E39 Stereo questions

[j.ingledew 0]

I have looked through heaps of threads and haven't found anything that I can really understand so I was wondering if someone could give me a 'For Dummies' guide on a few things.

First off, I want to change my rear speakers to 6x9s, the ones in the parcel tray. I know of a conversion kit for the speaker mounts for an E36 but I am unsure if I can get the same thing for the E39. I also want know know if I can use my dinosaur Fusion Powerplant FP12044 amplifier to amplify the factory speakers in the front and the 6x9s I plan on installing still using the factory head unit monitor thing.

I have seen in other threads that behind my backseats is a metal backing in some BMWs, does my 99 E39 have this? I haven't had an oppurtunity to check, and if it does have it, how do I punch out the ski hole to port a sub woofer into the boot? I don't plan on hiding people in my boot so getting a bit of noise out of there for the stereo will be all good.

Lastly I have two questions about the monitor. 1. How, in idiot terms, do I run a wire into my boot so I can play videos of my iPod to it, and 2. How do I get it to play when the car is moving and is that legal to do? Of course if it isn't legal I just wont do it, I thought it may be a WOF issue.

[BM WORLD 1283]

rear parcel shelf speaker box is a small sub box with 2 or 4 5" subs in side it driven off a seperate chanel in the 10 chanel map in the boot .

the box is mounted under the parcel tray with small hole for it to breath back up into the cabin .

better to just diconect it and wire in a large amp with a seperate 10" or 12" sub box in the boot with the old box removed so the base can come up through the hole .

and just upgrade the door speakers if you need to afterwards , but i think you will find them fine if they have not been damaged etc

[M5V8 337]

Hey Jake,

I've replaced all the speakers in my e39 whilst it's a bit of a job it's not impossible.

There are various different speaker configurations for the e39 depending on the year and stereo optioned on your particular car.

This would be the first place to start; to understand what can fit by understanding what you already have.

Firstly - I used the DICE ipod interface kit to allow my Ipod to play through the factory headunit, this also allows for steering wheel control. Excellent system. Comes with everything required to plug n play replacement for your CD player in the boot, the ipod hides in the glovebox out of sight. DICE can also do video. Video in motion is another mod that various users here can help with.

My car had the M-audio system 6 speakers in the front doors 4 in the parcel shelf and 2 subs in the boot.

These consisted of independent tweeters and tweeters mounted over 5" woofers.

I replaced all the cabin speakers with 6.5" Precision Power speakers and tweeters, using the factory x-overs and wiring with just some custom wood spacers to allow room in the front doors and rear shelf. I reused the factory mid tweeters as their peculiar sizing made it impossible to replace, but repositioned them for better staging.

There's plenty of room to work with, I found some fella online had 7.5" woofers in the front doors with no door card mods.

Fronts:

there's good videos on youtube to show how to dismantle an e39 and also shows how big speakers fit in the front doors without modifying the door cards. look for videos from bavsound.

http://retro.nextmill.net/bmw540/fronts.htm

Rears:

6x9's could work, but I'd stay away from them if you haven't bought them already.

Yes there are conversion kits available (bavariansoundwerks) however their drivers are only 5" and for the same money I was able to get 6.5" drivers, a huge improvement in midrange over the 5's.

6X9's are not a great speaker design and you would get better sound from proper component speakers. The speakers sit in the rear shelf in my car so I needed to space them upwards to clear the larger speaker baskets. BMW speakers use a standard round cone so making adaptors for larger speakers isn't hard.

http://retro.nextmill.net/bmw540/rears.htm

Subs - if your model has fold down seats or a ski port then it's pretty simple, but since bass is directional it wont make a massive difference if you don't. Again check what you have, what type of music you like and how much boot space you are willing to loose before investing in some subs.

I've retained the factory subs for when I need boot space but also have 2x10" infinity kappa subs in a custom ported box, it give much deeper, richer sound than the free-air factory items.

IMO- just removing the ski port would be sufficent, don't cut into the rear firewall or parelshelf as this would degrade the car's structural integrity

Edited March 8, 2011 by M5V8

[j.ingledew 0]

My current sound set up as far as I can tell from looking is something unknown with the parcel tray but factory so it may be what you have said Brent, components and tweeters in each of the back doors and the same in the front doors with a monitor and tape player in the front with a cd stacker in the boot.

