On this page we finally offer our biggest project ever, which was started in 2016! Yes it’s finally out and ready to go!
History:
In 2014 after we opened new bmw amp they started installing in their cars from 2009, we got really surprised by the specs of it! It was crazy nice! Modern CLASS D, They bumped 2x output power for doors , which resulted in 50W per channel and 120W for sub channel. It was amazingly cool to see such huge power in such a small case! Amazing! So I installed (4000$ setup since new amps would work with Cic system only) it in my 7 series 2007 and expected huge WOW! But after driving it for few days things started to look strange:
-power was definitely there, but no matter how powerful it was, sound was muffled sort of and it affected both doors and subs!
-tried all settings, dsp setup etc etc, but original old amp warmth was lost! I simply didn’t enjoy music in my car anymore.
So I decided to test sound system in actual F02 with the same amp from factory, and as expected it sounded the same, unreal plastic sound! Lots of people complained their new cars don’t sound the same as E series and sound was not pleasant anymore!
This is how we decided to build our own amp for newer cars to get that old school warm sound back. If only we knew how much more complex it turned out vs expected. You can ask a question from big guys how come there is no jbl, pioneer, clarion, kicker etc plug and play amps alternatives for bmw??? The answer is simple- fiber optic MOST DSP setup every bmw amp using if we are talking about top hi-fi 677/688 HK option. Yes it’s very complex to decode and control sound properly from head unit, because all signals are coming from head unit MOST hub and then with additional dsp and I2C commands you can control whole thing. In simple words it’s real computer inside the amp, yes real PC with CPU, RAM, ROM, MCU.
We are happy to announce our first, new fiber optic class AB amplifier for E/ F/G series cars. Yes it’s been a while (~7 years) since we started working on this project. It turned out way more complex than we anticipated from the beginning, it took a while just to learn the art of making it sound properly, apart from hardware design and software. Yes, it’s not enough to extract stereo signal from fiber optic interface, we had to really work hard to make it sound BETTER than OEM. If you look around you’ll be surprised there aren’t any true plug and play amplifiers for bmw for a reason, those big names haven’t built anything compatible, so there aren’t any options other than oem. There are few companies around offering fiber optic adapter with separate class D amplifier, which is WORSE than oem and does have glitches, you’ll find lots of info on the forums.
So why we invested a lot in building plug and play bmw amplifier? You probably aware of that fact that bmw e60/90 sounded great, sounded much better than F10/30/01 etc. Lots of people complained their newer car sound system sounds plastic kinda, muffled highs, lack of mid bass, actual bass is also strange. So why is that!?? Why newer system sounds worse?? Well, to answer this question let’s compare older and newer amplifier design and specs:
—-newer generation 2009-2018
-CLASS D highly power efficient 10 channel -serious power (doors) 50Wx7 and 120Wx2 (subs)
-32 (2009-2012) or 64 bit DSP (2012-2018) processor, modern ADC, top of the line everything in terms of digital to analogue conversion. Real HK marvel.
-high power, high efficiency dual voltage converter +-50V
Approximately it should cost around 800+$ just in parts, development cost probably few millions. Dealer price around 1800-2000$
—-older generation 2003-2008 BMW E65/60/90/88 etc
-CLASS AB OLD SCHOOL amplifiers for all doors 7x45W, class H (similar to AB) for subs 2x70W
-32 bit shark DSP from analogue devices, good quality ADC, just standard good stuff
-no voltage converter direct power
-cost around 400-600$ in parts
So as you can see main difference between these amps is CLASS AB vs CLASS D, yes you’re exactly right here. So let’s dig it deeper, if you check any home audio amplifier (receiver) today or 60 years ago you’ll notice they all using class AB technology and NOTHING changed since then!!! Of course some even prefer tube amps, but class AB proved to be reliable high quality sound amplifiers since AB took over tube amps. So why in the world lots of premium car makers chose class D back since 2007?? Well main advantage is power efficiency, meaning it’ll consume less power, therefore it’ll get better gas mileage and better emissions numbers, because in simple words class D doesn’t always generate power and heat, it basically generates power using high frequency generator, so it’s like on/off cycle sort off you can see on the scope, then they use filters to achieve analogue wave you can hear as sound. This does work obviously, BUT anyone with good ears will call it not sounding well, and it doesn’t matter how you adjust EQ, sound will never meet your expectations even being very powerful, you’ll notice that class D sounds strange, it sounds sort of okay before 40-50% volume after that you’ll hear distortion, but it’s not only the issue, problem is you’ll notice that high frequency sounds strange, it’s clean but doesn’t sound clean like your older bmw or any other car of the same era. So how can it be your older car sounds better than new one? Well that’s class D technology trick, it’s powerful and has impressive specs on paper but in reality it sounds plastic I would call it. So after 20019 bmw came back to old school CLASS AB tech in their new cars! You obviously know why, because they realized people aren’t happy with futuristic class D technology. Even Tesla using class AB for doors, they never used class D in any Tesla and we know people are quite happy with sound quality, even though it’s not efficient especially for EV, but Elon musk probably knew people are very demanding in terms of how it sounds!
So what did we do?? Well, as you expect we went back to class AB, we designed our amp from scratch using class AB amplifiers, which basically returned that older type amplifier quality, it used to be there before 2009. On top of that we tuned it using best practices we could find. Our amp is universal and will fit any bmw with fiber optic system except BMW E65/67 (they used different principle getting eq from head unit instead of the amp, so it didn’t worth it, especially e65 sounds good if amp is good stock). So we basically designed it for the cars which we’re using class D from factory which is 2009-2019. Of course we are talking top hi-fi version. Here is a bit more on this topic:
There are several advantages of using a class AB amplifier over a class D amplifier:
Higher sound quality: Class AB amplifiers typically provide higher sound quality than class D amplifiers because they have lower distortion and a wider frequency range, which allows for more accurate and cleaner sound reproduction.
Higher damping factor: Class AB amplifiers have a higher damping factor than class D amplifiers, which means they are better at controlling the movement of the speaker and preventing it from over-excursion. This results in more accurate and controlled bass response.
Faster response time: Class AB amplifiers have a faster response time than class D amplifiers, which means they can better handle sudden and dynamic changes in the audio signal. This results in a more dynamic and lively sound.
Better compatibility with different speaker types: Class AB amplifiers are better suited for driving a wider variety of speaker types, including low-impedance and high-impedance speakers, whereas class D amplifiers may have difficulty driving certain types of speakers.
Overall, while class D amplifiers have the advantage of higher efficiency and smaller size, class AB amplifiers are generally preferred for applications where sound quality and accuracy are the most important factors, such as in car audio systems.