'98 e39 535i - upgrade from factory sounds

[EdwardReynolds 0]

Recently got a '98 e39 535i, and am disappointed with the stock audio system - so time to fix that.

Advice direction and input would be appreciated. Im used to normal cars where you can do what you want and chop and change parts easy - it doesnt seem to be the case with this car as all the electronics are linked up and use special looms, and if im not careful the steering wheel controls and console phone wont work...where im just used to simple RCAs and pos/neg terminals.

My issues are:
-Basically no EQ
-Bass is very muddy
-Treble is very harsh
-Thats all compounded when trying to crank the volume.
-Some times I can hear the volume dropping down suddenly or jumping back up. Seems to happen randomly, no pattern to it I can figure out. The other day when it was quite hot the sub was turning off completely, but i think that in particular was because its a POS and it was hot.

So far I havent done anything, everything is how it was when i brought the car a month ago.
Everything seems stock, bar there is a piece of crap Fusion sub/amp/box all in one sitting in the boot.
Have tried unplugging the sub, but the stock bass is super weak so im leaving that there for the moment. This could be the cause of the volume dropping and jumping back up.

Now for the stock speakers, im not sure whats actually there other then there's 10 of them. Ive hunted about looking for info on what all the speakers are and come up blank.
I think it has:

Front Doors
-1" tweeters
-even smaller tweeters (these dont do much when my ear is next to them, probably wouldn't notice if these didn't exist)
-4" or 5" component
Rear Doors
-1" tweeters
Rear Parcel
-6" woofers
Amp
No idea what this is rated at or how many channels it has.

Fusion sub
You can see the previous owner hacked this onto the amp in one of the pics attached. Green cable are the RCA lines going into the back of the sub, blue is one of the remote wires - I assume this one is for the sub itself as there is another remote wire going under the back seats which i think is for the amp since there is a little knob by the gear stick with no labels on it (can see in one of the attached pics). Pretty sure this is a gain knob but i cant move the dial to be sure.

Head unit
This thing has a goddamn tape deck, no EQ, and the CD stacker sound quality is warm and muddy. Putting a tape to aux adapter into the tape deck gives much better sound quality and i can EQ off my phone - but you have to jam the tape down with something so it contacts correctly inside the tape deck. I want nothing to do with this.

------------

Priority 1
I definitely want a new head unit.
I believe the face plate is double din but the actual unit is a single din, and whatever i end up with needs canbus support so the steering wheel controls work. Ideally i want a big screen on it i can put a reversing camera on, GPS/maps, EQ, regular aux in (**** ipods), and im completely indifferent to CD/DVD or the CD stacker in the boot. Aux in is fine. Bonus if it takes USB and/or SD cards.
Ideally RCA outputs, one dedicated to sub, and one for the speakers. Used a 1-to-2 splitter in my old car to run a set of components in the front and rear of the car and never had an issue with that. Would hope to do the same here.

Suggestions for this would be very welcome, and please point out anything else i need to keep in mind when changing the head unit to a 3rd party unit.

Priority 2
I want to swap out the sub, i have a 10" 400w rms + amp in my old car i want to use - but before i put this in i want to figure out why the volume drops and jumps back up. Any ideas why this would be happening?
Would mount amp for this under parcel tray. Sub already has a box, just need to secure it in the boot.

Priority 3
Upgrade the speakers and amp. I have middling JVC component speakers I installed in my old car which from what I can tell (with no decent EQ or propper aux in) blow these stock speakers away - especially at louder volume.
This will be the last thing I do, probably will be 2 sets of component speakers; big ones on the front doors and rear parcel, with tweeters in front and back doors. Ignore/remove the last set of tiny tweeters. Amp mounted under rear parcel with the sub amp.

[charles28 136]

Hi there,

I have replaced the factory Amp and speakers, but doing this alone doesn't help with the Sound Quality enough, the factory head unit is a lot of the issue.

I use a Parrot MKI9100 device, which takes over and cancels out the factory headunit when its in use. (Bluetooth, USB, etc)

I use DLS Speakers, however Infinity Kappa etc are fine, you need 5.25inch but a model thats no more than 58mm mounting depth if you want to install them into your factory speaker enclosures.

