677 Premium hi-fi system vs ZPS Premium Sound Package

Originally Posted by Jim E.

It was $1900 when I oredred it but it could have gone up I guess.

Hey Jim, u have some EQ settings for me? I trust ur experience,

Originally Posted by quackbury

For all of the noobs here....

Jim E. is the resident expert. If you are tryuly interested in great sound, you should probably accept what he says before listening to someone with 14 posts who sat in a car at a dealer and feels he has it nailed.

Any system, no matter how high end, will only sound as good as the source material. If you listen to FM (shudder) or SAT radio, don't expect much delta between the base system and the ZPS / 677. Try comparing them with a CD or a high bit rate / lossless recording. You will be amazed. And the 752 will blow you away.

The 677 and 752 also include equalizers, which give you the unfettered ability to make even a great sound system sound like pure crap. Most of the folks I know who hate their sound system have royally screwed up the EQ. Conventional logic like "use a U-shaped curve" result in notoriously bad results in BMW's. (For example, the 752 in my M3 is a SUPERB system; the only way I can imagine anyone thinking it is dreadful is if they totally missed the EQ settings, and are listening to dreadful source material). Luckily, for almost every model out there, some one has gone through the trouble to use a sound pressure meter and publish the proper EQ settings for a flat response. As with so many other items, "Search" is your friend.

Truer words have never been spoken.

On a serious note, pretty much everything in the quoted post is spot on.

Part of what I do in life is design high-end home theaters. I'm not tooting my own horn but just making a point that I can at the very least judge what good sound should sound like in a particular environment. Cars are particularly harsh environements for acoustics. Glass, hard plastics, leather etc... are not conducive to proper acoustics. If you think about it, a car sound system is basically a quasi headphone setup with a bad acoustical surfaces. It's sort of a double whammy. Therefore, to have a system that can at least partially deal with the negative acoustic effects of a car interior is a huge plus imo. This is the DIRAC part of this sound system which you can read about here: http://www.dirac.se/en/start.aspx

The speakers are made by this company: http://www.lpgmbh.com/en/index.html

For those of you who want to eq. their system, it is not that expensive. Get this cd: http://www.rivesaudio.com/software/softframes.html

And then buy the referenced radio shack SPL meter and follow the instructions. Your goal here is to give you a flat response. Flat does NOT mean ideal. You then tailor it to suit your listening preferences from there.

Here is your quiz of the day: guess what is one of the most expensive parts of a home theater are?

Originally Posted by m3the01

Hey Jim, u have some EQ settings for me? I trust ur experience,

Believe it or not, I actually never saved them. I'll have to run some tests in the future.

hmmm, most expensive parts of home theater.

I will play,

Difficult, ordered accordingly:
1)speakers,
2)expertise,
3)wiring or source.

Originally Posted by m3the01

hmmm, most expensive parts of home theater.

I will play,

Difficult, ordered accordingly:
1)speakers,
2)expertise,
3)wiring or source.

Room acoustical treatment and design.

Originally Posted by Jim E.

It was $1900 when I oredred it but it could have gone up I guess.

Thanks, Jim....I appriciate a good sound system. Im coming from a Lexus LS 400 with a Nakamichi premium sound system. I wanted better but i was pretty much satisified with it. In your opinion is the BMW premium sound on par with or better than the Lexus Nakamichi system? Is the EPP 752 similar to the Audi's Bang & Olufsen's sound system? That sound system is a $6,000 option on the Audi. My brother said Its the best system he has heard in a car bar none.

Originally Posted by TurboBusa

Thanks, Jim....I appriciate a good sound system. Im coming from a Lexus LS 400 with a Nakamichi premium sound system. I wanted better but i was pretty much satisified with it. In your opinion is the BMW premium sound on par with or better than the Lexus Nakamichi system? Is the EPP 752 similar to the Audi's Bang & Olufsen's sound system? That sound system is a $6,000 option on the Audi. My brother said Its the best system he has heard in a car bar none.

Sorry I don't have any experience with the other systems. I have heard the premium sound for the X5 and it is not bad at all.

$6K for the Audi system??? Wow! I'd love to hear that one. Problem is with B&O you tend to way overpay for the name and looks.

