:: Definitive Speaker Thread

[Qube]

Hopefully this thread will become a good baseline for speaker mods. If you see a question unanswered or inaccurate, please chime in! Of course if there are questions, just ask.


What are the stock sizes of speakers?
-- Front kicker: 5.25
-- Front tweeter (pillar):
-- Front dash:
-- Rear deck: 5.25

What are the recommended sizes without extensive mods?
-- Front kicker: 6.5 (up to 4in deep?)
-- Front tweeter (pillar):
-- Front dash:
-- Rear deck: 6.5 (up to 4in deep?)

What's the minimum spec for each speaker to match stock?
Impedance, Max W, Nominal W, Freq Response, Material (possibly)
-- Front kicker:
-- Front tweeter (pillar):
-- Front dash:
-- Rear deck:

What are some good things to know before digging in... eg. some idyosyncracies of kick panel removal...

[Bin_jammin]

Hopefully this thread will become a good baseline for speaker mods. If you see a question unanswered or inaccurate, please chime in! Of course if there are questions, just ask.


What are the stock sizes of speakers?
-- Front kicker: 5.25
-- Front tweeter (pillar):
-- Front dash:
-- Rear deck: 5.25

What are the recommended sizes without extensive mods?
-- Front kicker: 6.5 (up to 4in deep?)
-- Front tweeter (pillar):
-- Front dash:
-- Rear deck: 6.5 (up to 4in deep?)

What's the minimum spec for each speaker to match stock?
Impedance, Max W, Nominal W, Freq Response, Material (possibly)
-- Front kicker:
-- Front tweeter (pillar):
-- Front dash:
-- Rear deck:

What are some good things to know before digging in... eg. some idyosyncracies of kick panel removal...


Interesting thread, I'll have to keep a close eye on this one. I plan on going soup-to-nuts on my audio setup, everything will be gutted. I'll document all of it here for those interested, but it won't be for a couple weeks yet.

[leicesterboy15]

What about the rear speakers in the tourings? Mainly what size they are and how deep people have dared to go!? Also, I've seen pictures of some tourings with the woofer facing down and a tweeter (or mid?) facing forward into the cab. I have never seen or heard of this in a UK car so is this a US only thing? Its definately a good idea!

Good thread by the way, hopefully it will be a nice base for those important bits of info that end up saving you a wad of hard earned and make you go deaf at the same time.

[Dr. evil]

when i put my tweeters in the pillars i used some one inchers about 3/4 in deep and siliconed then in. perfect spot for the highs.

[Qube]

Stock in-dash speakers:


odd size, not available aftermarket.
SOmewhere between a 2" and 3" closer to 2"

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/E34%20front%20dash%20spkr.jpg

pic by q silver.

[Qube]

The stock system consists of a tape deck, CD Changer (optional), amplifier/crossover (a four channel amp, and it is ~20 watts/channel, amplifying ~5 WPC that the head-unit produces. The 10 channels mentioned so frequently are actually just the speaker-level outputs of the passive crossovers (which are inside the factory amp box, arguably not a very good place for them). BMW calling it 10-channel is an example of "peak marketing." ) located behind the carpet on the left corner of the trunk, and 10 speakers:

• Two 5.25" midbass in the front kick panels.
• Two 3/4" tweeters in the door pillars and two 2.5" midrange in the dash.
• Two 5.25" midbass and two 3/4" tweeters in the rear shelf.

[Qube]

Rear shelf:

5.25" 40w x 4ohms
3/4" tweeters 40w x 8ohms

Took them out today. Some idiot screwed the FAR screw (tucked under shelf) angled so took be a fricking 45 minutes to very very slowly vise grip it out.

[Qube]

Rear speaker picture.

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/6606/speakerxa3.jpg (http://img48.imageshack.us/my.php?image=speakerxa3.jpg)

[Qube]

Not definitive without reading THIS link: http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=9398&highlight=front+speaker

[kev535i]

Rear speaker picture.

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/6606/speakerxa3.jpg (http://img48.imageshack.us/my.php?image=speakerxa3.jpg)
that picture reminds me of the day i replaced my rear speakers took all day, had to make a rightangle screwdriver and swore a lot whose idea was it to put those screws under there!

[pundit]

Not definitive without reading THIS link: http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=9398&highlight=front+speaker
I've since made a few changes to my system which include new speakers (mounted in stock locations) a custom built crossover plus new amps and a 'sub' woofer. I'll post details along with some pics soon.

[Qube]

Speaker pics... tweeters not included.

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/203/frontkickercw6.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontkickercw6.jpg)
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3428/rearshelfvm5.jpg (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rearshelfvm5.jpg)

[genphreak]

I don't see how you'll get much improvement.

The stock units aren't bad. More inches in a limited enclosure will only help reduce sensitivity and change the output response for the worse. New drivers look nice but tend to be designed for general installation requirements (not to the e34's tuned enclosures). Agreed you might find slightly better new ones, but getting the tuning done physically is hard to achieve, especially if you change driver size- even if its just the magnets. It's not even very easy if you dodge it up by tuning electronically with the eq settings.

[g7syw]

As mine was fitted with only the basic system :( - I only have the 5.25" drivers on the rear deck, in the kick panels and the tweeters on the dash...

My last car had a Sony CD/MP3 player, 4 x JBL's, 2x200w amp and a 12" sub.

The fitted system (Kenwwod radio/cassette) sounded fine for a stock system but I wanted to play my CD's & MP3's so the Sony head unit went in, it doesn't look too bad but it does have a blue display which is not changeable - oh well I can live with it.

This still sounds quite reasonable but I was still left wanting a bit more bass response, note: I'm 45 and not into the doof doof thump thump noise that makes the windows want to fall out that you can hear for miles around, so as I already had a sub and amp I set about installing these.

The sub is a nice size and sits perfectly in the center of the boot (trunk) - pic at bottom of post - the soundproofing of the boot gives enough deadening to the doof doof effect while still giving me that bit extra I want.

The amp (Boss sound) is two channel (2 x 200w) run in bridged mono, sub mode (st/m & sub/normal modes are switchable) and is hidden away nicely behind the trim on the left wall of the boot. I was able to use the void behind the carpet as the amp fitted in there perfectly with just enough room to allow fixing to the inner bracing steelwork.

I'm currently looking around for a nice set of speakers to replace the stock ones, the JBL's from the last car are too big to fit the stock holes and I'm the sort of person that likes to keep things as neat & tidy and looking stock, as possible - I keep going into all the car audio shops and listening to the different ones they have on display, but have still to find a set that I *really* like the sound of, I don't want ones that "look pretty", have a "good name" or are priced to sell, I want ones I like the sound of, and you should to...

Don't forget, when choosing speakers you not only want/need a good frequency response but also a good sensitivity figure is important. you don't want to be turning up that amp so it's starting to distort just to give you the same volume you would get from a crummy pair of speakers with a better sensitivity figure.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z6/g7syw/boot.jpg

[pundit]

Here's a speaker thread (with pics) I posted a while back...

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=22672