[Cyprio]

Did anyone go ahead with having the Alpine upgrade installed for their lci cars? The original GB seemed to have petered out.

I'm thinking of buying the upgrade and was wondering if the car will need re-coding after the install has been done, or has yours been problem-free without the need for re-coding?

Cheers all

[xs2man]

Reading about, it seems that you don't NEED to code in the upgrade, but it is meant to sound a lot better if you do.

[Cyprio]

Hmm, I wonder how much the stealers charge for having the car coded.

[BanziBarn]

Interesting thread. I have no idea if mine was coded or not as it was installed by the dealer prior to collecting the car.

It sounds good regardless, but now I'm wondering if it could sound better! I suppose there is no easy way to find out?

[AdrianSi]

Originally Posted by Cyprio

Did anyone go ahead with having the Alpine upgrade installed for their lci cars? The original GB seemed to have petered out.

I'm thinking of buying the upgrade and was wondering if the car will need re-coding after the install has been done, or has yours been problem-free without the need for re-coding?

Cheers all

I've just completed the Alpine install on my E90 LCi along with L7 subs. I had it coded by Makkan prior to fitting the kit so can't comment on how it sounds previous to coding, however what I can say is that it sounds a 100 times better than the base system and I wouldn't report any signs that the Alpine mids and tweeter sound 'too bright', which is something that I had read about before fitting my kit.

Is recommend L7 subs if you can or have the opportunity to fit them. What registration is yours? As I believe the subs are 'bonded' in to the enclosures on later models. My 2008 model were screwed in so was a straight swap. The bass performance is now excellent!

What would be interesting is to hear the rear channel quality on your base system, as you have satellite speakers in the rear headlining of the e91 apposed to the conventional mids in the e90.

[Cyprio]

Originally Posted by AdrianSi

I've just completed the Alpine install on my E90 LCi along with L7 subs. I had it coded by Makkan prior to fitting the kit so can't comment on how it sounds previous to coding, however what I can say is that it sounds a 100 times better than the base system and I wouldn't report any signs that the Alpine mids and tweeter sound 'too bright', which is something that I had read about before fitting my kit.

Is recommend L7 subs if you can or have the opportunity to fit them. What registration is yours? As I believe the subs are 'bonded' in to the enclosures on later models. My 2008 model were screwed in so was a straight swap. The bass performance is now excellent!

What would be interesting is to hear the rear channel quality on your base system, as you have satellite speakers in the rear headlining of the e91 apposed to the conventional mids in the e90.

Okay thanks for this. It's a 2010 car so I guess the subs will be bonded.

I wasn't aware of the e91 rear speakers being in the headlining, though to be honest the overall sound quality of the base system is so crap I haven't taken much interest in it.

Do you know if it makes a difference whether the car is coded before the Alpine install or can it wait till after?

[chedixon]

I fitted the kit to my 2011 lci, took a few hours but is well worth it. I havent had mine coded but it still sounds much better. I had a quote of anneka for shitner Nottingham to code it, it was around £115 as a 'special price'.
After I'd stopped laughing I bought a coding cable to do it myself but have to admit I haven't got my head around the ncs expert software so haven't bothered yet.

[deesto]

Originally Posted by AdrianSi

I've just completed the Alpine install on my E90 LCi along with L7 subs. I had it coded by Makkan prior to fitting the kit.

I'm trying to ascertain whether i need doing that too.. I have it fitted, but treble sounds really high. I'm worried about losing PDC though.

[xs2man]

All these audio threads do make me wonder though. Everyone says the basic system sounds terrible, but to me, I think mine sounds pretty good. To be perfectly honest, I have no real complaints at all, although I have been considering the Alpine upgrade route with L7 subs.

It is also worth noting I have just come from the Audi's B&O system, so its not like I'm comparing the sound to a 15 year old golf or anything either.

[wheelie good]

Originally Posted by xs2man

All these audio threads do make me wonder though. Everyone says the basic system sounds terrible, but to me, I think mine sounds pretty good. To be perfectly honest, I have no real complaints at all, although I have been considering the Alpine upgrade route with L7 subs.

It is also worth noting I have just come from the Audi's B&O system, so its not like I'm comparing the sound to a 15 year old golf or anything either.

I would visit your doctor ASAP and get you're ears sucked out, must be full of wax

The stock system is awful has no power at all, my 10 year golf knocks spots off the useless Beamer system

[Alex.Devol]

Originally Posted by xs2man

All these audio threads do make me wonder though. Everyone says the basic system sounds terrible, but to me, I think mine sounds pretty good. To be perfectly honest, I have no real complaints at all, although I have been considering the Alpine upgrade route with L7 subs.

It is also worth noting I have just come from the Audi's B&O system, so its not like I'm comparing the sound to a 15 year old golf or anything either.

Really? The audis b&o system is one of the few things I miss about my last car, but I miss it every single day!

[xs2man]

The thing I miss most about it is the DAB radio. I didn't use it terribly often, but was good for 4xtra when it was womens hour or such like on normal radio 4.

