New deck lack power to the speakers (Sony CDX-S2000 with original E34 speakers)

[Kxer]

Hi everyone, new guy on the forums.

I recently bought a used Sony CDX-S2000 to use in my BMW e34. The problem is that it seems like it really lacks speaker power. I have to turn the volume up to 3/4 to hear it, and to maximum to have a comfortable sound level. At 3/4 the sound is pretty good quality (although very silent), but when turned up it gets really raspy.

As some of you might know the original e34 speakers only take + from the deck, negative is wired from somewhere else. Could the Sony deck have a problem with this?

The Pioneer cassette deck I got with the car has no problems with it what so ever, and the sound is very clear and good considering it still has the original speakers.

Does anyone happend to know how many OHM's the original speakers work on? AfaIk the Sony deck is designed for 4 OHM speakers.

Ken

[gmannino]

Its hard to say how to fix this problem really. Are you stil using your factory amp? You should be because the crossovers are still contained in it and your deck is not capable of powering 10 speakers so I will assume you are.

Sometimes people wire in PAC OEM2 or equivalent premium sound adapters, which is simply not needed in our e34's.

You deck should be wired directly to the speaker leads (which are really the amps 4 inputs) using only the positive wires and all the negative leads should be connected together. YOur remote turn on wire (blue/white) should power the factory turn on wire (white)

THis is the way all e34's should be wired.

Perhaps you have wired one or more of your speakers backward results in a out of phase system. Double check your speaker polarity.

More details will get you a more detailed troubleshooting.

[timandbim]

...THis is the way all e34's should be wired.


hmmm... that seems to be the consensus from everything i read, but i connected my jvc to the 4 positive AND the 4 negative inputs going to the factory amp and it worked waaaaaaaaaay better than when all the negative wires were tied together. i can use the f/b fader on my head unit, too.

i should admit i have some unsolved electrical gremlins, but i don't think the stereo is the cause.

there is a post here somewhere on how to bypass the amplifier in the factory unit and connect directly to the crossovers inside. haven't got around to it yet, but i am looking forward to it. still sounds ok for now through the factory amp, and i have plenty of volume.

[attack eagle]

This is the way all e34's should be wired.


Should read

This is the way all COMMON GROUND headunit e34's shoud be wired.
don't remember if 91 or 92 was changeover year, but 92+ they are no longer common ground heads, and thus are wired positive and negative.

If an aftermarket pioneer head worked fine, and the only thing changed was the head, (with the install remaining the same), I would blame the USED head and try benchtesting it before blaming the install.

[gmannino]

His car is a 1990 e34, it will require all negative leads to be tied together.

EDIT: All e34's with BMW harness adapter can be wired postive to positive and negative to negative.

Here is a pic of what your factory end of the stereo harness should look like.

http://www.roverupgrades.com/images/rover_install35.jpg

Older generation e34's with common ground wiring does not have a single wiring harness. It will be wired with tied negative leads like many older Mercedes Benz, BMW's, and other european cars.

http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Upgrade/Data/Stereo/OldWire_big.jpg

Hope this clears things up! specific questions can be PM'd or emailed to me.

[gmannino]

BTW, if your car does have a harness. Please make it easy on yourself and purchase a wiring harness. A BMW harness from 93-02 will work. I believe those are the total cutoff years for when that harness was in production.

Sometimes the blue/white remote turn on wire is not fed into the aftermarket radio harness. But the harness manufacturer usually includes this wire in the packaging. Reason beings is this lead does not correspond to all european cars particularly Audi.

You want to make sure your blue/white remote turn on wire is connected to the white factory amp turn on lead in the factory radio harness. This will allow your amp to turn on and off by signal from the new aftermarket deck.

[Kxer]

Thank you very much for the replies. I actually think that the amp remote wire isn't connected, so I will have to check that. Sadly I don't have the original BMW audio connector.

Does someone happend to have or know where to find a more detailed description on the factory sound system wiring? The only one I've managed to find is this one: link (http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/upgrade/stereo_wiring.htm), and it isn't very complete.

[gmannino]

Try searching Bimmerforums.com Wiring schematics from e39's and e36's should all be the same or very close.

