F30 Hifi - BAVSOUND / BSW Stage One Upgrade Review

F30 HiFi - BAVSOUND / BSW Stage One Upgrade Review

Note: This review is being produced and posted as per an agreement between Bavsound and myself that included a substantial discount on the speaker set. I am not employed by, nor do I have any prior relationship with, Bavsound/BSW. This was my first opportunity to hear their products in person. Bavsound has not influenced the content of this review, other than asking to be referred to as “Bavsound”.

Product Link: http://www.bavsound.com/product/728/174/BSW-Stage-I-Audio-Upgrade-for-BMW-3-Series-Sedan-1 2-F30/

Reviewing sound systems is problematic, especially in a forum like this one. We all listen to different music, we all exist at different levels of financial capability (though I don't think very many of us worry about spending an extra buck at the supermarket) and many of us have strong opinions. Before I get started with anything opinion-related, I think I should note what sort of music I listen to, and what I don't, as a bit of context to this review.

Music for me started with The Beatles, thanks to my parent, but Punk found its way in while I was barely more than a tyke and Reagan was thrashing Carter at the polls. The Clash, The Jam, X, Black Flag, Bauhaus, The Minutemen, The Dead Kennedys, Siouxsie and The Banshees, and many loud and angry bands joined the Beatles in my tape collection. A lot of time passed and I found my way to 80's electronic music, which fit oddly with the Punk bands, but The Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Depeche Mode found their way into my heart. Oingo Boingo and XTC, genre-less as they are, popped in, too. Later on, Peter Gabriel joined the fun, along with Love and Rockets, James, Tori Amos, Nine Inch Nails, and so on. The music I listen to is belongs to many genres. It does not tend to be the repetitive Dance and Techno that many love, nor have I found Rap to be enjoyable. Newer styles, such as Drum and Bass or Dubstep don't work for me. All of that is about what I like, and is in no way a statement about the quality of the work of artists I don't listen to. If you don't know a lot of those bands, don't worry about it. I'm pretty old.

Audio systems need to cover a wide-variety of sounds for me to enjoy them, but they don't need to handle the extremes of Bass and Treble that exist in some genres. That may be more than anyone wanted to know, but I felt that it was relevant info for everyone to be able to gauge the worth of my opinions in relation to what they will ask their systems to do. I cannot speak to what this setup or the original HiFi setup sounds like when you run Snoop Dog (Lion? Or did he change his name again?) through it.

I haven't had my F30 for very long. I listened to the HiFi setup for exactly three weeks. The setup was VASTLY superior to the un-amped, no tweets Base system in my 2010 e90. That is without question. When I got the F30, I very quickly realized that the speakers were OK, but very badly balanced. The Tweeters were overly harsh (bright? I'm not great with these terms so I'll just call them icky) and they were the most noticeable part of the system. Bringing the volume up enough so that the underseat subs were enjoyable pushed the Tweets so much that it nearly hurt to hear them. I played with the simple tone controls as much as I could, taking the Bass up to +4 or 5 and the Treble down to -3. I have seen folk on the forums note that they actually raised the treble on theirs, and I can only assume that we don't listen to the same music. The mid-range speakers barely seemed to have a role in the system, especially with the Bass and Treble both altered. I couldn't even say if they were any good, as the frequencies they're responsible for were so squished between the tweets and the subs. A lot of the music I listen to is very vocal, so squishing the speakers that produce most of the human vocal range is really not OK for me.

Despite that, I probably could have lived with the HiFi speakers. It was bad, but it wasn't excruciatingly bad. Bavsound\BSW's desire for their speakers to be reviewed in the wild came at the perfect time for my curiosity levels. I was very skeptical about not replacing the woofers. The point made by one of their reps on the forums that made me willing is that he noted that the BSW speakers were a hair less efficient than the HiFi speakers. That's not necessarily a bad thing if the speakers you aren't replacing were having trouble keeping up with the ones you are replacing. Maybe 40 Watts vs. 25 wasn't the right power ratio (I Googled it...no idea if the numbers are actually right for the HiFi system or not) for the front sound stage (subs to speakers). I don't want this to get technical and create arguments, so I'll just leave it with the fact that the balance between subs/mids/tweeters was really off. Tim Booth from James did not really sound like Tim Booth. Tori Amos sounded OK, and so did Martin Gore, sometimes. Dave Gahan and Joe Strummer sounded like different people.

