Premium HiFi Contents

[cracka]

I emailed BMW USA asking what exactly the Premium HiFi option includes. Here is the meat of their reply, fwiw:

The speakers and their locations for the Premium hi-fi system are as follows:

-Three in each front door (woofer, mid-range speaker and tweeter)
-One mid-range speaker on each side of the rear seats
-Four on the rear window shelf, two of which are woofers

I hope this information is helpful in locating your speakers. The Premium hi-fi system includes a CD/MP3 player with upgraded speakers, Digital Sound Processing (DSP), Radio Data System (RDS), Auto-Store and 3-Channel FM diversity antenna. The system also has the ability to display MP3 song title and artist.

No mention of any subwoofers. :iono:

[confusion]

i asked my dealer to research this very topic as well. i spent 2 hours at my dealership listening to regular and premium audio in the 335 to get a feel for what the relative difference might be like in the 1. yes, i know they won't be the same systems. i can definitely say that both systems were worlds better than my premium hk stereo in my e46 m3. so, whatever they might pack in there will certainly be better than what i'm used to. my big dilemma is that i'm a huge aftermarket fan. but i've always dumped money into suvs, not small coupes. i'm still undecided if i should go w/ the upgrade (not even knowing what it entails or sounds like) of i should pass on it and just add stuff later.

in any case, if my dealer does end up finding anything out, i'll be sure and post it up here.

[john970]

The speakers and their locations for the Premium hi-fi system are as follows:

-Three in each front door (woofer, mid-range speaker and tweeter)
-One mid-range speaker on each side of the rear seats
-Four on the rear window shelf, two of which are woofers

I hope this information is helpful in locating your speakers. The Premium hi-fi system includes a CD/MP3 player with upgraded speakers, Digital Sound Processing (DSP), Radio Data System (RDS), Auto-Store and 3-Channel FM diversity antenna. The system also has the ability to display MP3 song title and artist.

The standard is:

Anti-theft AM/FM stereo CD/MP3 player audio system with 10 speakers, Radio Data System (RDS), Auto-Store and 3-channel FM diversity antenna

So the difference is two extra speakers (where are they?) and useless dsp modes (unless you like "concert hall" effects in your car).

The only thing I can see being of small interest is the speed sensitive EQ, depending on how they implemented it.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by cracka

I emailed BMW USA asking what exactly the Premium HiFi option includes. Here is the meat of their reply, fwiw:

No mention of any subwoofers. :iono:

There are no 3 speakers in the front doors in any E87, there are only 2 max:a mid and a tweeter. The woofers are under the seats.

I don't think that BMWNA knows for a fact the final details of this car. The website still shows incorrect information (8 speaker Premium HiFi system) and now by email also...

[larryn]

The subs are under the front seats on my e90 (where they are on the e92 as well). I'll be bumming if they door mount them. That's a very rattle prone place to locate them...

[mateo]

I'm not sure I care, as long as the base system sounds good in general. It's not easy to keep the price down on this car as it is. I'm at about 46K out the door, and that does not include this system.

[WhiteOne]

Tweeters and mids on the door. Subs under the front seats. 6 speakers total. Receiver plays MP3's. This is my understanding after reading everything I could get my hands on. I could be wrong. (Premium = who knows)

[Pac-Man]

why dont we just ask Jack what he has?

[randomquickness]

...figured I'd bump this thread in hopes for some premium hifi reviews now that some of you luckies have taken delivery!

[Templedogg]

I just took delivery and can confirm it is Logic 7 and two speakers in the doors and one under each seat, I have not had time to search out the others as I just got home.

[pumaknight]

Alas, my 1er is going into the dealer next Friday - cos I am sure they have forgotten to connect the subs in the seats. I have no low frequency base at all...Played with the EQ and the base setting on the stereo and even at max for both, there is little base.

:-(

[coolguy]

Originally Posted by pumaknight

Alas, my 1er is going into the dealer next Friday - cos I am sure they have forgotten to connect the subs in the seats. I have no low frequency base at all...Played with the EQ and the base setting on the stereo and even at max for both, there is little base.

