[BMW DIY Guy]

Hey yall!

The anemic HK audio system in our cars desperately needs to be replaced or upgraded. Even if you are building stages or staying with the stock speakers, this amp upgrade makes a huge difference as it will be tuned to your car, your preferences and music types. Working with the audio engineer in a remote session, he will get everything tuned perfectly and improve even the stock speakers.

Side note, I read bimmertech amps are going up $100 on 9/20, so if you have been on the fence, now is the time, at least before the price increase.

Candidly I also recommend the full speaker upgrades, but if you are only going to do one thing, this is definitely it.

[J-RO]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

Hey yall!

The anemic HK audio system in our cars desperately needs to be replaced or upgraded. Even if you are building stages or staying with the stock speakers, this amp upgrade makes a huge difference as it will be tuned to your car, your preferences and music types. Working with the audio engineer in a remote session, he will get everything tuned perfectly and improve even the stock speakers.

Side note, I read bimmertech amps are going up $100 on 9/20, so if you have been on the fence, now is the time, at least before the price increase.

Candidly I also recommend the full speaker upgrades, but if you are only going to do one thing, this is definitely it.

Well today is 9/20.

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by J-RO

Well today is 9/20.

The price updates this evening.

[curtdragon]

I just started researching audio options so this is helpful. Is it really worth $2k vs say the Match up 8DSP for $1k?

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by curtdragon

I just started researching audio options so this is helpful. Is it really worth $2k vs say the Match up 8DSP for $1k?

I haven't gotten hands on with the Match, so can't make comparisons. The bimmertech amp is now $1799 for most cars, and I can help bring that price down a little.

The other big advantage the bimmertech amp has is the custom tuning session with their audio engineer. Setting up your car for you, speakers and music preferences is a big deal.

[J-RO]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

I haven't gotten hands on with the Match, so can't make comparisons. The bimmertech amp is now $1799 for most cars, and I can help bring that price down a little.

The other big advantage the bimmertech amp has is the custom tuning session with their audio engineer. Setting up your car for you, speakers and music preferences is a big deal.

It was around $1,000 not too long ago.

[Lagunatic]

If I wanted more clarity in audio performance from the stock HK setup, would the amp be a better step up vs the speakers?

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by Lagunatic

If I wanted more clarity in audio performance from the stock HK setup, would the amp be a better step up vs the speakers?

The amp will absolutely help, especially tuned to your car, you, and your music tastes. The full setup is the best of all worlds, but working incrementally with the amp first is a great start.

[BroDoze]

Do we have specs like - stock amp is x watts rms per channel, Bimmertech amp is x watts per channel?

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

Do we have specs like - stock amp is x watts rms per channel, Bimmertech amp is x watts per channel?

Here are the full specs

https://www.bimmer-tech.net/speakers...13AR01NCJ70892

[BroDoze]

“1680W max total output, over three times as much output power as the stock amp“

Dayum. If that’s actually true, I may be ordering the amp too from you!

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

“1680W max total output, over three times as much output power as the stock amp“

Dayum. If that’s actually true, I may be ordering the amp too from you!

Happy to help though sincerely recommend the full system if you have budget. It's not cheap but worth it.

[chris719]

Originally Posted by Lagunatic

If I wanted more clarity in audio performance from the stock HK setup, would the amp be a better step up vs the speakers?

Yes, because the amp is actually the DSP also, and the stock drive units in the HK system are actually not all that bad. Even if some disagree on that point, changing the speakers without the amp will mean you have filters and EQ for the wrong drivers being applied by the stock amplifier.

[Lagunatic]

Originally Posted by chris719

Yes, because the amp is actually the DSP also, and the stock drive units in the HK system are actually not all that bad. Even if some disagree on that point, changing the speakers without the amp will mean you have filters and EQ for the wrong drivers being applied by the stock amplifier.

Thanks! I’ll look to do this first when I can!

[kenkamm]

Originally Posted by curtdragon

I just started researching audio options so this is helpful. Is it really worth $2k vs say the Match up 8DSP for $1k?

I'm a little late to the party with this reply, but you actually need the Match Up 10DSP for this car, not the 8DSP. The 10DSP is like $1300. Add the RAM harness, wiring for connection to the battery with a proper fuse, and a mounting solution, and you are already approaching the price of the Bimmertech setup.

And as BMW DIY Guy noted, the Bimmertech setup comes pre-configured which is really worth something. Setting up these DSP amps is no joke. I found a thread on the M3 forums that pretty much talked me out of trying to do it myself. The extra headache saved by not having to configure one of these things from scratch is well worth a few extra bucks IMO.

[whatthehuck]

Originally Posted by kenkamm

I'm a little late to the party with this reply, but you actually need the Match Up 10DSP for this car, not the 8DSP. The 10DSP is like $1300. Add the RAM harness, wiring for connection to the battery with a proper fuse, and a mounting solution, and you are already approaching the price of the Bimmertech setup.

