Quote:
Originally Posted by SlowX6M
I am not an expert, but this is just my theory when it comes to these subs.
The stock subwoofers are actually "mid woofers", and the Logic 7 headunit has an EQ that starts at 100hz, and a good subwoofer is supposed to hit as low as 20hz. Later tonight I will also check the Bowers EQ in my X6M to see what is the lowest frequency available, but I suspect it is probably the same 100hz. So the stock subwoofers probably do not really hit frequencies below 100hz.
The interesting part, is when if I were to adjust bass or EQ setting with the Logic 7 or the Bowers subs, it adjust properly and you can immediately hear the difference with every notch of adjustment. With Bavsound subs, adjusting EQ settings does almost nothing - I could drop 100-200-300hz frequencies all the way down, and there is very little difference if any - no reduction of bass whatsoever. When I had the Bavsound subs installed, I used to adjust bass setting almost to the minimum, and even then there was an overwhelming presence of muddy, unbalanced bass. So I theorize that Bavsound boosted low bass frequencies at the expense of mid bass frequencies, since it is almost impossible to get both out of such shallow woofer.
Also, the Bavsound subs are "one size fits all" - they offer the same subs for every BMW model with every possible audio system. The Bowers subs are really an evolution of previous high end systems such as the Logic 7, and so they are better balanced to the system.
I wish I could also swap in the Bowers amp, since all it takes is digital signal through an optic cable, but it needs to be coded in and thats probably impossible to do due to the ECU differences.
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Yessir you are correct. Those underseat woofers really are only meant to play the lower midrange, bass, and sub bass (which is about 25-400hz). They are by no means a subwoofer, but they can absolutely play those lower frequencies. They just won't have the same presence that a 12" subwoofer has. Another thing to consider is the factory ampliers have these underseat subs configured as "stereo" where as a subwoofer would be configured as "mono" so they will always sound a bit different. Btw, you shouldn't ever configure them as mono, they sound terrible.
I've never tried the bavsound speakers because I think they're over priced and not really any better than some of the cheaper options. But they
should all be able to play down to around 20-40hz no problem. The issue comes when they try to play the higher frequencies with the low frequencies. That's why I cut my subwoofer off at 400hz so they won't play anything above that. That might be why you hear distortion. Of course Bavsound doesn't give you all the specs on their speakers so I really couldn't tell you why they sound the way they do.
I remember a thread somewhere here, maybe it's in the e90 forums that shows how each audio system has their base eq set up (not the eq you control), I'll have to check and see if I can find it... that could be another reason the bavsound sound much different than the others.