XSeries-forum

Just purchased my first BMW and its a E53 3.0 petrol.  Its loaded with goodies but the sound from the stereo is absolute pants.  It is so bad i would have to compare it to a goodmans ancient stereo in a ford escort .  Why build such a great car and put pants in for sound.  the car is in dire need of a good amp and a graffic equaliser.  Has this been done by anyone on the forum as ive done a search but no joy.
I have the pro sat nav unit in the car.  Ive no desire to go thumping down the road , i just want quality sound.    usually the oem speakers are ok its the input that needs to be sorted.    Great forum by the way

The speakers are the weakest link in the x5. Followed by an under powered amp in the bm54 radio module.  The good news is the bm54 can be upgraded with both standard RCA line outputs and if needed a 40watt x 4 amp which improves it a lot.  You can go a long way while retaining 100% oem looks.

Before you start it's helpful to know which sound system is installed. Look in the back doors if there are woofers and mid range in each back door you have a 10 speaker upgraded system already.

Otherwise you have the 6 basic setup.

The question is how much do you want to spend. And are oem looks important.