[bugcab]

Hi all,

First post as been busy racking up a couple of thousand miles and being very pleased with my one month old F11 520D but have to report this.

Smiles at first that I ticked the £700 professional speaker and amp option as there is plenty of power with deep rich bass, clear punchy mids, sweet treble and a great soundstage (with fader set one click to rear). Now frowns as as I find myself only noticing the down right annoying distortion/vibration emitted from speakers at a certain pitch.

This rattle is practically all you can hear on a couple of tracks so I popped down to local dealer to demo the problem. The first technician screwed up his face and declared there were probably three speakers blown (I thought more) but insisted their "master technician" should check it over before we replace them. When master technician returned from holiday a week later he was pretty horrified at what he heard stating that it was clearly a problem that needed attention but it should be stripped down to see if it was the speakers or trim.

Three weeks waiting for a loan car and I went back to pick it up today, apparently no problem. The rattle is still there (and getting worse I believe) but, the exact same distortion can be heard on their demo F10 530 with the pro sound system. This is not accepted as a design fault despite the technician acknowledging the tracks play back over ipod and headphones with no distortion.

If anyone has or is thinking of getting the professional audio test it out on the following tracks which make this obvious and unbearable.

Muse - The Resistance - track 11 Exogenesis Symphony part 3.
Massive Attack - Collected - Danny the Dog

[ftorres]

Does not sound good. Pick my F11 up next week all being well. I will let you know if I find the same thing.

Couple of questions

Can you hear it on all tracks (albeit not as pronounced) or just certain tracks?

Does it make any difference how compressed the file is?

[sequal]

I hear some flappering noises coming from the sub woofers under the seat at high volume.

[car_fan]

Originally Posted by sequal

I hear some flappering noises coming from the sub woofers under the seat at high volume.

+ 1 some tracks can cause the distortion you describe. I actually turned down the speed volume, to prevent unintentional bass boost. I may need to adjust my equalizer. The system sounds really good other wise. I think the premium sound (US reference) has more power than the under seat subs can handle.

[yreiser]

I've always had similar problems (certain tracks only) with the L7 system in my E92. While playing these songs, the strange distortions always disappear when turning off the SURROUND option. To me it seems that it's the L7 Surround algorithm which is too slow to handle certain sound combinations.
In my case, the problem was very obvious with the choir intro (and only the intro) of Madonna's "Like A a Prayer". With surround off - no problems for this song. Although I'm not sure if this is the same problem as with the actual L7 system. I put the Madonna Intro (the first 24 seconds here if someone wants to test it.

[sequal]

Originally Posted by car_fan

+ 1 some tracks can cause the distortion you describe. I actually turned down the speed volume, to prevent unintentional bass boost. I may need to adjust my equalizer. The system sounds really good other wise. I think the premium sound (US reference) has more power than the under seat subs can handle.

I agree! I need to ask the dealer. There could be something wrong or it could be normal.

[gorban]

What equalizer settings are you guys using? I have played around a little but haven't found an ideal setting. Would have been nice to be able to save a few different settings. I have set the fader two clicks to the rear to be able to hear the speakers in the back as this creates better "ambience".

[bugcab]

i agree that this is otherwise a fantastic system for the money but do warn all who are looking at speccing to give the dealer demo a good testing as once this starts it really does spoil it.

The distortion occurs on many tracks but always seemingly at the same tone/pitch. I listed the two tracks as they demonstrate it easily. It is not an excess of bass but a resonance/vibration on a higher pitched tone. Piano notes particularly show this. if only I was more musical i could probably describe the key/note most likely to trigger it!

Have not yet tried so will try turning off the equalizer.

Re source/bitstream etc, both myself and BMW technicians have tried all sources from cd, bluetooth, ipod and with various downloads direct from i-tunes etc. but still there. Particularly conspicuos that the problem is not present when played through another source ie. my sennheiser headphones with ipod.

I think this is getting worse as passenger door (drivers to most outside UK) speaker started resonating with phone voice today.

My view is that something has rattled loose and resonates at the pitch.

Going to have to fire off a letter to BMW UK as not at all happy with the explanation "ours makes that terrible noise too so we are not going to fix yours".

[sequal]

Originally Posted by gorban

What equalizer settings are you guys using? I have played around a little but haven't found an ideal setting. Would have been nice to be able to save a few different settings. I have set the fader two clicks to the rear to be able to hear the speakers in the back as this creates better "ambience".

I have it at default