[chaswyck1]

I recently made a significant upgrade to my stock Hi-Fi audio system and the piped in artificial engine sound got MUCH louder. In fact, annoyingly loud. The following components were installed: Focal IFBMW-S component speakers in the front, Alpine FPS-410 coaxial speakers in the rear, ARC Audio XDi1200.6 amp, and an Audio Control Lc2i Line output converter between the factory amp and the ARC Audio amp. The center channel speaker was not changed nor disconnected and the underseat subs were not changed but were amplified with two channels from the six channel amp. The original set up had an ARC Audio XDi600.4 with two channels going to the fronts and two to the underseat subs and the rears were left stock. I wanted upgrade the rears and amplify them so I had the 4 channel amp swapped out for the 6 channel. With the original upgrade setup the engine sound was pleasantly louder than stock and I liked it a lot. With the second upgrade the engine sound is a loud drone at highway speeds and very loud on acceleration and shift changes (auto). By the way, the piped in engine sound appears to be independent of and unaffected by any of the audio controls (fade, balance, volume, bass or treble). It's loud even with the volume turned all the way down. Has anyone else had this issue after upgrading their sound system and if so, how did you resolve it? Is it possible that the piped in engine sound, which is obviously generated in the stock amplifier, is being amplified to a great extent with the new 6 channel amp? Is the volume of the engine sound something that can be coded? Thanks

[Thescout13]

Active Sound can be coded off, just check the coding section cheat sheet

[chaswyck1]

Originally Posted by Thescout13

Active Sound can be coded off, just check the coding section cheat sheet

I don't really want to code it off. I was wondering if there was a way to code the volume.

[pikcachu]

Originally Posted by chaswyck1

I don't really want to code it off. I was wondering if there was a way to code the volume.

there is not.... its either on or off

[chaswyck1]

Originally Posted by pikcachu

there is not.... its either on or off

Thanks, Pikcachu. That's what I was afraid of. Now my audio guy and I have to figure out how to control it using the audio equipment. Right now, in Sport mode, it sounds like a straight pipe, muffler and resonator delete (inside the car, that is). I've got all this great audio now and I can't hear it! I'd hate to have to code it off because I like it at a lower level, but that may be the solution unless an audio expert on here has another idea.

[pikcachu]

Originally Posted by chaswyck1

Thanks, Pikcachu. That's what I was afraid of. Now my audio guy and I have to figure out how to control it using the audio equipment. Right now, in Sport mode, it sounds like a straight pipe, muffler and resonator delete (inside the car, that is). I've got all this great audio now and I can't hear it! I'd hate to have to code it off because I like it at a lower level, but that may be the solution unless an audio expert on here has another idea.

you might try to play with the audio level option...and see if you can tell any difference between them

[akuan99]

I believe the issue is that you are using output of OEM amp to feed ARC amp.
The signal input at OEM amp likely consist of mixed signal from HU and active sound.
Volume from HU is adjusted from volume control but active sound signal is not.
Stock configuration you AS(active sound) => OEM amp =) speakers after your sound upgrade now you have AS => OEM amp => ARC amp => speakers so you are multiplying AS by the additional gain from ARC amp.
Proper setup is to eliminate OEM amp and you will also get better sound by eliminating OEM in the signal path chain.

[hyperzulu]

Not sure why you kept the stock amp. Is it you wanted the center channel but didn't want to buy an amp that could do it properly? I don't get it.

The ks 125.4 mini is known to work without an LOC. It's rated at half the power, but that's not a big deal. 75w should be enough per channel.

[chaswyck1]

Originally Posted by hyperzulu

Not sure why you kept the stock amp. Is it you wanted the center channel but didn't want to buy an amp that could do it properly? I don't get it.

The ks 125.4 mini is known to work without an LOC. It's rated at half the power, but that's not a big deal. 75w should be enough per channel.

