[beanbaguk]

I'd like to build up a thread detailing user reviews for the subwoofers in their cars.

I'm in the process of buying a underseat sub to complete my audio set-up. After A LOT of tweaking and playing with the amp and DSP, I've got it sounding just right but now the bass is lacking.

Keep in mind I had a base stereo system (no tweeters), and four pathetic mids, driving my system along with the under seat woofers.

They really do struggle with the PP82DSP amp. I find them too sharp and lacking any detail or depth so they need to go. It lets down the entire system.

The obvious choice would be a Bavsound Ghost under seat woofer, but I want to investigate and collect together what other options are around.

• Bavsound - Ghost Subwoofer
• MB Quart Subwoofer
• Earthquake Sound SWS-8X
• Focal IFBMW Subwoofer (V2)
• Audiotec Fischer Match MS 8B-BMW.1
• Audiotec Fischer Match MS 8B-BMW.2
• Eton USB 195 (or USB 150 but only for HiFi housing)
• Jehnert XE200
• Rainbow IL-S8F
• Gladen ONE 201
• Ampire Neo 8 or new BMW-W1
• Audio System AX 08 / AX 08 Plus
• Aurasound NSF8
• Integral Audio Underseat Woofers

I'd like to ask for your help maintaining this list so if you have any input, please let me know.

Over time I'd like to expand it with technical information and suitability with different set-ups.

I'd also like to get real user reviews on every product we list. Not just what we read on the product website.

[Lancelot]

Hi,

I have the PP82DSP with IFBMW-Sub and i'm quite happy with them.

I'm not very good at in depth reviews, all I can say is they perform consistently, provide a nice, rather neutral bass, and you can feel the bass rather strongly in the seats :-)

For F30 make sure you get the IFBMW-Sub V2 which comes with spacers to fit in the F30 enclosures which are shallower than the E90.

Happy to answer any question you may have.

[beanbaguk]

Originally Posted by Lancelot

Hi,

I have the PP82DSP with IFBMW-Sub and i'm quite happy with them.

I'm not very good at in depth reviews, all I can say is they perform consistently, provide a nice, rather neutral bass, and you can feel the bass rather strongly in the seats :-)

For F30 make sure you get the IFBMW-Sub V2 which comes with spacers to fit in the F30 enclosures which are shallower than the E90.

Happy to answer any question you may have.

Cheers....they are a bit cheaper than the Ghosts too. With the BSW you get two subs, whereas with the focals you have to buy two and they come in at about €200 each so they work out about 80eur cheaper.

I've heard a lot of positive things about Focal's but it would be good to get a comparison between them and the Ghosts.

Interesting I also found the MBQuarts for just 200eur! I know these guys are a bit cheaper but they must be better than the standard subs and I wonder how they compare to the pricier competitors.....

[TePee]

Interesting topic...

There are some more underseat sub options:

Eton USB 195 (or USB 150 but only for HiFi housing)

Jehnert XE200

Rainbow IL-S8F

Gladen ONE 201

Ampire Neo 8 or new BMW-W1

Audio System AX 08 / AX 08 Plus

Aurasound NSF8 (some modification needed)

[beanbaguk]

Originally Posted by TePee

Interesting topic...

There are some more underseat sub options:

Eton USB 195 (or USB 150 but only for HiFi housing)

Jehnert XE200

Rainbow IL-S8F

Gladen ONE 201

Ampire Neo 8 or new BMW-W1

Audio System AX 08 / AX 08 Plus

Aurasound NSF8 (some modification needed)

Cheers, I've added your selections to the list...do you have any specific experience with them?

[TePee]

I have the Jehnert 3-way system including the XE200 underseat subs. I'm running the system with an Eton 8-channel DSP amp and still fine tuning the adjustments.

So far the XE200s are nice, but I could imagine more warm deep bass. Of course I know they are no real subwoofers and as I wrote I'll try to fine tune the DSP settings

[DJWabbles]

I have the MS 8B-BMW.2 along with the tweeters and the mid-range, the under seat subwoofer sounds amazing from the box it self but even better with a decent AMP.

[beanbaguk]

Originally Posted by DJWabbles

I have the MS 8B-BMW.2 along with the tweeters and the mid-range, the under seat subwoofer sounds amazing from the box it self but even better with a decent AMP.

I'm really interested to know more about these. I can get them for a steal at just £170 for the pair....

How do they compare against the MB Quart QMW200's and Focal IFBMW-Sub's?