Originally Posted by TurboBusa

Thanks, Jim....I appriciate a good sound system. Im coming from a Lexus LS 400 with a Nakamichi premium sound system. I wanted better but i was pretty much satisified with it. In your opinion is the BMW premium sound on par with or better than the Lexus Nakamichi system?

Not even close. The Nakamichi sound systems are one of the best when they came out. It's sad because BMW charges so much for these options, but can't give us a half decent sound system.

Is the EPP 752 similar to the Audi's Bang & Olufsen's sound system? That sound system is a $6,000 option on the Audi. My brother said Its the best system he has heard in a car bar none.

Nope. The B&O one is on a completely different level. Audi offers their Bose system in most models and that, itself, is better than most BMW Prem. Audio systems. The B&O systems, IMO, are only rivaled by Porsche's Burnmester and Jag's B&W systems.

It's funny because BMW is starting to offer B&O in their lineup too.

Originally Posted by AutoUnion

Not even close. The Nakamichi sound systems are one of the best when they came out. It's sad because BMW charges so much for these options, but can't give us a half decent sound system.



Nope. The B&O one is on a completely different level. Audi offers their Bose system in most models and that, itself, is better than most BMW Prem. Audio systems. The B&O systems, IMO, are only rivaled by Porsche's Burnmester and Jag's B&W systems.

It's funny because BMW is starting to offer B&O in their lineup too.

I'm curious how you know that the Audi B&O system is on a completely different level than the BMW Individual Sound system (EPP 752)? Please elaborate on the differences as I'm not saying it's not; I'm just curious about the technical details.

I will tell you that in the "real" audio world, B&O is a small player overall. Some speakers are quite decent, no doubt. Bose is mostly laughable. The saying in the audiophile world is "friends don't let friends buy Bose." That is not to say that they don't make excellent car audio systems. I personally don't play into the name game all that much. And trust me, you pay a lot for those names.

As good as people perceive B&O, they did not make the cut of being in The 25 Ultimate Audiophile Speakers of All Time: http://audiophilereview.com/audiophi...-all-time.html

They did manage to squeeze in their Beolab 8000 as an inductee at number 33 which is a huge compliment in and of itself. B&W is very highly regarded in the audiophile world.

Originally Posted by AutoUnion

Not even close. The Nakamichi sound systems are one of the best when they came out. It's sad because BMW charges so much for these options, but can't give us a half decent sound system.



Nope. The B&O one is on a completely different level. Audi offers their Bose system in most models and that, itself, is better than most BMW Prem. Audio systems. The B&O systems, IMO, are only rivaled by Porsche's Burnmester and Jag's B&W systems.

It's funny because BMW is starting to offer B&O in their lineup too.

And you are correct that BMW is now offering the B&O system in the new F12/F13 six series.

Here is some info:

16 Channel systems with either 12 or 16 speakers. Extendible speaker in the dash as well as the lit up aluminum speaker covers.

Guess who developed the sound acoustics for this system? Dirac.

My 2011 Outback Harmon Kardon sound way better than the 2012 X5 premium sound

Originally Posted by AutoUnion

Not even close. The Nakamichi sound systems are one of the best when they came out.

Well if the BMW Premium system is not even close to the Nakamichi........then I will have to go with the EPP 752 BMW individual sound system. Now Im gonna have to listen to a BMW premium system to make my decesion.

Originally Posted by TurboBusa

Well if the BMW Premium system is not even close to the Nakamichi........then I will have to go with the EPP 752 BMW individual sound system. Now Im gonna have to listen to a BMW premium system to make my decesion.

EPP is the optional sound system in the X5M. You should be able to find one at a local dealer.

Just keep in mind, that it will not be broken in as it takes time for the speakers to loosen up. Bring your best and most familiar cd with you.

Originally Posted by Jim E.

EPP is the optional sound system in the X5M. You should be able to find one at a local dealer.

Originally Posted by m3the01

Update, enhanced premium sound has been added to the order, package 752.

Im trying to do the same thing. How much was the EPP 752? What is the dealer cost & the MSRP?

As a followup to this post, i luv the 752 system.

Please note, if u require satellite radio you must add this on as it is not included with 752. I was under the impression everything from premium audio would be included but i was wrong,

The system is relatively broken in and the sound quality is great,

I was wondering if someone knows if the cd-player is the same or how the dirac system is setup for the x5.

Here is what i found on dirac and enhanced premium audio,
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60...ory-visit.html