[timandbim]

the problem could be your grounds... if one of them has been disconnected it screws up the whole series.

when i was doing my install i saw at least three different wiring schematics for a system with a power amp and power antenna. also, some early models (like mine) have the antenna built into the rear glass.

your original stereo, was it a bmw pioneer model or was it aftermarket too?

[Spice Boy]

Sounds like they are phasing problems...

The E34 10 speaker system isnt on ALL E34s and I cant see where he states that he has the 10 speaker system?

My money is on the system being out of phase for some reason or the deck could be at fault....

[Spice Boy]

Sorry, forgot to add... the S2000 is like 3ish years old.. and when new only put out 23w RMS which is crap...

Have you tried a different deck on the same wiring? would eliminate the sony being at fault :)

[gmannino]

I've never seen an e34 that did not have a ten speaker system in the 8 years ive been installing professionally. There are factory provisions for the woofer in the kick panels, mid in the dash and tweeter in the door pod. Although I have heard there are e34's from europe that do not have 10 speaker systems, can anyone confirm this? Maybe Canada too?

Phasing problems could definitely cause output problems. maybe when you rewired the harness for the sony deck, you got a few speakers backward?

[Spice Boy]

Im sorry, Im talking about the European E34 as Im based in the UK.. Im guessing they are all 10 speaker in the US?

[gmannino]

Ya, pretty sure.

[kev535i]

australia had a combo of both - the 10 speaker model and the 6 speaker no amp model like mine - no tweeters

[Kxer]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the wiring between the speakers, as it works fine with my Pioneer cassette deck. (The Pioneer deck isn't factory installed, someone changed it later). I will have to check the wiring to the head unit one more time, as I don't have a ISO connector in my Sony, but some kind on Sony's own connector, so I might have got them out of phase.

I don't have any more decks with the Sony connector, so I can't confirm the deck really is fault free, but I will have to try to find one if I can't get it solved.

AfaIk I have a 10 speaker system, but I might be wrong. I have speakers on both sides of the dash, both front feet compartements and two behind the rear seat. Should there be any more?

[Paul in NZ]

tweeters on the doors ,two in the dash two in the footwells and a pair of two ways on the rear parcel shelf,i think thats how they get ten.

[Ferret]

My 540i setup is a bit weird, it's got 6 speakers in total - 2 in parcel shelf, 2 in the kick panels and then it's got proper dome tweeters in the dash. No amp, but the amps power wiring is in place - despite how crap the switch line is from the headunit. Only supplies like 6 volts as the amp switch on.

Am about to do the whole sub in the ski-hatch thing though - not got around to installing my old kenwood kit after I sold the TDS.

Btw, anyone know the exact size of the parcel shelf speakers? Do you have to remove the seats and shelf to get them out?

While in there I might consider spraying the parcel shelf material back to black - it's turning pink for some reason!

[pingu]

I think that some decks drive both the +ve and -ve wires. This is because, by driving the -ve wire with an "upside down" version of what's being fed to the +ve wire, the end result is as if the stereo is running off 24 volts (instead of 12V), thus allowing more power to the speakers.

If the Sony unit is one which drives the -ve wires, and you haven't connected the -ve wires from the Sony unit to the respective -ve terminals of the speakers, then that might be causing the problem.

[kev535i]

Btw, anyone know the exact size of the parcel shelf speakers? Do you have to remove the seats and shelf to get them out?

While in there I might consider spraying the parcel shelf material back to black - it's turning pink for some reason!

speakers are 5 1/4" you can cet them out without removeing the seat and parcel shelf but you will need a screwdrever with right angle end to get in the corner - i just bent a cheap one

[Ferret]

speakers are 5 1/4" you can cet them out without removeing the seat and parcel shelf but you will need a screwdrever with right angle end to get in the corner - i just bent a cheap one

Eeexcellent smithers!

I shall get some decent 'woofers' in the back end then - and probably re-amp the whole system with my kenwood 800w rig :D

I noticed last time I was under there that there's provision for some 1" tweeters as well - may well fit a set - though they may add too much harshness!