Some of you may already be familiar with this kit, but for the sake of everyone else I'm going to assume no knowledge and just start from the top.
Some background knowledge first. BMW offers three levels of audio in their cars: Stereo, HiFi, and Top HiFi (sometimes called Logic7 or Harman/Kardon). For the 1 Series in the US, only two of these stereo options have been available in a given model year. In all model years, Top HiFi has been the "pay for" or premium option, with either Stereo or HiFi offered as standard. Stereo was standard throughout model year 2010 and the first half of 2011 - HiFi was standard for all other model years.
Vehicles equipped with Stereo have six speakers - two midrange speakers mounted in the door cards, two more midrange speakers on the rear shelf, and two subwoofers under the seats (these subwoofers are smaller then those found in HiFi or Top HiFi systems). All speakers are driven by the head unit, as there is no amplifier. In addition, the head unit engages in some sort of equalization or signal processing, apparently to compensate for the lack of tweeters.
The Alpine retrofit kit is designed as an upgrade to the above Stereo system. It cannot be fitted to cars with either the HiFi or Top HiFi systems. It is an official BMW accessory, but it is not available in the US market. It adds a four-channel amp, located under the trunk liner; a pair of tweeters, located at the interior side of the side-view mirror housings; and replaces the mid-range speakers in the door cards with beefier units which utilize aluminum rather than paper cones. The new speakers and the subwoofers are powered by the amp while the two rear mids are left alone and remain powered by the head unit.
If you want to order the kit, there are a few things you need to know. One is that there are actually
two versions of this kit, one for cars built before 3/09, and one for cars built since. Obviously, all US cars would be getting the newer kit. The differences between the kits is small - pretty much just the wiring harness is different. The old kit required splicing while the newer one is purely plug-and-play. There is also a two-position switch on the amp; the old kit says to set to position 2 while the new kit specifies position 1 - I'm not exactly sure what this is all about. The most significant difference between the kits is that, according to the service documents, the new kit requires software encoding from the dealer following fitting while the old kit did not. Some have said that this essentially sets the head unit to "HiFi mode" rather than "Stereo mode," effectively eliminating whatever signal processing the head unit is doing and sending an unmodified signal to the amp. This coding took several hours at my dealer, but I wasn't charged hourly shop rates during that time.
Many people have said that this kit is entirely DIYable, and indeed it is, if you're comfortable removing finicky trim pieces. I know you also must remove the entire rear seat. Personally, I didn't want to do all that and, since I was going to have to take it to the dealer for coding anyway, I figured I'd let them do the whole thing. I think they got a late start, because even though I dropped the car off at 9:30 in the morning, it wasn't done at 6:00 that evening. So it stayed overnight and I picked it up after work the following day, around 5:00. My invoice charged me for 2:55 of shop time - not bad, considering.
Be aware that besides the kit, you will also need to separately order the tweeter housings, or the little triangular grills that fit inboard of the side-view mirror attachments.
Everything can be ordered at your dealer if you're outside of the US (not sure about Canada, actually). If you are in the US, you can sometimes find the kit on eBay for probably too much money. What I suggest, and where I got the kit, is
www.schmiedmann.com, a Danish BMW specialist. Just a warning, if you browse through their catalog, the Alpine kit you see is the old one - if you want to order the new one, you must search by part number. It probably won't be stocked, but they'll special order it from Germany and send it to you several days later via DHL. You can also order the tweeter housings if you search by part number for one-stop shopping.
Part numbers:
Pre-3/09 kit: 65410445684
From-3/09 kit: 65412163268
corner moulding, interior left: 51337199597
corner moulding, interior right: 51337199598
So, how does it sound?
GREAT!
It is
lightyears ahead of the base Stereo system, no question. The addition of tweeters and more powerful mids has resulted in a
huge increase in clarity, especially upper-range clarity. The amp gives the entire system much more punch, and the sound remains distortion-free. There is much more separation of sound into left and right channels for very good stereo effect. And the subs, though not upgraded, come alive some now that they are powered by the amp instead of the head unit - for the first time I could
feel the subwoofers a little bit.
Now, I know there will be detractors. Surely there are better sounding systems. But for me, look - I'm not an audiophile. All of my music is being sourced from an iPod, for God's sake and I'm in a moving vehicle. In fact, I usually spend more time driving with the stereo off than I do with it on (although that might change
). I don't need super high-end audio, but the base Stereo system was just
awful. This kit offers the perfect solution, IMO. The fact that it is OEM and completely integrated into the car is just bonus.
If there is one thing I could knock this kit for, it is the fact that the subwoofers weren't upgraded. The bass response of this system is not phenomenal, although it is certainly more than passable. I hear there are subwoofers (Earthquake SWS) that are direct drop-in replacements for the stock units, but I'm not sure how well they integrate into the Alpine system. This may be something I explore later on, but honestly, if I do so it will be more out of boredom than necessity.
Anyway, I hope this post proves useful to a few people. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to fire away!