[_bdiddyb_]

I have the 8.5" subwoofer from the MB Quart QM200.3 kit. I ran each with a channel from a JL audio XD800v2. They sound great after tuning the system with the Helix DSP. Don't expect teeth clattering/butt massaging bass from them, because of the weak ported box they have to go into. Cranking up the bass will rattle your side skirts and you'll end up hearing noise. I did some sound deadening and also added 2 10w3v3 subs to fill in the low bass where these are missing.

[TePee]

Originally Posted by TePee

I have the Jehnert 3-way system including the XE200 underseat subs. I'm running the system with an Eton 8-channel DSP amp and still fine tuning the adjustments.

So far the XE200s are nice, but I could imagine more warm deep bass. Of course I know they are no real subwoofers and as I wrote I'll try to fine tune the DSP settings

I've measured very approximately with RTA Lite iPhone app and just added some dB at 45Hz and lowered around 125Hz. Now they sound much warmer and deeper

[DJWabbles]

Originally Posted by beanbaguk

I'm really interested to know more about these. I can get them for a steal at just £170 for the pair....

How do they compare against the MB Quart QMW200's and Focal IFBMW-Sub's?

I think the price is reasonable. I got mine as a set, 2 x Tweeters, 2 x Mid-range and 2 x 8 inch under floot subwoofer for about £350 all in.

I haven't heard the MB's or the Focals but where I got mine installed from the audio shop, the guys said they would sound about the same really, but then again those are more pricier but they said what I have is really good as one guy has worked on my car and tested everything and also they sell Morels and Rainbows as well.

But for the money they are worth it and they sound great.

Below I made two videos and you can see/hear for your self:

Also the quality of music depends on the source. From my videos they were FLAC ripped onto CD.

Since making the vidoes, I have included soundproof deadening to the passenger and drivers side doors.

On a different note, there aren't many reviews on the speakers I have in my car, but have found the following review http://www.hifitest.de/test/car-hifi...83c-bmw2_12019

Hope this helps your self and perhaps anyone else.

[stef82600]

Hello everybody,

i am new to the forum, and i am searching some advices for the underseat options. I am in Europe and just bought a F31, with the base audio (then 4 mids, 2 underseat and no amp).

I have started to upgrade with IFBMW-S kit. And i am ready to install a 5 channel Helix PP50 DSP. I would take the opportunity in the same time to replace the underseat.

My first question is : would you just make the "plug and play" amplifier installation, keeping the underseat on the same line than the front speakers? Or is it interesting to use the 5th channel (intented for sub) to connect directly the two underseats? In this configuration i am afraid to have a "hole" in the frequencies, and to have difficulty to manage the settings.

For the underseat, i am interested by focal, but they are quite expensive. I have found a good deal for Ampire BMW-W1 but i have difficulties to get feedbacks : what do you think ?

Stéphane

[bri1042]

Stephane,

The Under-Seat subs run in stereo, so using a single "sub" channel for them might not be optimal. You would also have to run them in series or parallel to have both on one channel of an amp, which would do interesting things to your impedance rating.

In case you aren't familiar with what it does:

http://www.hometoys.com/content.php?...2Fspeakers.htm

Using a 5-channel amp in our cars is problematic. You may want to consider the Helix 8 Channel or the Bimmertech version of it.

[stef82600]

Hello

thanks a lot for your answer, this is confirming my first thoughts. Unfortunately i have already bought the pp50 amplifier (i had a good opportunity for a used one). Then i won't use the sub channel. Anyway it should be much better than my base audio system (i hope!)

Now i have to find the right candidate for underseat replacement.

[Dang3r]

I take the opportunity to hop in here to ask a question, how about the bavsound speaker in combination with H&K audio system before ordering. Until now Im not really pleased with the bass sound of the OEM speakers under the seats and an easy replacement shoud do better.
Any thoughts against that? Thank you.

[TePee]

@stef82600:
You should use the 4 channels for semi-active powering your front system.
2 channels -> tweeter&mids (with passive crossover)
2 channels-> underseat subs.

This way you can make the best use of your pp50. You only have to route 2 additional wires to your front speakers.

Otherwise if you use your stock wiring the front channel runs parallelly and there are has no crossovers at all!

You could use the 5th channel of your pp50 for a trunk sub. On the normal 4 channels the pp50 doesn't have that much power anyway to power real good underseat subs.

[stef82600]

Hi

I have ordered ampire w1. I Will make the feedback when they Will be in the car.

[Dang3r]

Today my Bavsound Ghost underseats had arrived. Installing next time, Bavsound say that to give time period up to 12h in use to let the speaker deflate their potential. Would post a review after the time.

[beanbaguk]

Originally Posted by Dang3r

Today my Bavsound Ghost underseats had arrived. Installing next time, Bavsound say that to give time period up to 12h in use to let the speaker deflate their potential. Would post a review after the time.

