[ivanoski]

Is it possible to retrofit the hi fi on a standard?

[Steve30dMSport]

Originally Posted by sfax

12 speaker system with 200W amp, costs 700€ - this is called business speakers in the UK

16 speaker system with 660W amp, costs 1500€ - this is called professional speakers in the UK

12 (business) does have the speakers next to the door handle. It would be good to hear from someone with a UK/Euro spec who has 16 (professional) because I've seen one review saying it was poor, which I was surprised by as the lesser business setup is very good

I have the professional sound package which is the 16 speaker set up with the 600W DIRAC amp and I will admit that it is not great in the new 2011 Jaguar XJ concert hall sense but it is quite good. I have a high end Musical Fidelity amp, Rega Saturn CD and high end speakers at home and it does not compare with that set up at all but for a car it is ok. It sounds like crap with the surround sound on so I leave that off and I have not found the need to use the graphic equalizer.

I am quite fussy about music so I only listen to music recorded well and ripped to either flac or apple lossless (when not using the cd player). If you listen to mp3's or any other format which is not lossless then get the basic sound package or business as you are wasting money otherwise.

The pro package has the woofers under the seats but they do not, by any stretch of the imagination, sound like subs at all. Bass is ok and reasonably balanced but, if Focal had a speaker package for the X3 I would implement it. Unfortunately they don't.

So I guess what I'm saying is, if you like music and you appreciate quality and your source files are very good then get the pro package, turn off the surround, and you'll be very happy. If you don't fit in to that category then stick with basic or business.

Hope that helps.

[Radioactive]

I do not believe that DIRAC makes an amp. I believe that DIRAC is a DSP. If anything could make a car audio system sound good it should be DIRAC technology. Setting up a sound system in a car is like setting up your home system in a bath room and sitting on the toilet to one side. There are just too many negatives working against good sound reproduction. You do not sit between the speakers and the sound waves bounce off the hard surfaces like a round from a A-10 Warthog in a tank. Then the engineers split the tweeter from the midrange causing time coherence problems. I have the US premium system and I used a sound meter to set the equalizer (have posted the settings on this forum). For me it cleared up a muddy midrange and now performs quite good. I too do not use the surround.

[Radioactive]

Originally Posted by ivanoski

Is it possible to retrofit the hi fi on a standard?

I personally would not try it. When Bavarian Soundwerks comes out with their speaker upgrade package, try that first. I upgraded my 2010 E60's regular system with the BSW's upgrade package for speakers and it made a HUGE difference in the sound quality.

[ivanoski]

Originally Posted by Radioactive

I personally would not try it. When Bavarian Soundwerks comes out with their speaker upgrade package, try that first. I upgraded my 2010 E60's regular system with the BSW's upgrade package for speakers and it made a HUGE difference in the sound quality.

If and eventually when it comes out, i hope soon

[JOHNBMWM5]

Any changes of the nature of adding CD players upgrading Hi-Fi's or anything else requires Full software reload/upgrades this will enable the cars to recognise new equipment. It takes up to 5 hours and dealers do not like it.
You can not just add something and expect it to work, it will not.

[Steve30dMSport]

Originally Posted by Radioactive

I do not believe that DIRAC makes an amp. I believe that DIRAC is a DSP. If anything could make a car audio system sound good it should be DIRAC technology. Setting up a sound system in a car is like setting up your home system in a bath room and sitting on the toilet to one side. There are just too many negatives working against good sound reproduction. You do not sit between the speakers and the sound waves bounce off the hard surfaces like a round from a A-10 Warthog in a tank. Then the engineers split the tweeter from the midrange causing time coherence problems. I have the US premium system and I used a sound meter to set the equalizer (have posted the settings on this forum). For me it cleared up a muddy midrange and now performs quite good. I too do not use the surround.

No-one's asking you to believe anything. Nobody said the amp was made by DIRAC. It is a 600W digital amp (origin unknown) which utilises DIRAC technology which is the Digital sound processor giving it the surround sound and other processing features. Just as I could say it is a RED amp I can call it a DIRAC amp so readers can understand the difference that it is a DSP enhanced amp and not a straight digital amp. Then you go on to say that the DIRAC processing would make the sound better and not worse, hence saying I am now twice wrong in my previous post. But THEN you conclude your post, in which you boast of using a sound meter to perfect your equalisation settings (which are not part of the DIRAC circuitry), by stating that you do not use the surround sound (which IS the DIRAC circuitry)!

