some help with upgrading the standard 2010 6 speaker system

[solid77]

my old 335 has the 10 speaker l7 upgrade, and now i have the standard 6 speaker and it's pretty horrible...

i'm thinking of getting the tweeter mounts (not sure what tweets yet, is this pre-wired already?), and TPLSM3's enclosure with a JL w6.

my big question is, since the car doesn't come with a amp, how hard is it to power the stock system (if i even need to) and the woofer. can i tap into existing wiring easily from the trunk? or do i need to run wires from the stock deck?

thanks.

[mineo77]

you can run a PACC in the rear and one up front. I would rec a sound processor, such as audiocontrol LC6i or similar to sum you inputs and run outputs from this. a much more refined way to do things and more ability to tweak your system as needed

[Technic]

Originally Posted by solid77

my old 335 has the 10 speaker l7 upgrade, and now i have the standard 6 speaker and it's pretty horrible...

i'm thinking of getting the tweeter mounts (not sure what tweets yet, is this pre-wired already?), and TPLSM3's enclosure with a JL w6.

my big question is, since the car doesn't come with a amp, how hard is it to power the stock system (if i even need to) and the woofer. can i tap into existing wiring easily from the trunk? or do i need to run wires from the stock deck?

thanks.

The 6-speaker Stereo system (that's the BMW name) does not have any wiring in the trunk, it is all located in the Quadralock connector in the back of the OEM HU/iDrive CIC.

If the idea is to not run any new wires into the front doors or the rear deck and just reuse the OEM speaker wires there then one solution could be this harness: http://www.installer.com/item/displa....php?it=bt9003

That's a Quadralock male/female, one to one harness which can be modified to be inserted between your OEM HU/iDrive and the OEM audio harness in the dash so no OEM wires will need to be cut. All most modifications, wire cuts, junctions, inputs and outputs to the OEM sound system can be done at this harness.

The only two things that need to be done to the OEM wiring is the transfer of the fiber optic cables and the two mini 12-pin connectors from the OEM Quadralock to this harness. This is 100% reversible.

With the inputs (speakers), outputs (OEM HU audio high level signals and remote) accessible at this harness aftermarket amps and processors can be installed in the trunk by just extending those wires to the trunk and running them back to the dash.

For the OEM underseat woofers replacement it is recommended that new wiring be layout as they are connected in parallel to the door speakers. Once they are disconnected from the front speakers then they can be individually amplified/tuned for better response.

For amplifiers, anyone with a high level max input of at least 10V would work without any LOC.

[solid77]

^^^ ty very helpful..

does anyone know if the door pillar tweeter area near the side view mirrors are pre wired for tweeters? do i just need to buy the OEM mounts and tweets and it's plug and play?

[Technic]

Originally Posted by solid77

^^^ ty very helpful..

does anyone know if the door pillar tweeter area near the side view mirrors are pre wired for tweeters? do i just need to buy the OEM mounts and tweets and it's plug and play?

The only OEM wires that you will find in the door are for the 4" full ranges. All BMW systems use either a cap (HiFi and Top HiFi) or a dedicated crossover circuit (Individual Audio) between the 4" driver and the tweeter. So the tweeter itself has their own wires either with that cap inline or just straight with an end connector to be plugged in into the actual 4" driver or into the crossover.

[solid77]

hmm i really don't feel like ripping apart my car to route wires, what if i just went with the MTX re-q (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-W0LJn8D...-Q.html?tp=428) to hook up a sub, then hooking tweeters straight to the 4" in the door. is this a bad idea? i'm not too familiar with the re-Q system...

[Technic]

Originally Posted by solid77

hmm i really don't feel like ripping apart my car to route wires, what if i just went with the MTX re-q (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-W0LJn8D...-Q.html?tp=428) to hook up a sub, then hooking tweeters straight to the 4" in the door. is this a bad idea? i'm not too familiar with the re-Q system...

I think that you need to establish what you really want to accomplish first and then I could properly recommend a course of action. No matter what you want to do, some disassembly and wiring will be required.

[solid77]

i just want a 10" woofer in the trunk and some mirror pillar tweets, that's about it.

[JimD]

The capacitor in line with the tweeter is partially to protect the tweeter. It cannot handle much low frequency input. The capacitor is a 6 dB per octave filter. You need to do a little work to determine the capacitance you need for the speaker once you have that. The other thing that the capacitor does is improve the quality of sound out the tweeter because it isn't trying to reproduce low frequencies. If you wire the tweeter and woofer in parallel, you definitely want a capacitor on the tweeter and may want to put an inductor on the woofer so that you do not get the impedence so low that the amp is damaged.

You could also just look for a 4 inch coaxial speaker (has a tweeter built in) if this is a bit much. It is not as elegant and may not sound quite as good but is probably better than what you have.

Jim

[solid77]

nope that's not too much, i'm going to order the corner moldings and go with that for the tweets... i'm having the stock deck power the stock speakers + the new tweeters and i only want the amp to power the woofer... (jl 10w6)

Originally Posted by JimD

The capacitor in line with the tweeter is partially to protect the tweeter. It cannot handle much low frequency input. The capacitor is a 6 dB per octave filter. You need to do a little work to determine the capacitance you need for the speaker once you have that. The other thing that the capacitor does is improve the quality of sound out the tweeter because it isn't trying to reproduce low frequencies. If you wire the tweeter and woofer in parallel, you definitely want a capacitor on the tweeter and may want to put an inductor on the woofer so that you do not get the impedence so low that the amp is damaged.

