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      06-06-2019, 09:16 AM   #45
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tls1324 View Post
Are you replacing the existing equipment or adding a sub in the back? I’m nervous to install aftermarket speakers and sub because I’m worried it will mess up the electronics of the car.
The Audiotech Mach UP 7BMW is a "plug & play replacement amp & DSP for HiFi systems", it has 5 channels @ 4 ohms (F/C/R speakers) and 2 channels @ 2 ohms (underseat woofers). So yes, you need to take out your current amp and replace it with this one, however there's no need to cut any wires what so ever, just connect the supplied harness and you are done.

However on the G05 with HiFi there is no Amp in the trunk (Built date from 2019), instead there is a RAM Module that is connected to the front Headunit. This RAM module has the tuner and amp built in and it's connected via Ethernet and Most, so this is a no go for the Plug & Play part on the G05 with HiFi, as they are not compatible, at least on my car.

Last edited by RO-CK; 06-06-2019 at 09:29 AM..
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      06-06-2019, 10:48 AM   #46
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Anyone else’s HK system giving them a massage whenever there’s bass in the audio it’s playing? Makes sense I guess since the woofers are under the seats.
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      06-06-2019, 11:15 AM   #47
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RO-CK View Post
The Audiotech Mach UP 7BMW is a "plug & play replacement amp & DSP for HiFi systems", it has 5 channels @ 4 ohms (F/C/R speakers) and 2 channels @ 2 ohms (underseat woofers). So yes, you need to take out your current amp and replace it with this one, however there's no need to cut any wires what so ever, just connect the supplied harness and you are done.

However on the G05 with HiFi there is no Amp in the trunk (Built date from 2019), instead there is a RAM Module that is connected to the front Headunit. This RAM module has the tuner and amp built in and it's connected via Ethernet and Most, so this is a no go for the Plug & Play part on the G05 with HiFi, as they are not compatible, at least on my car.
Interesting. This sounds like the HiFi won't be an easy system to upgrade.
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      12-01-2019, 09:09 AM   #48
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Wondering if there is any more news or developments on a plug and play upgrade path for the standard hifi system on the 2019 ?
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      12-01-2019, 02:11 PM   #49
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I've never owned an X5 before.... but I have owned two different 3 series'. The first with the hifi, and the 2nd with the HK.

I can tell you, that the hifi was rock-bottom quality..... not even for a BMW. It was rock bottom for a Hyundai.

Absolutely terrible.
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      12-10-2019, 07:22 PM   #50
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I checked with Bavsound today, they're working on an amp/ram for the G05 but are still "a couple of months" from release.
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      12-10-2019, 09:04 PM   #51
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Quote:
Originally Posted by like2short View Post
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Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
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Originally Posted by like2short View Post
Samsung owns Harman International and before Samsung acquired Harman, Harman bought B&O auto and B&W.

Yes the systems are different, but it's generally the same team working with the auto oe. The cost difference of each system to bmw is nowhere close to the price of the option.
Of course it's not, most options have higher profit margins. Regardless of who works on a certain team designing X speaker doesn't matter. The components, quality etc of B&W are better than the HK system. It's like comparing a pair of Sennheiser HE1's to Beats Studio headphones. (This comparison is exaggerated) They are both overpriced but one sounds significantly better. Is the price difference worth it? That depends on the person buying it
The Harman guys told me they think a b&w system can add 3-4000 of extra gross profit to the car. Yeah, it's up to the buyer if they want it or not. If one spends a lot of time in the car and wants the best, go for b&w!
How do you make $4k in profit on something that costs the customer $3,400? That's quite the business plan.
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      12-10-2019, 10:30 PM   #52
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Originally Posted by tqbmw View Post
I don't know about the stock system but I have the HK optional stereo. It sounds phenomenal. I'm very impressed. I wonder what the B&W sounds like now.
I have had the stock speaker, the HK, and the buffalo wing speaker

