I received the new Version F last week after a 2 month wait to the San Francisco Bay Area. I did the install myself in about 5 hours... slow and steady as to not mess up my Sept 2021 M3 SR+
I can offer some install observations for other brave DIY souls based on my experience.
- The harness for this version and model is fully plug-and-play. No pins to jump or anything.
- The harness has some interesting choices for cable junction points and lengths. Some are 2x longer than what they need to be and others just barely long enough. Perhaps they have one harness now for different LHD/RHD models or manufacturing country differences?
- All speakers are confirmed to be activated and receiving a signal but you will only be able to tell with your ear directly over the front pillars and rear shelf speakers from the kit.
- The dual DSP mounting bracket has a couple of issues:
- The bracket needs to use the existing bolts that hold the right side of the trunk in place. Don't be like me and only realize you've unbolted the trunk when it starts limping down over you. Do one bolt at a time or get a second pair of hands to hold the trunk in place for this part. Also, don't be like me and create your own panel gap by tightening the trunk down all skewed out of place... it sucks when you think closing the trunk is the absolute last step. Ugh.
- You cannot re-install the right trunk carpet sidewall support without trimming off nearly all of the plastic 90 degree brace molding on one of its arms. This part is probably meant to be discarded but I wasn't happy with that idea so I modified it with an oscillating saw and it continues to support the sidewall cavities that the sub doesn't fill.
- In the end I couldn't fit the carpet trim back in it's original position with the DSPs mounted on the side of the sub behind the carpet wall so I got creative and re-mounted the DSPs on the outside of the trunk carpet wall, permanently exposed and visible. Basically the bracket is upside-down now and resting on the trunk floor and held in place with one of the heavy duty zip ties they supplied. Its actually pretty clean and secure if you don't mind seeing the DSPs in your trunk. All the cables can be neatly tucked out of sight. Here is where the cable lengths are a challenge though.
Overall I am 99% happy with sound improvement. I commute about 100mi a day so music in the car is my savior... just not worth $10k for LR but almost.
The 1% dissatisfaction is because the front and rear surround are on the same channels and cannot be independently adjusted for volume. The rear shelf speakers, which are now surface mount and fairly well blocked by the rear head rests, do not noticeably contribute much to the soundstage, just like those in the front pillars. It definitely seems jenky to install them this way but honestly they are so much easier to install than the previous version under the empty grilles and they don't look that bad. No lives will be changed up front with these but maybe rear passengers will appreciate the subtle, indirect mid-range they provide.
I did have to contact Hansshow for support because the rear shelf speakers would consistently cut out at the 10 min mark from power-on. I was able to get on a WhatsApp video chat with Hansshow and they spent over an hour with me to troubleshoot with a multimeter. We didn't find the issue together but I got enough information to do some more troubleshooting and they offered to send me a new harness and DSP to try in the meantime.
After another hour of troubleshooting on my own, the issue turned out to be the driver's side pillar speaker was shorting out on the body because whoever was on headliner duty that day did not cover the speaker terminals with the insulating foam. After re-positioning the foam to cover the terminals all of the surround speakers appear to be maintaining a signal now. I can't imagine anyone else is going to run into this issue however.
Thanks to everyone who has shared their input, ideas and support to others as I have only lurked on this 81 page thread.