Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I installed this system to my BMW 530D E60 and it does improve the stock stereo (which was poor) performance noticeably, but still not up to my other car installation (cost similarly) performance. To be fair, I did not rule out if it is due to the (poor?) stock speakers or the head unit itself (but too bad BMW dictate the type of head unit...).
Pros:
* No wire cutting, just connect (using an optional compatible wire hardness) to the stock stereo.
* Remote bass boost feature is useful.
* Noticeably improve stock stereo system.
Cons:
* You need to search for the compatible wire hardness (sold separately) yourselves according to the vehicle's year and made and I think you would need to buy from other sources. Go for the 5 meter version to install the amp at the trunk. Installing the amp under the carpet as recommended is a bad idea. I tried it: the amp will thermal-shut within 15-30 minutes of play and your front passenger won't like the bulge of the carpet.
* Not really a DIY job. Be careful when disconnect anything from the head unit. Make sure you connect back all the wires that do not "relate" to speakers. In my case, I did not connect back the bluetooth wiring, thinking it was part of the job of "disconnecting everything".
* Even set to low pass 40Hz, the sub bass is obviously not low enough, maybe still around >100Hz judging from my other car installation. You will feel a stronger "boom" then stock though. Maybe due to the stock speaker response??
* High is not high even set to the highest high pass. Some slight improvement if a passive high pass filters are added to the twitters. I have tried several brands of twitters but of no help.
* Be careful with the input level setting. Too high will introduce whining noise to the system.
* Overall sound is a little muddy. The frequencies are quite mixed up, unlike my other installation, where you can clearly sense output from low, mid and high. Staging is OK though.
* The Aux input design is flawed, or is there a reason they did it that way?. If you are connecting your MP3 player to Aux, you will not get bass boost (sub not responding). You will have to connect to the RCA input with parallel connection to the front, rear and sub using your own cable & 2-1 connectors - really messy looking wiring.
I am yet to experiment, but here are what I think anyone else shall be doing:
* Buy the 5m wire hardness from Blaupunkt since you don't want to mess around with the stock wiring. The wire hardness is well labeled so connection to other brand amps won't be a problem.
* Buy one mono amp to drive the subs and one 4-channel amp to drive front/rear speakers. Both amps must support high level (speakers wire) input. Best if the amp support or include good active cross-over.
Or, if you want the original look of your car (without something hanging in the trunk etc)
* The stock system already have amps driving all the speakers. You just have to locate them (your mechanics shall be able to tell you) and replace them with better amps.
I will update if I ever try other amps but I feel it shall be the better option from my previous experience.
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