Dear haters of the AS, I understand personally from your stand that as a BMW owner or enthusiast, you wish to have a choice or have various opinions on the system itself.
Perhaps you may even feel that BMW has diverge from its path of "Ultimate Driving Machine" and fell into the cult of "fake noise" generation.
However, please, I would like to urge you guys to spare a little thought to the hard work that the BMW and M-division Engineers. They try their every means to bring out the best to us and spent so much time to fine tune the little details for the vehicles out on the roads.
For those who question about "noise insulation", and why on earth should BMW drown out the noise from the outside and muffle the noise of the engine as well. Sit down, have a cup of coffee and think about why M-cars were developed in the first place. Under what category does the M5 fall in? I'm not sure if your answer's a Premium luxury sedan that can function as a track vehicle on weekends. But for the latter, it has to under go stringent engineering development in a field called "Noise Vibration Harshness".
In a nutshell, the engineers of this field goes through many hours to fine tune the tactile response for your seat, drive wheel and vibrations of your vehicle; as well as acoustic response for you and your passengers' ears. They are people who spent many years just to learn the art of doing so. And trust me, its one of the hardest department and a silent workhorse in the automotive industry.
The M5, in order to be luxury in its own right, has to be properly insulated from outside noise to a certain extend. Its targeted to customers who want to enjoy comfort as well as greater performance out of an normal F10 5 series. They are people who wishes to pay premium pricing to enjoy both side of the coins.
Indeed, BMW didn't admit to the fact that there is AS, but I guess its all for marketing purpose. For the purist, I guess you people just wish for them to be honest about it and be able to shut it off. Fair enough.
But I hope that the haters out there can just calm down a little and stop making a huge deal out of the matter. As smaller and economical engines hit the roads, we all have to get used to lesser engine audio. Want some hot rod V8 power? Get a different car. Everyone have a choice. If you wish to have a car that pleases you in terms of noise and harshness and produce the same amount of power, get the GTR or any close models that you can think of. Or you can remove the engine insulation at the front of your dashboard all together.
A car design can only please so many people. If it doesn't suit you, you can always check out the store next door. Just don't hate the car for not being suitable to your taste.
And artificial car sound is coming to town, we can't stop it. Even Audi has an audio department making exhaust sounds for the e-tron. Its the future of matters and if its hard to swallow, I wish to give you a pat on the shoulders.