[vester]

Hi there,

I found couple of few people posting the review of bavsound stage 1 upgrade on F30 but haven't see any people posting the review of Focal plug & play model IFBMW-S / IFBMW-C

The IFBMW-S is a 2-way component kit with 4’’ woofers, and tweeters.

Designed and Made in France, the IFBMW-S allows BMW® owners to enjoy Focal musicality, which is natural, rich and aerated, while respecting the aesthetics of the car!

Price vise, i believe bavsound will cost more but in terms of sound quality, can any people share?

Focal is a well known HIFI audiophile products and it earn quite alot of award!

[Revms1]

I've used Focal in the past and they are fantastic speakers if you are looking for sound quality. They will be more expensive than the Bavsound

[GL888]

I upgraded my HiFi to that focal kit to replace front 4" and tweeter and rear 2 way 4"and tweeter.

My centre speaker is bavsound 4".

Verdict:

The sound is much more crisp and focals sound more pronounced. I've lost a huge amount of mid range that I seemed to have with the stock bmw speakers. The only issue I feel I have is the front speakers don't seem to be as loud as the rears and the only thing I could put that to is my amp may not be able to power these like they should.

Overall is it worth the $1200?

Yes if you spend allot of time in your car and obviously think that the stock bmw system is sub standard. I think if I could grade the amp and have it tuned properly I could really get something out of the upgrade.

The known issue with our setups is 4" is not large enough to drive a mid range frequency and I think no matter what we do it will still lack some range.

I live in Sydney and there are not many places that want to touch f30's so my next step is to potentially look at buying the JL6 amp and complete this upgrade.

...woofers are a different thing all together.

Originally Posted by vester

Hi there,

I found couple of few people posting the review of bavsound stage 1 upgrade on F30 but haven't see any people posting the review of Focal plug & play model IFBMW-S / IFBMW-C

The IFBMW-S is a 2-way component kit with 4’’ woofers, and tweeters.

Designed and Made in France, the IFBMW-S allows BMW® owners to enjoy Focal musicality, which is natural, rich and aerated, while respecting the aesthetics of the car!

Price vise, i believe bavsound will cost more but in terms of sound quality, can any people share?

Focal is a well known HIFI audiophile products and it earn quite alot of award!

[bri1042]

A lot of your lost mid-range is the HiFi amp messing with the sound, GL.

[GL888]

Originally Posted by bri1042

A lot of your lost mid-range is the HiFi amp messing with the sound, GL.

I agree mate, and from what i know you can't tune the HiFi amp.

I've been recommended the JL Audio XD600/6 as a PNP with a harness but i'm still not 100% convinced it will improve it enough to warrant the spend.

I'm in Australia so every costs double to ship.

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by GL888

I agree mate, and from what i know you can't tune the HiFi amp.

I've been recommended the JL Audio XD600/6 as a PNP with a harness but i'm still not 100% convinced it will improve it enough to warrant the spend.

I'm in Australia so every costs double to ship.

Tons of folk have used it with great success. I know VP Electricity and Technic both use it, and they wouldn't if it wasn't a good choice. I'm not aware of any other option that accepts balanced inputs and has 6 or more channels for less money. I tried to get around it on my e90 and got very bad results. You lose your center channel with the /6 but it ruins stereo separation anyway.

[GL888]

Originally Posted by bri1042

Tons of folk have used it with great success. I know VP Electricity and Technic both use it, and they wouldn't if it wasn't a good choice. I'm not aware of any other option that accepts balanced inputs and has 6 or more channels for less money. I tried to get around it on my e90 and got very bad results. You lose your center channel with the /6 but it ruins stereo separation anyway.

You're right but you need if you use bluetooth phone allot which i do, i'm in my car at least 3 hours a day.

I've read the centre speaker keeps the sound from a phone call balanced.

[bri1042]

Disconnecting the center didn't adversely affect phone calls in my car all that much. The Center Speaker is just mushed L+R sound, you'll lose a little volume on it but you'll make up for it with more power to your actual L and R speakers.

[GL888]

Originally Posted by bri1042

Disconnecting the center didn't adversely affect phone calls in my car all that much. The Center Speaker is just mushed L+R sound, you'll lose a little volume on it but you'll make up for it with more power to your actual L and R speakers.

Fair point.

Would it be possible to maintain the center speaker though with the xd600/6 and technics harness?

The other issue is i've spent over $200 on the center speaker upgrade and i feel it is a bit of a waste completely disconnecting it, if you know what i mean.

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by GL888

Fair point.

Would it be possible to maintain the center speaker though with the xd600/6 and technics harness?

