Free performance upgrade

[speedyg 16]

Just removed all this from the car in the weekend it must weigh quite a lot!

It was a really rough install (by the previous owner), so i thought it would be better taking it all out and starting over.

[Carl 3]

Why do people bother? I have a cd player and 4 stock speakers and that suffices especially given that a car is a terrible place to listen to hi fidelity music.

Meh, does it attract chicks having the dooff dooff??

Edited September 5, 2005 by ///Carl

[speedyg 16]

Before the removal

[Gus 5]

cd player and 4 stock speakers?

must be as awesome as 1994cc

[Jazzbass 1]

I'm with Carl, I have the stock 10 speaker BMW system and its all I'm going to need...

[Carl 3]

cd player and 4 stock speakers?

must be as awesome as 1994cc

I find the stock speakers are surprisingly good for what they are, but you should see my home stereo though

Oh, btw, it's actually 1990cc - but who's counting aye.

Edited September 5, 2005 by ///Carl

[m325i 709]

Why do people bother? I have a cd player and 4 stock speakers and that suffices especially given that a car is a terrible place to listen to hi fidelity music.

Meh, does it attract chicks having the dooff dooff??

Well I will enlighten you.

Some music has low bass. Your 4 speaker factory setup isnt producing anything lower than 35hz.

If you listen to music such as Photek on your set up, you wont even hear half the music.

[E30-323ti 66]

Why do people bother? I have a cd player and 4 stock speakers and that suffices especially given that a car is a terrible place to listen to hi fidelity music.

Meh, does it attract chicks having the dooff dooff??

Well I will enlighten you.

Some music has low bass. Your 4 speaker factory setup isnt producing anything lower than 35hz.

If you listen to music such as Photek on your set up, you wont even hear half the music.

And anything lower than 35hz is prolly drowned out by the road noise & exhaust, unless you "park up" and listen to the dooff dooff.

[m325i 709]

Why do people bother? I have a cd player and 4 stock speakers and that suffices especially given that a car is a terrible place to listen to hi fidelity music.

Meh, does it attract chicks having the dooff dooff??

Well I will enlighten you.

Some music has low bass. Your 4 speaker factory setup isnt producing anything lower than 35hz.

If you listen to music such as Photek on your set up, you wont even hear half the music.

And anything lower than 35hz is prolly drowned out by the road noise & exhaust, unless you "park up" and listen to the dooff dooff.

I must have better hearing than you then.

I dont have a sub, (but i would like one).

My mate has the exact same setup as me except he has a sub (12"), and the sound quality is 100x better. Like I said if you listen to music with a lot of low freq. it makes a HUGE difference.

[bravo 35]

I need my sub, but not so much for the below 35Hz stuff - in some setups, the sub is tuned to around that anyway, so you don't hear below that. Mine is tuned at 30Hz - the bass test on the new maximum bass CD pwns it as it is hitting its workable limit down at 32Hz. Almost trashed the sub first time I listened to it, only fast reaction on the volume control saved it.

So I don't so much agree with the statement of hearing the lower frequencies - but, what I find is that my music is enriched by the addition of bass, and if you are after good sound, then good components and a sub are necessary - It's not always about volume people, clarity and balance is equally important and you can't get that from the stock setup.

I get comments from people all the time riding in my car "Wow I like these sounds - so balanced, not overpowering bass like most people with subs" Yet it also manages to hold onto the respect from those who hunger for the doof doof cos it can crank too.

Stock sounds suck arse.

In fact stock anything sucks arse.

[Gus 5]

I'm with Carl, I have the stock 10 speaker BMW system and its all I'm going to need...

but that aint no e30 setup

heaps of stock bmw ones are good (e36, e38 are decent)

just not the e30 ones

im not just saying having a sub is great, i prefer having decent speakers

[speedyg 16]

I'm not sure what I'll be putting back in yet, a decent cd head unit, the pioneer 6x9s in the back, boston componants in the front but not sure about amps etc.

Who has a picture of 6x9s in the rear of their E30? Do you have them on spacers or have you taken the angle grinder to the car? I'm thinking spacers!

[Carl 3]

Having a stereo in my car is purely for passengers, I like the ambience of the E30

Also, having some fandangled stereo just adds another reason for someone to steal your shizzle.

E: Should say that if you want the best bang for your buck on the stock E30, just get components for the front, tweeters in the top of the door and mid/bass down the bottom, don't worry about the rear end IMO.

Edited September 5, 2005 by ///Carl

[m325i 709]

Having a stereo in my car is purely for passengers, I like the ambience of the E30

Gotta play to your priorities.

I had the uprated stock e30 system (with factory tweaters).

