[Stück]

I picked up a full compliment of gently used BavSound speakers here on the forum from a user in the FS section for a great price. They arrived earlier in the week and I've patiently waited till the weekend not knowing exactly how long it would take to install.

All and all it took right at 1 full hour to R&R all factory speakers with the BavSound units. They were perfect drop in replacements as advertised.

I started with the dashboard mounted center channel speaker. The grill prys up with a nylon pry tool and pops right off to reveal the stock speakers.



Here you can see the stock and the BavSound components, front and back. The motor on the BavSound midrange transducer is considerably larger. The factory units are itty bitty, although I speculate they are actually neodymium.




and finally the BavSound front center channel completed



I jumped to the rear parcel tray next, install here was exactly the same as the front center.




I did both front doors next, but failed to take any pictures. Door panel removal was straight forward. The wood trim spring clip held me up for a moment but I figured it out quick enough. Again everything here was a straight forward swap, and the BavSound midrange comes with an elongated harness that replaces the original tweeter harness altogether. The factory harness is interwoven into the door harness so it just stays behind.

Next I went to the subwoofers under the seats. 4 T50 bolts hold the seats in place, then just T20 on the subwoofers.

Here is the weak stock unit


Side by side


and installed



First impressions are good. Music sounds a lot clearer. All demo tracks were ones I'm very familiar with and the sound source was standard 44.1khz/16bit resolution FLAC via USB.

Vocals are much clearer, treble much more sparkling, and bass... bass is drastically improved. Much harder hitting and punchier than before. Even vibrates the rear view mirror an appreciable bit now.

I wouldn't say it plays much if any louder than stock, but it does so with much more fidelity and authority than it every did before.

Overall I have to say I'm very pleased with the update, and the ease of installation.

[gabypr]

Thanks for the review, im considering myself get this kit in a near future. Im glad its easy to install along a nice improvement.

[lsturbointeg]

Like mentioned from previous reviews it's a nice upgrade over stock. But if your looking for something with kick you definitely have to look at an external amp. There's plenty out there from what I've seen from what forum members used from our site sponsor Bimmertech's amp. Also there's Mosconi, JBL and I'm trying to think of this one amp that was recommended but it was pretty pricey. Ill have to go back to some older post. Most guys will either go Gladen, Jehnert, Focal and Morel's

[Takumi587]

Originally Posted by Stück

I picked up a full compliment of gently used BavSound speakers here on the forum from a user in the FS section for a great price. They arrived earlier in the week and I've patiently waited till the weekend not knowing exactly how long it would take to install.

All and all it took right at 1 full hour to R&R all factory speakers with the BavSound units. They were perfect drop in replacements as advertised.

I started with the dashboard mounted center channel speaker. The grill prys up with a nylon pry tool and pops right off to reveal the stock speakers.



Here you can see the stock and the BavSound components, front and back. The motor on the BavSound midrange transducer is considerably larger. The factory units are itty bitty, although I speculate they are actually neodymium.




and finally the BavSound front center channel completed



I jumped to the rear parcel tray next, install here was exactly the same as the front center.




I did both front doors next, but failed to take any pictures. Door panel removal was straight forward. The wood trim spring clip held me up for a moment but I figured it out quick enough. Again everything here was a straight forward swap, and the BavSound midrange comes with an elongated harness that replaces the original tweeter harness altogether. The factory harness is interwoven into the door harness so it just stays behind.

Next I went to the subwoofers under the seats. 4 T50 bolts hold the seats in place, then just T20 on the subwoofers.

Here is the weak stock unit


Side by side


and installed



First impressions are good. Music sounds a lot clearer. All demo tracks were ones I'm very familiar with and the sound source was standard 44.1khz/16bit resolution FLAC via USB.

Vocals are much clearer, treble much more sparkling, and bass... bass is drastically improved. Much harder hitting and punchier than before. Even vibrates the rear view mirror an appreciable bit now.

I wouldn't say it plays much if any louder than stock, but it does so with much more fidelity and authority than it every did before.

Overall I have to say I'm very pleased with the update, and the ease of installation.

Seriously, big thank you for your review. I just purchased my set of Bavsound Stage 1 for my base 676 speakers and looking forward to hearing them. I did not order the ghost subs or amp but maybe in the future. Do you think it is absolutely necessary for those?

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Takumi587

Seriously, big thank you for your review. I just purchased my set of Bavsound Stage 1 for my base 676 speakers and looking forward to hearing them. I did not order the ghost subs or amp but maybe in the future. Do you think it is absolutely necessary for those?