Nice! Congrats on your purchase. I've delayed my sub woofer upgrade as I've just bought myself an NBT upgrade.

I'll have to wait a little longer for mine. (I'll probably have a new car at this rate!)

[instalher]

all of the drivers mentioned need airspace to work, model the theil small parameters on term pro and you will very quickly see they have horrific curves under 80 hz. and that's the best of these drivers, my helix 8 sound very very good for a midrange, but not midbass, I had earthquake as well and same issue but less power, we sell mb quart, that experiment lasted all of two min.. hertz gave me a set to try.. boooooo... and I have modelled most of the other drivers in your list, NONE give excellent midBass!!!! The issue is the box. its tiny, way to small for any decent output. so what to due.. ok, try this. Make a fiberglass box, you can get .5 cubic ft. and run a midbass only 6.5 driver sealed. the port resonates terribly and with any output from a high power amp, will drive you nutz.... iam running 150 watts per 8 and cant stand any high output due to this problem.. The box had the quake, now the helix, and I will be putting in a pair of hertz mille 6.5 in I have this system in my other bmw works killer..

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by beanbaguk

... I'd also like to get real user reviews on every product we list. Not just what we read on the product website.

I am at the beginning stages of evaluating underseats now that i have my trunk sub for the low-bass needs of my system. I would like to tie everything together, particularly in the mid-bass area, and have settled on either the Jehnert XE200's or the BSW Ghosts. I'm not in any rush as i'm not willing to shell out $500 for either one - just waiting for someone to dump theirs.

I was leaning towards the Jehnerts because of the rave reviews i heard saying the mid-bass was just super well-defined, tight, clean, punchy, and fills that gap better than most everything else on the market.

So... in any case, I was just conversing with a forum member today over on the f80m3post site who was selling his Jehnert XE200's for $325. His ad was interesting because he said he was dumping them in favor of the BSW Ghost underseats. When i asked him why he was doing it, he said that the BSW's "went deeper". i followed up with these questions, and his response follows. He is one of the few people who have had an up-close encounter with both the Jehnerts and BSW Ghosts and has come out of it with a strong opinion.

1) By "go deeper", do you mean the BSW Ghosts extend better into the lower bass frequencies than the Jehnerts? Yes, the Ghost woofers tend to extend into lower frequencies. The Jehnerts are much tighter with midbass, but even with a trunk sub, it seemed like something was missing and the Ghost woofers seemed to fill in better. I think that part of the issue is personal preference as well as music style being listened to, but the Jehnerts seem like they have a great mid range that is nice and tight, but the listening frequency is narrow. It is a true mid range speaker. If I took my trunk sub out, the Jehnerts did not provide any substantial bass, but the Ghost woofers did. If you are not running a trunk sub, the Ghost woofers are a better option, IMHO.

2) Are you running the OEM amp, or an aftermarket/upgraded one? I was running a JL 500/3 to the underseat subs and a trunk sub. I just sold my Technic Harness, JL amp, and LC2i. I do have a trunk sub and custom box left (I sold my e90 M3 and removed everything).
I never tried the underseat subs without the JL amp, so perhaps the Jehnerts would sound better without an amp. I can tell you that when I went from the JL amp running the stock subs to the Jehnerts, I was disappointed with the sound. The Ghost woofers sounded much better.

3) Do you currently run a trunk sub? I was running a JL 12' 3WV3 with the JL 500/3 in a custom box that replaced the battery box cover.

4) What type of music do you listen to? [I want to see if we are comparing apples to apples here or if music source might be cause in difference of interpretation of how good/bad these jehnerts are]I listen to a lot of Top 40, R&B, and some rap. I like to have the bass accentuated and got a lot of use from the control knob on the JL amp. I hope this helps!

My plan was to go with the Jehnerts, powering them with 100w (or possibly with 200w bridged, losing my center channel in the process), and using them mainly to tie together the rest of the system - i.e. provide lower midrange, mid-bass, and start down into the sub-bass region. But to be sure, by 'rest of the system', my trunk sub would be a part of that equation. Based on his review, i'm now leaning towards the Ghosts.

EDIT: Btw.. i noticed you did not include the Audison Prima AP 8 in your list. Technic did an install/review about a year ago and in his words, "solid midbass without compromises."

[beanbaguk]

Cheers for the update on your sub install. I just had a look at your rear tweeter installation and it's something I've thought of doing. Doesn't sound too pricey either, so potentially worth a punt.

I've got the car for another year so I'll still be doing a few upgrades yet!