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Neal

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Everything posted by Neal

  1. I’d double check the connector pins on the quadlock connector into the amp looking for corrosion. It wouldn’t hurt to give them a spay with silicone based electrical spray. The other cause if you have the factory nav version is the tuner connector. It’s actually has connectors in one. The two input connectors clip into tho the main connector and can become unseated by pervious owners. Have a close look at the connector and ensure that they are seated correctly and one of the pins are bent. It could be the same for the head unit connector if you have the basic cd version. I didn’t know either way as I haven’t had that version in an e46. One issue with e46 speakers over time is that they use foam surrounds which get brittle and start falling apart. I don’t think it’s your issue as they normally crackle on bass lines when they are break up. Surrounds can be refoamed but better to replace them at that point.
  2. Mobridge amp/ arrived. Nice compact unit. Amazing that it can deliver 1.1kw RMS has a 10 channel DSP and can replace my previous 2 amp 1 dsp solution yet is about the size of an A5 diary. It easily fits into the factory amp location. BMW version came with AMP connector to Karman Kardon 20 pin patch cable , 2 6awg quick connect power patch leads and a 1 Meter Most fibre patch cable. Patch cable also has RCA out which can be configured as a center channel or sub output along with a remote on wire. I don’t intend to add a subwoofer amp as the unit has a bridged output channel that delivers 400rms into 2 ohms. That’s roughly high 120s DB on the sub so beyond my volume requirements. For the install you just augment the amp power with a 6-4 gauge power feed from the battery and add a similar cable for earth. The unit gets it’s power on signal from the digital Most connection from the IDrive. For my install the current base install uses the Active Sound Design module as a 4 channel amp. It uses the same bracket as the hifi option amp. I added some m5 rivnuts and mounted the Mobridge to the factory bracket. The factory bracket is of a good design and allows passive airflow to the underside of the amp. I’m not expecting the amp to get hot due to its Class D output stages and variable voltage power supply. Basically more output, less heat with these amps. Unlike earlier class D amps the distortion levels are really low. Expecting good results audio quality wise. Also spent a couple of hours twisting the silver tinned wire which will be used to connect the speakers to the amp. In a typical install you’d normally just augment the existing BMW speaker wire, However, I’m building a parallel loom that will utilize spare positions on factory door connectors. Very easy to return everything to stock at later date. Using 18 gauge to door speakers as this is the maximum wire size for the door contact pins. Wire is good for more than 225 watts as 4 ohms so more that enough for the 60rms / 130 peak focal speakers and amp channels Ran out of energy at this point. Going forward break the install in to a series of 1 – 2 hour work streams which I think I can manage to do the install work. It's a bitch getting older 🙂
  3. Noico is another. But you do need to watch the glues used especially when sticking to hot inverted panels and some have an ongoing smell which happened to a colleagues audio build and his car still smells on hot days a couple of years after the install ( can’t remember the brand sorry ) Go over to diymoblieaudio.com and have a look at the CLD reviews. Some people have gone to great lengths to test the stuff. Personally I’d use Dynamat again for the glues used and no issues years after
  4. Orders for hardware arrived Tweeter mounts for inside of rear doors In door speaker connectors MQS pins and sockets for door connectors for new looms ( 0.75mm2 / 18 gauage wire versions ) Underseat woofer plugs with pins to accept 2.5mm /13 gauge wire ( Standard bmw size and massively over specified ) 120 meters of single 0.75mm2 cable ( door speakers ) 40 meters of single 2.5mm2 cable. Was trying to get AVSS wire which is high temp thin walled insulated copper cable made for wiring looms . Settled on some esoteric wire that is oxygen free high grade copper plated in silver. It also runs thin walled teflon so rated to 150c . Ideally headroom for a car where the interior gets hot in the sun. I doubt I’ll be able to hear any difference between silver tinned and copper cable. But not much of a price difference between it and AVSS. 18 uf capacitors These are for bass blockers for tweeters that will be running active . I should have possibly used higher capacitance value for the 4 ohm tweeters which will run from 3500 hz. Should have used a value an octave down from this point , but read some bad advice for using a blocking capacitor that is twice the value of the FS or resonance of the tweeter. Will explain this a bit later when I do the house curves for each speaker.
  5. I remember that the 1.9 litre version that I hired had a square setup with 4x225s back in 1999. Larger engined versions like the 3.0 had a staggered setup. I won a long weekend in one a couple years later. Rear rims should have size stamped on them on the inner spoke area. 7.5 will be 225 8.5 will be 245
