the sound in my 2005 X5 is pretty blah, in fact the sound was much better in my last car, a 2001 Acura MDX. Has anyone done anything to upgrade the sound - and was it worth the money?
Blah Sound... Take this for what its worth. The first thing I do is install a self powered subwoofer. I like the ease of the Bazooka or Infinity Bass Link offerings and the results are instant gratification. The BMW systems usually have pretty decent speakers and will produce the highs and mids pretty well. It is the lower tones and deep bass that are lacking. Because you crave a more full and rich sound, more volume and more bass is usually dialed in and the speakers just cannot handle the lower frequencies and distort. By installing a subwoofer, you can dial all the low and low mid frequencies out of the signal sent to the stock speakers and let the sub take that job. It is what they do, and do well. Your tweeters and midrange speakers will be doing what they were designed to do and do it without distorting. The self powered subs will not rob any power from the OE head unit or power boosters and act as a stand alone unit. The two I recommended blend in very well and can be tuned to match quite easily. I have them both so will only comment on these....there are others, but I have no experience with them. I have the Bass Link in my M5 and it fit and connected up easily with only power, ground and then right and left speaker level input connections. One connector and 4 screws and the unit is removed easily. There are 200w and 250w options for this and prices vary all over the place from $250-$500 depending on the seller. Used options are everywhere as well. The older 200w versions are your best options as they are lots less money. I have the 200w version and it is very impressive with lots of deep bass. I have a 6in. and 10in. Bazooka's in other vehicles and they are about the same for connection and ease of removal. It's round shape is a bit of a challenge for mounting but the straps hold it in place very well and the performance is great. In my opinion, this is the most bang for your buck as far as transforming your system from Blah to Blam!!! I am not a bit fan of the BOOMers...I like clean and powerful sound reproduction INSIDE my vehicles, these get that done. Just my $0.02
