[chazmink]

I haven't started my installation but have watched the video several times and reviewed the comments here. I find myself wondering if it is possible to do the installation without fully detaching the door panel so that the non speaker wires, etc remain intact. Any thoughts?

[phant0m]

Originally Posted by chazmink

I haven't started my installation but have watched the video several times and reviewed the comments here. I find myself wondering if it is possible to do the installation without fully detaching the door panel so that the non speaker wires, etc remain intact. Any thoughts?

I left the door attached. Either you rest it on your lap or have a buddy hold it for you.

[chazmink]

Originally Posted by phant0m

I left the door attached. Either you rest it on your lap or have a buddy hold it for you.

Thanks. I was hoping that would work.

[Fronzdan]

The more you can separate the panel from the door, the easier it is to put the sound deadening on. I would disconnect the top lighting connector for sure.

[lbovill]

Yeah I detached the first panel I removed completely and then reattached it. After that I left the panel mainly attached and worked around it. I would just be sure to relieve stress on the wires when doing it you could easily pull them off the door or damage them if you are not careful. The best practice is to completely detach the panel. Now I am headed out to my car for a listen...

[phant0m]

Originally Posted by lbovill

Yeah I detached the first panel I removed completely and then reattached it. After that I left the panel mainly attached and worked around it. I would just be sure to relieve stress on the wires when doing it you could easily pull them off the door or damage them if you are not careful. The best practice is to completely detach the panel. Now I am headed out to my car for a listen...

Let us know how you like them.

I feel like mine aren't loud enough for some reason. Don't know if it's just me. It gets distorted at 95% volume but regular listening I keep it around 75%.

[lbovill]

Originally Posted by phant0m

Let us know how you like them.

I feel like mine aren't loud enough for some reason. Don't know if it's just me. It gets distorted at 95% volume but regular listening I keep it around 75%.

I am not getting distortion but then again I am not cranking it. Are you a Hifi or base stereo?

[Fronzdan]

Do the amp upgrade! The speakers can only do so much with a crappy signal.

[lbovill]

So I went out and listened and sure enough my driver door was making contact with the wires. Pulled it off pulled the wires through and put it back together. Wish I had thought of that before I put it together the first time. But the good news was three were done without issue. Hopefully nothing loosens up with travel and gets pulled off.

[apatel87]

Now i am getting paranoid. Time to get in the car in -16 degree weather here in Michigan! Have to check the windows

[Technic]

Originally Posted by phant0m

Let us know how you like them.

I feel like mine aren't loud enough for some reason. Don't know if it's just me. It gets distorted at 95% volume but regular listening I keep it around 75%.

HiFi OEM amp for MY2015 is significantly weaker (and about 40% physically smaller) than past HiFi OEM amp.

[lbovill]

Originally Posted by Technic

HiFi OEM amp for MY2015 is significantly weaker (and about 40% physically smaller) than past HiFi OEM amp.

They changed the HiFi amp mid cycle? My model is a 2013 f30 with the HiFi amp, for the sake of clarity to others.

[Fronzdan]

Originally Posted by Technic

HiFi OEM amp for MY2015 is significantly weaker (and about 40% physically smaller) than past HiFi OEM amp.

Smaller and weaker?!?! Holy crap.

For those that haven't seen it, here's the bigger and stronger 7-channel hifi amp next to the OEM speaker, lol.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by lbovill

They changed the HiFi amp mid cycle? My model is a 2013 f30 with the HiFi amp, for the sake of clarity to others.

Correct, MY2015 HiFi amp is different from yours. It looks completely different from other F30 model year OEM amps:

MY2012-2014:


MY2015:


When I replaced all my OEM speakers with the Eton PnP kit (while keeping the OEM amp in place as a test) I experienced the same "aren't loud enough for some reason" as the above forum member. I did not experience that issue with other F30 or even the F10 (used same OEM amp) from MY2012-MY2014. Those OEM amps handle aftermarket speakers quite well.

[64-bit]

Looks like BMW is cutting cost everywhere specially where you can't see.

Im satisfied with the outcome of my 2013 335i

I also have a question...