  6. Thanks Olaf The es100ks can be got for about $750 per pair at the moment. They jump to 900 -1000 on some of the NZ retailers at times. Not sure why. Focal also have a inside series for BMW as well ,around that $550 mark for components that bolt straight in and use factory connectors. Otherwise there is quite a few drop in solutions from other vendors. Interesting enough underseat woofers replacement seems to be varied in opinions. Some say the drop in replacements aren’t nessacary an upgrade if you have HK drivers as quite efficient and good in midbass region. Really undecided what to do. I tried to model up Stereo Intergity new TM8 but with the f80s shallow enclosure and low seat rail clearance was too marginal. Might be an option for the X3 ? Ideally need to model some driver behaviours based on TS parameters. Sounds like the BMW enclosure and vent into side sill equals a .6 cubic foot leaky sealed enclosure so a good sized area for a 200mm speaker.
  7. Have ordered a Mobridge Most25 8.1.1 Amplifier https://mobridge.us/product/mobridge-most25-amp/ This is a single box solution that contains 9 amplifier channels and DSP. It behaves in the same manner as the BMW Harman Kardon digital amplifier but has substantially more power. It’s also power efficient. Has some really nice features such as 10 channel DSP for time alignment and frequency controls on each amplifier. From an IDrive point of view Mobridge have coded the amplifier to be fully controlled by the IDrive. It supports all audio Sinks so you still get 4 channel PDC in surround, front audio for nav and telephone audio plus usual idrive music options.etc. All the factory sound controls functions work such as fader and equaliser. The two factory audio presets map to Morbridge DSP maps which is handy as I’ll be able to run 2 different Tuning curves so one for driver position and one tune for when passengers in the car. With the amp being MOST based music is fully digital from the idrive system. So Basically DDA in the audio path. Great for reducing system noise. Amp / DSP will be configured in the following way. Power is peak rating at 4 ohms Channel 1&2 Front L / R tweeters 150 watts x2 3500hz to 20;000hz Channel 3&4 Front Door L /R Mid bass 150 watts x2 150/200 hz to 3500hz Channel 5&6 rear door components running passive crossovers 150/200 hz to 20,000 hz Channel 7/8 underseat woofers 300 watts x 2 ( running 8 inch HK 7 ohm speakers so 150 watts expected ) 70-150/200hZ Channel 9 Boot subwoofer 2 ohm 800 watt. 20-70hz
  8. NZ focals es100ks have dropped down in price again My final choice was focals for door components as price dropped. But if they hadn’t option would have been other companies drivers. Have two sets coming in March / April. Once they arrive will sort spacers / adapters.Would love to have a 3D printer at this point, but suspect I’ll use painted MDF in the doors and work out how to get the tweeter fitting in HK mounts.
  9. Unfortunately new 8 inch driver didn’t work out, was too close to seat rail for comfort. Will try HK underseat woofers. FYI the distance between underseat woofer enclosure mounting face and seat rail is approximately 38mm. looks like any conventional speaker replacement limit would be a something that fits with no more than a 12mm spacer without raising the seat. Some people have managed an AD W800 neo driver which has 56mm depth, 18mm spacer , but it sounds like they raise the seat height with spacers on the mounts. Would require Cert process in NZ. Was interesting to compare HK subwoofer enclosure with 8 inch driver to base audio with 6.5 inch driver. Base audio is quite light and flimsy and baffle to side sill vent quite restrictive. HK has more volume, but is substantially stronger. Wouldn’t recommend base audio enclosure with 8 inch driver fitted. Suspect it would vibrate badly as per is added.
  10. Transfers off and it’s not bad. Come to think of it…80s were worse.
  11. Ordered some second hand F3x Harmon Kardon underseat 200mm woofers and enclosures These will replace the base audio woofer enclosures and their 17cm woofer. The base audio woofers sound a bit Bose esk with an overblown 80-90hz bass region and then roll off quickly. Will put in a box so I can revert system to standard as I did with last build. Hk enclosures have larger air volume than base audio although both vent into side sills. Apparently the combination of enclosure plus side sill gives a enclosure equivalent of 0.6 cubic feet ( info from Bill Fitzs on another forum ) The HK woofer size is ideally suited to that size. It’s close to 8 ohms and is run to about 125 watts on factory amp. Going to try and improve on the HK woofers although they do come up well and a number of drop in upgrades actually don’t model as well. Have chosen new after market SQ oriented 8 inch drivers and looking to run these from 55hz to 150-200hz. These will get roughly up to 300 watts so can be driven to mechanical limits with low distortion. The unknown is if I can get the factory grill to fit. Going to be tight fit ! TBA LOL 😀 Also brought F30 HK speaker grills for door midbass and rear tweeters. These look to be far more open than Stock / HiFi option First picture, base audio underseat woofer , Second HK.
  12. You’ll need an aftermarket amp, new speakers or some passive crossovers for the existing and some rewiring of speakers. This will all depend on what system you had within the CCC line ( base audio , hifi or Hk ) , how many of the speakers were active and had dedicated amplifier channels. Also if you have underset woofers. Also with CCC some had fibre optic connections between idrive, amp , combo unit etc. basically nothing straight forward such as adding a aux cable.
  13. Basically it gets to a point where it’s bad enough to require swap out with either a manual box or OEM German auto transmission. Have had two jerkco automatic e36s and both had issues , one at 80,000 (318i )and one at 120,000 (328i) The first one had a rebuild ($3k 20 years back ) and problem came back at 110k , second one made it to beyond 240,000 km with slight 1-2 jerk and gentle acceleration used most f it’s life. Best option for these transmissions is a 40 tonne catiplier bulldozer or a molten furnace.
  14. Neal