The buffalo wing is definitely the best

And, definitely more expensive too
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      12-11-2019, 08:34 AM   #53
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looking to upgrade the front tweeters to the B&W ones which are plug and play. Anyone know if coding is required to get them to illuminate?
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      12-11-2019, 09:22 AM   #54
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Originally Posted by KrisV View Post
looking to upgrade the front tweeters to the B&W ones which are plug and play. Anyone know if coding is required to get them to illuminate?
I would imagine there's some coding invovled becuase in the iDrive menu for ambient lights there's specific sub menus for the speakers. If you don't have B&W you won't have those sub menus.
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      02-19-2020, 06:27 PM   #55
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I’ve had the standard hi-fi in most of my past cars (E46, E60, F10, E70) and the HK in my M2. They all seemed pretty decent to me, but then again I prefer listening to the beautiful music made by the exhaust rather than playing music for other cars to hear!
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      02-19-2020, 11:53 PM   #56
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HK is definitely much better than the hifi system. The sound is crystal clear, love it.
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      02-20-2020, 12:07 AM   #57
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndroidRobot View Post
I have a better HK system in my X3 (600W) and it's mediocre at best. I ordered the B&W because that one truly sounds phenomenal
More watts isn't "better". I have the HK system in my 3 series and it is noticeably worse compared to both the F15 and G05 X5 HK systems. The B&W system in the G05 is definitely much better, but the HK system is the best bang for your buck, IMO. For only $875 you get a much better audio system. There's no aftermarket upgrade you could do for less than $1000 that could even approach the upgrade the HK system is.

I assume the X3 system is more comparable to the 3 series system. I want to say even my old E60 HiFi sound system was better than my F30 HK system. So you can't assume one HK system is better than another. As you move up the range, the audio systems get much better. A lot of this can probably be attributed to better sound isolation and materials in the cabin.

Among audiophiles, using watts to judge how good an audio system is like using megapixels to judge how good a camera is. It is only one factor and a terrible system can easily be rated at very high wattages. I suspect the lower wattage is due to the use of more class D amplifiers which are more efficient and use less power.
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      02-20-2020, 12:37 AM   #58
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Coming from a 2018 X3 M40i with the HK system, my new 2020 X5 M50i with the HK system is loads better. The bass has a much more full sound and the soundstage is larger. I will say that the soundstage does feel like it's coming from below - a few speakers up at the headliner would help that a ton. But overall, with a relatively simple "smile" EQ set up, the HK does well enough for me. The car only has 40 miles on it, so hopefully it gets even better as the mid and high range breaks in.

Disclaimer - I have not heard the BW system. I'm almost afraid to in that it will make me want to drop the $$$ on it...
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      02-20-2020, 03:55 AM   #59
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As a side note on this discussion: When streaming music over bluetooth from your smartphone, it is sometimes possible to increase sound quality a lot by choosing a different bluetooth setting (for the more tech-savvy: the codec used).

I have found this to be working on android smartphones specifically, no idea if it works on iphone too.
By default, most phones use the "SBC" bluetooth method as it's an industry standard and all bluetooth devices support this. However, it's not very high quality, and most bluetooth audio devices support better methods.

I have found this to increase bluetooth sound quality quite significantly and I havent encountered a car in the last years that doesn't support a more advanced bluetooth codec (Like AAC or LDAC).

Several websites explain quite clearly how to adapt this setting, for example here is one: Click
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      02-20-2020, 04:44 AM   #60
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirksael View Post
I have found this to be working on android smartphones specifically, no idea if it works on iphone too.
Nope and the majority of us are on iPhones. The solution for iPhone users is to use CarPlay which routes uncompressed audio over WiFi. Of course this means you have to fight with the still buggy and unreliable implementation of CarPlay, but at least it’s free now!
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      02-20-2020, 05:30 AM   #61
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When listening to Spotify (in Europe), the mobile phone is not involved in streaming so the BT codec does not get to worsen the signal. I am hoping the bitrate on the stream that the car audio system uses is decent.

