[Norris83]

Originally Posted by eliphil

Lights are a bonus I am curious about the upgrade of the sound?

The sound is much cleaner and more crisp especially when you crank it up at higher volumes. It doesn't get distorted like the oem HK speakers did when you're at 75-85% and higher. The subwoofers I put on last and they improved the bass dramatically! I recommend their speakers! So far I've had a great experience and I would do it again if I got a car with the HK system. When I put my order in I was hoping for an improvement but wasn't a 100% sold on getting the entire system. Now I'm glad I took that chance and hope that I've helped others decide. I don't feel that I need to make any additional upgrades to the sound system now.
The speakers seem to handle the HK stock amp very good but if it fails on me, I might get the bimmertech amp.

[lucandy6933]

Hi.

This will work on G11 too?

Thanks

[Norris83]

Originally Posted by lucandy6933

Hi.

This will work on G11 too?

Thanks

The speakers are the same, the grills are different. They have for G11 just search it up

[JKaruzas]

I wonder how this would compare to the full Bavsound kit that replaces the HKs. Looks to be a little less expensive going this route (not what the US$/CA$ exchange rate is nowadays).

[Norris83]

Originally Posted by JKaruzas

I wonder how this would compare to the full Bavsound kit that replaces the HKs. Looks to be a little less expensive going this route (not what the US$/CA$ exchange rate is nowadays).

I never had any experience with the bavsound so I wouldn't be able to comment on it.

My wife's 2018 G01 X3 has the HiFi sound system. It was really lacking, so I did some research and ended up installing the HK speakers that came out of my car into her car. The subwoofers don't fit but everything else did. It helped slightly but still lacking. I did some research on aftermarket options and ended up with the bimmertech subwoofers and amp. Everything was plug and play and it made a huge improvement. Just the amp alone helped but the subwoofers gave it that extra clean bass.
If I compare the two systems, the one in my M550i still sounds better, I think it's not only the speakers quality but the placement of the speakers and the car's sound deadening is just better on a G30 vs G01.
Either way, I'm happy with the bimmertech because if it was just replacing speakers it wouldn't have helped as much. The oem HiFi amp was just producing low quality sound.

[WretchedRefuse]

Originally Posted by JKaruzas

I wonder how this would compare to the full Bavsound kit that replaces the HKs. Looks to be a little less expensive going this route (not what the US$/CA$ exchange rate is nowadays).

I have the Bavsound in my G30 and expect that it's similar to the BimmerTech in that it's much improved over the HK. I also added a trunk sub which helps a lot. One difference to consider is that the Bavsound and BimmerTech don't include the ambient lighting that comes with the BW. It would be nice if somebody offered an aftermarket kit to add the lighting to the HK/Bavsound/BimmerTech kits.

[peteinpa]

So I did a hybrid approach when upgrading my hi-fi. Went with the Knock off B&W in the front to get the leds. I installed bimmertech amp, center, subs and rear deck. Sounds so much better.
Bimmertech will send you tunes so the system can be adjusted as you go. Took a while to break in but now the sound is very much improved over the stock hi-fi.

[umb2021]

Originally Posted by peteinpa

So I did a hybrid approach when upgrading my hi-fi. Went with the Knock off B&W in the front to get the leds. I installed bimmertech amp, center, subs and rear deck. Sounds so much better.
Bimmertech will send you tunes so the system can be adjusted as you go. Took a while to break in but now the sound is very much improved over the stock hi-fi.

What did you buy precious to get the light in the front ?

[peteinpa]

Originally Posted by umb2021

What did you buy precious to get the light in the front ?

I was able to source the tweeters and grills as well as the mids and grills from a vendor. Give me some time to get your their name.
Been a long since anyone referred to me as precious btw the tweeters and grills are one piece meaning you cannot remove the tweeters from the grills.
Vendor is 12VCAR.com. Use his # on WhatsApp for quicker response.

[Godspeed29]

Never thought of getting speakers from Ali, Thanks def gonna look into it

[RonronEG]

One of my OE B&W rear shelf speakers stopped working (4" mid). Ordered a pair of them from ali for $66 and will do a comparison between original equipment and these. I'll weigh them, test the impedance, visual inspection, give my listening impression side by side, etc. Probably won't get it for at least a month. If they are identical it will be good news seeing as how the one I had replaced last year showed $400+ on the warranty invoice. Plus I'll have a spare.