I replaced the factory 5" and tweaters with new speakers, but in the factory holes (so it appears totally stock). Sounds good (with panasonic 4x50), but i need more bass.

Drum n Bass without bass lacks abit.

[Surge 1]

Flog all that nasty Sony gear off and get something decent, Sony's overrated and doesn't produce half of what it claims and by comparison to other brands pricewise there are better purchases to be had (bang for buck)

When I get the funds my audio setup will consist of front componants, tweeters mounted in the factory location (corner of front windows) and an amp to drive the sub. And will use the sub only to take the bass out of the front (crossover) so I can get some more volume - IMO setups where the bass is predominant sounds sh*t, but it numberplate rattling is what your into go for it... I can't beleive how many people think thier audio sounds good when it's all bass and no treble.

I could never own a setup with only rear speakers, Nothing more annoying than someone having to shout in the back and not here anything you say! That and when you go to a concert do you turn away from the soundstage

6x9's only use as such is to provide bass when you don't have a sub because as far speakers go they don't really cut the mustard for doing many specific jobs - and half the time one of the small tweeters is just a piece of silver plastic not attached to anything!

[Gus 5]

surge, front components and an amp works well.......im running it and i really like it, once i fiddled with the amp setup.....can take the sub out for track days and it still sounds decent.

happy enough with sony amp, cant say i have much experience with decent audio though

rear speakers are a pain in ass...running them off the headunit they difficult to set up right, and really dont add much to my listening experience

[bumpstop325 0]

i had flush mounted 6x9's in the rear shelf.

an angle grinder was used to cut the holes big enough. i think that spacers are GHey. they dont look as good as flush ones. but sometimes there are trade offs.

sony running gear i think isnt that much good. but on the flipside the sony head unit esp the aftermarket stuff is where its at. i find sony gear is the simplest to use, plus the setup i had, played just about any damaged cd. the buffer on them is good.

it is also good to hear that pioneer is making their own amps again. i love the pioneer amp. i got 3 of them now.

[petone 0]

I'll admit I've gone overkill on my subs setup. Basically did it as I got the subs cheap and wanted a project. If I did it again I'd just have a decent 10" sub. I couldn't go back to stock speakers and no sub now, it just sounds odd without subs. Also, my car is the only chance I get to listen to music loud and clear.

[Jazzbass 1]

I've yet to hear a decent sounding bass in any car - I've heard $8-10k systems - they just make the car rattle and are still waaay too middy - lacking the real bass definition that musicians expect - cars are just piss poor music cabinets by their very nature and construction.

That's IMO

YMMV

Edited September 6, 2005 by Jazzbass

[bravo 35]

Also think about sound deadening. I was looking around for a separate amp for my sub (instead of bridging 2 channels of my current 4-ch) and a mate suggested I spend about a quarter of the cost of the amp on sound deadening, especially around the front component woofers.

the difference is amazing!! The bass from the front components almost totally made up for the smallish power going to my sub (around 200wrms) and I was able to roll back the gains alittle on the fronts too so my amp doesn't work so hard. It also meant that the little bit of harshness I was experiencing from the high soundstage caused by mounting the tweets in the A-pillar sails was evened out a bit and so was able to leave the crappy head unit equaliser almost on flat rather than trying to ramp up bass and smother treble.

Next step is to throw more sound deadening in boot to help rid the dreaded boot rattle (already have rubber washers on my no. plate lol) and then maybe some in the doors to reduce outside noise entering the cabin. The floors seem to be relatively well padded by BMW, and there's no way I'm going to attempt to pull out the roof headliner just to throw some sound deadening in.

[aliluya 0]

JassBass, you should have had a listen to the sound setup in my last car, it was well balanced/tuned .... but too bad i no long have the car and setup, there is come pics on here if u search for it ...

As for stock stereo, i really love my optional stock 10 speaker hifi system ...

[Jazzbass 1]

Thanks, I would love to hear a decent bass in a car. I agree with the posts saying that bass is the place ! I'm not saying its not possible - just that I haven't yet heard a decent one.

Maybe when we have the Palmy run next month I'll hear a decent bass setup???

[*sic 1]

hmm.

[westy 614]

E36 stereo is crap!thro it as far away as you possibly can.

[tehBMWn00p 2]

I'm not sure what I'll be putting back in yet, a decent cd head unit,  the pioneer 6x9s in the back, boston componants in the front but not sure about amps etc.

Who has a picture of 6x9s in the rear of their E30? Do you have them on spacers or have you taken the angle grinder to the car? I'm thinking spacers!

I have good Pioneer speakers in the front replacing the standard ones I got with the car. Went with the 6x9's because I didn't really want a sub but changed my mind later, hoping to upgrade back speakers at a later stage.

Posted up some pics of my setup: