2011 Base Speaker Upgrade

[Sterrico]

I recently purchased a 2011 E82. This car came with the horrible base stereo. It does have the professional HD, S655 along with S6FL. I am not looking for a huge investment in dollars. This is a weekend/occasional track car.

I am looking at several options and am curious of people's thoughts.

1. I could upgrade with the Alpine kit. I know this has been discussed at length. I have heard that people are having trouble with the coding for this. Is this still the case?

2. I could upgrade with the Bavsound kit. Easy enough and figures to be an improvement over the paper speakers provided.

3. I could buy from crutchfield better speakers for both front and rear. This would probably be the most cost effective option as I could get all 4 speakers replaced for 300 bucks. The speakers that I see are like these:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_068R45...2N.html?tp=105

To do this I have been trying to find the RMS power of the professional head unit. Does anyone know what the RMS power is?

Not looking to spend too much money on this. Still have to get the satellite radio operation with an FSC code.

Welcome peoples thoughts.

No bashing please.

[iminhell1]

I did Alpine (no coding) and upgraded to 8" subs vs my stock 6" (2010). I was pretty happy. Not one problem with them and they have taken hours at basically full volume.


I'm now on a Xtrons radio and I'm regretting it sometimes. The radio is moody. Sometimes it works perfect and others it forgets what it was doing. For instance yesterday it would only stay connected via bluetooth for 5 minutes according to the screen, but the music kept playing long after.

[Sterrico]

Interesting. I've read that the N55 requires coding for alpine upgrade.

Curious what other people's thoughts are?

[Gangplank]

There are actually 3 different stereo types.

Base
Pro (aka HiFi = 676 HIFI)
Harmon Kardin

My understanding is that only 2 of those 3 options are offered in a given year.

The Alpine upgrade is only for the Base but I don't believe Base was available in 2011 - just Top HiFi & HK. I could be wrong.

The Pro Hi-Fi is not awful. It's decent for a 2011 stock stereo. The HK is really a step up however. My wife has it in her 2011 Mini & it's far better than my Pro.

So w/ Pro-HiFi your easy upgrade options are:

* BavSound Speaker Kit $547
* Bimmer-tech amp $899
* + BavSound ghost subs $500 (if really want the boom-boom in the zoom-zoom)
* custom setup

[zx10guy]

You can add in the Focal IFBMW-S and IFBMW-SUB as a plug and play option. I have the Focals in my car along with the Bimmer-Tech amp.

[Sterrico]

Some of the early 2011 had the base stereo and then they switched to hi fi. My car only has 4 speakers (2 in door and 2 in top rear shelf) and two "subs" under the seat. Wish I would have bought car with HK. Leaning towards just replacing speakers but need to know RMS power of Bmw professional head unit?

[velociti]

OP, I was in your shoes. I had a 2011 with base stereo and it was damn awful. I got an epic deal on Focal gear so I went whole hog on IF-BMW coaxials, Focal subs, and Focal FD amps. I did the wiring and install myself with my buddies, as well as coding, and it was a nightmare in terms of trying to run wiring back to the trunk and getting the right Technic harness. Don't bother upgrading the speakers without installing an amp, because it will only further highlight just how mediocre the head unit is. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably just buy the Alpine kit and pay an indy shop to do the install and coding.

[iminhell1]

Originally Posted by Sterrico

Interesting. I've read that the N55 requires coding for alpine upgrade.

Curious what other people's thoughts are?

Engine has no bearing on radio.


And I think some of the coding debate may also play into not using the correct parts. There are 2 Alpine kits and I wonder how many are on the wrong one, or if the wrong one changes the sound enough to be pleasing.

I got the 65-41-2-163-268 Alpine kit. (same kit you'd need btw)
https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/produ...5-41-2-163-268

The other one is for older cars,
https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/produ...5-41-0-445-684