$1000 .00 to spend on stereo

[eef48 0]

O/k the wife has conceded that the stereo sounds crap in our 2000 323

I know it has 5.25s front and rear and tweeters in the door pillers.

I get confliting reports of what to do by different salesmen and get the feeling some just want to get rid of old stock or sell me something that is big money or dodgy.

I could go through loads of reveiws and lots of leg work but was wondering if someone here could save me the grief

So I have a Grand to spend so what do I buy?

[Braeden320 0]

A decent Headunit,some decent components for the front and some 6by9s or a good set of 6inchs for the back,

And if you are willing to spend a little bit more grab a four channel amp to run the 2 sets of speakers off.

Speakers sound 100% better amped IMO.

You should get all of that for approx 1k.

Good brands ive had good runs out are Pioneer,Rockford Fosgate,Jvc and Panasonic.

Alpine amps are meant to be very good also.

[jpp 0]

Eww to the 6x9s.

Are you going to do the install, or pay for it?

Basically, you can get good speakers, good headunit and a good amp for $1,000 that will suffice to everyday listening.

I personally like Rockford Fosgate bang for buck at paralell imported.

Check out http://www.nziceforums.co.nz for some tips and pointers.

I'd get a small 2ch amp for the front speakers and wire in the rear speakers to the HU's built-in ampilifer.

[Mark 178]

I concur with JP..... spend your money on a nice headunit and front components.... rear speakers are just for fill.

Factory BMW headunits are, in general, shite. Upgrade your headunit first and see how the stock speakers sound after that, I've done this on my E36 and it sounds 10 times better without a lot of outlay in terms of $$$. If the sound is still not to your liking, go with some nice components up front.

/my 2 cents.

[rogan 7]

If your front are anything like the e46 328 I had a nosey at, 5.25 don't actually fit. The originals are 5.25 but have a custom in built mount to fit into the factory points. You simply can straight swap a normal 5.25 into them. Rainbow make some speakers that will fit directly in and that's what BSW use on bimmerfest in their upgrade packages. Same with the rear, normal 5.25 won't drop in.

How much upgrade the Rainbows give for the price? I have no idea and I understand that they're not cheap. Pauls Audio in Christchurch should be able to tell you over the phone (or email) what models will fit and give you some pricing. http://www.paulsaudio.co.nz/

The headunit swap isn't a straight in/out either unless yours is like my wife's where there's a normal h/u already in there. My mates 328 has an integrated h/u (like my 540) and they're a pain.

To be honest I thing you're gonna have to spend a fair bit more than $1K to get a good upgrade and then the question begs is it important enough to you to be worth doing.

Subwoofer wise, you're gonna need a decent amount of power and a decent amp to get the sound from boot to car - you could easily spent $1K+ on sub and amp alone. I doubt putting 300rms into a sub in the boot would make a huge difference (unless you've got the ski hatch) but I could be totally wrong on that as I've never heard a sub in an e46.

[jochen 4]

I concur with JP..... spend your money on a nice headunit and front components.... rear speakers are just for fill.

Factory BMW headunits are, in general, shite.

I disagree.

the speakers are not that fantastic, but the headunits can be very good quality.

If you have the high-power amp on the headunit, eg: if it is a Becker Business RDS, then the tuner and the CD player are really really good.

The Professional RDS has 2 x radio tuners and is just superb!

That's my 2 Euros worth ;-)

[jochen 4]

O/k the wife has conceded that the stereo sounds crap in our 2000 323

Buy

1. The Becker Professional RDS CD player, or

2. The Blaupunkt Business RDS CD player

They are both better than the original BMW Business RDS tape player (made by Philips). Sell your old radio, and if it's a Kiwi-band radio you'll get another $100 to $200 back for it.

Then add an iPod through an iPod interface, which pretends to be a CD player and can be controled by the stereo

Then change the speakers :-)

[eef48 0]

hmmm all good advise.

Had a look on trade me.there is some good second hand gear on there.there was a nice Phinox Gold amp on there for about $400.00.which I understand is supposed to be at the top of the food chain.Probably way more power than Ill ever need but as an example it was worth about $2000.00 new so Im thinking I should be able to find a good deal if I buy the right gear second hand.I just need to be patient.

[kiwi535 538]

hmmm all good advise.

Had a look on trade me.there is some good second hand gear on there.there was a nice Phinox Gold amp on there for about $400.00.which I understand is supposed to be at the top of the food chain.Probably way more power than Ill ever need but as an example it was worth about $2000.00 new so Im thinking I should be able to find a good deal if I buy the right gear second hand.I just need to be patient.

you also need a plan...the bits and peices may change as things come and go on trademe etc but you need to know what you are trying to build..

I find my original sony headunit and the amp in my old 535 pretty good,but the speakers are past it,as is the old cd stacker in the boot.

[nikj 0]

You can also get a decent Bluetooth Pioneer stereo or Sony for that matter so then you have a built in Hands free kit!

[jpp 0]

IMO, I'd be very weary when buying 2nd hand audio gear. I'd never buy speakers as you don't know what you're getting (Although I've had no problem selling my 2nds). Basically, I'd check out nziceforums.co.nz, they know everything, state what you want etc, and go from there. Taking into account whether you are installing or someone else. (Guys on that forum would even do a cashie as alot are auto sparkies or what have you (Qualified) or just peeps who know what they're doing.

