Installed complete Bavsound speaker set

[pitts12driver]

I did a 16 speaker Bavsound speaker upgrade today on my 2015 M3. Some thoughts below. Apologize if this is a complete repeat for the group.

Sound Quality
The overall sound stage is improved. The biggest apparent difference is the tweeters. Higher frequencies are reproduced with far more fidelity, and the “muddiness” is gone. Mid-range is better, but I might skip the subwoofers if I had to do it again. The biggest learning is how source-specific the upgrade is. With a marginal source like XM, the difference is almost imperceptible. HD FM begins to be a different and better experience, and well prepared digital content better yet.

Installation
It took me about 3.5 hours to change 16 speakers. I did watch both Bavsound videos prior to starting. The one change I made was that I did not remove any of the connectors or door locks – just popped the door panel off and swapped the speakers. I had plenty of room to work and it was faster. Their instructions are very comprehensive. The only finicky parts for me were the center dash speaker. This was as much my fault as theirs – I missed the 2 seconds of the video where it said to remove the outer rubber ring and I spent a bunch of time wondering why the speaker didn’t fit. The other place I had trouble initially was the rear door tweeters. There is a small ramp that holds the lip in place, and it was clocked to be almost invisible. The best way I found to pop them out was to put a thin flat blade against the ramp, and tilt them out the opposite side. Other than that, the entire job was straightforward. Nothing broke, no parts left over, no rattles. I do HIGHLY recommend their toolkit. While I had everything to do the job in my shop, it’s great to have it all next to you in the car.

[AIRPOWER]

I only did the the Ghost sub woofers and they are a vast improvement. Cant imagine what the whole 9 yards would sound like but I'm too chicken to rip apart the interior like you did.

Congrats and happy listening!

[sittingmongoose]

Keep in mind it takes about 200 hours for the speakers to break in. So your bass especially will change a lot. Also as they are breaking in you will notice the bass going in and out. Like one day you will turn the bass up because it just sounds flat and the next day there is too much.
Congrats on your install! You should disable the fake exhaust sounds, that makes the biggest difference of all! So so so much cleaner sound from the stereo that way

[64-bit]

Guys, about the toolkit...

Im an IT and a motorcycle enthusiast as well, and I use those tools on almost every project that I have, just added few extras, and they are now by far my favorite tool set.

Sound deadening, also very useful, the left over I have used on my motorcycle to fix rattles

The sound quality of them is far better that BMW original speakers, And they are worth to keep when you sell the car.

I take as an investment for your ears, that will be useful on your next bmw as well.

[64-bit]

Originally Posted by sittingmongoose

Keep in mind it takes about 200 hours for the speakers to break in. So your bass especially will change a lot. Also as they are breaking in you will notice the bass going in and out. Like one day you will turn the bass up because it just sounds flat and the next day there is too much.
Congrats on your install! You should disable the fake exhaust sounds, that makes the biggest difference of all! So so so much cleaner sound from the stereo that way

No fake exhaust sound on 2016s from factory BTW.

[mephiska]

Originally Posted by 64-bit

No fake exhaust sound on 2016s from factory BTW.

What? 2016's absolutely do have the fake "Active Sound Design". I unplugged mine, much quieter.

[64-bit]

Originally Posted by mephiska

What? 2016's absolutely do have the fake "Active Sound Design". I unplugged mine, much quieter.

I got OBDII CAN Module for F80 which allows to disable the active sound and there is no difference in sound between enabled or disabled.

BTW, how did you unplugged yours?!

[mephiska]

Originally Posted by 64-bit

I got OBDII CAN Module for F80 which allows to disable the active sound and there is no difference in sound between enabled or disabled.

If you can't tell a difference between active sound enabled/disabled with your CAN module, then there's either something wrong with your module or how it's plugged in, because active sound is very prominent and you'd notice the silence when it's off.

Originally Posted by 64-bit

BTW, how did you unplugged yours?!

This is how to do it. Your 2016 has the HK system, so unplugging the ASD module in the trunk eliminates the active sound without breaking anything else.

[sittingmongoose]

Yes there def is active sound. I coded mine off. Btw there is two stages of off. I had to follow additional steps to completely turn it off. And there is a huge difference.
Car is near silent now unless I open the exhaust valves.
The exhaust sound is much better and sounds much racier(still kinda sucks for a m car but it's better than with active sound)
The biggest change was how much clearer the stereo is. You do lose volume but that volume you lose is just distortion. It made an almost bigger change then the whole bav sound install.

[mephiska]

Originally Posted by sittingmongoose

Yes there def is active sound. I coded mine off. Btw there is two stages of off. I had to follow additional steps to completely turn it off.

Really the only thing you need to change is set the engine code in the ASD module to something that conflicts with the model designation, IE leave model at F8X and change the engine code to N52. That causes a conflict and disables the ASD module from operating. You really don't need to change anything else. The "first stage" that I think you're referring to is the ASD volume setting in the HU module, but with the ASD off there's nothing for the HU setting to change.

Also, with the ASD unplugged there's no effect on volume levels. At least that's been my experience.

[sittingmongoose]

By volume levels I mean it just changed a little bit. Not a huge amount. I just noticed I turn it up higher than I normally would have before hand.