The B&O was obviously better than what I have, but if I'm honest, I don't really mind thus far. Having said that, I have mainly been listening to Classic FM and Radio 4 recently as the get the little one to sleep.

Might go bang out some Andy C later and see if I am deluded now.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by xs2man

The thing I miss most about it is the DAB radio. I didn't use it terribly often, but was good for 4xtra when it was womens hour or such like on normal radio 4.

The B&O was obviously better than what I have, but if I'm honest, I don't really mind thus far. Having said that, I have mainly been listening to Classic FM and Radio 4 recently as the get the little one to sleep.

Might go bang out some Andy C later and see if I am deluded now.

First impression after buying E90 was, great sound system. After few days, I realized, not really.
Started looking for upgrade options and sticky section of audio upgrade on this forum is very useful.
So after reading lots of stuff and considering different routes, I opted for aftermarket sound system vs Alpine and hearing both, I have no regrets on custom sound system.
However hearing coded HU to hi-fi with L7 subs, I strongly recommend to have one.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by Cyprio

I'm thinking of buying the upgrade and was wondering if the car will need re-coding after the install has been done, or has yours been problem-free without the need for re-coding?

Cheers all

New recommendation from BMW is not to code HU on latest LCI cars.
Few reasons:
1- Plenty of complaints from different customers about decreased PDC volume / gongs.
2- BMW staff had issues of coding new HU to Hi-fi.

End result, don't code it, and don't get complaints.
Simple!

N.B: this is what has been said on american side of forum.

[parapaul]

Originally Posted by xs2man

All these audio threads do make me wonder though. Everyone says the basic system sounds terrible, but to me, I think mine sounds pretty good. To be perfectly honest, I have no real complaints at all, although I have been considering the Alpine upgrade route with L7 subs.

It is also worth noting I have just come from the Audi's B&O system, so its not like I'm comparing the sound to a 15 year old golf or anything either.

Same here. I have high end audio in the home, and I like to think I can appreciate good equipment and the sound it is capable of producing. However, in complete honesty, of ALL the cars I've owned, the E90 has the best OEM stereo by a country mile!

[Cyprio]

Best I ever had was in a Volvo C70 - 13 Dynaudio Speakers with 2 amps plus Dolby-Prologic.

The base system in a C70 was nearly as good, but instead having just 10 speakers and 1 amp, plus this was all in a car 14 years ago!

Very very disapointed with the base system in a supposed premium car only 2 years old.

[golfmck1980]

IMHO I think my stock e90 has poss 1 of the worst systems I've ever experienced I came from a standard Audi system & it was 10 times better. I think it's the biggest let down of my e90

[Hope]

Originally Posted by golfmck1980

IMHO I think my stock e90 has poss 1 of the worst systems I've ever experienced I came from a standard Audi system & it was 10 times better. I think it's the biggest let down of my e90

I couldn't agree more.

I had a Renault Megane hatchback that had a better speaker system than the BMW.

I then moved on to an Audi that had something like 8 speakers as standard (parcel sub, front centre, speaker and tweeter in each front door, speaker in each rear door).

What I found baffling is that BMW have gone into all that effort to put undersea subwoofers and then not bothered with front tweeters. I think if I had those I would be much more content.

[shrink]

in all fairness the underseat subwoofers in the base E90 are only 6.5" and are therefore the size of most companies strandard door speakers. SO its not like BMW installed "subwoofers". They just put the mid/bass drivers under the seats to save door space.

The hifi system is a better proposition. The 8" subs are both capable of more depth, and more volume. They handle a fair bit more power and give the system some punch. Combined with the mids and tweeters, the hifi system sounds pretty good in my opinion.

The only thing id had added to the hifi system would have been an equaliser, so that i could take some the upper midrange brightness away. But then it would be far too close in performance to BMW's L7 setup minus the DSP. SO i guess they needed to create some distance between them

[BanziBarn]

So are the L7 subs physically bigger than the standard ones then? I assumed that as they fitted in the same hole they'd be the same size.

Also, what determines what's a sub and what isn't? Surely is the signal that's sent, rather than the actual size of the speaker? Obviously a small speaker won't be able to cope with a sub signal as well as a big one, but a lot of systems nowadays, such as those small bose stereos and PC 2.1 systems output sub levels of base from small speakers.

[shrink]

the standard base system has 6.5" subs mounted into the enclosures. They just use a blanking plate/adapter ring to mount the smaller speakers in the larger enclosure.

The hifi and L7 systems have 8" subs. The hifi has 2 ohm subs and the L7 has 4ohm. Not sure what the differences are apart from that though, they may well be the same overall driver but with a larger amp behind the L7 one. Its why the hifi system responds well to better amplification.

ALthough if you're lucky enough to have idrive/nav with your hifi system (as i am ) then you get a slightly more powerful amp as standard anyway.

[BanziBarn]

If I went to a dealer and asked for some L7 subs supplied and fitted, what do you reckon I'd be looking at? I presume labour would only be 1 hour?