[akhter]

The dealer tells me if I upgrade stereo with wire cutting all electronic warranty is void. I guess I can understand that.

Based on that, I may only go for a very simple upgrade only replacing the tweeter and mids on the doors and leave underseats/rears untouched as well as not touching anything in the amp/trunk. unless they actually check the drivers inside the door panels, they won't know anything was touched.

I did the same with my last 335i in japan (only replaced speakers) and this worked well and the dealer never complained.

Anyone have any experience with HK dealer in this matter?

[Spinkles]

Originally Posted by akhter

Anyone have any experience with HK dealer in this matter?

Honestly I don't, sorry.

[superdx]

Probably the same story worldwide. If you got an electrical problem and they know that you replaced the speakers, they're going to blame that without even blinking and void your warranty.

[akhter]

Finally my upgrade is complete.

[Audi_Lover]

I'm also interested in upgrading my audio system while keeping the HU unchanged. Would u mind telling me where you did that ?

[akhter]

I bought some stuff from states:
technic harness
pair of earthquake sws-8
dynamat extreme
jl audio cleansweep

and bought some stuff locally:
amp
front speakers

and some stuff from japan:
oem tweeter sails

if you have 335i then you don't need cleansweep since you already have amp and balanced full range signals, nor do you need the tweeter sails since you already have them.

i got my stereo done by oriental radio in wanchai. pm me for contact info. you should get sws-8 from ebay or somewhere, and you can get them to do the rest.

[Audi_Lover]

Thanks for your info.

You nearly brought everything by your own and went to the shop for installation only. How much did they charge you for the labour costs ? I'm also interested in the DLS amp and seems that the comments are quite positive.

BTW, what speakers are u using ? I've got the Moral series in the past. Sounds are superb but expensive.

[M_M]

Originally Posted by akhter

I bought some stuff from states:
technic harness
pair of earthquake sws-8
dynamat extreme
jl audio cleansweep

and bought some stuff locally:
amp
front speakers

and some stuff from japan:
oem tweeter sails

if you have 335i then you don't need cleansweep since you already have amp and balanced full range signals, nor do you need the tweeter sails since you already have them.

i got my stereo done by oriental radio in wanchai. pm me for contact info. you should get sws-8 from ebay or somewhere, and you can get them to do the rest.

nice stuff.

fyi, 335i(and the most, if not all other european cars) also needs a line level converter to convert high level factory speaker wires into RCA signal.

[M_M]

Originally Posted by Audi_Lover

Thanks for your info.

You nearly brought everything by your own and went to the shop for installation only. How much did they charge you for the labour costs ? I'm also interested in the DLS amp and seems that the comments are quite positive.

BTW, what speakers are u using ? I've got the Moral series in the past. Sounds are superb but expensive.

Ive tried couple other brands but found moral hybrid ovation ii the best! you get what you paid for.

[akhter]

i bought the front speakers and amp from the installer. paid about 4k for installation. this place also offered to do installation only if i bought everything elsewhere. they also spoke good english and were very flexible. I am very happy with the DLS reference setup.

there was a another shop in mongkok that offered a better price including installation but the guys seemed arrogant and impatient so he lost business. this place offered morel+jl audio for similar price as my setup.

lot of high end amps (like JL audio/DLS) don't need speaker level to line level converter.

on cars with tweeter behind the side mirrors (330/335), if they get an amp with high level inputs, they can skip the processor.

on cars without tweeter (320/323/325) there is no amp in the trunk so the signal from HU is eq'ed and need a processor to flatten the signal. i have 325 so i got the cleansweep for that. these cars also either need to cut a hole in the window frame trim, or as I did, buy the oem tweeter housing.

[M_M]

no offense but I beg to differ, i have never seen a high-end/quality amp that has hi-low converter built in maybe im just a frog at the bottom of a well(I think the brands you mentioned were just some mid-range stuff imho) but i admit that those all-in-one amps are cost-effective and quite convenient.

also, signals from the factory amp are also eq'ed, so if your serious about SQ, get a processor like bit one, 3.sixty..etc.

[akhter]

Originally Posted by M_M

no offense but I beg to differ, i have never seen a high-end/quality amp that has hi-low converter built in maybe im just a frog at the bottom of a well(I think the brands you mentioned were just some mid-range stuff imho) but i admit that those all-in-one amps are cost-effective and quite convenient.

also, signals from the factory amp are also eq'ed, so if your serious about SQ, get a processor like bit one, 3.sixty..etc.

Per VP Electricy and Technic on the AV section of the forum, the signal from Hifi (not base) are flat and uneq'ed going into the amp in the trunk from HU which you can tap for aftermarket amp. Signal coming out of the amp to speaker is crossover-ed and eq'ed and not to be used.

For base, you need to de-eq using cleanseep/3.sixty.2/jbl ms-8 OR code the car for Hifi to output flat signal.

I used this DLS RA40 w/o processor and it worked fine. See here for more info. However since I had base, using the cleansweep sounded better obviously.

All JL Audio amps also have this feature. Other amps that have this feature are McIntosh and Zapco amps. With the Zapo DC amps, you can connect a PC and do EQ inside the amp (equivalent of the 360.2 built in the amp).

