Shaddap you face: PH Blog
There's little love for BMW's Active Sound Design on PH; Dan takes matters into his own hands with the PH Fleet M4
Engine noise matters, especially in the turbo age. A sense of where you are in the rev range and what load you're putting on the engine through your choice of gear and throttle is the kind of nuance you depend upon, especially in a car like the M4 whose power delivery can be so abrupt. In the Golf the binary throttle and flat noise are merely an annoyance; it'll just grip and go. In the M4 it could mean the difference between sideways or straight ahead.
Why this effort to gag the engine? It's almost as if the Germans are ashamed of having to resort to turbos; in AMG's case it reads as a betrayal of the devotion to cubic capacity, in BMW's an enforced move from singing throttle bodies and zingy, high-revving motors. So they try and drown the turbos out, AMG with outrageous amounts of exhaust noise, M with 'Active Sound Design' through the speakers. The latter is apparently amplified 'real' engine noise but the electronic equivalent of sticking a piece of card in the spokes of your bike. And I stopped doing that when I was about eight years old.
Why so squeamish though? The Japanese positively encourage turbo noise, even when it 'replaces' cherished character like VTEC revviness. Check out the way the Civic Type R celebrates its forced induction in both sound and power delivery. I've said as much before but the noise of the classic Skyline twin-turbo straight-six is magnificent and something BMW would have done well to study before trying to stifle the M4's similarly configured motor.
Anyway. Fed up of the artificial blare from 'my' M4 and inspired by a post by PHer RossP in the thread following our comparison with the C63 I followed a link to Bimmerpost about how to disable Active Sound Design. Seemingly if your M3 or M4 has the optional Harman Kardon audio system - the PH Fleet M4 does - it's just a case of removing a plug from the standalone ASD amp. I say 'just' - the chap who posted the how-to on Bimmerpost skimmed over the fact for proper access you have to remove most of the boot liner. I managed it through a combination of skinned knuckles and swearing.
Now it's done I'm a very happy man. The angry, guttural cold start-up on the M4 has always sounded cool and though it's 'quieter' overall inside now the sound is much more natural and purely from the exhaust. It now sounds like a revvy straight-six M BMW, not a video game. I'm sure with an aftermarket exhaust it'd be even better. And nor does it bore into your head via the speakers when accelerating hard in Sport or Sport Plus mode. With the stereo off and on a cold or misty day you catch just a hint of turbo sound too. As a result I now feel much more connected to the car and my enjoyment of it is transformed.
We were at Brands last week and I did laps with ASD on and off which you can watch below; the difference is harder to detect on the vid than it is in real life but if you've got an M3 or M4 with the Harman Kardon stereo I'd suggest you at least try it. I won't be plugging it back in, for sure.
Dan
Vid here.
Photos: Tim Brown/Tom Begley/Dan
[Sources: Bimmerpost]
Mine is a late MY14, so perhaps by then BMW had decided it was a tad pointless & turned this feature down, as i've listened to my car on the move from every functional seat inside the car & heard it from many angles on the outside, however all i can hear are the actual noises the car's making from the front (engine) & rear (standard exhaust). When driving the car in her softest settings i hear next to no external noise & when i bury the naughty pedal i hear real noise.
This naturally has been tried & tested in many tunnels both home & abroad & of course with the required windows lowered & sunroof open & all i again hear is real noise reverberating off the tunnel walls. Now unless the F10 M5 has speakers on the outside to mimic & amplify sound, i can't see where/when this false noise appears?
My car does have the upgraded HK sound system so perhaps may try you're said unplug/play, but i'd before doing this be welcome of some explanation as to how/where/when this fakery occurs, as if it indeed does then perhaps my ears may be in need of a middle aged viagra like pick me up.
If you've not noticed it and it doesn't bother you then keep it that way I'd say!
Cheers,
Dan
Safe to assume I think much of this will apply to the M5 too. So, yes, the engine is louder from the outside if you're in Sport or Sport Plus or under specific throttle loadings. And there is a mechanical element to how the sound is enhanced, contrived or however you want to put it. Which is why by unplugging the ASD amp you can still hear a fair bit of exhaust noise from the inside, more so in Sport and Sport Plus. The important thing for me is that it sounds more natural, rather than some sort of CIA noise terror 'enhanced interrogation' technique.
Cheers,
Dan
It's a big lump of 4.4l V8 up front so although perhaps making a 3.0l 6 a touch more aural has some sense about it, why would you bother doing the same to an engine that sounds great in it's OEM form. I get numerous nods of appreciation when i tickle the throttle (normally in Comfort mode) & although i can clearly hear the external noises, they're hardly loud inside the car other than the pops/cracks which to a degree is the trick exhaust as mentioned above.
I will however hunt down this Amp & plug to see if on my car it's the same. If it is i'll unplug it to see if i notice any difference. Somehow i doubt this but it wouldn't be the 1st time i was wrong.
Main thing is if it's your car and you like it then bravo for that. But if you do have a fiddle let me know how you get on!
Cheers,
Dan
Totally agree with the deep enough sentiment. I'm positive it's not present when cruising at 80mph in Comfort mode & when 'playing' on/off track i'm having too much fun to give a toss what's coming out of the speakers & the Music system's always off when playing so perhaps that numbs some of the amplification. Another option is perhaps DMS coded it out & never mentioned it.
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