My speakers are TERRIBLE

[VP Electricity]

Originally Posted by wkndracr

although I went all out with my system, if you're looking for JUST more volume, adding a 4 channel amp (or even just a 2ch for the fronts) will probably suit your needs.

With no tweeters and 6" speakers under the seat? I have some grave doubts about how long they could last. I think at minimum you gotta upgrade the underseats as well.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by VP Electricity

No, actually, you didn't - the US didn't get true "base audio" until 2010. You had the middle, Premium, HiFi system - a step below Logic 7, but still with a 6-channel amplifier, tweeters, and underseat 8" woofers.

The 2010 guys are complaining about no amp, no tweeters, and underseat 6" speakers running off of deck power. You'd complain too.

Ahh, gotcha. I should've been clear that I have the base system offered for 2009, which is actually the mid-level stereo overall. At any rate, it sounds pretty good

[Mister Cool]

hi everybody,

I am looking here from Germany to see what our friends on the other side of the ocean are doing with their bimmers (and I am partly very impressed!! :-)

I looked here in audio department and I was a little surprised, that nobody knows (maybe I am wrong) the standard audio upgrade kit dedicated for series 1 and 3 BMW.

First system is manufactured by Alpine, contains 4 chanel power amp + 2 bass/miranage chasis + 2 tweeters + crossovers and all required cables. It is preaty simple to install:
- front fullrange speakers in the door are replaced with bass/mid chasis
- additional tweeter installed in mirror triangles
- 2 chanels of the amp drive bass chasis under the seats
- 2 chanels of the amp drive mid/hights
It can be purchased by BMW dealer and costs appr. 300 EUR (400 USD).

Since it is attached to loudspeaker outputs/cables it works with all HU (also with the simpliest BMW radio)

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182752

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...94&hg=65&fg=95

Furter on, there another interesting dedicated upgrade kits for BMW Series 1 / 3 (at least available in Europe) from

1. Audio Systems: X-ION 200 BMW. It consists of
- 4" bass/midrange units
- 1" tweeter
- 8" bass units to replace under seat chasis

it requires an additional 4 chanel amp and works also with all systems
http://www.audio-system.de/audio/special.html

it costs 300 EUR (400 USD).

2. Exact Audio: ProComp BMW 1 (similar to the above one) 499,- EUr (650,- USD)

http://www.exactaudio.de/html/v_comp...ystem_bmw1.php

I can imagine, that they are not known on US Market, but it shouldn't be a big deal to order them here
Both systems are not realy high-end but significant improvement to the stock system

[Dackelone]

Hi Mister Cool!

Thanks for the cool info. Did you install this amp/speaker kit? Do you have any more photos? Like where do you mount that amp?

Danke!

[Mister Cool]

Hi,

you will find lot of threads with pictures and discription in forum

http://www.1erforum.de/hifi-navi/

just use "Alpine Hifi" as a search criteria

http://www.1erforum.de/search.php?searchid=476911

or follow this thread

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182752

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...odtoBMW003.jpg

[808MGuy]

Originally Posted by KVMan50

The 1 has a very proprietary mount (3 bolts, not 4 like everyone else).

If you want to use something aftermarket with a 4 or 6 bolt pattern, there are options

[VP Electricity]

As folks who have purchased Rainbow or Morel speakers from us know, we provide steel laser-cut adapters with purchase.

[Cy3]

If we went with Mr. Cool's suggestion on the Alpine HIFI retrofit kit (assuming we could find a dealer/local to ship stateside); what does or how does this affect the boosted hi's low's currently being spit out by the headunit of the base system?

[tyorll]

Originally Posted by Cy3

If we went with Mr. Cool's suggestion on the Alpine HIFI retrofit kit (assuming we could find a dealer/local to ship stateside); what does or how does this affect the boosted hi's low's currently being spit out by the headunit of the base system?

I think it intercepts the output from the headunit which drives the front door speakers and underseat subwoofers (which are in parallel), and then sends the signal from the headunit to the input channel on the amplifer. The amp then splits the signal and sends low frequency back to the subs, and mid/highs to the door speaker/tweaters.

I just fit my own Alpine retrofit kit today. My fingers are sore... but the sound! Very happy.

[VP Electricity]

Originally Posted by Cy3

If we went with Mr. Cool's suggestion on the Alpine HIFI retrofit kit (assuming we could find a dealer/local to ship stateside); what does or how does this affect the boosted hi's low's currently being spit out by the headunit of the base system?

Apparently one of my customers used my PC last week and logged into 1addicts. I have the save this login info checked so it saved his login. Sorry about that.

There is a thread by someone over in the 3 section who posted some graphs of the Alpine kit. It does not address the boosted signal much. There does seem to be a small analog preamp board in there to change it somewhat. But that might just be the speaker input converter.

He apparently did not see any change below 100 hertz.

As I mentioned over there, the base stereo is so horrible in sound that many upgrades sound less bad - but that does not make them good, just less bad. I haven't heard of anyone who's heard the Alpine kit and liked it who was comparing it to a known good upgrade - usually I've just heard that it sounds better than the stock base Stereo suckiness.

[Bimmer-Bob]

There is a newer Alpine retrofit fit (Post 3/09) that requires some coding to be performed to the car by the dealer after install. Not sure what exactly this coding does - it seems possible to me that it might recode the Base head unit to Hi Fi. But that is just a guess.

Unlike the new kit, the older Alpine kit did not require recoding for Professional head units (but did require recoding for Business head units).

No idea if a US dealer can or will perform this coding. If the price isn't outrageous, I may have my local Spanish dealer do this work on my US-spec car.