I do consider DLS/JL Audio/Zapco highend compared to brands like Alpine/Clarion/Infiniy/Kenwood etc. and McIntosh is in a class of itself. Ofcouse what is high-end and what is not is subjective.

[deano]

sounds good, post 6?

[akhter]

i am very happy with the upgrade. it wasn't cheap though. i spent about 20k after everything and the HK surround upgrade is 24k after tax.

i think this sounds better than hk. both in terms of clarity and bass. and a lot better than hifi and a million times better than base stero. hk surround has a bit better imaging because of the center speaker, which i may add in the future in conjuction with a jbl ms-8. was it worth the effort? imho yes, becuase i didn't want to wait 4 months to get it from factory and the discount didn't apply on custom order cars so didn't have a choice.

[M_M]

Originally Posted by akhter

Per VP Electricy and Technic on the AV section of the forum, the signal from Hifi (not base) are flat and uneq'ed going into the amp in the trunk from HU which you can tap for aftermarket amp. Signal coming out of the amp to speaker is crossover-ed and eq'ed and not to be used.

For base, you need to de-eq using cleanseep/3.sixty.2/jbl ms-8 OR code the car for Hifi to output flat signal.

I used this DLS RA40 w/o processor and it worked fine. See here for more info. However since I had base, using the cleansweep sounded better obviously.

All JL Audio amps also have this feature. Other amps that have this feature are McIntosh and Zapco amps. With the Zapo DC amps, you can connect a PC and do EQ inside the amp (equivalent of the 360.2 built in the amp).

I do consider DLS/JL Audio/Zapco highend compared to brands like Alpine/Clarion/Infiniy/Kenwood etc. and McIntosh is in a class of itself. Ofcouse what is high-end and what is not is subjective.

thats funny that ive been a mcintosh fan/user for quite a long time, but haven't realized that their amps can accept high output line signals directly off the bmw factory amp/HU.

VPs right, hi-fi(standard on "hong" e90/e91 335i)signals coming out from the factory amp to speakers are summed and eq'ed, so it needs to have a processor to flatten out the eq'ed signals for better sounding(coz theres too much midbass).

for me, I just bypassed the factory amp and get the signals directly from the HU for cleaner sound but then I found that the signals are also eq'ed, not sure if this is different from those us spec hi-fis.

[akhter]

Originally Posted by M_M

thats funny that ive been a mcintosh fan/user for quite a long time, but haven't realized that their amps can accept high output line signals directly off the bmw factory amp/HU.

VPs right, hi-fi(standard on "hong" e90/e91 335i)signals coming out from the factory amp to speakers are summed and eq'ed, so it needs to have a processor to flatten out the eq'ed signals for better sounding(coz theres too much midbass).

for me, I just bypassed the factory amp and get the signals directly from the HU for cleaner sound but then I found that the signals are also eq'ed, not sure if this is different from those us spec hi-fis.

all mcintosh amps have per channel input sensitivity controls (0.5V to 8V). standard low level input voltage is about 1.5v (i think). the sensitivity dial allows the high level signal from the HU to be adjusted.

if the fader is set to middle and bass and treble are in middle position, the hifi signal from HU should be flat.

eq'ing to you specific amp and speaker setup will probably still produce better sound, which is probably what you are experiencing.

question--you seem certain your signal was eq'ed--how did you verify? did you play pink noise and use an RTA or microphone?

also, what is you setup (speaker/amp) after you upgraded?

[M_M]

3.sixty2 has a function to "read" whether its eq'ed or not.

mcc406m(but will switch back to mc431m+mc420 as time permits), morel front, kef back, stock subs.

[ksquare]

i have used 3.sixty2 before but have now switched over to bit one. bit one certainly much better product, in my opinion

[little_croco]

Hi ksquare, it's been a long time, how are you? Just read you are now driving 5GT :-)

[M_M]

Originally Posted by ksquare

i have used 3.sixty2 before but have now switched over to bit one. bit one certainly much better product, in my opinion

i was torn between bit one and ms-8, ended up i went for ms8 coz of its autotune capability.

[ksquare]

Originally Posted by little_croco

Hi ksquare, it's been a long time, how are you? Just read you are now driving 5GT :-)

Yes, been along time. Been through a roller coaster with my company and finally a great relieve that it's now listed.


And yes, just switched to the F07. HUGE car compared to the e90. Took the opportunity to further upgrade my stereo. So if any of you would like to purchase a second hand decent STEG amp, let me know. I'll give you a sweet deal.

In case some of you who may not be aware, I m using morel elate speakers all round. Great sounding speakers.

[ksquare]

Originally Posted by M_M

i was torn between bit one and ms-8, ended up i went for ms8 coz of its autotune capability.

It's not easy to get bitone in hk. There is no authorized distributor in hk and will need to get it from the distributor in china. Sooo expensive.

Luckily I had a contact in Italy whom I got it from. Very decent pricing.

No knowledge on ms8. But the bit one is very flexible and useful esp. in different speaker configurations and allows for individual signal hi n Lo pass. Signal to noise is audibly better than 3sixty.

Let's come out n hv a listen to different setups. Wud b a very interesting meetup.