Looking for front door 4 inch mid + tweeter speaker recommendations or reviews for BMW?

[Destination: Moon]

Hi,

Our new car unfortunately came thru with the base audio system. I'd like to upgrade the front doors speakers . Thinking that will be the best bang for the buck - effort Don't see any car audio reviews here on ASRbut hoping someone has some information with sharing.

The bigger players in this seem to be Focal, Audison, Match and Morel. The prices seem crazy but looking for a plug and play solution for our new X1 .
Any help is much appreciated

 

[staticV3]

For a plug-and-play solution, a driver with identical impedance, sensitivity, frequency response would be required so that it won't mess up the tuning.

Should you find one that matches the stock driver in these aspects, then it becomes questionable whether it really is an upgrade.

Instead of buying new stuff for the sake of it, a more effective approach would be to determine what specific aspect of the stock system you want to upgrade (e.g. SPL handling of driver x, frequency response linearity of driver y, off-axis response of driver z, low frequency extension, ...), then figuring out how to achieve that.

 

[gaz]

I used Hertz speakers in my last build - they were awesome. Make sure to buy from a Hertz dealer, plenty of fakes around.

 

[fredoamigo]

Almost all current on-board audio systems are a real calamity, regardless of brand. the problem does not necessarily come from the speakers but from the "all in one" system generally on the original fitment.. look. at ALPINE if they are compatible with your model.. for the speakers. FOCAL sells kits for BMW..
https://www.alpine.ch/searchresult.html?q=BMW 3&tx_solr[filter][0]=type%3Aproducts

 

[Destination: Moon]

For a plug-and-play solution, a driver with identical impedance, sensitivity, frequency response would be required so that it won't mess up the tuning.

Should you find one that matches the stock driver in these aspects, then it becomes questionable whether it really is an upgrade.

Instead of buying new stuff for the sake of it, a more effective approach would be to determine what specific aspect of the stock system you want to upgrade (e.g. SPL handling of driver x, frequency response linearity of driver y, off-axis response of driver z, low frequency extension, ...), then figuring out how to achieve that.

One of the major differences between the Base and factory upgraded HK system is the way the door speakers are arranged. My system sounds like it is a coaxial but it's mounted about a foot below your shoulders. The HK system adds separate tweeters that sit closer to ear level. I listened to one briefly and it sounded much better (It's not supposed to be anything miraculous, but I'd be fine with it if my car had that system).
The HK system has 12 cabin speakers, ours has only 7

As for deficiencies, sometimes it sounds ok but many times I notice a lot of loss in the mids. And sometimes the treble can sound shrill and sort of brittle.

I hear what your saying about tuning..... I don't really care about front to back balancing but there isn't an eq on the system to tune an aftermarket speaker. They have to be close to linear out of the box I guess (there usually is a switch on the cross over that will attenuate the treble output but it's stepped, not variable)