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In Reply to: Re: BMW stereos suck. Spend the money aftermarket posted by james on February 10, 2000 at 17:03:35:
For a little more than $1200 you can install a decent upgrade for the stock system provided you do all the labor yourself (figure about a weekend's worth of work). Check the archives for wiring details -- there are a few good websites. For about $600 you can get a decent 5 channel amp (Sony XM7557 -- 4x75w + 1x150w). You can get decent 2-way seperates for the front speakers for about $250. Put a pair of coax speakers in the rear deck - $200. Add another $300-400 for a subwoofer.
My install is going to be more (currently in the shop) because I have a DSP system which is very complicated to work around if you want to do it right. The labor alone for my install is around $1000, so that is where you can really save. If I didn't have the DSP system, I would have done the work myself -- I am not confident enough in my knowledge of the complex wiring issues the DSP poses (although there is quite a lot of info in the archives).
I am putting in a Mcintosh amp which is 440Watts - 6channels. The sub will be mounted in a custom box firing through the fold-down rear armrest. The sub box will go across the front of the trunk along the rear seats, and will have the amp mounted on the back of it (it is a huge amp).
It is amazing how much better a good system will sound than the factory system. It doesn't even need to be too complex to rock. All you really need for a very good sounding system is a good multi channel amp with decent power, good speakers, and a subwoofer. My old VW Passat had a nice system which I installed myself that was fairly simple. I had a 4 channel Hifonics amp (50x4). I had Polk seperates in the front mounted in the stock locations, and a Kicker 12" solobaric sub mounted in a homemade box in the trunk. I had 2 channels up front (high pass) and bridged the other two channels to the sub (low pass). The amp had a built in crossover making life easy. This simple 5 channel setup blew away any factory system I have ever heard. Nothing even comes close. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I had a Sony head unit with a Sony 10 disc changer in the trunk. The entire system cost me about $1300 and I installed it in about 10 hours.
Good luck.
: How about for around $1200, can I still get a descent upgrade? Thanks.
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: : The best thing to do is get the stock system and upgrade it by replacing the amp and speakers with quality stuff. You can keep the stock head unit so the interior looks stock. Don't by the DSP unit because it makes the upgrade much more complex. You can have an awesome system installed for about $2000-3000. If you like good sound, that is the way to go rather than waste $1200 on the DSP system which is horrible.
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: : : Is the Harmon Kardon worth the money in the BMW ??
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