It's all personal preference. See how you like the stage 1's first and if you're not happy with the lows/subs than definitely swap them out for the ghost subs. You can also do a search as many have already posted their impressions on the stage 1's followed by the additional of the ghost subs and if you really want everything to come alive definitely look into the Bimmertech amp for more power!

[Takumi587]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

It's all personal preference. See how you like the stage 1's first and if you're not happy with the lows/subs than definitely swap them out for the ghost subs. You can also do a search as many have already posted their impressions on the stage 1's followed by the additional of the ghost subs and if you really want everything to come alive definitely look into the Bimmertech amp for more power!

Thanks for the input boss. I just hope that these bavsound stage 1s will be a huge improvement over my 676 Hifi system. I thought I would be fine with the standard system but after driving and listening to my playlist I just can't handle the quality anymore. My E46 M3 with the HK speakers sounds much clearer and that car is 11 years old! My buddy is going to come over and help me install the system. Figured I would be more patient with a friend helping out and someone to help pass the tools. I am very optimistic about the speakers especially after reading the raving reviews on the forums. I just hope I have not hyped it up too much for myself.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Takumi587

Thanks for the input boss. I just hope that these bavsound stage 1s will be a huge improvement over my 676 Hifi system. I thought I would be fine with the standard system but after driving and listening to my playlist I just can't handle the quality anymore. My E46 M3 with the HK speakers sounds much clearer and that car is 11 years old! My buddy is going to come over and help me install the system. Figured I would be more patient with a friend helping out and someone to help pass the tools. I am very optimistic about the speakers especially after reading the raving reviews on the forums. I just hope I have not hyped it up too much for myself.

My impressions from people who have posted from here, M5, M6, M3 & M4 boards is they all have said big improvement over stock. Especially now they finally released the Ghost sub everyone has been waiting for. The fact that it's plug n play is a plus as a lot of those guys lease their car and don't want to cut or modify the OEM wires. But for more of the Audiophile guys they prefer Morels, Focals, Gladen and Jehnert's as those run into more of the high end speakers especially the Morel's from what I've read. The Focal's, Jehnert's and Gladen's also have matching subs for under the seats. If you read through their post most of them all run external amplifiers. The component speakers need power only than will you hear them come alive. For me if I can't find a deal on some Focal K2 Powers I'll probably pull the trigger on the Gladen Extremes. Like you I'm trying to live with my hifi system as I have other mods that take priority. I haven't even mentioned subs in the trunk which is a whole different topic to discuss

[fung0001]

Are u selling your HK centre speakers & rear door speakers ( mid & tweeter)?

[cipher5]

Originally Posted by Takumi587

Seriously, big thank you for your review. I just purchased my set of Bavsound Stage 1 for my base 676 speakers and looking forward to hearing them. I did not order the ghost subs or amp but maybe in the future. Do you think it is absolutely necessary for those?

I would have swapped the subs before the speakers...

[Takumi587]

Originally Posted by cipher5

I would have swapped the subs before the speakers...

I actually just installed the bavsound stage 1 into my car this past weekend. Right away I noticed the music was much more crisp and there is much more bass present. I actually have to lower it two notches now. According to other members here and on bimmerfest I have to give it a few weeks before it is fully broken in so I am just keeping the volume slightly above mid level.

However, I did try the volume at 3/4 for a moment and it was very clear and not distorted at all. With the base hifi system when I would bring it to that level the sound was just muddy sounding and the instruments like strums of a guitar were not as vivid as they are now.

In the end, I think the stage 1 upgrade as opposed to getting the subs first was the right move. I feel the subs would just be way too much now. Just my .02 cents

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Takumi587

I actually just installed the bavsound stage 1 into my car this past weekend. Right away I noticed the music was much more crisp and there is much more bass present. I actually have to lower it two notches now. According to other members here and on bimmerfest I have to give it a few weeks before it is fully broken in so I am just keeping the volume slightly above mid level.

However, I did try the volume at 3/4 for a moment and it was very clear and not distorted at all. With the base hifi system when I would bring it to that level the sound was just muddy sounding and the instruments like strums of a guitar were not as vivid as they are now.

In the end, I think the stage 1 upgrade as opposed to getting the subs first was the right move. I feel the subs would just be way too much now. Just my .02 cents

Without upgrading your subs your stage 1's are incomplete! Your stage 1's are a component system which Bav should have done when they designed it in the beginning. Why do you think so many people were waiting all this time for them to release them? So now with the ghost subs released it's now a complete component system

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

Without upgrading your subs your stage 1's are incomplete! Your stage 1's are a component system which Bav should have done when they designed it in the beginning. Why do you think so many people were waiting all this time for them to release them? So now with the ghost subs released it's now a complete component system

Too bad it's $1200!!

