Speaker replacemt

[632 Regal]

without changing head unit and amp, spending thousands of hours and money, is there any benefit to just replacing the speakers? The sound isnt bad just wondering if it can get any better and I definetly dont want it quiter or garbly with replacements either.

any ideas are hapily encouraged!

:D

[Anton CH.]

To be honest, I think you would have better and cheaper results if you replace the crappy stock HU and add a SUB. If I turn on MediaExpander mode(basically an adaptive equalizer) on my Alpine unit, the stock speakers work very well for low-medium volumes. However, since I do not have a sub they quickly run out of breath.

[Anton CH.]

Also don't forget that you will have this tiny stock amp amplifying a signal for 10 speakers, the results can't be good.

[632 Regal]

someone stole 2 of my speakers!!!

I can only count 8 (retard mode?)

25 watts each for the 4 5.25" isnt that bad, seems you could get better sound from newer ones compared to the old really dry stiff ones. What you think? Im looking for someone to say do it but I really dont think it's worth it...Idonno.

[Anton CH.]

You got 2 tweeters on dorrs, 2 on the dash by the windshield, 2 on the kick panels. And in the back you have 4 (BMW counts them seperate). Its really up to you if you want to take the plunge. Just let us know how it works out.

[darron525]

if you raise the rear speaker grill you will see that its acually a 4.5" and a tweeter in the rear decks. I use to wonder why everyone said 10 speakers and I counted only 8.

2 in the dash
2 in the quarter panell
2 front tweeters
2 rear 4.5 inch
2 rear tweeters


Darron,
93 525i






someone stole 2 of my speakers!!!

I can only count 8 (retard mode?)

25 watts each for the 4 5.25" isnt that bad, seems you could get better sound from newer ones compared to the old really dry stiff ones. What you think? Im looking for someone to say do it but I really dont think it's worth it...Idonno.

[Jon K]

I just did MB Quarts (i know, you said not costing a lot but still..) hooked up to my Alpine head unit... results are unbelievably noticeable.

[632 Regal]

and eliminate the invisible rear tweeter maybe it will have more sound back there, just not sure if I should go with a single midrange in the kick panel or a co-ax (hidden tweeter by leg syndrome). The dash tweeter has definetly seen better relaxation before the rubber surrond stiffened it up and Im sure there are better 1" tweets for the doors than in 94.

I dont want it to be as throbbing as the Can-am but better sound would be a bonus.

Can-am has 2 - 15" wofers in the rear deck with the trunk as a box, 600W rms earthquake amp and a few various speaker locations with 2 ear melting horns in the rear deck pointing at my head. Full on you can barely hear the 468 open headders at full throttle... that stereo causes mutations.

[AZ_Jason_S]

You would be wasting your time and money with the coax's in the rear. Reason, the speakers are crossed over in the factory amp. Depending how you hooked them up, you would be missing your tweeter frequencies(if you hooked them to the old woofer connections) or you would be missing your woofer frequencies(if you hooked them to the old tweeter connections). So, only one speaker on the coax would ever hit.

[Kennan]

As mentioned above, I'd change your headunit for immediate improvement.

With the new headunit, should be a day and night difference. If your still not happy with the sound, look into changing the speakers then.

[Elekta]

OK. I am finally finished with my upgrade, and have hosted the pics on photobucket. Hopefully they will paste in order, and not be too confusing. I had some sizing issues, and didn't get them all the same size..

My car was 100% Euro spec business radio, not phone, alarm or cd ready, so I had that infrastructure to purchase. This transformation has taken almost a year. I bought the changer on ebay for about $160. Got the new rear cover door when I bought the extra rear lenses when I was doing my clears mod, so that was about $50. I had long since bought the US alpine oem radio from ebay for about $70 when I first bought the car. I bought the rear four speaker headliner from Winfred at least a year ago, and I have know idea what that cost.

So with those pieces out of the way (sunk costs) I now invested in the right indy to install my system. My plan was to remain OEM on the outside, but ripped to the **** on the inside. My indy shop rec'd a mobile audio indy that love's bmw's, and right there saved me enormous $$$. My estimate for components and install and mods from Custom Sounds started at $1400, and that was for eclipse gear and high dollar labor.

