[MarkAndrew]

Hi I've recently bought a 17 plate 335d which is cursed by the base stereo system. I'm looking to upgrade it and wondered if anyone else had an experiences they could share/ Recommendations etc.
Has anyone managed to import Bavsound to the UK or is there something better to be done?
Thanks in advance.

[smiffy]

I too had the dreaded base system in my 65 plate F31 but didn't want to spend loads on any fancy system. Decided to just upgrade the front door speakers and add a couple of tweeters. Went for the Eton B100W 2 way Components and soft dome tweeters. These cost me £150 last October through Amazon so was a no brainer at the time compared to Bavsound or Focal. I note Amazon sell these now for £300 !! I assume your base system like mine, doesn't have the facility to add the tweeters. I also bought new from local dealer two 'sealings' which accommodate the tweeters behind pre-inscribed Harmon Kardon logo grills.
Pt Nos. B51.33.7.323.509 and 510. These were £23 each. All-in-all BIG improvement in sound for the meager outlay. Ok, not quite the sound you will get with a decent amplifier and sub-woofer setup but for under £200 it's good enough for me! and easy(ish) DIY.
Take a look at acr_caraudio_store (Germany) on ebay - goodish price.

[teaston]

Most people go for the Gladen kit, £399 for mids, tweeters and underseat woofers:

http://www.teamspb.co.uk/GladenONEBM...adenone201.htm

They work best with an amp, but someone did run them off the base hu and said they still made a big improvement!

[Torque of the Devil]

Focal do direct swap door speakers that will transform the sound, you just replace the front two, thats enough trust me

[andrew.webber]

I went a similar way and just replaced the front door mids and added tweeters using the Rainbow component kit.

I looked at bavsound but they were difficult to get hold off and expensive really.

The rainbow speakers made a good enough difference for me and you can get them now for about £150 I think.

I am not very good at DIY but fitted them myself - getting someone to do it added about £75 - £100 to the cost

HTH
Andrew

[MarkAndrew]

Originally Posted by smiffy

I too had the dreaded base system in my 65 plate F31 but didn't want to spend loads on any fancy system. Decided to just upgrade the front door speakers and add a couple of tweeters. Went for the Eton B100W 2 way Components and soft dome tweeters. These cost me £150 last October through Amazon so was a no brainer at the time compared to Bavsound or Focal. I note Amazon sell these now for £300 !! I assume your base system like mine, doesn't have the facility to add the tweeters. I also bought new from local dealer two 'sealings' which accommodate the tweeters behind pre-inscribed Harmon Kardon logo grills.
Pt Nos. B51.33.7.323.509 and 510. These were £23 each. All-in-all BIG improvement in sound for the meager outlay. Ok, not quite the sound you will get with a decent amplifier and sub-woofer setup but for under £200 it's good enough for me! and easy(ish) DIY.
Take a look at acr_caraudio_store (Germany) on ebay - goodish price.

My local audio fitter has mentioned Eton Speakers ( the B100W) and putting tweeters in and the adding in an Audison Amp with DSP. £300 for the speakers and £500 for the amp fitted.
I cant bring myself to deconstruct the interior as i have the aluminium finish which is quite easy to dent apparently. So you rate the Eatons do you?

[MarkAndrew]

Originally Posted by andrew.webber

I went a similar way and just replaced the front door mids and added tweeters using the Rainbow component kit.

I looked at bavsound but they were difficult to get hold off and expensive really.

The rainbow speakers made a good enough difference for me and you can get them now for about £150 I think.

I am not very good at DIY but fitted them myself - getting someone to do it added about £75 - £100 to the cost

HTH
Andrew

Originally Posted by Torque of the Devil

Focal do direct swap door speakers that will transform the sound, you just replace the front two, thats enough trust me

Originally Posted by teaston

Most people go for the Gladen kit, £399 for mids, tweeters and underseat woofers:

http://www.teamspb.co.uk/GladenONEBM...adenone201.htm

They work best with an amp, but someone did run them off the base hu and said they still made a big improvement!