Big Stock System problems and non-problems: 1. Echo-location on high notes. There was no question at any volume that high notes were being generated a foot or so higher up than the rest of the sound. 2. The subs weren’t very alive until the volume was high enough for the tweets to become really annoying. Not that you had to turn it up too far for that to happen! 3. Even the stock amp could take the volume higher than I wanted it without distortion becoming the main problem. If my music tastes were different, or my ears younger, perhaps this would not be the case. 4. I never heard clipping from the amp. I know others have, and I have no explanation for this. I am well aware of what amp clipping sounds like. 5. If you turned up the bass too far, the Mids distorted badly. It wasn't clipping, it was flat-out unhappy speaker.

Enter the big box from Bavsound\BSW. My hope was for a bit more balance. I hoped that the tweeters wouldn't be obnoxious and would just do their jobs without calling so much attention to their existence.

The box arrived VERY quickly considering it went FedEx ground from New York to Oregon. BSW shipped the box out the first business day after I placed the order. The box was a bit beat up, but not anymore than you would expect from FedEx ground. It was larger than it needed to be, and filled at the top with air packet shipping stuff (technical term). I'm guessing they use the same box with the HK replacements (which would have filled the box). It would be safer to get a smaller box for the HiFi set. All of the speakers and bits were intact, though two of the mid speakers were loose in their packaging, probably from transit bouncing. Neither mid was damaged. The BSW toolkit is very nice, and the little 90 degree ratchet is a magnificent item that will be used many more times. I was disappointed that I could not locate a .pdf document for the F30 install, but I just watched the video one more time and bookmarked it on my phone in case I needed to watch any of it again during the install.

The install proceeded on Saturday after a calm morning hacking up bad guys online while enjoying a cup of coffee and breakfast. I had been inside my e90's front doors and made a few mistakes on my driver's-side door (I broke the thingy that made the lock indicator pop up and down) and I was determined to be more careful. With much fear as my car has barely 600 miles on it, I started with the passenger-side rear door. It came apart easily, though the long rubber piece with the top clips came off with it. I had seen that happen on Bavsound\BSW's install video so I wasn't surprised. The rear speaker came out easily and on went the sound insulation and the new speaker. Easy as pie (I can't cook at all, so that's sort of off). The door card went back on easily. They're easier to manipulate into place without a speaker hanging off of them. I turned on the stereo to verify that speaker worked, checked the window function and took a break.

I continued with that process (door off, speakers in, door on, test, and take a break) until all four doors and the center mid were done. The center mid was actually a bit of a pain due to the bad angle and the tight fit but it went in right as I was about to give up for the night. I was absolutely terrified of doing this after my past mistakes (and its one thing to screw up a used BMW, another to screw up a brand new one), but it went without a hitch. I'm pretty good at dealing with putting together small things, and kinda crap at anything that actually weighs a real amount. I once put a 486 together, including setting the motherboard jumpers, blindfolded and slightly drunk, in 22 minutes but I'm an idiot when it comes to blocks of wood and other such things. I always understood why Brian had such a problem with his clock in The Breakfast Club (old person reference).

The car was back together, unscratched and happy, and all the speakers made sound. After eating some dinner, I grabbed the 1994 James album, Laid, and went for a drive. The album is British, and mostly non-electronic. James has, or had at the time, a lot of musicians playing a lot of different instruments. It's a good test disc for range and clarity, though it is not bass-heavy. I reset my sound settings and drove off. The album starts out quietly and the first song is slow and relatively simple, later songs are faster and more complex. It was clear very quickly that Tim Booth, the singer for James, actually sounded like himself now. I was hesitant but pleased. I drove out to a quiet spot and listened to the whole album. By the end of it, I had pushed the balance one tick to the right, and fader one tick to the rear, which centered the musical stage well for my tastes.

I played with the tone controls a bit on a couple of the tracks, and happily found that altering the tone in either direction did nothing helpful. Happily because with the music I listen to, I can see the point of a full EQ, but I've never liked Bass/Treble controls. It's generally too brute-force and if it helps one song, it detracts from another. At even moderate volume, the still-stock subs are much more alive. I DO believe that the cabin speakers are less sensitive than the stock ones. The balance is much, much better between the three types of speakers.

