[VitaminF22]

Hello everyone, ive had my 2017 230i for over a year now, bought used, been loving it all but one thing... the sound system. I do NOT have Harman Kardan, just the base of the base system :/. I had Harman Kardan in my mini cooper previously and it was INCREDIBLE compared to this current system. I'm pretty clueless to upgrading sound system... I know it consists of stuff like, speakers / tweeters, amps, and your bass ( subwoofer ). I do not know what my options are considering I do not want to spend a lot of money. I was thinking a budget of around $500-$600. I'd really like new door speakers and possibly adding a sub, or any bass for that matter. What path would you guys reccomend me taking for upgraded ride quality for my music. It's my daily and I commute about 30 minutes each way to work. Big fan of house music and instrumentals and ambient songs. Thanks in advance.

[MarcoZandrini]

I would head over to www.crutchfield.com to see what fits. The biggest bang for your buck will be to upgrade the front speakers. Your car doesn't have tweeters in the door "sails" (the trianglular piece of black plastic that's at the front of each door's window sill), so you'll have to buy 2-way speakers. That is, speakers that include both a mid-range speaker and a tweeter in a single unit. Eton seems to be a good brand for bimmers. Alternatively, you could by the sails that have the grills for the tweeter and buy 2-way component speakers. Eton makes these also.

[freakystyly]

Agree with what MarcoZandrini said, plug and play door speakers alone make a massive improvement over the base hifi.

Maybe start there and see if you want more. It is a rabbit hole of upgrades though, try to stick to a budget.

[Aspen235]

Yeah, fixing the crummy base stereo is a problem. Disconnect the centre speaker, replace the front door speakers and save up for an amp with more power and some control over EQ. The stock door speakers are so bad that the stock amp sends too much high end to compensate, so when you upgrade speakers it's too bright. Better but not marvelous without an amp upgrade.

[Kevin @ Integral Audio]

Originally Posted by Aspen235

Yeah, fixing the crummy base stereo is a problem. Disconnect the centre speaker, replace the front door speakers and save up for an amp with more power and some control over EQ. The stock door speakers are so bad that the stock amp sends too much high end to compensate, so when you upgrade speakers it's too bright. Better but not marvelous without an amp upgrade.

I'll second this. It's very hard to do a piecemeal upgrade. The factory system components are highly integrated with each other.

I'll humbly throw our Soundstage Elements in for consideration (https://integralaudio.com/soundstage...2-f23-f87.html) for speaker-only upgrade. Gives you flexibility down the road for upgrades, we offer full credit against the price of of a SoundstageDSP™. Same goes for our underseat woofers.