Therefore, without knowing it, you are in total agreement with me and most people on this blog who have the pro sound package in that the DIRAC processing makes the music sound crap. Which is why you, and most others, have it turned off.

One more point, as an audiophile, I can advise you that a sound meter to check your settings in the car will only work properly with a specific sequence of sound tracks such as a Chesky set up disc or Sheffield Lab's My Disc recording. There are quite logical reasons for this but I'll leave that to you to figure out.

Cheers.

[JOHNBMWM5]

Originally Posted by Steve30dMSport

No-one's asking you to believe anything. Nobody said the amp was made by DIRAC. It is a 600W digital amp (origin unknown) which utilises DIRAC technology which is the Digital sound processor giving it the surround sound and other processing features. Just as I could say it is a RED amp I can call it a DIRAC amp so readers can understand the difference that it is a DSP enhanced amp and not a straight digital amp. Then you go on to say that the DIRAC processing would make the sound better and not worse, hence saying I am now twice wrong in my previous post. But THEN you conclude your post, in which you boast of using a sound meter to perfect your equalisation settings (which are not part of the DIRAC circuitry), by stating that you do not use the surround sound (which IS the DIRAC circuitry)!

Therefore, without knowing it, you are in total agreement with me and most people on this blog who have the pro sound package in that the DIRAC processing makes the music sound crap. Which is why you, and most others, have it turned off.

One more point, as an audiophile, I can advise you that a sound meter to check your settings in the car will only work properly with a specific sequence of sound tracks such as a Chomsky set up disc or Sheffield Lab's My Disc recording. There are quite logical reasons for this but I'll leave that to you to figure out.

Cheers.

OOoops I think points made.

[Steve30dMSport]

Originally Posted by johnbmw6

OOoops I think points made.

Hmmm, I think I got a bit of shit off my liver! Sorry radioactive, you have to understand that my X3 is at the panelbeaters for another 2 weeks so I'm a tad annoyed....... my patience is a touch short at the moment.

At least I made John laugh!

[TogMogX3]

If the truth be known most of us can't tell the difference during real world motoring; however, some of us feel better if we spend more on an upgrade. BMW like us for it too!

Older, wiser or just winding others up?

[Radioactive]

Originally Posted by Steve30dMSport

No-one's asking you to believe anything. Nobody said the amp was made by DIRAC. It is a 600W digital amp (origin unknown) which utilises DIRAC technology which is the Digital sound processor giving it the surround sound and other processing features. Just as I could say it is a RED amp I can call it a DIRAC amp so readers can understand the difference that it is a DSP enhanced amp and not a straight digital amp. Then you go on to say that the DIRAC processing would make the sound better and not worse, hence saying I am now twice wrong in my previous post. But THEN you conclude your post, in which you boast of using a sound meter to perfect your equalisation settings (which are not part of the DIRAC circuitry), by stating that you do not use the surround sound (which IS the DIRAC circuitry)!

Therefore, without knowing it, you are in total agreement with me and most people on this blog who have the pro sound package in that the DIRAC processing makes the music sound crap. Which is why you, and most others, have it turned off.

One more point, as an audiophile, I can advise you that a sound meter to check your settings in the car will only work properly with a specific sequence of sound tracks such as a Chesky set up disc or Sheffield Lab's My Disc recording. There are quite logical reasons for this but I'll leave that to you to figure out.

Cheers.

Ok….Sorry to read that your X3 is with the “panelbeater”. I know how frustrating that can be.
Since almost the beginning of the F25 thread there have been ongoing discussions about the sound systems and people attempting to correlate the different systems globally. BMW’s ambiguity in their written literature and web site has added to this puzzle. I was not making a judgment on your statements. I was merely stating what I believed to be true about DIRAC, based on my research. Hopefully it contributes to a better understanding of the different systems. If I am wrong I will have no problem being corrected.

