[HerrGruyere]

Hey!

Much like the title says, my E91 has really crap bass. I believe I have the HiFi since I have tweeters. I am genuinely unimpressed - especially after having come from an E46 with the Harmon Kardon system.

I can't tell if it's really just this bad or if something has blown. You can turn the bass all the way up to six on the equalizer settings and nothing seems to happen. It's a difference my dog might be able to hear, but I can barely hear the difference between 0 and 6. If I turn the volume up some, I might get a little extra bass; but, it really all sounds like the stereo out of an '86 Buick Century. Just dreadful.

I saw on Bavauto that they have those Earthquake shallow speakers. Has anyone tried these? I would need something plug and play. I am not good with wiring. This seems to fit the bill. However, I am willing to diagnose whether or not something has blown. Is the amp easy to access from the back hatch? I could maybe take a peek and see if something's come undone. Otherwise, for the price of stock vs. Earthquake from Bavauto, might as well just upgrade...

Any thoughts?

PS I don't have iDrive.

[ctuna]

Yes its true the Hi Fi has very little bass
But its more from lack of power than the speakers
though the speakers are not great either.
Falls apart as soon as you turn it up a little.

Read the audio build thread if you want to correct it.

The current most popular fix is Helix 82dsp plus a Jehnert
3 way speaker kit that replaces the front door and floor speakers.

You can buy the 82 dsp from Bimmertech with a tune and the
speaker set from Unexpected Creations. It requires no cutting
of wires or crimping . The older way of doing it is a Jl xd600/6
with a Technic Harness . There are quite a few plug and play speaker
kits now but Jehnert is one of the best. All this stuff is pretty pnp you might have to add a molex for the tweeters in the door and there
are installation procedures here if you need them.

Yes I had the HK in an E46 and it was better.

Read the audio build sticky
BMW stereo types
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=352586
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...2&d=1266451970
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...2&d=1260829447
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=343673
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138949
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...1&d=1209780605
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=641323
http://bmwcoders.com/forum/3-er-8/bm...1-e92-e93-291/
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...1&d=1209780865
http://technicpnp.com/menuDiagrams/d...e90_92_93.html
electical e90 pdf
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...,d.cGU&cad=rja
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...85464276,d.cGU
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...85464276,d.cGU
http://www.musicarnw.com/page-2/
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...4&d=1278871872

[HerrGruyere]

Thanks! This helps.

Do you think simply putting in a new set of speakers below the seats would help, or do I need to go all the way? I'm not looking to watch movies in my car. I just want a little better sound - namely in the bass department.

Edit: Yikes! That amp and speaker setup you posted is well over a grand. I'm not looking to drop that amount of money on an improvement. Have you or anyone else heard of just buying the speakers that are listed on Bavauto or somewhere else and installing them?

[ptpending]

you need to replace amplifier first to get more power to the bass
after that, if you will not be satisfied you can change speakers to more advanced/sensitive

[igzekyativ]

I'm in the same boat. Came from an R56 with HK system. The HiFi in the e91 is terrible.

I spoke with Ken at MusiCar and they offer 3 kits for the e91 (level 1-3, 3 being the best), depending on how much want to spend and what you are looking for.

This is directly from him-

"Yes, the Level One in the E91 surpasses the HK system in the MINI as well as the L7 or HK systems available in the E91 itself. In fact, let me say this as clearly as I can, if we ever sell any system which doesn't kick sand in the face of an HK system, I will shoot myself in the leg. All of our systems have better amplification and better tuning. We refuse to take money for something which isn't a gross and apparent improvement.

It's not just an amp [I asked him if level one is just an amp]. If it were just an amp, your speakers would sound horrible after installing it. That's why we don't sell an amp-only upgrade for those speakers. Some guys added an amp to them, loved the bass improvement, but a lot of them upgraded the speakers a few weeks later, and many of them did it with us. In this case, it's a DSP equalizer with 30 bands per channel, and a 4th-order digital crossover, and a time-correction processor (correcting for varying speaker distances and the resulting non-synchronized arrival times), and *then* it's an amp. Without the equalization applied to these speakers, this is a horrible plan. Having 30 bands of EQ per channel is what makes this work the way it does. Most of us have never heard a system with 180 bands of equalization, tuned, before.

Level One for an E91 includes:
- The DSP amplifier
- The E91 mounting plate for the amp in place of the stock amp
- The prewired interface harness from the stock amp connector
- The tuning file preloaded
- A power/ground harness from the battery to the amplifier (required to allow the amp to make full power)"

[HerrGruyere]

Ah okay. Thanks for that, too!

[ctuna]

I have one of the Musicar kits and its great.
But its not cheap it was expensive when I bought it and
its got more expensive since. We are talking around 2k for
his kits now but he does use the best stuff around and it comes
as pnp kit and already tuned as much as possible.

About the minimum you can spend if you DIY and search hard
it 1k with a more normal figure of 1.5k to get some quality stuff.

[kaigoss69]

You can add a line output converter and a small amp for around $200 and it will improve the bass response significantly, but you will also risk blowing the OEM speakers so you have to be prepared to change those sooner or later.

[HerrGruyere]

Don't think I'll do that! There was one I just saw for $475 that comes with an installation kit. Bavsound or something like that. Seems like the best bang for the buck.

[igzekyativ]

Originally Posted by HerrGruyere

Don't think I'll do that! There was one I just saw for $475 that comes with an installation kit. Bavsound or something like that. Seems like the best bang for the buck.

Level one from Musicar (see my post above) is under $1k.. you do get what you pay for in car audio. if $475 is your budget, then go for it!

[ctuna]

No line level shifters needed with Hi Fi
Level one from who with what?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/2316384...chn=ps&lpid=82

Also there is another site that sells these for 10 bucks less .

http://www.vminnovations.com/Product...NqkaAkMM8P8HAQ

http://mbquart.com/mobile-audio/bmw-.../bmw-speakers/

You still need and amp and harness though.
Look for Jl XD600/6

[kaigoss69]

If you just want a little more bass there is no need to change everything. Just take the speaker outputs from the OEM amp (cut wires) and feed them into a good LOC, then RCA signal wires to the new amp, and then connect the speaker wires back with the OEM wires. Simple & cheap.