BMW 5 (G31) - replacement of the factory Harman Kardon system

BMW 5th series (G31) and exceptional "sound quality" sound system from our workshop. The owner of this car approached us with a request to create a completely new sound system that would meet his high demands for audiophile sound quality and at least come close to his home high-end audio system. Plug & play speakers, digital amplifiers with an integrated DSP processor or maintaining the factory wiring, as you know from our other BMW installations, were therefore not an option for this installation. At the same time, we had to deal with the Harman Kardon system, which is not exactly an ideal partner for installing a new audio system and its overall tuning. For the sound system of this car, the client and I selected speakers from the Israeli high-end manufacturer Morel from the second highest Elate Carbon series, which meet the highest ambitions in terms of sound quality. We supplemented the silky tweeters with a typically faithful and detailed morel sound with center speakers of the same series, which provide tonally balanced and accurate mid-range frequencies and together form a perfectly matched speaker system. We supplemented it with bass speakers from the same manufacturer, which we placed in the factory location under the seats. For such high-quality speakers, it is necessary to choose an appropriate amplifier, and it must be an analog A/B class, which even today presents itself with a significantly more faithful sound than even the highest-quality digital amplifiers. Our thoughts were clearly on the Zapco audiophile amplifier and we were just praying that we could fit its respectable dimensions of nearly 60cm in the double boot floor. This was narrowly achieved, including an additional amplifier and a Helix DSP processor from the German sound masters. The precise delivery of low frequencies is ensured by the JL Audio subwoofer, which, despite its high performance and excellent sound quality, has compact dimensions. It goes without saying that such an installation also includes top-quality cabling to ensure sound transmission in lossless quality. Perhaps the most important thing comes at the end of the installation. Sound measurement with a professional JL Audio Max measuring system with 5 microphones, which will allow, after professional adjustment, to adapt the sound not only to the listener, but especially to this particular car with all the obstacles of this imperfect environment for sound. So we will set the measured results in the DSP processor program, fine-tune the sound in detail according to our preferences, and then we will have a final adjustment with our demanding client. In order for such an installation not to lose its meaning, it was important to also think about the signal source. Although the factory unit offers simple and intuitive control, it more or less affects the resulting sound even with its precise settings, which we spent longer than usual on the client's request. Although the result meets very high sound standards, in this case the potential of both the selected components and high-resolution music files is not used to one hundred percent. The ideal choice is to use an external hi-res player, which will enable lossless listening to music in maximum quality. The second and more popular solution is the installation of a Hi-Res Bluetooth module, which will provide a similar service via your smartphone. In both cases, you can use your own collection of music files, or one of the streaming services such as Tidal. Of course, each source requires its own measurement and sound settings, and we always choose the optimal method after consultation with the client. It is possible to easily switch between individual sources thanks to the controls of the DSP processor, and it is always up to the client whether he chooses traditional listening to music via the factory head unit, or, for example, switches to a higher quality source on long journeys and enjoys his favorite songs in the highest quality.