only difficulty was fitting the provided speaker pods for the tweeters (as I didn't have the stock tweeter fittings in my car) but that was more a matter of getting the positioning correct rather than any technical problem.

I have to say I am extremely impressed with the results, even with the stock head unit, producing a warm, clear and defined sound with great detail. Obviously with the stock head unit's low power they are not going to rattle the neighbours windows, but to me they provide great sound at reasonable to loud'ish listening levels.

[Stu R]

Focal are very good indeed.

[wobblybox]

Stu R said:

Focal are very good indeed.

Excellent! That is exactly what I am looking for and we'll within my (secretive) budget as the dame will slap the sh't out of me for spending more money..! I'll certainly be researching your suggestion and it's great to get a 1st hand recommendation from someone who has carried out a conversion. Thank you.! I'll let you know how I get on.

[Jedilai]

I have learned there are two focal options, both around the £200 mark. One with separate tweeters one without. I note the one with tweeters has the housings supplied but looking at the video I am not sure I like the look so would probably prefer the look at least of the simpler coaxial non separate tweeter option.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCZnAfEo-oE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC_EvPrEGms

[Chutney]

Stu R said:

Focal are very good indeed.

Agree. Replacing the front pair (including door tweeters) in my F10 helped a bit. Real transformation was when I replaced the centre speaker.

[Sohlman]

I fitted a huge system on my e90 updating the basic system. I changed front speakers and fitted tweeters in doors, under seats, rear speakers and put in an aftermarket head unit with two amplifiers and a hidden subwoofer in the boot floor. The problem is it costs a fortune, but did sound amazing.

Many problems on e90. The main one being its 4x15w amplification. The second being the factory radio eq settings that limit frequencies. The third being the fibre optics that makes adding amplification difficult.

If you want you just change the door speakers I have some unused MB Quart OEM fit speakers. They will give you far more clarity to your mids and high's. I paid £120 and was going to fit in the rear, but the rear speakers are different so did not fit. A normal 4" with one ear removed is perfect. Feel free to make me an offer. These are equivalent to the alpine upgrade.

Changing the under seats really starts to improve things, but you need amplification and for this you needs a dsp to overcome eq settings which will add over £1000 to do it properly.

Hope this helps

[ftypical]

Surely the main problem is that you're trying to achieve good sound quality in a car.

This is akin to mounting your home hifi speakers on top of the washing machine and running it on the spin cycle...

[Russ Sims]

texasjohn said:

You want the Mosconi / Gladen kit. Upgrading speakers in isolation is not great as the stereo doesn't have the power to drive them.

Much better than the Alpine and easier to install, no cutting wires and just plug n play.

http://www.monsteraudiodesign.co.uk/shop/bmw-plug-...

I have an unused kit for sale, like the one linked above; bought for an E90 and sold the car before installing it.

Hi john,

Do you still have this kit for sale? If so, is it the standard gladen kit or the extreme?

I could be interested in buying it from you.

Thanks,

Russ

[phil_cardiff]

I don't currently have tweeters, would it be difficult to add them if I bought the focal kit and necessary trim?

[justanother5tar]

ftypical said:

Surely the main problem is that you're trying to achieve good sound quality in a car.

This is akin to mounting your home hifi speakers on top of the washing machine and running it on the spin cycle...

Far from it. The main problem is BMW audio is absolutely terrible compared to everything else.

In mine (granted its an E46, not an E90) the stereo is so much worse than even the standard stereo in my old Fiesta ST. That's a car that was half as expensive when new.

And finding an aftermarket headunit that doesn't look massively out of place is a chore in itself. Never mind all the extra work to mount the speakers to the doors properly, as aposed to the door card which BMW did from the factory.

[ftypical]

Thinking back to VWs of the past (2 speakers mounted in the pods attached to the doorcards, another 2 in the rear parcel shelf supports), decent speakers from Focal and MBQuart made a huge difference to the sound quality. But, my expectations were not high for the reasons mentioned in my previous post. These were small speakers though (5 1/4" and 6x4") that didn't need to be bolted to a lump of concrete in order to work properly.

[beanbag]

I've gone for the wildcard route and bought a Bavsound Stage 1 upgrade.

No amp but the speakers are all correctly filtered and it includes tweeters and door trims to attach them properly.

The kit consists of front replacement drivers, tweeters and rear replacement drivers and the appropriate filters.

Total cost was £360 including delivery from the US and they also offer a 60 day money back guarantee and will also pay for the return postage!

They are also planning a subwoofer upgrade and also a stage 2 (amplifier) upgrade so I'll take each step one at a time.

Just an option!