Speakers - Educate me...
 

Jump to my post dated today, having a engine rpm noise issue...


I am looking for new speakers for my factory 10 speaker system, and I want recommendations. I am looking to keep the speaker setups as factory as possible. I will not (I repeat, not ) be "hacking up" the door panels, kickpanels, or rear speaker mounts to put in monster speakers.

I really want your suggestions, .org members...


However,

I have a few rules;

#1 - I am an old(ish) man. This means I am not looking for a 24" subs in the hatch with 4 1000w amps... Actually, I am not looking for any subs at all. ( I like my ear drums intact, thank you very much...)

#2 - I am not a lottery winner. This means that $150 per speaker for a 10 speaker systme is not an option... I would like nice, full, rich sound, but don't want to go into debt to listen to good music. That is my goal. (Cost is revelent.)

#3 - Ease of installation. I am quite handy at making silk purses out of sow's ears, but I am not looking to re-invent the wheel either...

#4 - I would like the finished result to resemble OE. I want my audio system to appear as if it came from the "MotherLand", not like it came from "JDM Land".

I would appreciate (no, I really want) your suggestions and comments.

(Flame me if you want, but remember, I am asbestoes to your Bic lighter :) )

Thank you .org (in advance)...

I'm interested to see who comes up with what, I have the 6 speaker setup and I really don't need much more... I have a home system for serious listening.

Dave

no one has any suggestions?

I have a pair of Shure's SE310's for that...

Seriously? 10 speakers in weird fitments that will sound good on the cheap? That's going to be a big ask.

Take a look at crutchfield.com or the like, and see what (if anything) will fit. That will at least give you a good place to start. I certainly wouldn't look at anything cheaper than you'll find there.

And if anyone else has real suggestions, I could use some educating also....

He said 10 inchers were NOT an option... :)

I've been thinking of using Sony Plates and surface mounting them in the rear.

Dave

It's really tough to get a full sound without hacking anything up in the ti given the speaker sizes.

I replaced the 4t's in the rear with some 6 1/2" Pioneers that were 50 bucks for a pair. I picked up the cheapest ones I could in case I messed them up fitting them. You have to hack up the 4t mounting bracket to fit them but it's not visible at all with the covering. Even $50 after market speakers were a notable improvement over the stock 4t.

I haven't replaced the 5 1/4"s in the front kick panels but I'm sure you could obtain some good replacements of the same size for under $100 (a pair).

You'll have to unsolder the wires from the current speakers and solder them onto the new speakers because BMW uses their own speaker connectors.

Could be wrong but if you want to keep it oem in appearance.. the only replacements for the door panel speakers are from Bavarian Soundwerks. They even use the stock BMW speaker connectors and fit perfectly into the stock speaker housings but they're expensive for their size. They sound cleaner but it's not worth the price for most.

Unfortunately this setup still leaves lacks lower midrange and lots of bass. I'm not a bass junkie but if you want a full sound you'll either have to put some larger speakers speakers in (that will require some sort of hacking) or get a sub. A small sub running at low power can fill in the sound very nicely without blowing out your eardrums or being clearly audible from outside of the car.

In summary... I've found a sub makes the most difference for providing a full sound but if you absolutely want to avoid that route, I'd go with replacing the 4t's in the rear with 6.5"s and the 5.25"s in the kick panel. Unfortunately I haven't messed with enough speaker brands to know which are the best for the price but as previously stated.. even the cheapest Pioneers I could find were a good improvement.

Boston Accoustics still make a good mid-priced speaker?
When I sold them they were almost a high-end speaker, lot's of value and good availability for the hard to fit euro cars

I was thinking about getting some Boston Acoustics to replace my 5.25s & 6.5s. Nice frequency range on them. I get the impression they're suppose to be a bit more natural sounding than most of their competition but never heard them in person to really compare.

Thanks for your input and opinions... Doing some research shopping and deal searching, I have found these options that I like;

for the front kickpanel;
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...t_DKF_113.aspx

for the rear setup;
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...stics_S60.aspx

This leaves finding something for the doors. (Bavarian Soundwerks doesn't list anything for our cars other than the kickpanels.)

Has anyone tried using the HK speakers from an e36 m3? I might find some of those on ebay...

Well it's probably not what you're looking for, but in the back, there's a 4 inch(maybe 4 1/2?) speaker and a tweeter. I picked up some Re-man. JBL speakers that came with tweeters for $20 from a stereo shop in town. Best of all, they're hidden under the stock speaker grills. I have pictures on my .org account under the Ti if you wanna see them. All it took was piloting a new screw into the old speaker mount. They're really crisp, and the tweeters aren't obnoxious. Just look around at local places, sometimes you can find really good deals. As for the front 6 1/2 inches in the kick panel, anything like alpine, sony, or pioneer would be fine, you can find a good deal on those anywhere, but those that you listed in the post above are kind of pricey, you could get some without speaker grills and have a better brand for less than $75 a pair. I haven't got around to my door speakers yet, because I just dropped $900 on suspension, but I think I'm going to just stick a tweeter in one of them, and leave one empty. Etronics, Crutchfield, and Online car stereo are my favorite places.

RealOEM lists different part numbers for the door speakers but that could just be different brands or qualities. Bavarian Soundwerks sells the same combination of midrange/tweeters for all e36's so I'm pretty sure the door panel speaker sizes are all the same for the 10 speaker systems.

Wow... I'd have to get some kind of transparent cover for those because they match the Millpoint Red interior! It'd be a shame to hide that. heh heh:biggrin:

Im not sure if this thread is still alive or not things on this forum move slow to nonexistent. Anyway my 95 ti is new to me and I just went out and replaced my 6 speaker system because all my speakers were blown. The paper ripped from the foamish material on the edge of the speaker itself. Anyway I went to my local walmart and was pleasantly surprised at the decent selection they had. Before I get flamed about buying speakers at walmart, the word decent is relative to the beholder I dont care about huge speakers and winning bass contests.

That being said I picked up 6 1/2 pioneers for the rear and 5 1/4 pioneers for the kick panel. I spent a little under $100 and it was a huge improvement over stock more than good enough for me.

The rears needed a little modding to make it work I dremeld out the edges of the plastic panel and hot glued the speakers in on the edges. It sounds funny but it worked out great and you cant even tell its not factory once you put it all back together.

Magnus;

I am about halfway through my upgrade... I have spent about $175 for the BA and MB speakers noted above... Very happy with them so far. I, too, had to mod the rear speaker shelf to get the 6.5's to fit, but used the Sticky'ed DIY from the Knowledge Base and it worked out fine...

I have the 10 speaker setup and am now searching for the 4 door speakers...