I am loving the sound of the DICE unit as at the moment I am using one of those things you put into a tape deck and plug your iPod into. The current stereo is amazing at low - mid volume for the highs and the mids but lacks the thump that I want, and I am willing to sacrifice a lot of boot space for that, my Subaru Legacy wagon had so much ICE that I had no back seats, of course in this case I want something a lot more comfortable. Will amplifying the stock components prove to be worth while to get more clarity at high volumes as the begin to distort or should I bite the bullet and change them?

The subs in the parcel tray is something I have never heard of in any car, I have to admit I am quite impressed with that one.

Can someone link me to a DICE unit that is for sale or sell me one ?

[BM WORLD 1283]

yes a larger amp driving the door speakers should help but dont to big , but you will have to get seperate crossovers (or amps with built in crossovers etc) so as not to send bass down to the tweeter and mids etc , as the factory amp has that all built in.

here's a pic of the sub and the door speaker pods etc

Edited March 8, 2011 by Brent HARTGE535i

[M5V8 337]

nice pic's brent.

As you can see BMW use plastic molded speaker enclosures to artifically improve the performance of the speakers.

I followed basically this path:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showt...d.php?t=1251413

[j.ingledew 0]

Woah that is quite intense, there is really like NO basss coming from those sub woofers though? As for the door speakers they look a lot bigger than I expected, there should be more than enough room to mount some 6.5"s but those tweeters look a bit difficult to work with and I want to keep everything looking factory :/ I have a full set of Alpine Type R crossovers so that shouldn't be a worry, do I need to run any extra wires for the tweeters though?

[M5V8 337]

nope,... if you stay with the factory x-overs and amp you don't need. See the green wire from the tweeters in brett's pic you just wire your tweeters into that, I used the factory sail position, just a bit of electrical tape to keep the new larger tweeter in the OEM foam mount.

I didn't use aftermarket x-overs as the factory amp made sufficent power for me. I think you will find the same with yours, improving the sensitivity of the speakers (ie - quality) will improve the sound enough without having to boost the signal with changing the AMP.

now I'm wishing I took some pics of my build!

If you are replacing the factory AMP you will need to use the aftermarket x-overs.

You could leave the factory amp and x-overs for the cabin speakers and just add an AMP for any additional subs would probably be the way to go as I assume you will be going for larger subs.

Edited March 8, 2011 by M5V8

[j.ingledew 0]

Yeah larger subs are definitely on the cards, either a 15in SPL single or twin 12"s. I will have to try out some new speakers with the current amp and see how I go with that

Extra question, thoughts on the 'DYNATRON ALARM D7800 5 STAR'

http://www.hyper.co.nz/drive/security/dyna...id/6841/product

Or any other recommendations for alarms?

[M5V8 337]

I have a dynatron on my GTR. Works ok. really just needed a 5 star alarm for insurance.

Can't really compare as I don't have another. My e39 has a factory alarm that works well.

[rogan 7]

First off, I want to change my rear speakers to 6x9s, the ones in the parcel tray.

Why would you want to do this? The factory pods are 5.25" and if you replace them with a decent aftermarket 5.25, deaden the pod and fill with a bit of dacron you'll be surprised at how good they sound. I certainly wouldn't put 6.5 back there cos the factory pod doesn't have enough volume to be a decent enclosure for them (not unless the 6.5s are designed for a very small enclosure). With subs in the boot, you'll have plenty of bass so no need for the bass reinforcement that 6x9s offer. In a nutshell you'll get no benefit fitting 6x9 over a 5.25 and the 5.25s will be much simpler to fit.

[hotwire 352]

Yeah larger subs are definitely on the cards, either a 15in SPL single or twin 12"s. I will have to try out some new speakers with the current amp and see how I go with that

Extra question, thoughts on the 'DYNATRON ALARM D7800 5 STAR'

http://www.hyper.co.nz/drive/security/dyna...id/6841/product

Or any other recommendations for alarms?

No real point on 5 star alarm.

The car is factory immobilised & cannot be started without the correct key. This makes additional immobilisation surperfluous.

The Euro (NZ) spec cars also come with factory alarm, the Jap spec, of which I assume yours is one don't, at least most don't.

If you want an alarm - the best option would be Map upgrade - where it integrates into the key remote.

Dynatron & Mongoose offer these.

[j.ingledew 0]

No real point on 5 star alarm.

The car is factory immobilised & cannot be started without the correct key. This makes additional immobilisation surperfluous.

The Euro (NZ) spec cars also come with factory alarm, the Jap spec, of which I assume yours is one don't, at least most don't.

If you want an alarm - the best option would be Map upgrade - where it integrates into the key remote.

Dynatron & Mongoose offer these.

