Enhanced Premium Sound or aftermarket solutions? Suggestions??

[shaunt]

I'm in the process of creating my M3 and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for aftermarket audio.

[cpiguy]

Originally Posted by shaunt

I'm in the process of creating my M3 and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for aftermarket audio.

If you saying that you plan to order a new M3, order the Enhanced sound system, and if you're not totally satisfied with sound, then all you need to do ia add a custom subwoofer enclousre with added power to drive it in the trunk. The quality and the highs are definately more than adaquate.

[shaunt]

Originally Posted by cpiguy

If you saying that you plan to order a new M3, order the Enhanced sound system, and if you're not totally satisfied with sound, then all you need to do ia add a custom subwoofer enclousre with added power to drive it in the trunk. The quality and the highs are definately more than adaquate.

I have the Logic7 in my 335 and I'm pretty underwhelmed by it.. should this sound option be any different?

[cpiguy]

Originally Posted by shaunt

I have the Logic7 in my 335 and I'm pretty underwhelmed by it.. should this sound option be any different?

Definately better than Logic7. How much, will be up to your ears.

[808MGuy]

Originally Posted by shaunt

I'm in the process of creating my M3 and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for aftermarket audio.

What have you experienced before? Are you a big audio guy who's always had aftermarket audio or just looking for something a little bit better than OEM? If its the former, then stick with the standard audio and go aftermarket. If its the latter, then go with enhanced premium. Trying to do aftermarket mods to the enhanced audio system is much more difficult and expensive. If you're big into aftermarket audio, just adding a sub to the enhanced system is not gonna cut it. If you know you're going to go aftermarket anyway, just order the car with standard audio.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by 808MGuy

What have you experienced before? Are you a big audio guy who's always had aftermarket audio or just looking for something a little bit better than OEM? If its the former, then stick with the standard audio and go aftermarket. If its the latter, then go with enhanced premium. Trying to do aftermarket mods to the enhanced audio system is much more difficult and expensive. If you're big into aftermarket audio, just adding a sub to the enhanced system is not gonna cut it. If you know you're going to go aftermarket anyway, just order the car with standard audio.

x2

[shaunt]

I would classify myself as an audiophile.

I've got over 20k songs in my library and enough knowledge of what "good sound" is. I don't like my Logic7

[10M3MAN]

Im about to order my E90 as well, and I don't have years of experience with sound but I do have an ear for music and know good sound when I hear it. I'm just looking for feedback from you guys on what the sound quality is like between the two. I wont be back in the states for another two weeks, at which time I will be at a dealership to look at every angle of the M3..

[808MGuy]

Originally Posted by shaunt

I would classify myself as an audiophile.

I've got over 20k songs in my library and enough knowledge of what "good sound" is. I don't like my Logic7

"Good sound" is so subjective. That is why its hard for someone other than yourself to gauge what is good enough for you. Do you have previous experience with aftermarket equipment? If you did, what was it? What do you consider good sound? Your previous experience will have a huge impact on what you perceive as good sound. If the only thing you've had experience with is OEM, you'll hear the enhanced premium system and think its the greatest thing ever. If you've had high end aftermarket systems that were properly setup in the past, enhanced premium sound will sound mediocre at best. Nobody can tell you that the added cost is worth it or not because value is a personal thing. One person's budget system is another person's dream.

[jml]

Take Pencilgeek's EQ settings and a usb stick with your favorite songs and go listen to one. I wish the bass hit harder, but everything else is pretty good for an OEM system.

[rjd598]

imo l7 is amazing....enhanced premium sound is supposed to be even better.

[quality_sound]

Enhanced Premium sucks balls.

[footie]

Originally Posted by rjd598

imo l7 is amazing....enhanced premium sound is supposed to be even better.

It maybe is better but it's still nowhere near as good as the best OEM systems on the market and for the money you are paying it should be a lot better than it is IMO.

If you think about it, the car enviornment is probably far easier to get right for speaker manufacturers than home gear, at least with the car they know all of the parameters like materials the sound will reflect off, the volume of the room, etc, etc.

Maybe I am miles off on this but to me at least it sounds like the easier deal to get right.

[808MGuy]

Originally Posted by footie

It maybe is better but it's still nowhere near as good as the best OEM systems on the market and for the money you are paying it should be a lot better than it is IMO.

I've never heard an OEM system that's worth the money.

Originally Posted by footie

If you think about it, the car enviornment is probably far easier to get right for speaker manufacturers than home gear, at least with the car they know all of the parameters like materials the sound will reflect off, the volume of the room, etc, etc.

Maybe I am miles off on this but to me at least it sounds like the easier deal to get right.

You are very far off. The car is about the worst environment to try and reproduce accurate sound. If you spent $5k on a system for a car and $5k on a system for your home, the home system would sound better by far. In addition, the home system would probably have very little to no sound processing at all while the car system would need insane amounts of processing just to get it to sound close to the home system. Even with all that said, some of us still try to achieve that ultimate car system because its just fun.

