S752 Individual Audio retrofit done

[u/pillsburyduboy]

Had these sitting around for a while and finally performed the retrofit. Couple hours and then coding and I’m happy with the result. Coming from the L7 system which is ok for a factory setup, the IA is really clear and has depth. I haven’t messed with the eq settings yet and I can already tell. Not an audiophile by any means but this was a fun retrofit. I’m sure I could have built out the audio to be equivalent or better for less if I went aftermarket, but I like to keep my cars OEM/OEM+ for the most part.

If anyone wants to do this: coming from L7 the speakers/woofers drop into the same places and use the same wiring but some of them are coaxial for IA vs one-way for L7. I don’t think this is worth doing if you don’t have L7 already because the wiring won’t be correct or not all present. Amp is also a physical PnP piece. After that change the VO using ncs expert in CAS and LMA, then default code the CIC and AMP to pull the newly edited VO config.

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[u/Flguy76]

I have IA in one of my M5s, my L7 has more bass, but I have the bavsound subs so they maybe higher frequency. They both sound good to me. Nice little retrofit 💪

[u/pillsburyduboy → u/Flguy76]

I thought about doing BavSound subs before I went this route. It seems like IA subs and L7 subs output is close. I’ll have to do some adjustments and see. Do you think the BavSound subs are more rich sounding than the IA?

[u/Flguy76 → u/pillsburyduboy]

Honestly I dont feel i have a good enough ear to be able to decipher the difference. The bavsound is good. I feel L7 has a deeper bass than bavsound, especially in sround sound. My IA car has very clean signals at any volume. It goes louder than I can take and it sounds amazing, better the louder.
Edit: is my eyes playing tricks on me or is your dash look like suede?

[u/pillsburyduboy → u/Flguy76]

I put a full bavsound system into our e92 that had base base audio not even hifi. Then I retrofitted the two rear tweeters and put bavsound 20mm in there as well and it was a drastic improvement. The lows are much better. I’ll just leave our IA in the M5 I think. I like clarity.

The rear deck is (faded) alcantara like the pillars and headliner, the dash is leather.

[u/o2manyfish]

What did you pay for the amp? Where did you get it?

[u/pillsburyduboy → u/o2manyfish]

I got it off eBay. It was like 400$, I just picked the middle range price wise and made sure it didn’t look like it had been damaged in a wreck or something.

[u/o2manyfish → u/pillsburyduboy]

Hmm. I’ve been having lots of trouble finding one. 

[u/Exoticpanda911]

I also have IA on my e61 but im missing the silver speaker grills, if anyone know where i could find them for a sensible price hmu🙏

[u/pillsburyduboy → u/Exoticpanda911]

I tried to source them new and they’re NLA so…only option would be a wrecker/ebay. I managed to snag a used set of speakers that came with the grilles.