My amp is planet audio 4 channel 50 or 100 watts, I don't remember...but it's loud enough that my left ear hurts He mounted it under my mechanically operated drivers seat. It sits in the brackets and not on the floor, so it stays safe no matter how the seat is positioned. The speakers (4 up front, and four in the rear headliner) are 2 and 2 mids and tweeters alphasonics with crossovers. My original plan was to to drive the front four with half the power, use the radio amp to drive the back four, and the other half to power a sub, but my guy found a self amped sub called a bazooka, and we went with that, so the four channel amp drives all 8 new speakers. Sweet. He put in on a quick connect and straps (though he could have shortened the cable for my liking) on the sub for easy removal, which I love, cause now with my trailer I am a spring gardening fool making many trips for gravel mulch and all sorts of ****.

The best mod is the EQ, a cadence that he had laying around, used, and near free, this has an aux button that will make an XM or Ipod plug in instantaneous.

It's a beautiful mod, louder than it should be, but I'll hopefully get's some discipline before I go deaf. There is some distortion because now the OEM deck is the weakest link, and he had some trouble eliminating engine noise (see many NR packs wire tied to the amp ) but if I ever have stereo money again, I'll get that Nak head unit, slam it in there, and then the sound will be crystal...but really, compared to what I had...it's more than enough.

Not including the infrastructure purchases over the past year, I spent $1000 incl labor, but had serious customizing. The rear had no backing for the tweeters, so that was custom with wood. All the cabling is new, the cd cable is mod'd to match up to the alpine. All the noise reduction required, because the alpine head unit is a weak link.


Here are the pics:

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0947.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0948.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0768.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0955.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/064aac4c.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0954.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0952.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0767.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0771.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0950.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0769.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0774.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0772.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0956.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0958.jpg

http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/DSCN0790.jpg

[winfred]

imho the pioneer factory head units sound better then the alpines, the pioneer has cooling fins on the back

[Marshy]

over here in the UK, stereos were not standard fit. Ergo, mine came with 4 BMW speakers as standard: in the kick panels in the front and in the shelf at the rear. They're not even coaxial, rather a midrange/bass cone with whizzer cone in the middle. There might have been some BMW tweeters in the dash, but the previous owner swapped those out for JBLs.

Needless to say, swapping the tweeters and kick panel units for some Octane Rs made a huage difference. Rear shelf speakers going the same way soon.

[Incantation]

hmm.. ceiling mounting those rears is a neat idea

[Mobius]

You would be wasting your time and money with the coax's in the rear. Reason, the speakers are crossed over in the factory amp. Depending how you hooked them up, you would be missing your tweeter frequencies(if you hooked them to the old woofer connections) or you would be missing your woofer frequencies(if you hooked them to the old tweeter connections). So, only one speaker on the coax would ever hit.Some coaxial speakers (Infinity Kappas, for example) have seperate terminals for the tweeter and the woofer - and therefore also use an external passive crossover. This could work.

Really, if you're going to replace your speakers, you should replace the factory amp... I know that opens a whole new can of worms, but...

[best535iever]

Holy mother of god! I love those speakers mounted to your roof. Hmmm... that gives me some ideas. Looks great. U kept your factory head unit after all that?

[Elekta]

Holy mother of god! I love those speakers mounted to your roof. Hmmm... that gives me some ideas. Looks great. U kept your factory head unit after all that?

Remember I have a touring, which came oem with rear ceiling speakers. My Euro version did not have the four speaker headliner, so I had to get one from Winfred, and then my indy stereo guy cut in the tweeter grills in my headliner, and added two more speakers.

I have no idea if that can be done in a sedan, but those grills can be purchased independantly from the ETK.

Yes, factory head unit, Pioneer CDXM30, 2mids, 2 tweets up front, 2 mids, 2tweets in back, self amped sub in the boot, powered by a planet audio amp under my driver's seat and adjusted through a cadence eq in the glove box...all new wiring. Not incl the head unit and the CDXM30, it was a $1000.oo all installed with lifetime warranty on the speakers.

This is what I mean by sleeper stock

[best535iever]

Oh. i didnt know that the touring editon came stock w/ speakers in the roof. Ive never seen the inside of one.

It would be kinda different to mount some speakers in my headliner, but probably to much work and not great results. Its probably inpossible to do anyway. Besides, i dont want to decrease the value of my car.

BUT, i do always keep my eyes open for different ideas to be creative and original. Thats what keeps things interesting and the wife nagging!