Bimmertech Lightwave upgrade?

[Tigamilla]

Has anyone tried the Bimmertech Lightwave AMP yet?

As a sucker for new tech and having swapped my very well sorted E92 M3 Clubsport (sorted trackwise and creature comfort wise; for this thread I'll focus on the creature comforts for a tired driver after a long track day).

For a Clubsport which has fixed bucket seats, creature comforts means -> being able to blast tunes while thinking about how many 100 HP / 200 HP cars you gapped earlier at the track. All the while planning who to tag in your upcoming Instagram post after you've picked the best looking picture (that doesn't make you look bad) from the trackday organisers website...But we digress. The point is loud and clear music is part of the wind down routine, at least for me.

Having recently swapped my (previously HIFI then) - Audison / Focal equipped E92 M3 for a Harman Kardon equipped F82 M4 , I was met with large disappointment at the flatness of the sound. So I decided to try what I know works - ordered Audison under seat subs and mid + tweeter packages just for the front. On the E92 this was mega + Bimmertech Alpha one rears.

I have a rear half cage pretty much permanently installed in the M4 which severely limits how much an audio installer can maneuver etc. so I was searching for a plug and play solution that would avoid removal of the rear cage and allow me to DIY while using the stock wiring etc. That's when I stumbled on the Bimmertech Lightwave Yes, I am a sucker for slick marketing videos and happy looking customers (also great DIY guides) .

Looks like mine is being delivered on Monday does anyone have have any experiences with this unit etc? I went for Audison speakers as they blew my mind before (no offense Alpha One Bimmertech crew!).

Would love to hear others experience of being an (enthusiastic) early adopter etc!

Otherwise I will spam my experiences from Monday when my amp arrives and hope that one day this helps someone!

[CTMike]

Looking forward to your review!

[NealfromNZ]

I run the OEM version of that amp , focal es100k active front components , focal es100k passive rear, Morel under seat woofers and and old SQL style Boston subwoofer.

The amp /dsp has exceeded my expectations, clear , powerful audio with all the OEM idrive functions working. The dsp mapping is key to getting the best out of your speakers and hopefully has a couple of maps to get you started. Time align your speakers first , than phase align woofers to mids , phase align woofers to sub. I get a great front image that sits above the bonnet.

Other things you’ll find is the amp is over engineered with exellent output stages and power reserves and is flexible enough to run down to 2 ohm on any channel. Sub channel has more power available than advertised.

Mines in an f80 , but also looking at a second m3 as always wanted a v8 version.

Enjoy !

[Thumbie]

I was considering the lightwave amp myself. I too will be eagerly awaiting your feedback once you've got it installed.

Here is another amp option, although pricier, that I think I might be saving for:
https://www.m3post.com/forums/showth...ight=lightwave

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by Thumbie

I was considering the lightwave amp myself. I too will be eagerly awaiting your feedback once you've got it installed.

Here is another amp option, although pricier, that I think I might be saving for:
https://www.m3post.com/forums/showth...ight=lightwave

Depends what you want to achieve.

The lightwave amp means idrive functionally remains OEM multichannel and there is no mixing the system into 2 channels with non MOST enabled solutions ( Match / Helix , Audison, Zapco etc )

Work out if your going to replace your speakers and if your going to run active tweeters or not and go from there. If you have individual audio then more channels are needed then the later is a good option. Otherwise light wave can be tuned and has more than enough power and clarity for the basis of a higher ended system.

[Thumbie]

I agree. I've decided to keep all the oem speakers, MAYBE replace the underseat woofers. Would just be an amp upgrade as that seems to be the most effective single upgrade.

Also a high chance I just keep it all as-is. The individual system with mr12volt works well and sounds pretty good to me.

and knowing how I am, it is probably best to keep that rabbit hole covered hahaha.

[NealfromNZ]

Having a well tuned DSP and time alignment makes a big difference to the overall sound. More power is a plus.

A better crossover ( passive ) on the factory mid mid bass and tweeter is also a nice tweak. There is a very good dyi crossover on the f30 forum. Cuts the overlap on where the mid and tweeter play together. Helps the tweeters power handling by not playing notes in the upper midrange area. Reduces the overall energy going to it. The factory speakers use a - 6db slope for the tweeter only which isn’t great.

