[Siluromx]

Hi guys

I would like to share my experience here about Upgrading my 2016 Grand Coupe 420i that comes with base audio (6 speakers with no tweeters and amp)

To me, hearing music in BMW speakers that powered by their Head Unit is really bad experience, specially when there is no tweeters to open up the sound and give it details. I almost reached to a point where I was thinking to sell the car but I decided to try different idea first. The idea was to replace all speakers and add tweeters to have sound stage, So I bought oem BMW tweeter enclosures from ebay as my first step.

After some research, I decided to replace the base speakers with BimmerTech Alpha One set. I contacted the company and Nelson answered all my questions and concerns (Thank you). They shipped them to me for free by DHL, and once I received them I knew how good they will sound as a first impression! nice elegant box, and when you open it Oh boy the quality built shows from the way they look

Installing them not that hard at all, there are videos on YouTube showing how to do it and Bimmertech also provide you with instruction. The only problem was with removing the woofers from their enclosures, they are glued, you can use heat gun or hair dryer with ALOT of patient.

After adding 2 tweeters and replacing:
2 front midrange
2 Rear midrange
2 woofers 4 Ohm

The result was more details Highs, but a bit too bright. I adjusted the fade to shift the sound way to the back in order to relief the tweeters. This is because of the HU programmed equalizer (non adjustable via iDrive), BMW brightened the highs since there was no tweeters to begin with. The sensors sound and gong became weak as well. For base stereo cars Bimmertech recommends first replacing the amplifier and then upgrading the speakers or doing both at the same time to not run into this obstacle.

I talked with Maciej and he assured me that after installing the amp with the Alpha One speakers that I already installed, I am going to be blown away with how good the sound will be. In few days they shipped me the Amp and emailed me all the instructions and guides that I need to complete the installation.

Bimmertech coded my HU to HiFi to level out the internal HU equalizer online after sending me the ENET cable. It was fast process.

It took me 2 days of my weekend to install it, but I admit, it was so fun to install, not hard at all, BMW trims can be removed like LEGO my only problem that I faced is how to insert the rear seat belt buckle in their place again ! I couldn't do it unless I unscrewed the buckle, insert it from the top, removed the child seat lock cover and from there I bolted that sucker again. Also I didnt know where to attach the ground cable, I sent pictures of possible ground points to Maciej and he immediately suggested a point.

The defult F36 Tune file that Bimmertech Amp. had is for 2 ohm woofers, and since I bought 4 ohm woofers at the beginning to replace the oem woofers (no plan to add amp at the time), it need to be re-tuned with 4 ohm. Maciej replaced their car's 2 ohm woofers with 4 ohm and he also installed same HU that I have in my car for accurate tuning. He emailed me the tune and I uploaded that to the amp.

The Result

I was Speechless! I have never heard so crisp, detailed and balanced sound in a car like this before ! It was really a studio quality. Its like hearing the music in high end headphone (like Audio Technica) with a good soundcard, you will hear details in the music that you hardly hear in a car system, all your favorite song will sound like you never heard them before, from the composer to your ears! no matter how much you increase the volume, the sound will stay balanced with no distortion or clipping, just smooth music. The bass was out of this world, deep and clean and well tuned. I am in love with my car now

With some music but not all, the sound may become little bit bright to some (At least to me), this is because of how the music is recorded and my Entry Nav HU. But If you have NBT head unit, then I guess you wont notice this and the sound quality will improve more as a common sense, its all due to how the equalizer constructed between both Head units.

Its DSP amp. not a regular one, this is why you will get this quality of a sound, and has a powerful tuning software for those who like to modify things, but I like the tune that they sent me, I requested another tune with adding a bit of treble (Timing adjustment) to define female voice little more without effecting the overall balance, and another one with removing little bit of treble (Timing adjustment). I wanted to compare the three tunes and stay with one. Maciej sent me that as well but didn't tried it yet.

The sensor sound and gong all back to normal.

The bottom line:

DONT WASTE your time If You have base car with no tweeters and amp if you want to upgrade, my advice is to go with both Bimmertech Amplifier + Alpha One Speakers, they both work hand in hand, and you will not regret it. I paid $2000+ but to me after hearing the result, it worth every dollar I paid. I only regret that not buying the amp from the beginning along with the speakers.

My experience with Bimmertech as a company was excellent. they answer all your questions in details, and special thanks to Maciej, this guy had never got tired from answering all my emails and stayed with me in every step of my project until its over and successful.


Advice:

Dont judge the sound after installing the speakers + Amp before putting your car trims and seats all back together ! i know you may be in rush to hear the result just like I did it going to mislead you. Put everything back and drive, I don't think you will want to get back home soon

I recorded different styles of music to give you an idea how the sound had improved. There are 2 videos. The first one recorded with my smart phone, but the low (bass) is not noticeable due to its mic. The second video was recorded with Sony IC recorder, It can pick up low frequency somehow, but you will notice the sound is little bright which is not how the actual music are, its because of the way this Sony records. Links are below:

Enjoy

Thanks

[cjsansom]

My question is if you don't want to cut the wire harness for the in door speakers and the underseat woofers, do you have the part #'s for the pigtails you could plug into the factory jacks but then end in bare wire for the speakers?

Not sure if the speaker jacks are different but I have a 2012 F30 HiFi

[DavidSTryk]

Originally Posted by Maciej@BimmerTech

Hi Siluromx

Just got back to work after some holidays
Thank you very much for the review! It has been a pleasure to work with you so far. I'm glad things have worked as they have so far.

There is no need for any wire cuting with our kits. We include jumpers for the under seat woofer plugs too.

Maciej@BimmerTech

Thinking about purchasing your amp for starters as I have the base stereo in my 2016 F31. But since I don't have an OEM amp I'm a little concerned about the wiring. Is it possible to get a copy of an installation manual to get a feel for how much work needs to be done and to make sure im comfortable spending 1100 dollars on this retrofit and not just end up not knowing which wires to connect to what ...

[parmar88]

Bumping this thread again after some time!

Excellent bit of information here although I'm in the UK and looking to do a non bimmertech setup. I've got the base stereo system in my F36 GC 4 series and have just bought some HK tweeters on ebay today. I've bought a pre-amp and now I just need to find a suitable not too expensive DSP amp.

Any recommendations please?

Also I intend to amp the subs and front mids only with the amp and let the HU deal with the back to mids. Is this setup recommended?

[pierreye]

If you want to do it once and do it right, I would get Match UP 7BMW straight away. Don't waste your money twice. Like OP, he should get 2 ohm underseat sub to maximize the bass output but do to his initial planning not getting the right amp, his underseat sub will be -3db lower at max.