Norris, do the rear speaker grills just pop out with a trim removal tool?

Edit: saw the bavsound video, didn't realize the shelf was at the very beginning of the video. Is as easy as I had hoped lol

[Norris83]

Originally Posted by RonronEG

One of my OE B&W rear shelf speakers stopped working (4" mid). Ordered a pair of them from ali for $66 and will do a comparison between original equipment and these. I'll weigh them, test the impedance, visual inspection, give my listening impression side by side, etc. Probably won't get it for at least a month. If they are identical it will be good news seeing as how the one I had replaced last year showed $400+ on the warranty invoice. Plus I'll have a spare.

Norris, do the rear speaker grills just pop out with a trim removal tool?

Edit: saw the bavsound video, didn't realize the shelf was at the very beginning of the video. Is as easy as I had hoped lol

You got it, trim tool and T15. Very easy! I'm looking forward to this comparison.

[RayBMW520dF10]

What Ohms? Rms? etc....

[RayBMW520dF10]

Do you know what the speccs are for the B&W Speakers, Ohms? Rms?

[Norris83]

Originally Posted by RayBMW520dF10

Do you know what the speccs are for the B&W Speakers, Ohms? Rms?

Unfortunately this information is not available or provided by the knock-off sellers or oem bmw ones. Other than bmw advertises the total/peak watts the B&W produces is 1400 watts. which doesn't tell you the RMS watts.

[JKaruzas]

So do the B&W and HK systems both use the same stock amp?

[540iSUP]

Originally Posted by JKaruzas

So do the B&W and HK systems both use the same stock amp?

The two systems use different amps.

[RonronEG]

Quick rundown for the 4" speakers-

AliExpress- 6ohm, 306grams, sounds a touch brighter
OE B&W- 11ohm, 312g

Visually the speakers look nearly identical. Slight differences in the basket casting, voice coil former looks a bit longer in the Ali version, cone and dustcap look and feel of same quality and material.

After seeing the difference in impedance I hesitated to leave it installed but went ahead and left it hooked up for now. Will likely order an OE speaker from a reputable source and install.

Some people use the word knockoff interchangeably with aftermarket. Aftermarket parts do not try to pass themselves off as original although they may try to resemble the look and function of the real part. Knockoffs misrepresent themselves as genuine (think a fake Rolex or LV bag). That said, these are not aftermarket they are counterfeit/knockoffs. BMW labeled boxes, stickers, part numbers but certainly not an OE part.

[540iSUP]

I tested out the tweeters and mids from Ali express and compared them to the HK system. All the speakers read around 4 ohms.

So it would make sense that these speakers work with the HK system, but I would hesitate to use these as OEM replacements for an actual BW system.

I like Pete's idea of a hybrid system.

[BlueLeaderXI]

I am soon taking delivery of my 2022 M5 comp. I've always liked the Bowers & Wilkins option on their higher end cars, but much to my sadness, the B&W was temporarily taken away as an option when building my M5... so now I am here in this thread.

I am generally OK with the quality of the HK in my current M340xi, with the right custom EQ settings. Would I have ordered the $3400 B&W option if I was able to? yes. Would I spend double that trying to retrofit ? not sure but not yet.

Those matching LED lights tho....

I am following the OP's course here and ordering the entire 16 speaker replacements from Ali express.. Looks like they should all be plug and play. A few questions:

- The true OEM B&W system substitutes a 1400-watt amp.

Plug & playing the Aliexpress speakers, (true, they aren't the OEM B&W parts) should still work fine right?

What will be the main difference between plugging in these Aliexpress speakers while still using the stock HK Amplifier, which per the specs list is 464-watt ? Will I run into fritzing any of these replacements?

Furthermore, would it be possible to replace the HK amp with the BW 1400-watt amp later down the road ?
(I guess at that point, then it would be trialing the B&W amp with knockoff BW speakers, so maybe then would need to add the OEM full quality B&W).