I spend a lot of time today driving around and stopping to do some reading in the car. I have listened to the following albums (all of them on CD, not off the iPod): James – Laid, Depeche Mode – Violator, Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine, The Clash – London Calling, The Jam – Setting Sons, Love and Rockets – Sorted!.

After one day of doing little other than listening to music, here's where I am with the comparison between the stock HiFi f30 system and the Bavsound\BSW speakers with the Stock amp and subs retained:

1. The sense of location from high notes is gone. It sounds like a sound “field” rather than several separate drivers haphazardly thrown about the cabin. With the volume up, the car is filled with sound rather than being bombarded with it. 2. These tweeters are never annoying. They do their jobs competently and well. 3. The subs are much, much more alive at the volume levels I want the system at. 4. I cannot stress how well balanced the sound is coming from the three speaker types now. Bass flows to mid to highs without any drop off that I've been able to find with what I've thrown at it so far. 5. Maximum volume is a little closer to the level that I'm listening to it at than I'm comfortable with. I'm close enough to the top I keep expecting to hear distortion, but I really haven’t. I’m rather surprised by that. 6. I still haven't heard any clipping. I guess it’s possible that I'm missing it, but I don't think so. As with the distortion that I haven’t been able to cause, I’m beginning to think that most of the clipping, distortion, or whatever that many folk have heard on the stock system is generated more by cranking the tone controls than from anything else. Most of us don’t do this professionally. We aren’t audio engineers. I’m sure I know clipping when I hear it, but I’m less sure of that than of the things I get paid to be right about. 7. This is the big point: It sounds GOOD. Audiophile quality? Eh, I hate the term, but probably not. I hate the term because it doesn't mean anything. Are Paradigm Monitor Series speakers audiophile quality? Or do I have to spend 25k on Thiel's to qualify? Anyway, it sounds GOOD in my car. And that makes me very, very happy. I have yet to hear a note produced that is being significantly let down by the speakers or the amp. 8. I would love to hear how these speakers sound on a more powerful amp, like a pair of Arc 125.4's running all 7 channels or the JL 800/8, but I don't know that I'll be willing to spend the money to find out considering how happy I am with it at this point. In six months, who knows? 9. If you're looking for stompin' bass, this is not the one-stop upgrade for you. You likely need to look at replacing the under-seats and/or going for a trunk sub. 10. A trunk sub would be fun to consider, but I think that adding something like MusicarNW's corner-loaded sub, or anything Bavsound\BSW makes available in the future would likely necessitate adding an amp or the bass would overpower the cabin speakers pretty badly with the volume available from the stock amp. 11. To re-iterate: If you listen to some music genres, your results will likely vary.

The REAL question:

Is the upgrade worth the price?

1. The production of audio products is an economy-of-scale question. With 4” drivers, we happy German Car Drivers are at a disadvantage compared to the more common sizes found in vehicles made in other lands. There are a ton more options in the 5.25” and larger sizes and that is what it is. Nearly every option we have costs more than if we were changing equipment on an Acura. 2. I have trouble believing that the speakers that come in the HiFi systems (or that horrid “Base” system) are anything other what was available from the manufacturer at the price-point BMW was willing to pay and in the volumes they were seeking to purchase. I do not believe that matching the three speakers was a priority. 3. The Bavsound\BSW speakers ARE balanced across the three speaker types. Despite the fact that one speaker on each side did not come from Bavsound\BSW, no one who sits in your car will ever think that it wasn't designed that way. The sound is worthy of the car. 4. After every road I've gone down, I do not think you can get the same results with $800 spent anywhere else IF $800 is all you spend. 5. If you have substantially more to spend, there are many roads you can go down, including Morel, Focal, Gladden, ARC, and JL. All of those roads include spending money on amps, and if installed by good folk, I imagine you will be very, very happy. 6. Considering the cost of other speaker sets, I would have to be attacked by a very good salesperson to spend more on the cabin speakers. I've had my Paradigm Monitor 7's that run as my front speakers in my living room since January of 1997 (or something like that...it was snowy). I won't have ANY set of car speakers that long. Length of expected ownership is a factor for me when I spend money. Sometimes I get it wrong, but that's life. 7. Long story short (too late!): Yes, this upgrade is well-worth the price charged. The car is happy, the driver is happy.