Originally Posted by smiffy

I too had the dreaded base system in my 65 plate F31 but didn't want to spend loads on any fancy system. Decided to just upgrade the front door speakers and add a couple of tweeters. Went for the Eton B100W 2 way Components and soft dome tweeters. These cost me £150 last October through Amazon so was a no brainer at the time compared to Bavsound or Focal. I note Amazon sell these now for £300 !! I assume your base system like mine, doesn't have the facility to add the tweeters. I also bought new from local dealer two 'sealings' which accommodate the tweeters behind pre-inscribed Harmon Kardon logo grills.
Pt Nos. B51.33.7.323.509 and 510. These were £23 each. All-in-all BIG improvement in sound for the meager outlay. Ok, not quite the sound you will get with a decent amplifier and sub-woofer setup but for under £200 it's good enough for me! and easy(ish) DIY.
Take a look at acr_caraudio_store (Germany) on ebay - goodish price.

I think the big problem is getting to hear each set of Speakers as having done a lot of research now it appears the BMW base system is universily acknowledged as being crap and there are a lot of solutions. Its just knowing what is best value for money and where to draw the line.
Thanks for all the responses.

[Wibbles]

you can retrofit the OEM Harman Kardon speakers & amp, just depends on how deep your pockets are.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by MarkAndrew

I think the big problem is getting to hear each set of Speakers as having done a lot of research now it appears the BMW base system is universily acknowledged as being crap and there are a lot of solutions. Its just knowing what is best value for money and where to draw the line.
Thanks for all the responses.

Gladen also do two way components for £239

http://www.teamspb.co.uk/mobile/Prod...denONE201comps

[MarkAndrew]

Originally Posted by wibbles

you can retrofit the OEM Harman Kardon speakers & amp, just depends on how deep your pockets are.

From what i read the cost involved in retrofitting HK could buy you something that sounds a whole lot better! I had looked at the Alpine retro fit but cant because of DSP on my car.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by MarkAndrew

From what i read the cost involved in retrofitting HK could buy you something that sounds a whole lot better! I had looked at the Alpine retro fit but cant because of DSP on my car.

You can easily remove the DSP by coding the head unit to BMW advanced system. The Alpine kit isn’t great for how much it costs, although it does mean your gongs and parking sensor beeps won’t get messed up.

[smiffy]

Originally Posted by MarkAndrew

My local audio fitter has mentioned Eton Speakers ( the B100W) and putting tweeters in and the adding in an Audison Amp with DSP. £300 for the speakers and £500 for the amp fitted.
I cant bring myself to deconstruct the interior as i have the aluminium finish which is quite easy to dent apparently. So you rate the Eatons do you?

I went for the Eatons purely based on reviews and price. There probably isn't a great deal of difference in sound between Eaton, Focal and Bavsound mids but the Eaton soft dome tweeters were appealing as I dislike harsh/squeaky top end which the Focal tweeters were apparently guilty of.

Whether you or your fitter does the install don't forget some sound deadening material!

[vadimo]

Originally Posted by teaston

Most people go for the Gladen kit, £399 for mids, tweeters and underseat woofers:

http://www.teamspb.co.uk/GladenONEBM...adenone201.htm

They work best with an amp, but someone did run them off the base hu and said they still made a big improvement!

used this brand on e46 immediate improvement and was well priced

[MarkAndrew]

Originally Posted by smiffy

I went for the Eatons purely based on reviews and price. There probably isn't a great deal of difference in sound between Eaton, Focal and Bavsound mids but the Eaton soft dome tweeters were appealing as I dislike harsh/squeaky top end which the Focal tweeters were apparently guilty of.

Whether you or your fitter does the install don't forget some sound deadening material!

id heard the same about focals and when demoing hifi speakers found them too harsh on the treble

[pdk42]

I had an F31 330d with the base audio and decided to upgrade by adding the Gladden speakers and Mosconi amp. It gave a massive improvement, but as I found later, it was the speakers that were the game changer.