The other issue is i've spent over $200 on the center speaker upgrade and i feel it is a bit of a waste completely disconnecting it, if you know what i mean.

I do know what you mean, and I think the "center/no center" argument is one everyone needs to have for themselves. So, with the /6 you couldn't retain it without using a channel that was supposed to go somewhere else (like a rear speaker or something). JL makes a /8 that gives you one more channel than you need, though. Or you could look at the Helix PP82DSP (there's a similar lower-powered Audison that I think Technic really disliked). Unless you want to have someone who really knows their stuff deal with the DSP, you're likely better off sticking with the JL /6 or /8. I recall that being in Australia complicates ordering and stuff, but once you get the amp you need you can always use it in subsequent cars down the line.

[GL888]

Originally Posted by bri1042

I do know what you mean, and I think the "center/no center" argument is one everyone needs to have for themselves. So, with the /6 you couldn't retain it without using a channel that was supposed to go somewhere else (like a rear speaker or something). JL makes a /8 that gives you one more channel than you need, though. Or you could look at the Helix PP82DSP (there's a similar lower-powered Audison that I think Technic really disliked). Unless you want to have someone who really knows their stuff deal with the DSP, you're likely better off sticking with the JL /6 or /8. I recall that being in Australia complicates ordering and stuff, but once you get the amp you need you can always use it in subsequent cars down the line.

Thanks for feedback.

Being a novice to car audio, if I plug the centre in say the rear left will the overall volume of the rear left and centre go down or will it compensate for it?

Is there a way to use both left and right rears to power the centre, I.e. Positive in left and negative wire in right channel?

[bri1042]

That would bridge the two channels into the one speaker, wouldn't it? That would throw a ton of power at that single mid-range speaker and I think you'd have a good chance of blowing it. Honestly, if this is all relatively new to you, you'll get better results with simple approaches and you can tackle more complicated situations in later installs. If you really want to keep that Center speaker, I really do think your choices are the JL /8 or the Helix Match PP82DSP, depending on what you can get shipped to your Great Southern Land.

[GL888]

So here is the state of play.

JL Audio doesn't sell the JL/8 in Au so one option my fitter suggested was 2 4Channel (60w/chan) compact focal amps which they think should be fine to run everything including center speaker and leaving an extra channel for something else.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by bri1042

That would bridge the two channels into the one speaker, wouldn't it? That would throw a ton of power at that single mid-range speaker and I think you'd have a good chance of blowing it. Honestly, if this is all relatively new to you, you'll get better results with simple approaches and you can tackle more complicated situations in later installs. If you really want to keep that Center speaker, I really do think your choices are the JL /8 or the Helix Match PP82DSP, depending on what you can get shipped to your Great Southern Land.

[bri1042]

If the Focal amps accept Balanced Inputs there's no reason that wouldn't work. I don't know their amps at all, though I imagine they are nice.

[CntryClub007]

Hi - Did you go with anything? I was between the MS-8, Helix, and JL XD800/8...I'm leaning more towards the Helix at the moment, MS-8 is out, but wanted to see if you are happy with the setup you've gone with?

Both the Helix and JL have balanced inputs as well, not sure on the Focals?

[kingmonkey8]

Originally Posted by GL888

I upgraded my HiFi to that focal kit to replace front 4" and tweeter and rear 2 way 4"and tweeter.

My centre speaker is bavsound 4".

Verdict:

The sound is much more crisp and focals sound more pronounced. I've lost a huge amount of mid range that I seemed to have with the stock bmw speakers. The only issue I feel I have is the front speakers don't seem to be as loud as the rears and the only thing I could put that to is my amp may not be able to power these like they should.

I think a lot of people don't realise that when they upgrade components, especially speakers, they take time to burn in, loosen up before sounding their best.

[GL888]

Originally Posted by kingmonkey8

I think a lot of people don't realise that when they upgrade components, especially speakers, they take time to burn in, loosen up before sounding their best.

I think this was more than a break in, when the amp was upgraded I heard the difference immediately.

[Technic]

Arc Mini and Alpine PDX amps accept balanced inputs. Helix PP82DSP and Audison Prima 8.9 bit are DSP/8ch amp combos that also accept balanced inputs.

For installs of a 6ch amp in the F30 HiFi system that require keeping the center channel I suggest the use of the CDT CS-256 module. This is a image-enhancing crossover that takes the front channel outputs of the aftermarket amp and creates a center channel while keeping the front channels intact. Center channel output level and crossover point are adjustable at the module.

So a 6ch amp could power 7ch.