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

Too bad it's $1200!!

Yep!

[Stück]

Wanted to post an update in my thread here. I've had a bunch of rubbish noise coming from the center channel speaker(s) for awhile now at anything more than comfortable to talk over volume levels. The tweeter I assumed was dead as it had been squawking something terrible for a bit, particular on phone calls, before it stopped making any noise at all.

This long weekend I finally had an opportunity to pull the grill and speakers out to have a look.

First off the tweeter is toast, no visual failure but circuit impedance reads in the order of megaohms. (open circuit) Tested past the inline crossover was the same, tweeter was roached. I was curious what the heat shrink sealed crossover inline consisted of so I cut the heatshrink open to reveal a cheaply made 2nd order butterworth crossover with a iron core inductor and eletrolytic 4.7uf capacitor (blech)

For what these things cost I'd expect them to last a little longer, and have used better quality electrical components in the crossovers. I would have much rather seen a 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley crossover at this price point. It would sound better, and provide better protection to the tweeter.

Shelving that for the moment I noticed the 4" BSW midrange was coming apart with mechanical failure. Sweet. Again where is the quality with these drivers? about 60% of the circumference of the rubber surround has come unbonded from the basket.



I'm sure a few drops of cyanoacrylate will glue the surround back to the basket, but now I feel compelled to pull the panels and check all of the other midranges for similar failures. The center channel driver fires straight up so its going to have the least stress on the surround and be the least likely to have issues from its failure.... If I hadn't caught this and the surround further came apart the voice coil would start chafing the motor/pole and eventually fail, particularly on the door drivers which rely heavily on the surround for centering support.

I tossed the factory mid/tweet back in while I figure out how to address the failed BSW hardware.

[lsturbointeg]

it's only been what...less than a year and your components are toast?! but than again you got them used? did you notice this upon first install? maybe get a hold of Bav for a fix?

[Stück]

I bought them second hand on here yes, someone going to stock for a lease return IIRC.

Everything has worked perfectly until recently. The last 2 weeks or so I've been noticing sketchy behavior from the center channel. All of this was realized for what it actually was less than 2 hours ago, I haven't contacted BSW yet and probably won't.

A. I'm sure they wouldn't be inclined to do anything to assist, at very least they have no reason to. They have a 4 year warranty but I would assume it doesn't transfer.

B. I'd just assume re-engineer and improve. I have a single Dynaudio MD100 tweeter that should drop right into the hole in the dash and sound much better than the tweeter BSW spec'd, which looks identical to a pair of Rainbow Soundline (SL-T25) tweeters I have in my "misc tweeter" drawer... and I suspect what they actually are, private labeled by BSW of course.

BSW refuses to publish thiele small parameters for any of their drivers, which IMO is because it would be relatively easy to determine what drivers they were using. Really what you're paying for is ease and convenience of adapter brackets and plug n play harnesses.

[Desmond79]

Have had a BavSound Stage 1 in my 09 3289i for 3.5 years - no issues. Also have the Stage 2.

Installed Stage 1 and 2 in the F10 over 6 months ago and no issues other than I had issues removing the rear door panel and those have the native speakers - the rear door panels are very tough to remove.

Will say the F10 BavSound speaker system does a much better job than the 328i - clearer fidelity, and the center channel in the F10 front makes a difference in sound over the 3 series.

[dadysev]

Originally Posted by DesmondF10

Have had a BavSound Stage 1 in my 09 3289i for 3.5 years - no issues. Also have the Stage 2.

Installed Stage 1 and 2 in the F10 over 6 months ago and no issues other than I had issues removing the rear door panel and those have the native speakers - the rear door panels are very tough to remove.

Will say the F10 BavSound speaker system does a much better job than the 328i - clearer fidelity, and the center channel in the F10 front makes a difference in sound over the 3 series.

Did you notice a much deeper bass? like you would here a little more rumble ?

[mikekilpatrick]

I have the complete system in my car and about two years on the Mid's and tweeters and 1.5 years on the Subs. I was one of the first to buy the subs. Keep in mind BMW recommends replacement of Seat bolts after removal, and make sure to torque to I believe 47 NM, Maybe 43, search the forum on my install procedure. This was a NIGHT AND DAY sound difference in my car. I can now crank the volume all the way up with no distortions and the bass rumbles the seat and mid and highs are crystal clear. Great product from my experience.