Dashboard speaker?

Hi,

I've just bought a 520dSE with the standard stereo. I thought long and hard about the £400 plus upgrade but decided the basic was probably ok.

However, even with bass on max, it's a little underwhelming and I'm beginning to regret not forking out.

I've noticed a large grille in the middle of the dashboard and thought this was a bass/sub as the door speakers are pretty small but no sound comes out of it.
Does anyone know if this is indeed a speaker and whether it can be enabled or without an upgrade, is it just a blank?

Many thanks,
Ian

More than likely, that speaker is blank if you did not order a system upgrade. It will be expensive to upgrade, and most likely needs to be aftermarket.

I'm not sure about the UK specs for the 5-series, but in the states the standard audio is:
High-fidelity 12-speaker sound system, including 2 subwoofers under the front seats,
and digital 7-channel amplifier with 205 watts of power

The upgraded system is:
Enhanced Premium high-fidelity 16-speaker sound system with Digital Sound Processing (DSP),
2 subwoofers under the front seats and digital 9-channel amplifier with 600 watts of power

In both cases the sub's are mounted under the seats. That said, the grill on the dash is for a speaker, the question is going to be if it's pre-wired on your car or not. Even with the additional speaker you're still dealing with almost 400 watts difference between the standard and premium systems

Originally Posted by jeffhoff

I'm not sure about the UK specs for the 5-series, but in the states the standard audio is:
High-fidelity 12-speaker sound system, including 2 subwoofers under the front seats,
and digital 7-channel amplifier with 205 watts of power

The upgraded system is:
Enhanced Premium high-fidelity 16-speaker sound system with Digital Sound Processing (DSP),
2 subwoofers under the front seats and digital 9-channel amplifier with 600 watts of power

In both cases the sub's are mounted under the seats. That said, the grill on the dash is for a speaker, the question is going to be if it's pre-wired on your car or not. Even with the additional speaker you're still dealing with almost 400 watts difference between the standard and premium systems

The standard audio for non-North American countries is the 6-speaker, 4-channel sound system. The US gets the Hi-Fi system as a standard upgrade.

Thanks. Have just checked the base spec and it should come with 6 speakers but I can only trace 4 (1 in each front door and 1 each behind each rear headrest) unless they have a tweeter and mid/bass side by side and count them separately?

Coincidentally, dealer rang me today to check all ok so I mentioned the middle dash speaker- will get back to me.
Cheers for comments.

Perhaps two speakers underneath the seats functioning as bass.