:-(

Here are some of the complaints with Logic7 system and this thread contains a few links too. http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124247

I opted against the Logic7 for the same reason. I'll likely go after mkt with http://www.bavariansoundwerks.com/pr...Series-M3-E93/

[Templedogg]

I must agree, there is no big feel the bass sound at all from mine either. I will look into it later. I did so far find that the Cinema setting was great for TOOL though and added a nice real sharp bass hit, but still not as much as I thought it would or should.

[larryn]

You are not going to have mirror vibrating bass with this setup (nor do I want that). You can get some pretty decent booming out of it by playing with the equalizer settings (not just the bass & treble).

I wound up bumping up the highs and lows a couple notches, putting the fader to the rear a tick, and then using the bass & treble to fine tune. It sounded very nice after that. The "Music" spacial DSP soundfield filled the interior, if you like that sort of thing too.

I have Logic7 in my e90, and the Premium HiFi option on the 1er is at least equal to it, and possibly better. It produced some decent sound. Audiophiles should stick to your home setup, with the road noise you'll get in any car, but this system does a good job, imho.

[ARES45]

The standard system has two speakers in each door, one under each front seat, and two on the shelf in the rear so what is the difference between this and premium?

[randomquickness]

what if you want more bass than can be provided by premium? any good aftermarket ideas?

[larryn]

Well, power (battery) and the amps are in the back compartment,. I don;t think you'll have room under the seats to get any more bass in that space, but you can add a powered bazooka style bass to the trunk fairly easily.

I dunno how muffled it would be, unless you got the ski passthru, and replaced the ski bad with cloth.

[pumaknight]

I hear what you are saying. But the base was much stronger in the demo car. And even if I whack the base upto 10 and the EQ unpto max, there is no noticeable increase in base tonality.....that just seems wrong.

I am certainly not looking for the base to move my kidneys (used to have that with 2x 14" base boxes in the boot). But I would expect it tto offer noticeable tonal difference between mid and low range.

Here's hoping I will not be disappointed.

[john970]

Mirror shaking bass might sound impressive at first but in reality is usually a huge distortion of what the artist/producer intended the music to sound like. In cars, high end audio suppliers usually have to struggle with the low end bass and weigh expected boomy bass against accurate muscial reproduction.

Mark Levinson wrote about this in the Lexus system - they had to bump up the bass to meet customer expectations and it was "painful".

I'm not saying that is the case with your car, but in almost every auto system I've been in I have had to turn down the bass (and usually the treble) significantly to get a clear midrange, and the whole thing usually ends up sounding sloppy.

[plien69]

The problem is: a car's interior is alternately a great place and a horrible place to tune a high-end audio system.

It's great because many parameters are known and more or less fixed: listener position, interior volume and materials, etc.

It's horrible because what will sound great with the car at rest sounds horrible with the car at speed. Road and tire noise can drown out or otherwise alter significant sections of the spectrum. Mid-to-upper bass happens to be one of those areas, so car audio manufacturers often bump that area to compensate, with less than optimal effect.

[john970]

Originally Posted by plien69

The problem is: a car's interior is alternately a great place and a horrible place to tune a high-end audio system.

It's great because many parameters are known and more or less fixed: listener position, interior volume and materials, etc.

It's horrible because what will sound great with the car at rest sounds horrible with the car at speed. Road and tire noise can drown out or otherwise alter significant sections of the spectrum. Mid-to-upper bass happens to be one of those areas, so car audio manufacturers often bump that area to compensate, with less than optimal effect.

I agree with the first statement, but this also applies to the second area - in a given car you know what road noise you'll get. In the 1er, the hifi stereo uses a speed-sensitive EQ as well as volume to compensate for this.

I car is about as controlled an environment as you get.

[plien69]

Yeah, but road noise is highly variable: road surface, vehicle speed, tire age all play a part. Unless you go for active EQ a tuner/designer will always be forced to guess or find a happy medium.

And if you go active EQ, then you're moving even further away from the audio purist's preference.


Almost all vehicles with speed-sensitive adjustment adjust either a) volume only, or b) apply some sort of generic, passive EQ as a function of vehicle speed, w/o taking into account possible variations in road noise independent of speed.

I've never heard of any active EQ in a car, and I'm not even sure how successful that would be. It may just end up being too distracting, as many find speed-sensitive volume to be.