And as BMW DIY Guy noted, the Bimmertech setup comes pre-configured which is really worth something. Setting up these DSP amps is no joke. I found a thread on the M3 forums that pretty much talked me out of trying to do it myself. The extra headache saved by not having to configure one of these things from scratch is well worth a few extra bucks IMO.

I'm a little confused now because at first I thought it was the Match 8DSP that we needed, then I looked at a few more pictures and it seemed like the Match 10DSP is what everyone is selling with their own sticker on it. But I messaged Audiotech Fischer and just got word back that:

"based on the VIN3 provided, for that BMW M2 with HK it will be the Match UP8DSP and Match PP-BMW1.7RAM harness"

so now I'm confused all over again as to which amp is actually required. I thought I was confident in my research until Audiotech Fischer themselves told me something different

[kenkamm]

When I asked Bimmertech if it was a Match Up 8DSP or 10DSP, their reply was,

"Up8 is for cars that have the HIFi 674/676 system and the Up10 is for those that have the HK 688."

We have the HK obviously.

Additionally, attached is a screen shot from the YouTube video from the DailyDownshift channel. You can clearly see this is the 10DSP.

I think Audiotec Fischer maybe is decoding the VIN improperly and giving you false information.

[whatthehuck]

Turns out that was correct, they were giving wrong info. I went back and did the same thing, looked at a few install walkthroughs and confirmed the amp is the UP10DSP. Also, the wiring harness needed for it is a PP-BMW 1.9RAM-HK. The rep was trying to tell me I needed a MEC analogue card to add to the amp to keep my center channel though? Doesn't sound right, haven't seen that before.

[IanH]

Really helpful to see the detailed info from behind the relabeling. Still sounds link the alpha one option is a decent deal of you just want plug and play.

Think I can ask them to just give me the setting that gets closest to the Harman target? I don't want a system tuned for a specific kind of music...

[kenkamm]

Originally Posted by IanH

Really helpful to see the detailed info from behind the relabeling. Still sounds link the alpha one option is a decent deal of you just want plug and play.

Think I can ask them to just give me the setting that gets closest to the Harman target? I don't want a system tuned for a specific kind of music...

Actually the Match Up 10DSP is already like $1300 and the harness I think is a couple hundred bucks, plus you need the heavy duty wiring and fuse to connect to the battery and ground, plus you need the mounting plate. When you add that all up, you realize Bimmertech isn't really charging all that much of a premium, I actually am starting to think it's a bargain based on what I've learned about how challenging it can be to set one of these up from scratch.

I think I heard in one of the YouTube videos that buying from Bimmertech also gives you access to at least one discussion with their sound engineer, who will help you set up your system to your liking. My understanding is they have already programmed the DSP to have 10 preset profiles as well, no doubt one of which is "flat" or basically a pass-through which likely doesn't change the tonal quality of the original system much if at all, but hopefully does give you the imaging and staging benefit of the time alignment feature of the DSP. Time alignment really is transformative in the sound quality of the system from an imaging and staging perspective.

[kenkamm]

Originally Posted by whatthehuck

[snip]The rep was trying to tell me I needed a MEC analogue card to add to the amp to keep my center channel though? Doesn't sound right, haven't seen that before.

I believe you need the analog card if you want to use the center channel input from the HK system. However, the typical install of the 10DSP does not use that channel as an input. Instead, it derives its own, "smarter" center channel from the left and right channel information, and pipes that out as a new center channel. So that additional analog card is not needed.

[///MoT]

Originally Posted by kenkamm

I think I heard in one of the YouTube videos that buying from Bimmertech also gives you access to at least one discussion with their sound engineer, who will help you set up your system to your liking. My understanding is they have already programmed the DSP to have 10 preset profiles as well, no doubt one of which is "flat" or basically a pass-through which likely doesn't change the tonal quality of the original system much if at all, but hopefully does give you the imaging and staging benefit of the time alignment feature of the DSP. Time alignment really is transformative in the sound quality of the system from an imaging and staging perspective.

I just got the Alpha 1 amp from BimmerTech a few days ago and installed it. It only came with one sound file, which I wasn't happy with (sound preferences of course are subjective). So I downloaded the DSP PC-Tool from Audiotec Fischer's web site, and started learning how to use it to tweak settings to my taste. The amp has 10 "slots" to hold sound profiles, but all of mine were blank except for the first one that had the BimmerTech default file, which was not "flat", but also not what I would consider "sounding good".

I've been trading a few emails with their support, asking questions and getting suggestions. Haven't talked to them over the phone yet for anything, but the emails have been answered within a day of being sent.

If you think you might want to tweak EQ settings, gain settings, etc. I would highly recommend buying a 15 ft. USB-A to USB Mini cable, so you can route it from the amp up to the driver's seat where you can use a laptop/tablet with the DSP PC-Tool app to do your tweaking.

The amp is CRAZY customizable, so everyone should be able to get what they want out of it. Just may take some learning/tweaking to get there.


-Tom