Another 2011 Base Stereo Upgrade

[geezerMD]

I just completed upgrading the Base Stereo in my 2011 135i Coupe and am very pleased with the results and want to acknowledge the work of Ken at Music Car Northwest and Rob Mecca at 12Voltz in Glen Burnie, MD (formerly in Parkville, MD).

I was disappointed with the Base Stereo in my 2011 135i Coupe after I took delivery of the car a few months ago. I emailed Ken at http://www.musicarnw.com and asked if he could recommend an upgrade to the base stereo and if he knew anybody in the Annapolis/Baltimore area to install it. He replied with a suggestion for replacing the front door speakers and the under-seat speakers plus adding tweeters to the front doors and installing a DSP/amp set up to compensate for the over-boosted output of the stock unit and a harness to connect it all together. He also suggested Rob at 12Voltz in Glen Burnie, MD to install it.

After research other possible solutions and waiting for Rob to get his new shop set up in Glen Burnie, I placed the order with Ken for the system he recommended. Everything came together last week and Rob and Kevin at 12Voltz did the installation.

Rob and Ken communicated about the installation and as far as I know there were no surprises when Rob did the work. The result is very neat and professional looking. The amp is mounted under the rear deck and doesn't take up much space in the trunk. You really need to know what the stock car looks like to spot the changes. I wanted to make some adjustments to the equalization after I listened to it for a couple of days and Ken answered questions and provided support that I needed to complete that. The sound is clear and well-defined so that violins sound like violins, not like clarinets, and singers no longer sound like they are in a different room. I haven’t heard the BMW HK system in the 1-series or 3-series so I can’t comment on how that system compares to mine but I am very satisfied with the improvement in the sound quality.

Just in case anybody questions my motive, I wrote this because I am very pleased with the results and I want to recommend Musicar Northwest and Rob Mecca at 12Voltz (706 Crain Highway N) in Glen Burnie, MD to others who are looking for someone to work with. Nobody asked me to write this or provided me any favors for doing it.

[steve_setzer]

Originally Posted by geezerMD

Nobody asked me to write this or provided me any favors for doing it.

Ditto for my thread. What parts did you end up with? How long did the install take?

[geezerMD]

I have Rainbow speakers in the front doors and Rainbow tweeters, Earthquake SWS-8 under the seats, a Zapco 360.4 amp and Technics harness.

Not sure how many labor hours the install took but I dropped the car off with Rob at 12Voltz one morning and got a call at noon the next day that it was ready, which is about what I expected. I didn't expect it to be done in one day.

[singh21]

Originally Posted by geezerMD

I have Rainbow speakers in the front doors and Rainbow tweeters, Earthquake SWS-8 under the seats, a Zapco 360.4 amp and Technics harness.

Not sure how many labor hours the install took but I dropped the car off with Rob at 12Voltz one morning and got a call at noon the next day that it was ready, which is about what I expected. I didn't expect it to be done in one day.

nice speaker setup. rainbows are such good quality

[gmartan]

Originally Posted by geezerMD

...I haven’t heard the BMW HK system in the 1-series or 3-series so I can’t comment on how that system compares to mine but I am very satisfied with the improvement in the sound quality.

It sucks too.

[justinnum1]

Nice, how much did it end up costing?

[str8shot]

Originally Posted by justinnum1

Nice, how much did it end up costing?

Dude the last post was almost 2 years old...