[atomsapple]

Originally Posted by leftcoastq

Haha damn! I also take my car to SV Bimmer! They are great and very fast. I was hoping to try to do it myself this time...

Would be great to see it in person if you are ever at the GGC CCA events/cars and coffee.

Funny enough I'm looking for a South Bay shop to install some light mods if I don't do them myself.

Sounds like they are well recommended.

[VIERsr]

Originally Posted by Conissah

Unplugged the center speaker late last night. Transformed the entire sound system. Best mod ever, because it was freeeeeeee.

Could you explain the benefits of unplugging the center speaker?

[cb804]

Originally Posted by Conissah

Unplugged the center speaker late last night. Transformed the entire sound system. Best mod ever, because it was freeeeeeee.

I'm curious to try this... doe the cover just pry off?

[Conissah]

Originally Posted by _RS4_

Could you explain the benefits of unplugging the center speaker?

On a couple of other threads, people mentioned how much better the sound system sounds without the center channel. I don't know enough about audio channels or sound systems, but I took the recommendation. If they were wrong, it was a waste of 5 minutes for me, so I figured I would give it a shot.

The sound system is WAY better with the center channel unplugged. There is more bass and voices are more clear. I say give it a shot, and if you like it better with the center speaker, just plug it back in. It's super easy!

Originally Posted by cb804

I'm curious to try this... doe the cover just pry off?

Yep. Pry up the 2 corners at the windshield first. When it is being installed, the cover has hooks at the back of it (closest to the screen) and they drop into place first, and then the front (windshield side) pops down into the dash. So for removal, just do the opposite, windshield side first, then pull forward and up and it comes out, easy peasy. The clips are very tight though, so just keep pulling until they pop out. Just work your way around and it'll come out fine. Then there are 3 torx screws holding in the speaker (not the tweeter), undo those and pull the speaker up. There are 2 small connectors in the speaker, one for the speaker and one for the tweeter, I unplugged the one that leads to the speaker and put the speaker back in and screwed it down. Done. Took me all of 5 minutes.




For everyone interested, here is the thread that I was talking about. In here, 'SEAT TIME RULES' linked me to a couple of other threads where they talk about making the sound system quality better. Eventually I will probably order the recommended front speaker upgrade, but for now I am happy with how the interior sounds. I do have the supplemental door seals on the way, which should help a bit with the noise isolation.
https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1676167

[AZ-Wildcat]

Originally Posted by atomsapple

Funny enough I'm looking for a South Bay shop to install some light mods if I don't do them myself.

Sounds like they are well recommended.

Yup, they are great and highly capable.

[bri1042]

The short answer on the center channel speaker question is this:

Music files and CD's are mostly recorded and played back from the media in stereo. There is no center channel. Creating a center channel from just Left and Right involves some heavy processing, compromises, and often just messes up the music. Dolby Surround, L7, and lots of other codecs create "surround with center channel" estimations to the best of each codec's capability, but the results are often questionable. Sometimes it's OK, and sometimes its not, depending on the track and the equipment.

The M2's HK system, along with the Hifi system in most BMW's, does not HAVE Dolby Surround or L7 processing. The amp is just doing a cheap Left-Right mush to try and produce "center" sounds. It's not a good thing. It destroys the original separation between the channels, makes the sound weird and muddy, and the only point to it is so that people get excited by the number of speakers their cars get, and don't notice how close they are sitting to one channel vs the other quite as much.

Pulling the center channel brings your audio system in sync with the number of channels that are actually being presented to it, resulting in clearer sound (but you probably will notice the shorter distance between you and one of the channels...left or right depending on what side you drive on).

[VIERsr]

Got it. The only one to unplug is the speaker (mid range) and not the tweeter, right? (no.1 in the figure)

[Conissah]

Originally Posted by _RS4_

Got it. The only one to unplug is the speaker (mid range) and not the tweeter, right? (no.1 in the figure)

Correct, #1. However, the tweeter is plugged into the speaker via a separate plug, so I'm like 99% positive the tweeter won't work either. Regardless, I just unplugged the 1 to the speaker, and left the one from the speaker to the tweeter. Although I guess if you wanted, you could remove it for some #weightsavings.

Also, my center cover doesn't look like that, nor is it that close to the windshield. Mine is a parallelogram directly behind the screen, but the speakers look identical. Depending on which cover you have, you can either consider or disregard what I said about pulling the cover off.

Note: I have no idea wtf #4 is...

[VIERsr]

The car in the figure is not a 2 series, it is a random picture just to show the speakers

[bri1042]

The real question is if, when my SO's ordered 530e arrives, if I'll sneak out to the garage and remove the center speaker without explaining the whole thing to him. He wouldn't spend the money on the HK upgrade, but ordered night vision. His car, his build, not mine. :-)

[frosty2k]

Put her away for the winter.

[COChris]

Originally Posted by frosty2k

Put her away for the winter.

Nice cover!

[Conissah]

I wrapped the front grille with the M colors. Looks pretty good, but it's not necessarily up to my standards. I'm also unsure if I want to keep the colors on, but for now I like it enough to leave them.

Btw, taking the grille out is the biggest pain in the ass ever (without removing the bumper). If I had baby sized hands it would be fine, but I don't.

[Dav3]

20$ for both colors, Aliexpress to the rescue

[M2C89]

Originally Posted by COChris

Nice cover!

Which cover is this?

[Conissah]

Just installed supplemental door seals. Cheap and effective mod. Noticeable decrease in road noise from the front tires.

[Bingham]

Con, can u post the part numbers and vendor u ordered from. Thanks!

B.

[GPGP]

Color matched engine cover.

[Aust350z]

Originally Posted by GPGP

Color matched engine cover.

Nice touch

[Conissah]

Originally Posted by Bingham_M2C

Con, can u post the part numbers and vendor u ordered from. Thanks!

B.

I got them from getBMWparts.com, they are a vendor here. Using code HOLIDAY gets an extra 5% off. Shipping was extremely fast as well, estimated delivery was Christmas, but in reality it only took 3 days to get to me.

Part Numbers:
51-48-7-300-693
51-48-7-300-694

Cheers

[NEfan508]

Originally Posted by frosty2k

Put her away for the winter.

Same here
$155 shipped from sun motors PA

[Quicksilver_M2C]

Originally Posted by GPGP

Color matched engine cover.

Did you purchase it like that? Looks awesome!!