[footie]

Originally Posted by 808MGuy

You are very far off. The car is about the worst environment to try and reproduce accurate sound. If you spent $5k on a system for a car and $5k on a system for your home, the home system would sound better by far. In addition, the home system would probably have very little to no sound processing at all while the car system would need insane amounts of processing just to get it to sound close to the home system. Even with all that said, some of us still try to achieve that ultimate car system because its just fun.

I get what you are saying but is it also not true that a room devoid of curtains, carpet and fitted with leather suits instead of fabric sounds awful. At least the speaker manufacturers that are there at the start of the development of a car know everything about the car and have a say in where the equipment goes. Yes it requires processing but it's done at the time by them and not by you or me which would be pure guess work because I know nothing about sound frequencies and what is correct, I'm guessing they would.

In fact my Bower and Wilkins system in the XF has treble and bass as well as sub, now I can shift either of these controls to the max either way and the difference is very slight. My guess is the system is already so well setup that it's only very minor tweaks needed to adjust to personal taste, I also feel that it's better than any home system I have owned up to it's £1300 that Jaguar charge, which is something I couldn't say about the one in the M3.

[808MGuy]

Originally Posted by footie

I get what you are saying but is it also not true that a room devoid of curtains, carpet and fitted with leather suits instead of fabric sounds awful. At least the speaker manufacturers that are there at the start of the development of a car know everything about the car and have a say in where the equipment goes. Yes it requires processing but it's done at the time by them and not by you or me which would be pure guess work because I know nothing about sound frequencies and what is correct, I'm guessing they would.

In fact my Bower and Wilkins system in the XF has treble and bass as well as sub, now I can shift either of these controls to the max either way and the difference is very slight. My guess is the system is already so well setup that it's only very minor tweaks needed to adjust to personal taste, I also feel that it's better than any home system I have owned up to it's £1300 that Jaguar charge, which is something I couldn't say about the one in the M3.

You are assuming that the car manufacturers actually design the audio systems with components specific to each car but that is not the case. Audio is and always will be an afterthought to car manufacturers. To be able to design some specific to each car to ensure each component performs optimally for that specific environment would just cost way too much. We'd be talking about $5k+ options instead of $1900 options. In reality, the systems are designed by third party companies that use off the shelf components. In the "higher end" OEM stuff, they just process the hell out of the signal to make it sound decent but they still use relatively cheap components. Bose has perfected this exercise by using a butt load of processing to make a $5 speaker sound good to the untrained ear.

[footie]

Originally Posted by 808MGuy

You are assuming that the car manufacturers actually design the audio systems with components specific to each car but that is not the case. Audio is and always will be an afterthought to car manufacturers. To be able to design some specific to each car to ensure each component performs optimally for that specific environment would just cost way too much. We'd be talking about $5k+ options instead of $1900 options. In reality, the systems are designed by third party companies that use off the shelf components. In the "higher end" OEM stuff, they just process the hell out of the signal to make it sound decent but they still use relatively cheap components. Bose has perfected this exercise by using a butt load of processing to make a $5 speaker sound good to the untrained ear.

I did speak to someone at the XJ launch and that was not the impression he gave about the guys at B &W, it may well be true for most brands but according to him B & W were very particular when it came to putting their name on something and were there right at the start with both the XF and the new XJ.

BTW the mid-bass speakers used in my XF are the same yellow CF speakers used in the mid/high end home gear, like wish the tweeter comes from the same stock.

[808MGuy]

Originally Posted by footie

BTW the mid-bass speakers used in my XF are the same yellow CF speakers used in the mid/high end home gear, like wish the tweeter comes from the same stock.

That kind of reinforces my point. Same off the shelf parts and processed to make it sound decent in the car. I have no doubt that your B&W system sounds good compared to any other OEM system. In the end its still an OEM which means compromises were made to keep the price down. Its not a solution designed from the ground up.

[frankzlin79]

I love my enhanced sound. I've had component systems in my three prior cars, but for the M, I wanted my sound to be integrated with the car. I think the enhanced sound is good enough for me.

It would be nice to add a powered sub to the enhanced sound, though. What does everybody recommend? I'm looking to spend under $300 if possible.

[footie]

Originally Posted by 808MGuy

That kind of reinforces my point. Same off the shelf parts and processed to make it sound decent in the car. I have no doubt that your B&W system sounds good compared to any other OEM system. In the end its still an OEM which means compromises were made to keep the price down. Its not a solution designed from the ground up.

I don't get your point one little bit. Surely the same is true on the home end, I looked at the B & W range and you see the same speakers covering a vast amount of models, yet they are all designed for different cabinet sizes and room volumes.