My 128i has a bad right rear speaker, and I'm considering just upgrading the whole system rather than just the one speaker, knowing that all the other ones are just as old and could fail at any time. My car has the mid-range sound system (4 mids, 4 tweeters, and 2 underseat subwoofers) - BavSound has a direct replacement system for $700, currently on sale for 20% off. The reviews on the site are good, but I haven't seen much elsewhere about it. Any experiences in the hive to help me decide?
You can do better for the money. I put the focals in my bmw.
https://www.focal.com/catalog/car-audio/plug-play-kits
Ordering from outside the US is the cheapest way to do it. There are a bunch of EU dealers on ebay. I ordered direct from one in germany
(You need to go all the way to checkout to get the real price as VAT will be taken out when you select ship to US)
FWIW most people say that the best money is spent on upgrading the amp. The match up 10dsp or 8dsp is what people usually get. However you can always start with speakers and decide what to do next. Bavsound gets okay feedback just not a huge difference from stock speakers.
I might be inclined to just upgrade the fronts and move one of the working fronts to the rear. Put the extra money towards the dsp upgrade. You'll get a lot more mileage out of upgraded fronts
I have the Hifi system in my E90 which is one below the Individual one and did the whole BavSound speaker upgrade including two underseat subs while keeping the stock amp.
When I was ordering they were in the middle of transitioning to a newer version of the sub and older ones were on clearance and went with those to save some cash and one of those turned out to be DOA. They promptly sent me a replacement newer model set no questions asked so can vouch for their customer service.
As for sound quality found it to be a decent improvement over the factory setup and, being PnP, installation was super straightforward.
In reply to newold_m (Forum Supporter) :
My car has the Hi-fi system as well. I wasn't thinking about doing the subs, just the mids and tweeters; do you think that the subs made a significant difference?
It's probably worth noting that I'm not really an audiophile, at least not in the car. I don't listen to music at high volumes while driving, nor do I need it to sound like I'm in a concert hall. I find the existing system adequate if unremarkable, but ultimately I just want it to work; a little improvement would be a nice plus. My primary concern with what I have now is the remaining life of the speakers, which are not exactly high quality pieces from what I can see. Ease of installation is a huge plus, as is one-stop shopping. I'm sure I could do better with more focused selections as suggested by theruleslawyer, but I don't have the time or motivation to do the necessary research, let alone deal with the overseas shipping hassle.
The focals are plug and play too. No hassle with shipping other than it might take a couple days longer. It just shows up at your house like any other mail order item.
Bimmertech also has plug and play setups.
https://www.bimmer-tech.net/speakers-and-audio-amplifier-for-bmw
I retained my stock underseat subs. Its such a compromised speaker that it isn't worth doing much with. You're not going to get much more volume out of them, especially on a stock amp. Certainly not worth what they want for them. If you're ever in search of more bass a small amped box is going to do a ton more for you.
I'd consider just finding a used speaker on ebay and fixing it from your preferences. Part of the issue with car audio these days is all the oem head units apply cross overs and EQ to make whatever was in the car sound okay. When you go throw in new speakers you're fighting the factory calibration. If you're not interested in the work /cost to make the best of a new system it can often just sound weird. The hifi system amps are also very under powered. Throwing better speakers at it will just make the imbalance worse. I amped my hifi system before moving to the focals and the dsp amp made more of a difference.
In reply to 02Pilot :
Honestly I would start with the tweeters and mid and see if you like them -- for what you're looking for that BavSound kit might just be a ticket. Sound is crisp, clear and I personally don't find it unbalanced at all. I went with the sub upgrade path primarily because they were such a good deal on clearance with the older design and getting the later ones in exchange was an pleasant bonus.
theruleslawyer, btw nothing against focals as I have them on my Cayman...
newold_m (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to 02Pilot :
theruleslawyer, btw nothing against focals as I have them on my Cayman...
Its all personal preference. The focals just can be had cheaper. None of them are exactly audiophile grade speakers. The focal plug and plays are pretty much the bottom of their range. I have some of their nicer stuff at home. The Bavsounds, etc are rebrands from things you can find on Ali. That's not a knock on their quality. They're all descent mid-range speakers that are a good step up from the OEM ones. At 20% off its a fair enough deal.
I pulled a bunch of BavSound speakers out of one of the e46s I've gutted. Not sure how old they were, and not sure it's fair to judge based on appearance, but they didn't look of the level of quality that their price would suggest.
I sold them on marketplace for not much of anything and it still took a little bit to get off of them, as I recall.
In reply to theruleslawyer :
OK, so talk me through the Focals. I looked at their site, which seemed to offer several options without making clear what the differences are. I searched for a dealer, and didn't find much. I looked at the German site you linked to, but it was also fairly short on information. I'm not opposed to considering the Focals, but they do seem to make the buying experience a bit of a challenge.
Kraco? Formerly available at every chain auto parts store...Oh the exit is that way? 
02Pilot said:In reply to theruleslawyer :
OK, so talk me through the Focals. I looked at their site, which seemed to offer several options without making clear what the differences are. I searched for a dealer, and didn't find much. I looked at the German site you linked to, but it was also fairly short on information. I'm not opposed to considering the Focals, but they do seem to make the buying experience a bit of a challenge.
This is the focal page for what I think you have-
https://www.focal-inside.com/bmw/en/bmw-1-series-coupe-2007-2013-e82/
Looks like your fronts are IS BMW 100 L
https://www.carfeature.de/en/hifi-navigation/speakers/...all-speakers/21648/focal-isbmw100l-inside-10cm-2-wege-compo
rears IC BMW 100 (coxial, you mentioned a 2nd set of tweeters?)
https://www.carfeature.de/en/hifi-navigation/speakers/...all-speakers/21693/focal-f-icbmw100-10cm-2-wege-coax-fuer-bmw
With shipping I get €323.28 or $349.13
FWIW Crutchfield sell them too and it might help finding the right part numbers if I didn't get the car right. They are just double the price there.
If you get them the 2 way fronts have 2 options for the tweeters- 0db and -3db (its a wire choice) most people seem to prefer the -3db setting without a lot of eq.
In reply to theruleslawyer :
That's very helpful, thanks! I believe there are tweeters in the rear shelf as well, but based on your earlier comments, I'm now wondering if I should just replace the fronts, throw one of the mids in the back to replace the blown one, and save the other as a spare. I can always do the rears if I feel the need as well. And the cost to replace the whole shebang is quite a bit less than the BavSound, which is a nice bonus. Think I'll go ahead with the fronts for now and see how it pans out. I will update this thread once they're in the car.
Thanks everyone for your assistance.
I finally installed the Focal speakers (mids and tweeters) in the doors. Right now, all I can say is that they work and they sound pretty good. I need to spend more time really listening carefully, but I'm also not an audiophile, so I'll never really be able to properly assess them the way a trained ear could.
One hiccup in the plan is that I can't swap one of the old front speakers to the rear to replace the blown one. It turns out the rears are slightly smaller (and surprisingly heavier), so they're not interchangeable. I have to decide whether it's worth buying replacements or just living with it, since the fronts are doing most of the work.
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