Just installed the alpine upgrade to day here are my review.
The kit is very straight forward and easy to install. with plenty of guidelines on the Internet to help me fit the kit. it took me 4 hours to fit as one of the door card was being a bugger to line up.
It is worth fitting this kit your self as it's every simple for beginners like me.
the kit I was using was BMW part number is 65410445684 pre 09. cost £300 and came with tweeter housing deal I think.
so this is my score of the system .
standered basic system no tweeters pro head unit.... 5.5 /10
"sounds muddy and poor BMW can to much better than this so don't no why they didn't??"
alpine hifi upgrade with pro head unit 6.8 /10
" The sound wasn't that grate but was much better over than the standard system but it need something else but I couldn't put my finger on it. the sound was to bright and bassy"
After some time living with the alpine upgrade I found it to harsh and was really disappointed with the kit. the sound was ear splitting to high. playing with the bass + treble + fade didn't really make much difference.
I work with a lot of high end home speakers so I would like to think I no my sounds .the alpine kit seemed unbalanced and midd's and treble where to high.
After a lot of searching on the net I found that it might help the alpine kit if I get the pro head unit re coded...which puzzled me as my car is a 2008 and say's this kit does not need coding.well I manage to find a coder in the northeast UK.. prestigegermancars.co.uk
here is my review after coding....
Alpine hifi upgrade with pro head unit + re code.. 8.9 /10
"Wow what a difference, someone wrote before it's like night and day I can totally agree.the sound it really nice it's so much clear and cleaner.the balance is spot on with rich and beautiful acoustics the down side is bass.its a little weak, I can see why ppl have replaced the sub under the seat for logic 7 or sws-8 .which I will be doing in time."
Conclusion
This alpine kit is worth it in my opinion but only at the right price. bare in mind no matter what you do to the speakers .if just replacing them or fitting any after market amp or kit you must re code the head unit from basic to hifi regardless of what the instruction say only if your intending to keeping the BMW radio.
