E92 M3 with Enhanced Premium

The BMW “Enhanced Premium Sound” system

The BMW Enhanced Premium Sound system is BMW’s best offering – it is usually found only in M cars, and replaced the Individual Audio system. It sounds better than the non-Enhanced Premium system – its weakest point is that the sub-bass is lacking. The speakers are much better build quality than in the other systems. Unlike other BMW audio systems, the mid and tweeter have real two-way passive second-order crossovers. The center speaker and the extra set of side speakers are really intended for ambient effects from the “surround” feature, and don’t help with tonality or volume effectively.

Here’s what it includes:

- Front tweeters
- Front midranges
- A center midrange
- Underseat woofers
- Rear midranges
- Rear tweeters
- Side “effects” midranges
- Nine-channel optically-driven processor/amplifier with front/rear/woofer/center/side outputs
- Equalizer and “Surround” settings controlled via the head unit’s menu

The amplifier doesn’t have an analog input – the signal is derived from the MOST fiber-optic network in the car. This is what has made upgrades to this system more difficult than in other systems.

Musicar Certified Sound systems for this vehicle use a MOST-to-analog D/A converter, which provides us with 8 channels of flat, full-range, unprocessed sound, retains front/rear fade, and retains the OEM equalizer function. The “Surround” feature is deleted (thank goodness) and the center and side speakers are no longer supported (nor are they missed). We also upgrade the most important speakers, and replace the amplification. The stock head unit is retained and all functions besides the “Surround” button work just as before. All the new gear is plug-in and bolt-on with zero modifications required, and no vehicle reprogramming needed.