If you carefully read the sentence pertaining to DIRAC technology you will see that I did not write that DIRAC makes it better or worse. I wrote that if anything COULD make it better, it SHOULD be DIRAC. I was surprised that it didn’t make it better. They supposedly have some of the best acoustic testing and processing. Hence, I believe your experience. In the US we have Logic 7 not DIRAC as the premium system, so I could not make any definitive comments on a DIRAC listening experience. As for using a sound meter, there is no boasting, merely stating a fact that I used a tool. Similar to “I used a screwdriver”. Nowhere did I use the word “perfect” to describe the equalizer setting, only that it helped my listening experience. In fact I’ve written that people should use their own listening tastes to tweak the sound.

The only thing we have in agreement pertaining to the surround sound is that we prefer it “off” in regards to two different systems. Since I’ve never heard the DIRAC I will not agree or disagree as to having the surround on or off in your system.

As for thinking logically, I’m trained to think in three dimensions plus a time dimension with known and unknown variables; then to develop multiple working hypotheses. Therefore I won’t have a problem thinking logically.

[April1]

Steve30dMSport and Radioactive: Both of you are expert on sound systems and we got your messages very clearly. Appreciations. We will use your feedback to judge our sound systems. Let's move on.

On a lighter tone: Do you know one thing, I was carrying lots of gifts packets and cartons in my X3 last night and to my surprise I found that my X3 sound system improved, I could hear clear and sharp notes even at louder volume. In short, the best and easy way to improve the sound system is to carry loads of gifts in the car with cheerful mind and forget about Dirac and Chiraq who look like names of senior dignitaries to me

[Steve30dMSport]

Originally Posted by alokbhargava

Steve30dMSport and Radioactive: Both of you are expert on sound systems and we got your messages very clearly. Appreciations. We will use your feedback to judge our sound systems. Let's move on.

On a lighter tone: Do you know one thing, I was carrying lots of gifts packets and cartons in my X3 last night and to my surprise I found that my X3 sound system improved, I could hear clear and sharp notes even at louder volume. In short, the best and easy way to improve the sound system is to carry loads of gifts in the car with cheerful mind and forget about Dirac and Chiraq who look like names of senior dignitaries to me

Yes I agree with you, and with radioactive too. I was just annoyed and radioactive happened to light my fuse (unwittingly). You will find that the sound will improve over time as all components of a sound system require running in (just like the car itself). There are a miriad of changes you can make to a system at all levels but essentially, in a car environment, you reach that point of diminishing returns quite quickly due to the inherent issues of the car environment. But if you get a chance, go to a Jaguar dealer and have a listen to the upgraded stereo system in the new XJ. It is phenomenal! Bowers & Wilkins speakers everywhere with truly top quality source and amps. It has to be listened to to believe.....

Now I'll go and do some christmas shopping!

[X3emist]

How do you turn DIRAC off? I to think the premuim sound package sux, both in our 11 528 and 13 x3. Our old 06 X3 rocks however, what's up with that?

Originally Posted by Steve30dMSport

No-one's asking you to believe anything. Nobody said the amp was made by DIRAC. It is a 600W digital amp (origin unknown) which utilises DIRAC technology which is the Digital sound processor giving it the surround sound and other processing features. Just as I could say it is a RED amp I can call it a DIRAC amp so readers can understand the difference that it is a DSP enhanced amp and not a straight digital amp. Then you go on to say that the DIRAC processing would make the sound better and not worse, hence saying I am now twice wrong in my previous post. But THEN you conclude your post, in which you boast of using a sound meter to perfect your equalisation settings (which are not part of the DIRAC circuitry), by stating that you do not use the surround sound (which IS the DIRAC circuitry)!

Therefore, without knowing it, you are in total agreement with me and most people on this blog who have the pro sound package in that the DIRAC processing makes the music sound crap. Which is why you, and most others, have it turned off.

One more point, as an audiophile, I can advise you that a sound meter to check your settings in the car will only work properly with a specific sequence of sound tracks such as a Chesky set up disc or Sheffield Lab's My Disc recording. There are quite logical reasons for this but I'll leave that to you to figure out.

Cheers.

[rexelpet]

I gave a 2019 X3 with base sound system and would like to upgrade to B&W. Does anyone have any experience in this area. I did it with my previous Jag XF and the sound was very impressive to factory B&W system and code activation.