That makes a bit more sense, I haven't really looked into it, I was just kind of going on insurance purposes. Hyper are doing a Mongoose 4 Star and tints for 600 so I am pretty keen on that one.

[j.ingledew 0]

Why would you want to do this? The factory pods are 5.25" and if you replace them with a decent aftermarket 5.25, deaden the pod and fill with a bit of dacron you'll be surprised at how good they sound. I certainly wouldn't put 6.5 back there cos the factory pod doesn't have enough volume to be a decent enclosure for them (not unless the 6.5s are designed for a very small enclosure). With subs in the boot, you'll have plenty of bass so no need for the bass reinforcement that 6x9s offer. In a nutshell you'll get no benefit fitting 6x9 over a 5.25 and the 5.25s will be much simpler to fit.

Because I already have a pair of Digital Designs 6x9s that I bought for my last car and held on to when I sold it, I was thinking about putting them into the bimmer as an in between while I plan out my sub setup

[rogan 7]

What about 6x9 in the front doors instead?

[M5V8 337]

There would be room, but depends on how it's wired.

If you could remove the tweeter from the 6x9 and then place that in the factory sail position and just the woofer in the door it would be okay i reckon.

If you can't keep the tweeter in the sail position you will loose too much staging and wouldn't be worth in IMO.

[j.ingledew 0]

That is actually quite a good idea but M5V8 is right, don't want to lose the sound stage.

[M5V8 337]

Why would you want to do this? The factory pods are 5.25" and if you replace them with a decent aftermarket 5.25, deaden the pod and fill with a bit of dacron you'll be surprised at how good they sound. I certainly wouldn't put 6.5 back there cos the factory pod doesn't have enough volume to be a decent enclosure for them (not unless the 6.5s are designed for a very small enclosure). With subs in the boot, you'll have plenty of bass so no need for the bass reinforcement that 6x9s offer. In a nutshell you'll get no benefit fitting 6x9 over a 5.25 and the 5.25s will be much simpler to fit.

I have thrown 6.5"s in my rear, I just added a customwood spacer and screwed to the top of the plastic factory enclosure.

Sounds great. Rears should be just "fill" speakers anyway.

You can just see them in the back window here, hardly noticeable since I painted the customwood matt black to match the interior. Bonus - no cutting of factory anything.

Edited March 9, 2011 by M5V8

[rogan 7]

Personally I don't like seeing speakers on the parcel shelf and having the 5.25 in the factory pods hidden behind the factory grills worked for me. I was just running rears for quite a while and they sounded pretty decent on their own.

Agree that 6x9 coaxials wouldn't work that well in the front doors. I had mine bandpassed 63-1000Hz. Sold the e39 ages back but still have the door cards with custom 6x9 pods if anyone was interested in buying them

[j.ingledew 0]

Personally I don't like seeing speakers on the parcel shelf and having the 5.25 in the factory pods hidden behind the factory grills worked for me. I was just running rears for quite a while and they sounded pretty decent on their own.

Agree that 6x9 coaxials wouldn't work that well in the front doors. I had mine bandpassed 63-1000Hz. Sold the e39 ages back but still have the door cards with custom 6x9 pods if anyone was interested in buying them

How much? Pics?

They would be pretty average in the front but I would like them in the back, just for the wank factor.

[rogan 7]

They are pods specifically build for the e39 front door cards. No way you could adapt them for the rear. $150 including the door cards (door cards are black leather on black plastic and have memory driver seat buttons)

Edited March 10, 2011 by rogan

[j.ingledew 0]

I think I might just make my own for the rear eh.

[M5V8 337]

Personally I don't like seeing speakers on the parcel shelf and having the 5.25 in the factory pods hidden behind the factory grills worked for me. I was just running rears for quite a while and they sounded pretty decent on their own.

Agree that 6x9 coaxials wouldn't work that well in the front doors. I had mine bandpassed 63-1000Hz. Sold the e39 ages back but still have the door cards with custom 6x9 pods if anyone was interested in buying them

You don't like seeing speakers in the parcel shelf larger than the factory ones, yet you stuck those monstrosities in the front doors?

[rogan 7]

lol, a bit of an irony I admit. I try to keep things stealth, and this isn't hard with rear fill; with the front stage function goes above form. I always intended to do a v2, recessiing them a bit further into the doors and playing with the angling but life got in the way, and those front pods were never going to be anything but monstrous considering the baffle needs of the midbasses.

[j.ingledew 0]

Why did you put them in the front doors instead of the back? I would only put 6x9s in the back because really you wouldn't get that much audio gain out of them so I would put them in the back as more of a show piece.