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Old 10-21-2014, 12:17 PM   #3
cmoore
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: philadelphia
Posts: 217
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Default HK sound.

Its not a 318ti HK system - but instead a hybrid.
In the end, a big waste of time. Maybe the "design" of what i did was wrong, but it doesn't sound very impressive. I posted on bimmerforums a few times about trying to find a working HK system to compare it to, but got only snarky responses about how even HK is junk and to go aftermarket. My mom briefly had an e46 330ci convertible with the HK system and it sounded very good. I doubt this sounds much better than the original, but again, maybe how i have it set up isn't ideal.
FYI:
replaced footwells with the 5.25" HK's
replaced the rear 4" with the trim rings and the 5.25" HK's
retrofitted HK tweets at the rear speakers.
installed HK tweets and Vifa midranges at the door panels.
installed and ran larger power wire to the battery the 300Amp HK amp and wired it thru a HiFi switch (required as the default amp setting was the non" hifi" sound)
what i had always wanted was someone with a stock 318ti HK (or whatever the system above the Nokia/c33 setup was) to listen/compare to. but seems like that has to be extremely rare.

(perhaps the setup/amp i had wanted the 6x9 size rears in order to get better sound) given how it is now, if i really found time to drive the car, i would probably add a basslink to it to stay mostly stockish...

a ton of work, and even at spares prices, not cheap, and overall a bit of a disappointment. when i started the process, everyone advised me to abandon the stock stuff and i should have listened. but i hate how new headunits look relative to the car. And not quite sure where the weak link in the system is, but even if you had all the parts for free, i would probably recommend aftermarket.
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