Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkerGT01
Apologies for resurrecting a dead post, but somehow I missed this one and it’s struck a nerve now that I’ve seen it.
I have always believed that there’s something wrong with my center speaking in my M550’s B&W system. Both the HK systems in my last 4GC and my current M240 have excellent stereo imaging and I can clearly hear sound coming from directly in front of me and the center channel. Never so in my B&W system, regardless of tone or sound field setting. I always just chalked it up the “B&W Sound” versus the “HK Sound”.
In all other attributes, the G30 B&W system blows the doors off the F36/F23 HK system, but I have been continually disappointed by the B&W’s forward imaging.
BMW service techs are rarely audiophiles and more rarely willing to diagnose and correct anything audio system related unless it’s dead obvious, so I haven’t bothered bringing it up to them. Especially when, last I heard, there weren’t any replacement B&W center grills.
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Haha, no worries, I totally understand where you're coming from! It literally took me THREE visits to the dealer to FINALLY get them to acknowledge that the dang center channel (dashboard) mid-woofer was blown!
The first visit they said they'd look at it and run some test and lo-and-behold when I picked up my car, they said everything checked out (BS!). I reluctantly took the car back and re-scheduled another appointment when I had to replace something else (the stupid door on the little storage compartment near the driver's door broke).
The second time, I specifically requested my SA to bring the shop foreman in so that I could show him the speaker was busted. I played a few songs and did a frequency sweep and clearly showed him that the center mid-woofer was busted. He then told me that I should listen to my music at a lower volume or use Bluetooth (Apple CarPlay exasperated the issue whereas with Bluetooth or FM/AM/SiriusXM you could listen at around 70% without it distorting)!!! I'm like, I paid for the B&W system so I could listen to music at the highest fidelity possible! WTF you think I'm gonna use crappy BT or worse yet radio!!!
Anyway, after some pushback, they decided to replace it, but had to order the part from Germany since it's not super common. Long story short, the part from Germany arrived damaged, but they found one in Seattle which they expedited. Guess what? That one was damaged too!!! Who's packaging these things!? I told my SA to make sure that they quadruple bubble wrap the thing next time and thankfully they did and it arrived safely...too bad I'm out of town for Thanksgiving, so I had to schedule an appointment for when I get back in early December.
I will update the thread then to see if it has fixed the issue (I'm crossing my fingers it's not an issue with the iDrive unit or the amplifier). I'll also let you know if the imaging improves now that I (will) have a properly functioning center mid-woofer! On a separate, but related note: what EQ/settings do you use? I've been playing around with it and I've stuck with Studio and a relatively flat EQ with some minor (+/- 1 or 2) around the mid-range (1k and 2k) with a slight bump in the higher frequencies to offset the rolloff. I kinda want deeper bass, but if I bump the lower frequencies too much, it gets way too boomy. I might consider installing a subwoofer at a later point...