The Gladden speakers are designed specifically for the BMW and will give you replacement subs and midrange units and also add tweeters, which are missing in the base install. It's a fiddly fit, especially the subs since you'll need to prise the old ones out of their housings and they're glued. You'll wreck the old speaker, but hopefully not the housings. For the tweeters you'll also need to buy new interior window trims/sails since the bare system has them blanked off.

However, you'll be into doing all this work whatever speakers you buy - and it is ESSENTIAL you change the speakers since, as I'll explain now, they are the weakest link.

I know this because I decided to sell the car a little after I did all this work. The thought of trying to refit the old speakers just seemed like to much hassle but since I was doing a trade-in the dealer wanted it as close to stock as possible so the amp had to go. As nice as I'd made the amp install, it was obvious if you removed the interior panel in the left of the load area that there was a big after market amp in there!

So, I decided to remove the amp and wire the HU direct to the Gladden speakers. I was amazed to find that the sound quality didn't suffer much at all. There was a little less bass and the volume wouldn't get to the same levels as the Mosconi, but it was still pretty good.

My advice would be to replace the speakers first and see what you think. If you feel you need more after that then add an amp.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by pdk42

I had an F31 330d with the base audio and decided to upgrade by adding the Gladden speakers and Mosconi amp. It gave a massive improvement, but as I found later, it was the speakers that were the game changer.

The Gladden speakers are designed specifically for the BMW and will give you replacement subs and midrange units and also add tweeters, which are missing in the base install. It's a fiddly fit, especially the subs since you'll need to prise the old ones out of their housings and they're glued. You'll wreck the old speaker, but hopefully not the housings. For the tweeters you'll also need to buy new interior window trims/sails since the bare system has them blanked off.

However, you'll be into doing all this work whatever speakers you buy - and it is ESSENTIAL you change the speakers since, as I'll explain now, they are the weakest link.

I know this because I decided to sell the car a little after I did all this work. The thought of trying to refit the old speakers just seemed like to much hassle but since I was doing a trade-in the dealer wanted it as close to stock as possible so the amp had to go. As nice as I'd made the amp install, it was obvious if you removed the interior panel in the left of the load area that there was a big after market amp in there!

So, I decided to remove the amp and wire the HU direct to the Gladden speakers. I was amazed to find that the sound quality didn't suffer much at all. There was a little less bass and the volume wouldn't get to the same levels as the Mosconi, but it was still pretty good.

My advice would be to replace the speakers first and see what you think. If you feel you need more after that then add an amp.

Yep the base speakers are absolute turd, paper cones, tiny magnets, rubbish! And no tweeters at all is just a joke!

[MarkAndrew]

Well I've just taken the first step and had some Eton B100Ws fitted. My god what a difference. Then I did a silly thing I listened to the fitter's system with a DSP amp fitted .................................

[smiffy]

Good aren't they!

[MarkAndrew]

Indeed they are ! The Credit Card is twitching

[vorphlack]

Just ordered limited edition of Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins from 2017 G11. Would like to fit in my old F30.

[matty81]

I had the base system so I had professionally fitted rainbow speakers, subs and tweeters, an Audisoon prima 8.9 amp with a DSP, the sound and timing was fully tuned by them, sounds incredible, wasn't cheap though 1600 but if you love good quality sound its worth it

[ted27longden]

Originally Posted by andrew.webber

I went a similar way and just replaced the front door mids and added tweeters using the Rainbow component kit.

I looked at bavsound but they were difficult to get hold off and expensive really.

The rainbow speakers made a good enough difference for me and you can get them now for about £150 I think.

I am not very good at DIY but fitted them myself - getting someone to do it added about £75 - £100 to the cost

HTH
Andrew

I also fitted the Rainbow speakers both in the front and back, straightforward plug-n-play install. IL-C4.2F mid and tweeter components in the front, and IL-X4F 2-way in the rear. As the base stereo is treble biased (it's factory coded to allow for the lack of tweeter), I also purchased decibel resistors to lower the level going to the new tweeters. The end result was night and day with the standard setup. I really wanted to go full BimmerTech, but the install with the base stereo loom was a step too far for me. And the cost was serious.