[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by nerdogray

I swear the B&W has had some kind of bass upgrade, at least with the 2023. I vividly remember mucking about with EQ and everything on my 2019 and not getting anywhere near the volume and bass I am getting with this year's. Or maybe my ears are just more sensitive with age. I can also recall hills inexplicably having an incline both directions.

I've actually had to pull the bass back a bit on the EQ. It's too much. It's also possible my 2019 just had issues?

I felt the same with my ‘19 as you did with yours, but my ‘22 definitely wasn’t like your ‘23. Perhaps I didn’t give it enough time as I changed the subs to BavSound, and after about 100 hours of break in, it sounds pretty damn good. But I can’t imagine you have too many hours on yours yet, either.

[nerdogray]

I can't imagine needing more bass at this point. Adding BavSound would be overkill... but now I'm kind of interested.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by nerdogray

I can't imagine needing more bass at this point. Adding BavSound would be overkill... but now I'm kind of interested.

That is awesome to hear! I would’ve much preferred BW, especially after HK in my previous base, but my Comp is a Covid car, so no go for me.

I was experiencing what you described, so I had to go that route. If you’re interested though, here’s a good thread:

https://f90.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1924734

If your car sounds that good, then maybe sticking with what you’ve got is best. Mine was intolerable, especially after my two DDs before my M5s had Meridian setups that were awesome.

EDIT — Read your initial post too fast! I thought I read you had HK even though this is a BW thread. Just saw you had BW in both. Whoops! Disregard everything I said lol. Second time I did this today. BW cars are not upgradeable to the BavSound Ghost Sub kit anyway.

[nerdogray]

Yea, the B&W in the new one sounds great. Micvite said the speakers are the same, but the amp has been changed, so either my 2019 had issues, or maybe the amp changes helped. It sounded more like they re-engineered the amp due to supply chain moreso than trying to increase power, though.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by nerdogray

Yea, the B&W in the new one sounds great. Micvite said the speakers are the same, but the amp has been changed, so either my 2019 had issues, or maybe the amp changes helped. It sounded more like they re-engineered the amp due to supply chain moreso than trying to increase power, though.

Whichever it may be, I’ll take it! I’ve now twice lost on out on BW in my M5. There will not be a third — assuming I get a G90 in a couple years when my time with this ends.

[nerdogray]

Yea, as petty as it was at the time, B&W was a dealbreaker for me getting an M5 during that long stretch when they weren't available. The silver lining is I could not have gotten an M5 at a better time, so it all worked out. I have zero regrets about it or any of the options (or ones I chose not to get like CCB's).

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Originally Posted by nerdogray

Yea, as petty as it was at the time, B&W was a dealbreaker for me getting an M5 during that long stretch when they weren't available. The silver lining is I could not have gotten an M5 at a better time, so it all worked out. I have zero regrets about it or any of the options (or ones I chose not to get like CCB's).

I don’t think it was petty at all. You want what you want. So happy for you that you finally got exactly what you wanted! Car looks fantastic.

[OfficiallyBroke]

Let’s talk source content for a moment. I have Amazon Music HD and connect to my car with Car Play via my iPhone 14 Pro. Going from my house where I have speakers that can make the most of hi-res audio, to my car, I feel there’s serious degradation in the sound quality.

How is everyone connecting their phones to their car? I haven’t done any digging to see if hooking up with the USB cable is for both power and content transfer, hoping someone can shed some light here.

Is Car Play my bottleneck? Would love to squeeze every bit out of the between system so please drop a comment! For reference, I have a 2021 M5.

[pmsteinm]

I'm using Roon via Android auto to play Qobuz and my local library (which is all ALAC). I read somewhere that Android auto uses WiFi and supports lossless but I do wonder. Roon reports this:

[pmsteinm]

Also from looking at the dealer technical guides the B&W head unit is doing a bunch of munging to add in ASD plus DSP to drive the multiple speakers. But I don't know any way to get a more "pure" path. Even if you plugged in and used USB the B&W is still going to do some stuff. But so far I'm happy with the sound compared to the Bose in my V. At home I use Focal headphones with a Schiit stack.

[kboogie_]

My 2021 M5 Comp with Bower and Wilkins has less bass output than my Sonos 5 in a large room which basically means it is embarrassing for $135K car with a premium sound system. I really wonder if the amp for the subwoofer has a blown fuse. I wish there was a separate control for the subs.

[S EyeLand]

Originally Posted by 620turbo

Hi, got my M5C in April. So disappointed with the B&W system. Especially with the bass, or specifically the sub-bass which is seriously lacking.

After messing around with the settings for many months, I used a test tone CD. I played 50Hz, 60Hz, 70Hz and 80Hz.

What I found is that 100Hz is just that and does NOT boost anything below 100Hz at all.

The bass setting is what improves sub 100Hz frequencies.

So, here are my settings. I listen to a wide range of music, but most of the time, electronic.

Bass +10 (max sub-bass)
100Hz -5
200Hz -4
500Hz -2
1KHz +1
2KHz 0
5KHz 0
10KHz +1
Treb 0
Fad -3
Mode - Studio

These settings have taken me months to find and I strongly recommend that you try.

As the bass setting increases 100Hz, 200Hz, and 500Hz, these need to be dialled down as per the above, otherwise you get a huge boost to the nasty sounding mid-bass.

Please make your own thread and it should be stickied. I was very very very disappointed until I plugged these in... now it competes or is even better than my F85s B&O system which was stunningly good. Thank you very much sir.

[Mr. Jonathan]

Originally Posted by 620turbo

Hi, got my M5C in April. So disappointed with the B&W system. Especially with the bass, or specifically the sub-bass which is seriously lacking.

After messing around with the settings for many months, I used a test tone CD. I played 50Hz, 60Hz, 70Hz and 80Hz.

What I found is that 100Hz is just that and does NOT boost anything below 100Hz at all.

The bass setting is what improves sub 100Hz frequencies.

So, here are my settings. I listen to a wide range of music, but most of the time, electronic.

Bass +10 (max sub-bass)
100Hz -5
200Hz -4
500Hz -2
1KHz +1
2KHz 0
5KHz 0
10KHz +1
Treb 0
Fad -3
Mode - Studio

These settings have taken me months to find and I strongly recommend that you try.

As the bass setting increases 100Hz, 200Hz, and 500Hz, these need to be dialled down as per the above, otherwise you get a huge boost to the nasty sounding mid-bass.

I’m happy you posted and I found this! These settins really wake up the B&W system. I may bring the bass to +8 vs +10 for now. I’m adding a 600 watt (RMS) subwoofer this weekend so I see how things will change after install.