    Dealer to avoid perhaps...

    They also do restomod jags like old mkii. Often trading in old jag projects. However , I don’t think I’ve seen any e type projects come up for 10k for quite a few decades
  15. Here’s a picture from one of the pages from the e21 sales brochure. Sports pack option had Recaros , Leather steering wheel and optional LSD. I owned E21 323i in the 1980s and it had the sports pack Goid luck with the sale.
  16. Haven’t moved on speaker choices. Focals es100ks have dropped back down a bit in price and the underseat woofers are back to orginal discounted pricing. Spent some time looking into power cable path all though ironically haven’t sorted Amp choice. Either way it will need either one or two 4 gauge feed’s depending on single multi channel amp or an additional dedicated sub woofer amp. Decided that in boot latch area will be the path and I can reuse e46 power harness I’d made. Found that there is enough room for the cable run behind boot carpet trim and used a curtain wire as a pilot cable. Also checked the positive battery terminal out for feed and will need to use a different terminator due to the design of it. Fuse(S) for first part of amp power will go against side of car and allow enough room for battery replacement when needed.
  17. Not much progress other than sub box ready for carpet and made some brackets to lock sub into place. Went to order speakers last week but the focal K2 es100ks have gone up 50% since Black Friday and are closer to $1k a pair. Were $650. So would be roughly $2.7k for 2 pairs plus underseat woofers. I don’t think the price / performance is there with the focal k2s at new prices so looking at alternatives. Amazing how small 100mm component speakers are at a price premium.
  18. Reduced to $390 . Need to fund my car audio project 😀
  19. The AMP can just be seen behind the CD stacker rack. Just found some old pictures from my build of factory speakers to give you an idea of what you have. First is front door card , second rear parcel shelve , third is the factory speakers , fourth rear mid range , Fifth is BMW verse the PPI's The factory mid bass drivers use a foam surround which rots away. Replacements speakers can't be too deep. Rear deck speaker basket also limits speaker choices as basket tappers. I had to mod mine to fit speakers with larger magnets,.
  20. Speaker wise ran PPI which were ADS brand. Very nice sounding speaker but only available second hand. Options such as focal , jl audio entry morel , cdt audio sound good. Bavsound also drop in and eBay has some overpriced Dayton drop in speakers as well.
  21. 10 channel amp should be left side in the boot next to external vent. Roughly 20 watts x 10 channels. Speakers front doors 2 x 6 inch ( metric equivalent ) plus mid and tweeter mounted by door pull 2x 6inch in rear parcel shelf 2x mid ranges in rear side car area. I did a system in my m3 a number of years back. Ran 5 1/4 passive component speakers front and rear with a sub. Roughly 100x4 rms and 600rms on bass. Time aligned and 1/3rd octave crossover on every channel and tuned for drivers seat. Sounded very good. Front doors do limit mid bass due to shallow door card air space. These e46s really need a sub
  22. Always been temped and no doubt at some stage may get menoporsche.. Great story btw , hope you really enjoy driving it and ownership.
  23. Welcome and sounding like BMW is in your family 😀 Im probably a bit like your father , Got my first BMW as a 21 y/o in 1988 (1981 e21 323i ) and 35 years later have owned 7 models and driven 700,000 kms in them. Last couple have been M cars which are a real hoot to drive, The model range has evolved into something for everyone Hopefully you can find a model that temps you into ownership. Do watch for some of the google says the car is really bad and will cost sqillions to repair and will ultimately end up exploding type posts. Seen may people talk themselves out of ownership as a result and mids out on owning a great car ( eg e46 M3 SMG which was a fantastic car to own )
  24. Neal

    E34 M5 Hillclimb

    Very smooth on the steering wheel. What an awesome sound 😀
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