Basically what I am going for is most importantly,
1. cool matching interior LED lights,
2. slightly better/clearer sound.
in that order.

[Norris83]

Originally Posted by BlueLeaderXI

I am soon taking delivery of my 2022 M5 comp. I've always liked the Bowers & Wilkins option on their higher end cars, but much to my sadness, the B&W was temporarily taken away as an option when building my M5... so now I am here in this thread.

I am generally OK with the quality of the HK in my current M340xi, with the right custom EQ settings. Would I have ordered the $3400 B&W option if I was able to? yes. Would I spend double that trying to retrofit ? not sure but not yet.

Those matching LED lights tho....

I am following the OP's course here and ordering the entire 16 speaker replacements from Ali express.. Looks like they should all be plug and play. A few questions:

- The true OEM B&W system substitutes a 1400-watt amp.

Plug & playing the Aliexpress speakers, (true, they aren't the OEM B&W parts) should still work fine right?

What will be the main difference between plugging in these Aliexpress speakers while still using the stock HK Amplifier, which per the specs list is 464-watt ? Will I run into fritzing any of these replacements?

Furthermore, would it be possible to replace the HK amp with the BW 1400-watt amp later down the road ?
(I guess at that point, then it would be trialing the B&W amp with knockoff BW speakers, so maybe then would need to add the OEM full quality B&W).

Basically what I am going for is most importantly,
1. cool matching interior LED lights,
2. slightly better/clearer sound.
in that order.

Congratulations on the new car!
The speakers are all plug and play, including the speakers grills. You will find that the oem door grills are infused in plastic. I used a dremel tool to remove them. When you place the new grills, they come with screws that hold the new grills instead of that plastic that you removed. It's much better in my opinion just make sure you use the correct size screw. If you use the larger ones they could damage the grill and come out of the grill!

I find the sound is much cleaner and properly powered by the HK amp. I don't feel that there's a need to replace the amp or that the amp is under powered. I've always felt that the HK speakers were overpowered by the HK amp and that if I had the it cranked up high it would blow the speakers and the sound just becomes distorted after 75-80% volume. With these speakers it's much better sound quality and it can handle the power all the way to 95%. The subwoofers were a massive improvement over the hk ones! I would start with those.

Currently there's no aftermarket amp but once bavesound or bimmertech come out with one, you will have other options to get. My wife's G01 X3 it came with the Hi-fi standard system. I got the bimmertech amp, subwoofers and used the hk speakers off my car, it sounds much better than the oem hi-fi closer to the HK setup I had in my F10. For some reason the HK system in our G30 is lacking when I compare it to my F10 535i.

[SonD]

Originally Posted by Norris83

Currently there's no aftermarket amp but once bavesound or bimmertech come out with one, you will have other options to get. My wife's G01 X3 it came with the Hi-fi standard system. I got the bimmertech amp, subwoofers and used the hk speakers off my car, it sounds much better than the oem hi-fi closer to the HK setup I had in my F10. For some reason the HK system in our G30 is lacking when I compare it to my F10 535i.

Actually, there is an amp, and has been for some time (at least for the UK)
It used to need a separate DAC to hook into the fibre optic link and decode the 'MOST' information and feed the music stream to the dac section.
Only recently has a special custom loom been made and needs to be a 'special order' (at least here in the UK) to go directly to the amp from the existing loom.
This then enables a much improved amp section to work with the supplied HK speakers, making them work a whole lot better.
The supplied amp (specified at 400w) is something I still cant get my head around, as 400w is meaningless without context (RMS etc) - akin to saying this LED lamp is very bright.
Anyway, the amp also contains very powerful (& very fast) DSP, which will need to be setup correctly, so probably best let some tech guys do that with the correct software.
The amp is linked below, but as I said, a specially made loom will be needed for it to work correctly in a 5 series with the HK surround set (16 speakers etc)

https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/m...fiers/up-10dsp

https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/m...-bmw-1-9ram-hk

Here in the UK you are looking at circa £1500.00 for install and setup.
I am hoping for a Christmas bonus

NB, if you try and find the harness/loom on their upgrade finder it will state N/A as it is to special order only.
With the AMP you need to specify 'with MEC ANALOGUE IN'