When you go to BAVSOUND website and your are choosing your car model, on 2013 they have well defined 2013 328i then well defined 2013 335i, whay is that? Do they have any difference in terms of sound hardware?

[bri1042]

Wow. I've been off of the HiFi amp in my '13 for quite a while (wasn't loud enough). I can't imagine why BMW would make the thing LESS powerful.

[lbovill]

Originally Posted by Technic

Correct, MY2015 HiFi amp is different from yours. It looks completely different from other F30 model year OEM amps:

When I replaced all my OEM speakers with the Eton PnP kit (while keeping the OEM amp in place as a test) I experienced the same "aren't loud enough for some reason" as the above forum member. I did not experience that issue with other F30 or even the F10 (used same OEM amp) from MY2012-MY2014. Those OEM amps handle aftermarket speakers quite well.

Thank you for clarifying that. It makes it a frustrating experience trying to figure out how to compare apples to apples that is for sure.

[chazmink]

Originally Posted by 64-bit

Looks like BMW is cutting cost everywhere specially where you can't see.

Im satisfied with the outcome of my 2013 335i

I also have a question...

When you go to BAVSOUND website and your are choosing your car model, on 2013 they have well defined 2013 328i then well defined 2013 335i, whay is that? Do they have any difference in terms of sound hardware?

I think the 335 has rear deck speakers which the 328 does not. Not certain of this though.

<<<<<<<<<update>>>>>>>>>
Based on Technics response below my speculation seems wrong. Sorry for any confusion.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by 64-bit

Looks like BMW is cutting cost everywhere specially where you can't see.

Im satisfied with the outcome of my 2013 335i

I also have a question...

When you go to BAVSOUND website and your are choosing your car model, on 2013 they have well defined 2013 328i then well defined 2013 335i, whay is that? Do they have any difference in terms of sound hardware?

No differences in respective audio systems (HiFi and Top HiFi), regardless of model, in the F30.

Please remember that there was a 2013 E92 and E93 335i.

[phant0m]

Originally Posted by bri1042

Wow. I've been off of the HiFi amp in my '13 for quite a while (wasn't loud enough). I can't imagine why BMW would make the thing LESS powerful.

Ugh well that explains it.

I think my next car I am just going to opt for the sound upgrade instead of going aftermarket. It's just so much easier when you're leasing.

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by phant0m

Ugh well that explains it.

I think my next car I am just going to opt for the sound upgrade instead of going aftermarket. It's just so much easier when you're leasing.

Everything I've got is PnP installed on my leased car. Nothing modified or cut. It will come out and find its way into my next car when my lease is up.

[squidlyboy]

Just installed my Bavsound Sound One upgrade this weekend and wanted to chime in with my first impressions. I've give my review of the audio quality later as i haven't had a chance to immerse myself in the system yet.

But as far as the installation process itself, here are some of the lessons learned. I know installation notes have been covered extensively by many others, so rather than repeating all the same stuff, here are some things that are maybe a little different, new, or things i had not read about.

1. I almost gave up after 30 minutes into the install
   Not having removed door panels before on my F30, i wasn't sure how hard or how gentle i needed to be in pulling off the trim. I think i was bit clouded by a lot of folks who reported breaking connectors and such, so i really took my time at first and took the gentle finesse route. After 30 mins of getting absolutely NOWHERE on the first piece on the first door, i almost gave up. I went inside to down two beers, came back out, and said, F*** it and rolled up my sleeves and decided to do things a little differently. After i got the first trim piece off and got more confident in using the right amount of force, i used the same general approach and all the other pieces came off in lickety split. The only pieces that gave me problems was the rear passenger door panel and the driver side window controls unit. The pry bar was invaluable in getting all the pieces off, but for some reason those two really gave me problems. For the rear passenger door panel, i had to get four fingers under the door panel against the metal (which really hurts BTW as the force of the rigid cardboard like material exherts on your fingers is tremendous). But using your thumbs as leverage to push back against the door panel to lift up the connector finally did the trick. For the driver window control trim piece, there was no magic. i had to just keep at it, and almost broke the units into its two distinct halves trying to lift it out.
   
