[makkan00]

Originally Posted by imygaf

Ok guys, after speaking to the dealer that mr singh put me in touch with ive decided to go with the gladen package. Just want to check a couple of things first.

1. one of the dealers previous customers who had the kit installed mentioned that all the bmw warning tones like low fuel were amplified and very loud. Is this normal and is there any fix? One point to note is that this install did not use the harness at the back of the hu. The speaker wires at the sill were tapped into.

Adding a harness would not make much difference in this case. That person should decrease the volume of gongs from the HU or get it coded to hi-fi.

Originally Posted by imygaf

2. i have the professional hu but base speakers (no tweeters). Do i need to have it coded to hifi. And is this a must or just for sound improvement?

Thanks

If you are buying amp with built in DSP, then you do not require it.
Coding to hi-fi increase the quality of your front stage, but as the output of HU decreases from 11-13 volts to 4-5 volts ---> your rears will be driven on lower power ---> Low volume and distortion.
It does increase the quality of your sound stage but on the expense of rears being sacrificed.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by IanS100

I have a 2010 LCI with Business Nav which I assume has the Professional HU, the install will use the same Gladen 3 way component speakers with Gladen 120.4 amp and a few other bits.

As a complete guess, if BMW do the coding probably about £120+ as they often charge a minimum of an hours labour, from an independant maybe about half that

Ian are you going for standard 120.4 or the one with DSP?

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Ian are you going for standard 120.4 or the one with DSP?

makkan00, my original intention was to go for the DSP but on the advice of the installer it'll be the standard 120.4, apparently Gladen can supply a BMW E90 settings card for the 120.4 which fits internally & will give the optimum setting (as tested by Gladen) for the car- I suppose it saves a load of messing with the DSP to accomplish the same thing, do you know anything about this?

[makkan00]

I do not know if it is worth of mentioning it or not...but after playing with plenty of equipment and kits, I am going to suggest this:

If you listen to your music from ipod / iphone ---> Aux in then you should try JBL MS-2.

This DSP is designed to tweak the sound of your car if you listen to your music via aux in.

A quick review:

Pros:
-Time alignment [TA] (correct the sound coming of your Right speakers)
-Improve sound stage / tonality (you will feel if the sound is coming from the front of you and from the dashboard)
-Compact and mobile (can be setup in any car in less than 5 minutes)
-Silly Cheap
-Results are 70-80% similar to MS-8 except the number of channels (read the limitation in Cons)
- Defeat button, so you can compare the processed sound v/s OEM HU.

Cons:
- Charges does not fit in next to aux-in jack cigarette charger. You have to use the main cigarette charger jack.
- Wires are visible going from cigarette charger to central storage compartment
- It is 2 channel DSP (hence MS-2) compared to MS-8 (8 channels), so it has its limitations. Do not expect it to do as good as MS-8 and it cannot replace MS-8
- Rears will follow the front sound stage, so no ambience from the rears compared to MS-8.
- You may not benefit much from it, if you already have upgraded your sound system. The only benefit you get at that stage is TA and sound imaging.

Launching price was silly but it is gone down now.

[IanS100]

Cheers, that looks like a clever bit of kit, I was thinking of trying to install a new iPod Nano somewhere in the car as I have aux in but no USB, so that with an MS-2 looks tempting

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by IanS100

makkan00, my original intention was to go for the DSP but on the advice of the installer it'll be the standard 120.4, apparently Gladen can supply a BMW E90 settings card for the 120.4 which fits internally & will give the optimum setting (as tested by Gladen) for the car- I suppose it saves a load of messing with the DSP to accomplish the same thing, do you know anything about this?

Not heard of that. But if your installer is saying that then it must be correct.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by makkan00

I do not know if it is worth of mentioning it or not...but after playing with plenty of equipment and kits, I am going to suggest this:

If you listen to your music from ipod / iphone ---> Aux in then you should try JBL MS-2.

This DSP is designed to tweak the sound of your car if you listen to your music via aux in.

A quick review:

Pros:
-Time alignment [TA] (correct the sound coming of your Right hand side speakers)
-Improve sound stage / tonality (you will feel if the sound is coming from the front of you and from the dashboard)
-Compact and mobile (can be setup in any car in less than 5 minutes)
-Silly Cheap
-Results are 70-80% compared to MS-8 (read the limitation in Cons)
- Defeat button, so you can compare the processed sound v/s OEM HU.

Cons:
- Charges does not fit in next to aux-in jack cigarette charger. You have to use the main cigarette charger jack.
- Wires are visible going from cigarette charger to central storage compartment
- It is 2 channel DSP (hence MS-2) compared to MS-8 (8 channels), so it has its limitations. Do not expect it to do as good as MS-8 and it cannot replace MS-8
- Rears will follow the front sound stage, so no ambience from the rears compared to MS-8.
- You may not benefit much from it, if you already have upgraded your sound system. The only benefit you get at that stage is TA and sound imaging.

