Upgrade audio for BMW e61

Posted by: Tom-in-Amsterdam on 30 May 2015


Hi, 

 

So I've just bought a nice secondhand bmw 5 series (e61) which I like a lot, but unfortunately has mediocre audio. I'd like to upgrade it in a cost effective manner, say anything between 1000 and 1500 euro's. I listen mostly to classical in my car with the occasional techno / electro but I don't want to optimize for house music though; classical music is my thing (in the car )

 

Do you have any recommendations? 

 

Kr,
Tom

Posted on: 30 May 2015 by Tony Lockhart
All I can recommend is that you visit a local car audio specialist. There are so many combinations of head unit and speakers that I think anyone here would be guessing.
Posted on: 30 May 2015 by Harry

Your E61 can take the Logic7 system (which I have in my E66). This is awesome - for a car installation. No idea of cost to retrofit but as Tony suggests, an auto audio specialist would be a good start point and will probably have a range of options to consider. When I chose my car, comfort seats and Logic7 were the two deal breaking options. But I was in no hurry so was able to wait for the right car.

Posted on: 02 June 2015 by Tom-in-Amsterdam
Originally Posted by Harry:

Your E61 can take the Logic7 system (which I have in my E66). This is awesome 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Apparantly the logic7 is quite hard to build into the car. There is however an equivalent package called the Gladen One DSP that sells for 1500 total. Next up is visiting a few local car audio shops.

 

Posted on: 02 June 2015 by Harry

That sounds like a good plan. All the best with it. 

Posted on: 02 June 2015 by ChrisSU

I'm not sure if this will be possible for you, but try to get a USB input (which many new cars now have as standard). Then if you have a NAS drive, transfer music to a USB stick and just plug it in. I did this with WAV rips from my Unitiserve, and it's by far the best sound quality I can get in the car, which is a 2012 1-Series.