2. Don't be afraid to use some muscle to pry the trim off
   I swear that BMW makes the most unbelievably unbreakable parts. I'm talking everything from those white connectors, the door trim pieces, the door panel itself, and plugging in the wrong wires into the wrong connectors. I screwed up a lot, but at the end of it, not one part broke or snapped due to excessive force. I know a lot of you posted about broken connectors, so please take this with a grain of salt, but i swear i couldn't break anything if i wanted to. Either they revved up the quality of these things on my production build or i just happened to get an F30 that has different parts than a lot of you. I dunno what it is ... But the first door took me about an hour to take apart to the bare metal, and the other 3 doors took about 10-15 mins a piece.
   
3. DONT FORGET TO REMOVE THE RUBBER MAGNET GUARD ON THE CENTER MIDRANGE before dropping it into the dash
   The center midrange install shoulda been the fastest, but i wasted 30 mins trying to figure out why the speaker wouldn't drop into place. I was almost ready to email Bavsound to find out if they sent me the wrong speaker or something. It turns out that for that speaker, you need to remove the rubber magnet guard (comes on all the midrange speakers) before it will drop into that cone-shaped receptacle in the hole in the dash. The rubber prevents it from going deep enough into the cone. After getting frustrated at getting nowhere, i jumped back on the forums and noticed one person said he missed the same thing, but that he went back to the install video and sure enough it was there. Well i went back to the video and for sure they did say to take it off (27:13 in the F30 Bavsound install video), but it was really easy to miss. They mentioned it during a transition scene, took 3 seconds to say to take it off (didn't say WHY it needed to be taken off), then quickly went on to tell a joke, before going onto the next part of the install. I think it could have been presented better.
   
4. The hardest and most tedious part of the install was the sound deadening work
   The actual speaker swap out work itself probably took 2 hours tops for all seven speakers. But I really wanted to do it right and spend some time making sure that i reduce sound vibration from the bare metal, loose items in the doors, etc... For all that work, it took me pretty much the entire weekend.
   I put Dynomat Xtreme on everything. I put it on the inside of the door panels, i put it in the interior cavity of each door, I added acoustic foam i purchased from a guitar/music store over the dynamat inside the doors, and i even wedged some soft tshirt material into each of the white connector housing to stop it from rattling against the housing. All loose wires were taped with cloth electrical tape and/or cabled tied tight to the door so that there was no chance of it rattling later. i even lined the door lock pin receptacle with electrical tape just below the surface so that the lock pin hits something soft when its bumping against the receptable when the car is in motion.
   I honestly don't know if any of these things will make a significant difference, but i do notice a lot of little noises, rattles, vibrations, and the like when i'm going down the road. And with my stock HiFi system, the deep bass notes would often be accompanied by the door vibrations as i crank up the volume, so i wanted to take a crack at each of these issues since i was going to have the doors completely taken apart.
   
5. Two tools that are the most indispensable are the plastic pry bar, and the 90 degree ratchet
   The ratchet was an absolute requirement for the center mid-range due to the limited space the windshield allowed you to access. But it was the blue pry bar that came along with the Bavsound toolkit that was the most useful tool of all. The plastic on plastic insured you could use quite a bit of force without the risk of scratching the door pieces, and i had to use it on just about every piece i had to remove. At the end of the day, it looked like it had been through a war, so its almost ready to be tossed. But you can be sure i will be picking more of these for my next job.
6. The thing that rattles the most once you take off the door panel are the little white connectors
   The white connectors are what hold the door panel to the metal on the door, but i noticed they are loose in the little housing they sit in, and make a rattling sound when you hold the door panel up and shake it. And the sound they make seems eerily similar to the kind of little shakes, squeeks, and tiny noise/vibration/rattles when you are in your car going down the road with no music, listening really carefully to the car. I'm sure once the door panel is against the door metal and the two screws holding them together is in place, the amount of movement is probably minimal. Still, it was nothing to add a little piece of fabric to stop the movement in the housing ... just in case.