Alpina Beemer – Ready to Rock
I am privileged to spend some of my time meeting new people and their magnificent motors. Sitting in vehicles I would not normally get to see is a rare pleasure. Add in an Audison audio upgrade and a bunch of banging tunes, and I am in heaven!
Such was the privilege I felt when meeting and spending time with Bob Ravenscroft and this magnificent Alpina. Bob has worked in the motor trade and owns three garages that repair, service and MOT-test cars in Fleet, Hampshire. He buys and sells a few cars along the way, and has retained a small collection of cars.
Living in Fleet, Hampshire, Bob has had a varied life and career; however, hard graft has always been a big part of his character. His first job was at the age of 16. He worked for a Honda lawnmower sales and service centre. His role was to get the mowers out on display every day, make sure they remained looking good, and then put them away in the evening.
One day, he was left alone and forced to take on a sales role, which resulted in his first sale. A salesman from the adjoining Honda car dealership observed and reported this to Bob’s boss, so his sales career began.
Things have not always gone smoothly for Bob, and he was forced to leave one job he had held for 17 years with nothing to show. Bob met his wife, Jackie in 1990 and they married in 1992. The move left them scraping around for employment, and he would work multiple jobs across many different industries to keep their heads above water. Things finally turned around when the owner of a garage premises local to him approached him with a view to him taking it over.
A deal was reached, and Bob and Jackie have not looked back. They have continued to work hard in the ensuing years and have built an empire that now funds a good lifestyle.
Bob has always loved music. He grew up with older siblings who listened to a broad range of music, from rock to jazz-funk and soul and then onto soft rock and country. When the New Romantics movement came along, he followed that wave as a statement of his own character.
His commitment to the music of his and Jackie’s youth and beyond is unwavering. They have a classic 1973 Rockola Jukebox in their house. This has not been converted to play MP3s but has been restored to its original condition and is stuffed full of their favourite vinyl singles, mainly from the 70s and 80s. They use this as their weapon of choice when throwing parties, which I think is fantastic. The house also has hi-fi from high-end manufacturers such as Sonus, Tannoy, Arcam and a Linn Sondek!
An avid collector of classic BMWs, Bob is a regular visitor to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He has regularly purchased BMW’s new and has always chosen the Upgraded Audio version. However, at the 2018 Festival of Speed, he came across the Driving Sounds stand. He took a demonstration of a BMW 5-series we had on the stand at that time, which clearly had a big effect on him, as some six years later, when he ordered his Alpina B3, he specified it without an audio upgrade. This shocked the guys at Alpina as he had up-spec’d everything else on the car. His car is one of the last to be made by Alpina, which has now been purchased by BMW. At the time of purchase, they only offered a Harmon Kardon upgrade, and Bob had decided this very special car deserved something out of the ordinary.
Bob was not new to upgraded audio, and as a youth, he had changed the head unit and installed speakers on the rear shelf of his RS 2000. When he purchased a Honda V-Tech, he had a system professionally installed to it which he loved so much that when it became time for another car change, he had the same equipment moved to a BMW 325 touring. He and Jackie loved this car and have kept it.31 years later, and it is now undergoing a total restoration, and the bodywork has been stripped back to bare metal, ready for a repaint.
The Alpina had just 200 miles on the clock when Bob delivered it to Accutek in Winchester. Bob had encountered Accutek before, as they had helped him with audio issues during his normal business. The brief was for all components to be hidden away. Beyond that, Stuart Crombie of Accutek had free reign to choose the equipment.
Stuart is among the nation’s finest installers, and his audio set-ups are legendary. He could assess the sort of sound Bob would enjoy just by speaking with him and plumped for an Audison Prima replacement speaker system driven by an Audison Forza AF M 8.14 bit amplifier. This is a very popular and flexible system. BMW speaker placement is not the best, and an expert of Stuart’s ability is required to get a coherent sound stage out of the car. Fortunately, the factory source unit is very good when compared to the terrible “BMW” speakers!
Stuart told me, “This is a surprisingly simple install. I decided to run the front and rear speakers passively. This was so I could run the under-seat speakers bridged and crossover as low as possible.” Knowing Stuart’s work, I imagine he started with an RTA reading and used the amplifier's built-in tools to even out any EQ discrepancies and correct any phase anomalies. He would then carry out final tweaks by ear.
We were thrilled when Bob offered to take us to a nice location for the photography. He has connections with West Green House, near Hartley Wintney, Hook, Hampshire. They kindly agreed to allow us to photograph the Alpina in front of the house, just about the perfect setting. The journey to and from the house from Bob’s home gave me plenty of time to listen to Bob’s top five. I already knew that the system was set for all-around listening rather than optimised for the driver position, although Bob allowed me to sit in the driver’s seat once parked up so I could check left-right balance, which was perfect, of course!
The first tune Bob played was “Wild West End” by Dire Straits. The track starts with a quiet guitar passage played on a 1930 National Guitar – This is a steel-bodied guitar with a distinctive sound that I immediately recognised. The hi-hat was crystal clear, crisp, and light, while Mark Knopfler’s distinctive vocal was cool as you like, even though it sits fairly low in the mix. His Fender Strat sound on this, the band’s first album, paved his way to greatness, played with fingers rather than a plectrum with lots of “swell” notes achieved with the guitar’s volume control.
We listened to many tracks on that journey, including “Holy Wine” by Robert Finley. Bob streams from an iPhone using Spotify. This is perfectly fine for general listening. However, for this track in particular, when I got back to base, I compared a 16-bit version to a 24-bit 44.1kHz version. The track begins with a clavinet and piano but soon explodes into a riot of instruments supporting his falsetto vocal, which comes with a free bag of gravel!
As the track developed, I began to hear the instruments more clearly. On my first high-res pass, I noted down a Cimbalom (or Dulcimer), Hammond Organ, Tubular Bells, Xylophone, and brass. There are also several guitars, bass and drums, and a chorus of backing vocals. The effect is stunning, and I am pleased to say that the Forza amp competently sorted what could have been a very muddled mid-frequency band.
The system punches well above its weight and replaces BMW cheese with Audison chalk.
Thank you, Bob, for giving up your time and sharing your musical journey with us. I hope you keep listening enthusiastically.
Contact Accutek: 01962 886900
Bob’s Top Five Tunes
Wild West End - Dire Straits
Holy Wine - Robert Finley
I Shoulda Loved Ya - Narada Michael Walden
Colors - Black Pumas
Hotel California - Eagles
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