Sorry,
I was not clear, but I posted it in the thread:
My first Audio upgrade
I think if somebody listen to the music form ipod / iphone then this should be first upgrade with standard HU and speakers / subs.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by IanS100

Cheers, that looks like a clever bit of kit, I was thinking of trying to install a new iPod Nano somewhere in the car as I have aux in but no USB, so that with an MS-2 looks tempting

Ian,
If you are going for Gladen kit + amp, you will see little improvement with MS-2. Only TA + sound stage.

[IanS100]

I'll see how the Gladen upgrade goes before I plan anything further but thanks for the advice

[imygaf]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Adding a harness would not make much difference in this case. That person should decrease the volume of gongs from the HU or get it coded to hi-fi.


If you are buying amp with built in DSP, then you do not require it.
Coding to hi-fi increase the quality of your front stage, but as the output of HU decreases from 11-13 volts to 4-5 volts ---> your rears will be driven on lower power ---> Low volume and distortion.
It does increase the quality of your sound stage but on the expense of rears being sacrificed.

Can you tell me how to turn down the volume of the gongs please. I did not know this could be done.

If i have amp with dsp then will the rear speakers will still be driven at higher voltage from hu?
And how much difference does hifi really make, would it be immediately noticeable?

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by imygaf

Can you tell me how to turn down the volume of the gongs please. I did not know this could be done.

I may be wrong, but I have seen volumer for gongs / parking sensors in the HUs (depends on the firmware of the module).

Originally Posted by imygaf

If i have amp with dsp then will the rear speakers will still be driven at higher voltage from hu?

Correct.
Other option would be to get cleansweep + normal amp.

Originally Posted by imygaf

And how much difference does hifi really make, would it be immediately noticeable?

It is a matter of Clean signals VS Eq'd signals going to amp and getting boosted.
Bass / Treble will reach the distortion level earlier compared to flat signals.

[IanS100]

So if I get mine coded for HiFi I'll get a nice clean signal at the front & ornaments for rear speakers, I'm nott sure I like that. Can the HU output more power to just the two rear channels or would I have to go down the route of amping the rears too?

It was much easier in the days of DIN radios & big holes for speakers

[Mr Singh]

Gladen kit and HiFi coding will make for a excellent upgrade, I believe John @ 360autodesign is able to have it coded from a local Indy so enquire about this at time of installation.

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by Mr Singh

Gladen kit and HiFi coding will make for a excellent upgrade, I believe John @ 360autodesign is able to have it coded from a local Indy so enquire about this at time of installation.

Thanks Mr S, John included coding in the quote & the full installation should go ahead in the next couple of weeks, I'm just trying to explore my options for the rear speakers if they become expensive ornaments after everything is done. I appreciate they don't do a lot of work but it's still nice to have that bit of fill behind me.

[IanS100]

Would I need another amp to drive these?

[IanS100]

Thanks, I'll have a word with John @ 360 tomorrow, I favour the last option of the additional 120.2 but I'll see how the additional costs works out

[imygaf]

Originally Posted by Mr Singh

You could run them from the factory radio which would be an improvement but not in terms of overall output compared to front stage being externally amplified. Option would be to add an additional small 2 channel or 6 channel.

Gladen 2ch, M-LINE 60.2 (option for just powering rear fill)
Gladen 6ch, XS 75c6 (run front and rears @ 70wrms and under seat subs @ 100wrms)
Mosconi 2ch, GLADEN ONE 120.2 (option to run just under seat subs) & GLADEN ONE 120.4 (for front doors and rearfill)

Originally Posted by IanS100

So if I get mine coded for HiFi I'll get a nice clean signal at the front & ornaments for rear speakers, I'm nott sure I like that. Can the HU output more power to just the two rear channels or would I have to go down the route of amping the rears too?

It was much easier in the days of DIN radios & big holes for speakers

This is also concerning me. I thought i had my setup all planned out but it just seems to keep getting more complicated. I originally planned on the alpine upgrade but stretched my budget to the gladen setup (subs, components and amp).

Then i need to pay for hifi coding to stop the loud gongs but rears will be useless. So should i change my setup again? How would the standard rear speakers sound running off an amp?

Im thinking that if i go for gladen subs amd comp. package without the amp, the money i save on that, additional rear amp and hifi coding would just about pay for gladen 6ch or jl xd600/6. Does the gladen 6ch have DSP?

I take it that if i use one of these amps i wont need hifi coding amd that it would sort the loud gongs? This is getting more and more expensive very quickly lol. Or should i just go for gladen package i had planned and be happy wih it?

Will it be that bad with rear speakers running from hifi hu?

[IanS100]

I'm just waiting for a revised price from John @ 360 to include rear door speakers & fully amped system as previously discussed, so hopefully some of that will shortly be finding it's way into my e90

[thaking]

So "Audiosystem CO 100 BMW"and "GLADEN CO 100 BMW" are same as see. I will change the front speakers in doors (E90) with one of these (now I have normal stereo + idrive professional).

Will I get any improvement if I coded to hifi or I just change speakers and that's it ?

[thaking]

???