You can replace the headunit no problem, you can buy fascias and wiring adapters on ebay etc.

I didn't go this way as my car has the factory sat nav with NZ maps, also the car with the TV screen is harder to upgrade as you have to run all new wiring.

Ideally you need something like http://www.dynavin.com/products/n6_e39.php

Edited January 21, 2015 by Charles32

[EdwardReynolds 0]

Yeah the head unit/CD stacker is definitely fishy, the sound quality from the tape deck is much better then the stacker. Previous owner said the radio sounds mint too, but ive never bothered to try.

That Dynavin N6 looks like just want im after, other then being 1k NZD for just the headunit even from ebay. Is there somewhere else to get it from, or a similar product thats not going to gouge my eyes out on cost?

[Neal 544]

Another angle / way to tackle.

iPad mini or Samsung nexus tablet as head unit is another way to go as a head unit. Connected to an aptx Bluetooth streamer and stream to some of the newer Bluetooth Amps.

Speaker wise check out sonic or woofersetc on eBay for end of line models. Great way to pick quality sounds for a mid price.

If you have a ski hatch rear seat look at firing a subwoofer though it. You don't need too much power for quality bass.

[aja540i 1906]

I have gone full aftermarket in my 540 and there are a few issues, you might just have to kiss the phone goodbye, and if you are not carefull you will loose the trip computer. I managed to get a sony single din behind the fold down flap above the computer, its a bit of work but i think its worth it, i now have bluetooth phone and music streaming, and can use a nav app on my phone and hear through the stereo. I installed a unit that keeps the steering wheel controls, you just need a headunit with a plug for a wired remote, and the unit from trademe.

I also upgraded the factory speakers to jvc, but kept the tweeters. Mine is a touring so the sub is slightly different but it was a dual voice coil 5" driver in a plastic box, i replaced with a pioneer 8" all in one that fits in the original spot and it is a huge improvement. The wiring is the biggest headache as all the wires go from the headunit, back to the amp, then out to all the speakers, and there will be extra wires to the fronts for the phone. Good luck, its worth the effort.

[EdwardReynolds 0]

Haha yeah, if i can i want to keep the phone. Its the stupidest thing but i love it. We dont even have a land line at our house so that the only 'wired phone' we have.
Does the unit you installed for the wheel controls keep the cruise control as well, or is it just the music control that stays?

Do have the fold down in the back seat, and the sound muffling comes out of the slot already too so thats right where im aiming my sub, thanks for the idea.

[aja540i 1906]

Haha yeah, if i can i want to keep the phone. Its the stupidest thing but i love it. We dont even have a land line at our house so that the only 'wired phone' we have.

Does the unit you installed for the wheel controls keep the cruise control as well, or is it just the music control that stays?

Do have the fold down in the back seat, and the sound muffling comes out of the slot already too so thats right where im aiming my sub, thanks for the idea.

Haha yeah, if i can i want to keep the phone. Its the stupidest thing but i love it. We dont even have a land line at our house so that the only 'wired phone' we have.

Does the unit you installed for the wheel controls keep the cruise control as well, or is it just the music control that stays?

Do have the fold down in the back seat, and the sound muffling comes out of the slot already too so thats right where im aiming my sub, thanks for the idea.

Yeah, the unit i got just has 1 wire that taps into the bus wire from the original loom, and plugs into the headunit, (plus 2 power wires) it takes about 1 minute to program and everything works, if you have the phone button on your wheel it even uses that.

[Neal 544]

Sound jumping around sounds like speed dependent volume setting on the head unit. I noticed mine doing this when I coded the telephone module in my own car. Suspect it can be coded out on your current head unit.

Edit It's the GAL setting on your radio. You can change it via the hu

http://www.bmwsections.com/info/radio-settings.php

In my experience when modifying my tuner for RCA output the factory tuners and cd player has a very average balanced output stage. This is the main source of the loss of clarity. taking the feeds straight after the opamps yields better results but needs a LOC to drop the DC from the signal.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Neal

[EdwardReynolds 0]

Alright, thanks for the info guys, given me something to chew on. Had no clue about the speed dependent volume, ill have a look in my owner manual and see if i can fiddle with it...once i replace the damn lcd strip. Got too many lost pixels to read much at the moment.