You could also just look for a 4 inch coaxial speaker (has a tweeter built in) if this is a bit much. It is not as elegant and may not sound quite as good but is probably better than what you have.

Jim

[Nicky G]

Back in my *ahem* Toyota Echo a couple cars ago, I had my audio installer wire a little pot in my console I could use to control levels going to my subwoofer amp, so I had granualr control of how much volume was coming out of just the sub. I loved it! Any of you guys have setups that allow this kind of control, and if so, how did you manage it? Again, this was a bit different than just controlling base frequencies via EQ.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by solid77

nope that's not too much, i'm going to order the corner moldings and go with that for the tweets... i'm having the stock deck power the stock speakers + the new tweeters and i only want the amp to power the woofer... (jl 10w6)

You cannot power the tweeters, the mids and the woofers all in parallel with the OEM HU.

You either have to:

- get a 3-way crossover circuit with a total of 4 ohms impedance and then connect all three speakers to it and hope that everything will match
- disconnect the woofers from the front speakers and drive them with a separate amp and then get a tweeter with the proper cap connected in parallel with the mids.
- replace the OEM mids with a coaxial speaker.

[solid77]

do you have anything against coaxial speakers? replacing the door mids seems the easiest route.

how about something like these?
http://www.amazon.com/MB-Quart-DKH11.../dp/B001JT59PM

the car really needs some tweets, so i don't to skip adding them.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by solid77

do you have anything against coaxial speakers? replacing the door mids seems the easiest route.

how about something like these?
http://www.amazon.com/MB-Quart-DKH11.../dp/B001JT59PM

the car really needs some tweets, so i don't to skip adding them.

Just make sure that whatever 4" coaxial speakers that you get are 50mm or less in depth.

What you can also do is get a 4" component set (mids, tweeters and crossover) in 4 ohms, so at least it will match the 4 ohms of the OEM mids and still you can keep them connected to the underseat woofers in parallel as long as you keep the OEM cap in place.

You will need the OEM tweeter pods to mount the tweeters, though.

This is the cheapest 4" component that I know that will fit in your front doors: http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...t_RUA_210.aspx

That should work and sound slightly better than the OEM mid by itself.

[solid77]

i like it, and just mount those crossovers the 2-ways come with inside the doors? i think i saw another thread where someone did something like that. doesn't sound too hard...

[TONYH215]

Originally Posted by Technic

Just make sure that whatever 4" coaxial speakers that you get are 50mm or less in depth.

What you can also do is get a 4" component set (mids, tweeters and crossover) in 4 ohms, so at least it will match the 4 ohms of the OEM mids and still you can keep them connected to the underseat woofers in parallel as long as you keep the OEM cap in place.

You will need the OEM tweeter pods to mount the tweeters, though.

This is the cheapest 4" component that I know that will fit in your front doors: http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...t_RUA_210.aspx

That should work and sound slightly better than the OEM mid by itself.

I'm planning on upgrading my soundsystem as well. I also have the 6 speaker audio, which is my only regret about my car. Do you know the part # for the tweeter pods? I want to keep things as stock and clean as possible. Also, has anyone retrofitted the hifi system to their 1?

[solid77]

Corner door moldings (Left and Right) for HiFi tweeters: P/N 51337199597 and P/N 51337199598 = $34.69 each.

heard unitedbmw sells them for about $40, most dealers charge about $60 each.. (bmw circle gets you 10% off)

Originally Posted by TONYH215

I'm planning on upgrading my soundsystem as well. I also have the 6 speaker audio, which is my only regret about my car. Do you know the part # for the tweeter pods? I want to keep things as stock and clean as possible. Also, has anyone retrofitted the hifi system to their 1?

[solid77]

so for my final list:

1. getting the door moldings for tweets
2. the mbq 2-way component (4ohm x-over + 4" mid & tweets)
3. jl 10w6v2 sub
4. enclosure from TPLSM3

i'm thinking of getting the jl 500/1 v2 amp to power the sub, does anyone think this is overkill? would the 250/1 be better? would i still need the mtx re-q with the JL amps? or just getting (http://www.crutchfield.com/p_136CLR2....html?tp=30466) good enough (remember i'm not running wire from the head unit)?

thanks.

[TONYH215]

Originally Posted by solid77

Corner door moldings (Left and Right) for HiFi tweeters: P/N 51337199597 and P/N 51337199598 = $34.69 each.

heard unitedbmw sells them for about $40, most dealers charge about $60 each.. (bmw circle gets you 10% off)

thanks so much!

[Brissie]

Originally Posted by solid77

so for my final list:

1. getting the door moldings for tweets
2. the mbq 2-way component (4ohm x-over + 4" mid & tweets)
3. jl 10w6v2 sub
4. enclosure from TPLSM3

i'm thinking of getting the jl 500/1 v2 amp to power the sub, does anyone think this is overkill? would the 250/1 be better? would i still need the mtx re-q with the JL amps? or just getting (http://www.crutchfield.com/p_136CLR2....html?tp=30466) good enough (remember i'm not running wire from the head unit)?

thanks.

If your 6 speaker sound system is the same as mine then you will find that your front speakers will be overpowered by the subwoofer unless you power then front speakers with an after market amp. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of bass I have just by replacing the underseat woofers with the earthquake SWS and powered them with 150w each. I think 2 of the earthquake's give about the same amount of bass as a decent single 10" sub in a small sealed box.