aski

Picked up my new 06 530d last week, great car but very disappointing sound system. Changed bass and treble settings and to be fair the sound quality is still pants and the volume level (on full)is reletivley low (poss for safety reasons?).

Cant believe i can spend ?40k+ and the stereo be this bad (its not as good as my 2001 lexus is 200)

Am I missing something guys?

tonye60

yes its a bmw

luxembourg

Hey,
I picked up mine (520d) one week ago (already made 1100km so far), and the car is superb BUT as you wrote - the standard (EU) sound is really unacceptable for such car! Well, it is horrible - to say it out loud.
Even my Camry had a way better sound, not to mention my previous E39 which was way better than L7 in E60.
For my E60 I just don't know what to do - since an upgrade wouldn't be that expensive (JBL amp + 2X Pioneer subs + good JBL speakers, all will fit in 500-700 EUR range), but nobody I ask wants to do this installation because as they all say "this car is a nightmare for installing and configuring anything aftermarket". Even my BMW dealer gently refused suggesting going to the aftermarket installation specialists...
So, I am a bit dissapointed already... :thumbsdown:

aybeesea

There's been a lot of comment on here about this.

I spent the extra 300-odd quid to get the "hi-fi" upgrade and (for a car) it's very good.

I couldn't justify the extra 4-500 pounds to go the whole hog for the Logic 7.

Remember, on BMWs (and they are not alone in this), unless you spend the price of another small car on extras, you are not going to get the car you WANT.

ABC

colejl

Yeah, you forgot to tick the 'HiFi' or 'Logic 7' option box

nwilliams

In all honesty...I don't see what all the fuss is about?

I'm a sound engineer by trade and deal with audio on a daily basis monitoring in multi million dollar recording facilities...and to tell you the truth....I don't find the basic BMW stereo that bad!

If you're into loud volumes and earth shattering bass...well that's a different story but in terms of clarity, presence in the low end and relatively good top end, it delivers. A good recording sounds very acceptable in my opinion.

Having said that.....would I say it stands out in terms of quality car audio....no....but based on all the posts I've seen here mentioning how sub-par the audio in BMWs is....I don't get it!?

I've taken the time to reference a bunch of records I've mixed and other reference material I like to work with and it all translated pretty well.....the overall definiton and detail in the entire sound spectrum is not lacking in any way....maybe a little in the sub 80HZ region (deep bass) but otherwise it works!!

As far as settings are concerned...who needs them! If you want to compensate for lack of top end or ...?, the last thing you want to do is use EQ from any car stereo!! A well mixed, quality recording should sound good without having to "tweak" all the built in settings to optimize what you're hearing.

Anyway....just my humble opinion!!

aybeesea

Tell me, nwilliams, are all e60s in Toronto black? That's all I saw when I was over there in May!

ABC

JWBMW

I have no problem with the loudness or sound quality. In fact the radio is far superior to my previous vehicles. What type of music do you listen to? I suspect that the standard radio has been optimised for classical.

fantomas

I'm also a little bit disappointed by the standard EU stereo. I agree that the sound is quite good when the car is stopped but when you push it louder while driving, it gives up too quickly.

Now, after 15 months, I'm used to it. But I would definitely add the sound system option in my next BMW. My previous E46 had this option and the sound was great.

Nevermind

I think the sound system itsself is ok. The radio tuner, however, really sucks. No radio text, poor reception, no presets to retune manually quickly, dull witted I-drive interface. A basic ?200 Alpine would blow the tuner away!