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      03-20-2014, 03:52 PM   #157
Year's_End
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seanq View Post
For a performance car to have an artificially enhanced sound is just plain silly for me. I expect to experience the actual engine sound, if BMW is worried about the sound being too quiet that can easily be solved with some modifications.
If you are OK with artificial sound then great for you, hopefully BMW releases a Ferrari/Mustang/Lambo sound app and you'll be able to choose what you want to hear, but other people have different tastes, and asking to hear the natural engine sound in a 70k+ BMW performance car is not complaining by any measure.

Cheers,
I can entirely sympathize with your reasoning, although your opinion starts to sound childish with the app fallacy. There's a domino effect at play here and the cards are stacked against them in the aural department. For one, they're starting with a muffled F/I engine that doesn't produce the same sharp intake and crisp exhaust notes as its N/A predecessors for obvious reasons. On top of this, they've further insulated the chassis just like they've been doing across the range with sound deadening materials.

Now that the "unwanted" sounds are removed or significantly diminished, they need to amplify the noises that do matter. Many OEMs implement a tube that channels noise into the cockpit (e.g. Mustang), while BMW has chosen to playback the noises through the speakers.

I can understand that the principle is off-putting to enthusiasts as this isn't the "true" source of the noise in the literal sense, but what other options do they have aside from the two outlined above? Remove the sound deadening? Customers will think the car is less "refined" compared to its competition (and let's be honest with ourselves when we think about the majority of the buying demographic in this case). Uncork the engine and give it a less restrictive exhaust? Probably too showy for the M brand's "wolf in sheep's clothing" image. They could revert to an atmos engine and ditch the snails, but then the engine becomes less fuel efficient and torque output lags behind the competition (I'm sure that we couldn't care less, but we have to keep the consumer in mind).

This is really just a passive feature that tries to enhance the experience. If you focus less on what the source is and give the end product a shot, you might come into it with a less jaded opinion. Just my two cents.
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