What speakers do I have and what are good replacements ?

[Cement 872]

So I just got the CD changer working again in the E46 and have a great collection of the previous owners music to now listen to ... but the speakers are all rooted. This is a NZ new coupe with the 'Business' audio. This is the front door setup ... hoping somebody can ID the speakers and replacement options (good mid price range not crazy expensive ideally) before I remove the door cards etc.

Will be looking to replace fronts and rears, all poked basically.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Cement

[Eagle 1662]

Looks like you have poverty spec audio like me, no audio option in VIN, 6 speakers with no amp? 

Best found for the direct replacement (front tweeter housing needs a small mod to fit) and not too badly priced were these - https://www.audiodesign.de/mbquart/english/QM165E46BMW.html

Im assuming with no additional amp the factory head deck is going to be crippling him a fair bit.

 

[Cement 872]

Ran the VIN and I have the below (https://www.mdecoder.com/decode/wbabl32040jr45006) ... which i take it is the basic bits. Did you have a source for the MB Quarts in NZ or just ordered from overseas as per most things for our cars ? 😅

[Eagle 1662]

Hi-fi should be the speaker 10 speaker setup with amp. I wouldn't expect all the speakers to be dead unless the amp is faulty. MB Quarts were on ebay and various online shops in US and UK. I havent ordered any myself.

Bavsound do a 8 speaker replacement for hi-fi (all expect the bass speakers on the rear parcel tray) with is all plug and play sized  and correctly ohm'd to the factory amp. Not cheap @ $550 USD.

Ive seen E46 speaker adapters which will allow you to mount std sized mid range speakers (within available space) to front and rear door cards and maybe rear shelf using factory mounting locations. Not sure if they have any fitment issues though or quality of install etc given BMW speaker sizes. The tweeters are 8 ohm and rest of the speakers 2 ohm, most aftermarket speakers are 4 ohms so not ideal for factory amp. Guess you could get away with running 4 ohm speakers instead of 2 ohm if you dont need high volume. 

Are you trying to upgrade the system? or just get it the sound working with the factory deck?   

[Cement 872]

Definitely aint 10 speakers hiding in there (rears in parcel shelf only, fronts are the driver down low in the door and tweeter by the opening handle), I wish there were hah ... when I say dead I mean stuffed, the rears both produce fart bass etc. Only one is not working at all (drivers door midrange).

Feeling like after the cert next week I'll pull things apart a bit to see exactly what is in there, then I can also sort the rear parcel tray which apparently should not be blue

Just looking to get back to a reasonable factory sound which is pleasant to listen to really ... not going for any sound offs or uber hifi.

[Eagle 1662]

Sounds like mine then which is the basic system not hi-fi. No amp in boot?

Front bottom and rear parcel speakers are the same size @ ~166mm 3 screw mounts with the front tweeter being 25mm, weird sizing. Suppose you could always get some ok second hand ones given the amount of E46 parts car around.

 

[Neal 544]

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

[Neal 544]

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.

[Cement 872]

Definitely nothing in the rear near the arm rests, only the two on the parcel shelf.

As far as the amp goes I managed to find this image which may show something useful ?

[Neal 544]

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,.

 

[Sammo 2544]

Same as my old E46 - you can fit 6.5" components in there, the woofers will need to be on the shallow side though - looking at old emails looks like I went with JBL 6500C.

I remember tweeters required a little fiddling but got them in nice in the end.

I had an Ali Express OEM style touchscreen running wireless carplay and bypassed the factory amplifier with a 4x100RMS pioneer running the fronts and then bridged to a small sub in boot.

Worked well - solid quality, volume and functionality.