This is a good question. I didn't want the center channel and in fact have since disconnected it. The audio guy who did the installation said that we had to keep the stock amp because of other iDrive functions that came through that amp. He installed an output converter between the stock amp and the new, aftermarket amp to feed the new amp a clean signal. When I had the 4 channel amp in there with just the subs and front speakers being amplified it increased the sound level of the active sound a little and I liked that amount of increase. But when we swapped out the 4 channel for a 6 channel amp and amped the new rear speakers is when the active sound became exceedingly loud. I also thought it was odd that we were keeping the stock amp.

[hyperzulu]

He must think you have the HK system. I don't think the HK system on the 2 series even requires this like it does on other cars. Technic I believe has said that the HK system on the F22 does not use the same fiber optic MOST amplifier that you'd get on other BMWs (not positive this is what he said though). Either way, you don't need to keep the stock amp. You can replace it with an Arc Audio KS Mini amp which accepts balanced differential inputs. You'd want a harness like Technic sells or have the installer wire up something similar.

[e30if]

Originally Posted by hyperzulu

He must think you have the HK system. I don't think the HK system on the 2 series even requires this like it does on other cars. Technic I believe has said that the HK system on the F22 does not use the same fiber optic MOST amplifier that you'd get on other BMWs (not positive this is what he said though). Either way, you don't need to keep the stock amp. You can replace it with an Arc Audio KS Mini amp which accepts balanced differential inputs. You'd want a harness like Technic sells or have the installer wire up something similar.

Can confirm there isn't a MOST connection to the stock amp, just yank the trunk liner on the driver side of the car and the amp is in the back corner of the trunk. I can post a picture if you want, I've got the trunk liner out of my car atm. The harness is fairly straight forward so I'm pretty confident you could bypass the entire OEM setup with aftermarket amps.

[chaswyck1]

The installer is telling me that if we lose the stock amp I might lose door chimes (which I don't care about) and Bluetooth (which I do care about). Any thoughts on this?

[e30if]

Bluetooth runs through a separate module in the car as far as I know, should be the box just behind the rear seats in the trunk. If you pull up the floor cover you can see an amp looking box next to a fuse box, I'd have to trace wires to know for sure but this should be the box that handles BT, Nav (if you have it), radio antenna etc. From the wire loom the amp should really only have headunit input and speaker outputs in it. I'm sure someone knows more on it than I do, going to be upgrading everything in my car soon so I can find out for sure over the next couple of weeks.

[shadyru]

I have the match pp82dsp amp installed in mine. PP82dsp has taken the place of the OEM. I will check bluetooth tomorrow and verify. But I can verify the engine noise is still there even with the OEM amp removed. On Sport its pretty unbearable so Im debating shutting that off unless there is a way to turn down the volume.

[akuan99]

Originally Posted by shadyru

I have the match pp82dsp amp installed in mine. PP82dsp has taken the place of the OEM. I will check bluetooth tomorrow and verify. But I can verify the engine noise is still there even with the OEM amp removed. On Sport its pretty unbearable so Im debating shutting that off unless there is a way to turn down the volume.

The input gain on pp82dsp amp may be set too high.
How high is your volume control level for normal listening level?

[chaswyck1]

Originally Posted by shadyru

I have the match pp82dsp amp installed in mine. PP82dsp has taken the place of the OEM. I will check bluetooth tomorrow and verify. But I can verify the engine noise is still there even with the OEM amp removed. On Sport its pretty unbearable so Im debating shutting that off unless there is a way to turn down the volume.

This is exactly the problem I'm having with the Active Sound in Sport mode. I was hoping that bypassing the OEM amp would solve the problem but apparently not if you've done that. I've been told by people on here that there is no way to adjust the volume of the AS. For what it's worth, I didn't have this sound issue until I amplified the rear speakers with the aftermarket amp. With just the fronts and subs amplified the AS increased a little in volume, but pleasantly so. I'm not sure where to go from here because I really don't want to turn off AS completely.

[shadyru]

chaswyck bluetooth DOES work without oem amp. But i do have tech/nav if that matters.

akuan99 ill look tonight at the settings again

[moorfan]

This is a great thread!