Here’s an in-depth on crossovers

https://www.audiofrog.com/crossovers...o-choose-them/

[Adam M]

For me the audison dmi and 12.14 forza worked out much cheaper than the lightwave.

I can’t imagine the lightwave being better or even anywhere near as good but I haven’t tried it.

I have lost the oem dsp facility that’s controlled on the head unit but the audison dsp is far better anyway.

Of course the bass and treble controls still work, as does the MR12V dsp but I have no need to use this.

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by Adam M

For me the audison dmi and 12.14 forza worked out much cheaper than the lightwave.

I can’t imagine the lightwave being better or even anywhere near as good but I haven’t tried it.

I have lost the oem dsp facility that’s controlled on the head unit but the audison dsp is far better anyway.

Of course the bass and treble controls still work, as does the MR12V dsp but I have no need to use this.

I deleted my earlier post going into details as the Lightware OEM and Audison are in partnership and don’t want to upset that relationship . The OEM supplies the DMI to Audison.

But to suggest that the audison would be sonically better or the DSP is better would be incorrect.

Key difference is 12 channels of amplification verse 9 with the later having higher power available on the channels and slightly lower distortion on the later.

From a dsp tuning point of view Lightware does have one key feature for tuning that most car audio dsps don’t have which is variable PEQs . So when you tune to a DSP target curve it’s a handy feature and when learnt you can save on the number of filters required.

Both are good amp options but the Audison isn’t necessarily better.

[CTMike]

I’ve got two BavSound underseat subs to replace the stock ones… no plans to replace rest of the speakers (individual audio) at this time… if I’m just a lightwave amp away from significantly better sound, might have to pull the trigger…

[NealfromNZ]

With 8 channels it won’t be enough for IA.
But there is a 16 channel prototype the OEM has announced.

[CTMike]

Originally Posted by NealfromNZ

With 8 channels it won’t be enough for IA.
But there is a 16 channel prototype the OEM has announced.

You seem very knowledgeable, I’m trying to learn what I can… seeing references to 9 channels vs 8… and they seem to offer it as a drop in solution for individual audio, what would be the impact on making the swap now vs waiting for the one with additional channels?

Appreciate your insights.

Mike

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by CTMike

You seem very knowledgeable, I’m trying to learn what I can… seeing references to 9 channels vs 8… and they seem to offer it as a drop in solution for individual audio, what would be the impact on making the swap now vs waiting for the one with additional channels?

Appreciate your insights.

Mike

Actually, looks like I’ve got it wrong for e90 platform for the number of channels needed ( 9 ) . Some other platforms have a higher channel count.

With lightwave there is 6 x 150 , 2 x 300 and 1 x 500-800 channels. ( conservative peak values depending on speaker
Loading )

So you could run IA speakers . The choice would be either don’t use centre channel and run a trunk sub or run the high powered sub channel into the centre speaker and protect it from getting too much power through gain control and dynamic range control. Just talk that through with bimmertech.

So you could go ahead ( sorry for the bad advice)

For context this is how I run my setup .

I run mine in a different way as I’m an old ex car stereo comp guy so mine is based around 3 way front with sub and use rear door speaker only for a bit of rear fill or turned up a bit if have rear passengers.

So my config is
No centre channel
4 channels used on front doors components , 2 channels to tweeters, two channels to front door midbass
2 high powered channels to underseat woofers
2 channels to rear doors running components with passive crossovers
1 channel to trunk sub.

All Speakers are individual time aligned with two dsp maps which are toggled via idrive ( surround setting in my case )

1 for driver seat tune
1 for passengers tune

Each speaker is individually measured for it’s frequency response and corrected in DSP to follow an apporaite house curve for the range that it plays in. Mid door speaker and underseat woofers phase aligned using time aligmnet on woofers. Woofers to sub also phase aligned.

All doors and door cards are treated with sound deadening ( great upgrade ) All door clips are treated with cloth Tessa tape to ensure no rattles.

Trunk lid and floor have sound deadening.

I this setup I’m getting a high end sound setup without going to esoteric equipment. Key is the dsp tune and sound deadening to a certain extent. IA speakers are a good starting point. But also a trunk sub will fill in the sub bass in a way the undersear woofers can’t.

With the bimmertech ask them about the DSP tune and what they have done.

[CTMike]

Much appreciated!