Head unit/speakers upgrade

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hannanp
Joined: Thu 22 Jul, 2004 08:59
Posts: 53

  Z3 roadster 3.0i

Head unit/speakers upgrade

Post by hannanp »

thinking of changing the stereo in my 2000 z3. Am planning an Alpine head unit and MB Quart components in the front. Has anyone else used the existing bmw amp/xover or just the amp on the head unit. I'm also interested in adding a seperate amp, where's the best location, i assume the boot?
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Bestgear
Joined: Mon 12 Jul, 2004 20:04
Posts: 208

  Z4 roadster 2.5i

Post by Bestgear »

Hi there...

I am also at the same stage, and have a rough plan.

1. Fit amp above CD changer, using the space that is apparently there for the HK optional amp fitted by BMW. Obviously space is tight, but I dont need a hugh amp!. This also preserves boot space.

2. I am also looking at MB quarts for the kick panels and tweeters in the door tops. The door has two speaker locations, of which the tweeter will be in one of them, leaving the other unplugegd.

3. The kick speakers are 130mm mounting as standard, (the installed speakers are actually smaller than that - there are gaps round the outside currently!) so if you want bigger, you can take a jigsaw to make the holes bigger, or mount the speaker grill on the front of the kick panel itself. This looks a bit off in my opinion, (and I want to retain original look) so I would cut the hole bigger. There is a good depth in there so they should be ok.

4. Bass - well, everyone wants it... I am going to build a custom box for the boot and port through to the cabin. This has been done by several US side installers. I have not seen anyone in the uk so far... but there must be some!. I am looking at a single 10" sub... which is enough of an upgrade for now while still retaining boot space.

5. Rear speakers - there are 3" or 4" used in the rears depending on age of car. It is an easy job to replace the rears with 4" speakers. You will have to watch the depth as many are way too deep and hit the seatbelt mounting which is behind it. On my car I fitted a pair of JBL co-axials there. I did have to cut the carpet behind the speaker to get the depth though. This is obviously unseen as its behind the speaker! You can easily use a deeper speake rif you are happy to mount a new grill on the front of the BMW original one - this will probably give you another 10mm depth - perhaps more. Again, it looses the original look.


6. The standard headunit in my car is the rds casette unit. This uses the built in amp to power the door tweeters and the rears. The front kick speakers are powered by an amp that is kitted on the magnet of the nsf kick speaker - quite a surprise when you remove it. This amp is a 40w unit made by Harmon Kardon... but it is still naff! The amp takes its signal from the speaker outputs of th head unit.

I am considering modifying the std head unit to give me pre outs so I can keep the stock look to the car. This should be an easy mod and give a good upgrade with the change of speakers and the addition of a 3 channel amp. (I may or may not retain rears...)

Hope that is a help!

David
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