[Five Star 0]

NZice? Try http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/ they know what they're talking about.

But first have a look at this: http://www.fastfoursforumscarclub.com/temp...udios/faq.asp#0

Are you planning on doing it yourself? 2nd hand is fine, but there's the obvious risks of no warranty and fakes (if you buy through trademe).

Try and go for HU with at least 2 preouts, 6.5's components upfront, a 4 channel and a nice SQ sub. 2nd hand you might just be able to do that incl. wiring and making your own subbox.

The 6.5's are just far better for mid-bass. If you can make a mount for them it'll be worth it.

Listen to all the gear before hand in a shop, preferably. Although watch out because different displays have different enclosures, which means they'll sound different to what you'll have in your car. Any left over money get a bit of dynamat extreme in your front doors.

I've gone the 2nd hand route in a BMW before so if you need any tips just ask.

A very, very viable option here is also to go the jaycar route. Their components are great, as are their amps. I haven't heard much on their new sub. Old alpine HU's are also very nice

Good luck and post updates!

[eef48 0]

Its funny you mentioned Jaycar products today as I was reading some mag in a cafe that gave the gear a pretty good review on one of there amps.Being a home electronics type store I thought anything from there would be money wasted on some thing cheap and nasty but I guess im a bit ignorant and shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

We have a store in TGA so Ill check it out.The stereo sort of got pushed back in the priority list as some unexpected bills came along.

[BM WORLD 1283]

tell you what i did in my e34 535i.

i have fitted a old sony deck with a 10cd deck in the boot . used all the original speaker wiring and speakers .

fitted a sub in the boot fires through the ski bag hole . have 2 amps and 1 crossover network , 1 runs just the sub and the 4chanel amp runs the front and rear speakers , the difference in sound from the std head unit output is pretty good.

cut the bass from the front and rears and send it all to the sub .

roll it off at about 150hz for the front and drive the sub at about 60hz .

sounds clean and can go pretty load enough .

the factory speakers are tunned to work pretty good in the stock mounts and chambers .

maybe up grade the tweeters to soft dome ones if they arnt already .

i work in the stereo industry and have installed many stereo systems in my cars over the years , and i have to say this car has the best all round sound i have done .

and it all looks stock , all hinded away except the sub thats mounted through the back seat panel

[Nobimmer 694]

I put Earthquake components in front kick panel, making custom door pods for another set of 6.5 components. The fronts are running of a 400w RMS amp and the rear JVC 6.5's are just running off the headunit. Got another 500w RMS amp running an infiniti sub in ported box and a fusion capacitor between the power source. Cost me just over a grand from a source of mine and it sounds mean.

[Five Star 0]

Flag the rears and I'd be happy

Edit - If you're looking at brand new in your price range jaycar amps and components are the way to go. No doubt. They skip a lot of the middle men so you get a great price on a decent pair of speakers. They're not going to win any SQ competitions, but then those speakers alone would use up most of your budget..

Also, BMW stock systems aren't always bad. With the JBL MS-8 (I believe, I didn't look it up to make sure I had the model number correct) and some small modifications (well, for SQ anyway) some americans using a stock BMW source and speakers won a SQ comp or two.

Edited January 13, 2008 by Five Star

[eef48 0]

Ok.I finally went out and brought a system.

Mad soundz are having there stock take sale at the moment so there were some good bargins to be had.

4x 5.25 sound steam tarantula speakers 1x 12'' soundstream picasso sub plus toxic sound box.1x JVC 400 watt rms into 4 ohm mono amp . 1x panasonic head unit with sub control 3 rca"s out multi colour 4 x 50watt remote control ,ipod ready. Wiring harness and adapter panel all for $1207 .00 plus fitting came to $1450.

So I ended up paying abit more than a grand but hopefully it will sound good.Its been fitted next week so Ill let you know if it was money well spent.

[eef48 0]

Ok.I finally went out and brought a system.

Mad soundz are having there stock take sale at the moment so there were some good bargins to be had.

4x 5.25 sound steam tarantula speakers 1x 12'' soundstream picasso sub plus toxic sound box.1x JVC 400 watt rms into 4 ohm mono amp . 1x panasonic head unit with sub control 3 rca"s out multi colour 4 x 50watt remote control ,ipod ready. Wiring harness and adapter panel all for $1207 .00 plus fitting came to $1450.

So I ended up paying abit more than a grand but hopefully it will sound good.Its been fitted next week so Ill let you know if it was money well spent.

Well I picked up the car and ended up with something a bit different to what was specified.

They couldn't get the soundsteams to fit because the magnets on them were to big in the rear to fit in the lower front door panels and it turned out that the car has 6.5s front and rear which they thought was odd but I don't know.

So they fitted it out with Alpine STE 174Rs which have a thinner profile.

Overall Im really happy with the sound.Thev original nocia tweeters in the door pillars are good.

I think another jvc or fusion amp driving the fronts a bit harder would be good to give the speakers a bit more headroom and make it a bit clearer.