On my Pixel 3 XL an "HD Audio" option is available and automatically selected on most of my audio devices.
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      02-20-2020, 05:49 AM   #62
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWDude2018 View Post
Coming from a 2018 X3 M40i with the HK system, my new 2020 X5 M50i with the HK system is loads better. The bass has a much more full sound and the soundstage is larger. I will say that the soundstage does feel like it's coming from below - a few speakers up at the headliner would help that a ton. But overall, with a relatively simple "smile" EQ set up, the HK does well enough for me. The car only has 40 miles on it, so hopefully it gets even better as the mid and high range breaks in.

Disclaimer - I have not heard the BW system. I'm almost afraid to in that it will make me want to drop the $$$ on it...
I am not experienced with EQ adjustments so never know how to tune. Would it be possible for you to post a photo of what a "smile" looks like (on an equalizer) so I can start from there and then fine tune. Thanks in advance.
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      02-20-2020, 06:41 AM   #63
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Quote:
Originally Posted by maczrool View Post
Nope and the majority of us are on iPhones. The solution for iPhone users is to use CarPlay which routes uncompressed audio over WiFi. Of course this means you have to fight with the still buggy and unreliable implementation of CarPlay, but at least it’s free now!
how do you know its using wifi for sure? I know the car has a hotspot, but my phone just says 5gLTE or whatever. It works through carplay but the wifi icon doesn't show up.
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      02-20-2020, 07:36 AM   #64
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how do you know its using wifi for sure? I know the car has a hotspot, but my phone just says 5gLTE or whatever. It works through carplay but the wifi icon doesn't show up.
Because that’s how wireless CarPlay works. Turn off WiFi on your phone and you can’t even do CarPlay. CarPlay establishes a connection with Bluetooth and then sends data over WiFi including audio. You must still have WiFi going somehow. Did you explicitly turn it off? I had it turned off the other day and was cursing CarPlay until I realized I had forgotten to turn it back on. Once I did, it immediately connected.

I don’t believe CarPlay will support anything higher than 48kHz, 24-bit audio so any files higher than that end up getting downsampled and/or dithered.
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      02-20-2020, 07:45 AM   #65
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RVAGuy View Post
I am not experienced with EQ adjustments so never know how to tune. Would it be possible for you to post a photo of what a "smile" looks like (on an equalizer) so I can start from there and then fine tune. Thanks in advance.
I used the link below as a starter. I think it works well to get a baseline, then do small tweaks as you see fit.

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1480176

maczrool ... do you know if CarPlay and WiFi is the same concept as AirPlay 2? I thought it was supposed to be lossless audio with that option? I test a trial with Tidal over the past 2 weeks, and noticed the audio quality over Master Recordings to be significantly better than Apple Music. I know Apple Music is limited in quality, but was not sure how Tidal sounded better? To me, it isn't really worth it, as Apple Music with the EQ tweaks on HK are sufficient. I have horrible hearing, so my opinion is definitely flawed.
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      02-20-2020, 08:01 AM   #66
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Quote:
Originally Posted by randybobandy View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by RVAGuy View Post
I am not experienced with EQ adjustments so never know how to tune. Would it be possible for you to post a photo of what a "smile" looks like (on an equalizer) so I can start from there and then fine tune. Thanks in advance.
I used the link below as a starter. I think it works well to get a baseline, then do small tweaks as you see fit.

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1480176

maczrool ... do you know if CarPlay and WiFi is the same concept as AirPlay 2? I thought it was supposed to be lossless audio with that option? I test a trial with Tidal over the past 2 weeks, and noticed the audio quality over Master Recordings to be significantly better than Apple Music. I know Apple Music is limited in quality, but was not sure how Tidal sounded better? To me, it isn't really worth it, as Apple Music with the EQ tweaks on HK are sufficient. I have horrible hearing, so my opinion is definitely flawed.
"A friend in need is a friend indeed". Thanks.
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