Improving the BMW X5 F15’s stock music system
Our studio has worked on quite a few BMWs for stock audio upgrades. We don’t publish many of these projects, as they tend to be repetitive, one-size-fits-all projects. That’s what’s great about it—it’s proven, well-researched material with predictable, excellent results.
But I decided to publish the story of this BMW X5 F15. And you know why – because of the subwoofer! The owner of this car is one of the few who said he needs impressive bass and is willing to sacrifice trunk space for music. The rock music this BMW owner listens to requires a good subwoofer, so look what happened!
The standard audio system in this car wasn’t the most basic—it was a Hi-Fi system, the next best thing to the base system. The standard audio system only uses 10-centimeter door speakers for front-facing audio, without tweeters. Ours had tweeters.
The source, as in all similar projects, is the standard radio, and we will control the sound using an audio processor.
The composition of the new audio system was selected as follows:
As you can see from the photo, all the speakers are Audison instead of the standard ones. The front speakers are component speakers from the Prima series, the rear speakers are coaxial, and two 20cm under-seat subwoofers are installed. We needed a powerful and musical subwoofer—we’ll get a Hertz 30cm subwoofer from the Mille Pro series. The subwoofer monoblock is a matching one—from the top-of-the-line Mille Power series. The entire system will be controlled by a Helix P Six DSP processor, which will also provide amplification to the speakers.
BMW X5 F15 AUDIO INSTALLATION
Replacing speakers in a BMW is extremely simple – everything goes into the standard locations, using the standard mounting points, because our acoustics are specific, made specifically for BMW.
We always try to take photos of the factory speakers and the ones we offer as a replacement, so that everyone can see how poor the stock ones are.
BMW X5 F15 AMPLIFIER INSTALLATION
We’re mounting the amplifier in the rear fender in the trunk, replacing the factory amplifier. Wiring is minimal. However, we had to get a little creative with the amplifier installation for this project—we needed to install two units instead of just one (as in most similar cars we’ve built).
First, we prepare a place for installing Helix and Hertz amplifiers.
And we are preparing a structure that can securely hold two devices in the fender of a BMW.
Final result:
Eventually, everything will be covered with paneling, and nothing will be visible from the outside. Except for the subwoofer.
BMW X5 F15 Subwoofer Installation
The general decision was to make the subwoofer in a classic enclosure. No stealth designs, which are expensive and time-consuming to manufacture and install. Therefore, a standard closed-box enclosure was chosen. The most important thing in the end is how it sounds.
This is what we got. After installing and testing all the devices, we carefully configured the processor.
We’ll ensure unrivaled sound quality for your car. Rely on the professionalism and experience of our specialists!
And finally, for the attentive ones, some of you may have noticed a box in the photo of the components for this project that I never mentioned. I’ll tell you—it contains a Bluetooth module for the Helix processor. The stock Bluetooth wasn’t very good at playing music, but with the addition of the new module, the quality of music from your phone has improved significantly. The signal goes directly to the processor, bypassing the stock head unit. The processor control panel was mounted in the BMW X5 F15 as follows:
In this system, it regulates the subwoofer level, the volume from the additional Bluetooth module, and switches signal sources (SHGU – Bluetooth).
If you have any questions about improving the standard sound in your BMW, please contact us at (099) 900-99-95