It is nice to hear that there is no MOST ring in the F22...that's really what interferes the most with upgrading for me! Has anyone done their OWN install of an aftermarket amp who can shed light on how the inputs are wired? I'd be happy to do a DIY for this forum on replacing the factory amp and subs and doing a BavSound upgrade (I have my BavSound system that was in my F80 waiting and ready to be "adapted" into the F22)

[Viffermike]

Ditto: great thread. No one's done an aftermarket amp install DIY for the HiFI F22 yet; this is the closest anyone's come to that. Plainly, the AS volume is a huge, huge concern (chaswyck and shadyru: sorry y'all had to learn that the hard way!), and it appears that its pipelining works differently in an F22 than in other models.

e30if: I (and several others) would be highly interested in that rear-trunk pic with the lining removed. That the battery is centrally located in the trunk (unlike the F30, in which it's all the way on the right side) and has empty plug-in accessory power leads (instead of spade/screw-down leads) makes a photo valuable for DIYers who're, you know, "planning".

[e30if]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

Ditto: great thread. No one's done an aftermarket amp install DIY for the HiFI F22 yet; this is the closest anyone's come to that. Plainly, the AS volume is a huge, huge concern (chaswyck and shadyru: sorry y'all had to learn that the hard way!), and it appears that its pipelining works differently in an F22 than in other models.

e30if: I (and several others) would be highly interested in that rear-trunk pic with the lining removed. That the battery is centrally located in the trunk (unlike the F30, in which it's all the way on the right side) and has empty plug-in accessory power leads (instead of spade/screw-down leads) makes a photo valuable for DIYers who're, you know, "planning".

Sure thing I'll snap a couple pictures in the morning since I still have the carpet out, I'm in the middle of planning out my sound upgrades so I've got everything taken apart. Probably going to be building a fiberglass box to fit into the left hand side of the trunk and just flush off that side to fit a 12" sub.

[e30if]

Ok here's the trunk without the liner.

The battery setup is very well done by BMW, there is also a factory grounding stud just to the right of the battery on the floor of the trunk so no drilling necessary to ground any amplifiers. The silver box in this picture is the ComBox which is what BT, Nav, radio antenna etc are run through.

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Side of the trunk where the amplifiers are housed, the bundle of wires on the side of the trunk is all of the speaker wires coming from the headunit and running back out to the speakers from the amplifier.

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Close up of the amplifiers.

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Took this upside down for some reason but this is the trunk liner out of the car. It attaches with 3 push pin clips which you can see along the top (bottom of this picture) of the panel and a torx screw which screws into the floor of the trunk. Also the 12v socket will just unplug from the back once you have the liner free, I took it out completely for fun you don't need to remove it to take the liner out.

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And for those that are curious here is the underseat woofer outside the car. Can remove the enclosure by removing the 2 10mm bolts holding it under the seat. You need to unbolt the seat from the floor of the car and tilt it back to gain access to the woofer. If you didn't want to modify the enclosure at all you have about 2 1/8" of mount depth but with a spacer and a few other modifications I could easily see getting 3" of mount depth out of it. If you want to get really fancy and cut the thing up then there is about 4" of depth before you hit the seat rail.

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From above

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[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by e30if

Ok here's the trunk without the liner.

The battery setup is very well done by BMW, there is also a factory grounding stud just to the right of the battery on the floor of the trunk so no drilling necessary to ground any amplifiers. The silver box in this picture is the ComBox which is what BT, Nav, radio antenna etc are run through.

These are great, e30if. Many thanks! I see you have the HK setup and not the HiFi setup; I'm figuring that as with other HiFi cars, there'll only be the one 7-channel amp to remove (and one wiring loom to deal with with the Technic harness).

F30s have a ground point above the amp on the rear left fender sheetmetal, above the amp's wiring loom; is there one like that on your car? Can't quite tell ... I'd personally rather ground in that area than by the battery since it would require only running the +/power lead to the battery area, and there doesn't appear to be a channel in the bulkhead between the amp location and the battery to run much of anything ...