Satan1974

Hi all,

I am planning to upgrade the standard UK stereo in my E60 and as I know this is something many other people have asked about doing on the forum, I thought it would be good to share my experiences as I move through the planning, purchasing and installation phases.

As you may or may not know, the standard UK stereo is not as good as the standard US stereo. In the UK, we have three versions of the stereo. Standard - 6 speakers, HiFi - 10 Speakers, Logic7 - 13 Speakers. In the US, your "standard" stereo is our "HiFi" option.

Needless to say, the Standard stereo is.... sub-standard. You have two 4" woofers in the front doors (with no tweeters). There are two 8" speakers under the seats - but these are wired in parallel with the door speakers so have no additional amplification or crossover/frequency filtering. Finally you have two 4" woofers in the parcel shelf - again with no tweeters. Unlike the Hifi and Logic 7 configurations, there are NO amplifiers in the boot of the car, so you can't simply put a new amplifier there.

This is my plan so far, but it's still up for negotiation!

1) Replace the rear speakers with a set of Focal component speakers with crossover and separate tweeter.

2) Use a 2-channel amplifier with speaker-level-inputs to intercept the standard stereo signal and amplify it before feeding these new parcel shelf speakers.

3) Replace the front door speakers with a set of shallow-mount Focal component speakers, again with crossover and separate tweeter.

4) Replace the underfloor speakers with 8" shallow mount Earthquake SWS-8 subwoofers. At present, I have been unsuccessful in finding a UK supplier of these speakers, so I'm weighing up whether it will be best to purchase from Germany or US. There seem to be no other 8" shallow mount subs on the market that will fit the enclosure.

5) Fit a 4-channel amplifier behind the glovebox. Intercept the existing inputs to the door speakers and underfloor speakers. Insert a filter or crossover to feed low ranges to two amplifier inputs, the outputs will feed the underfloor SWS subs. Insert filter or crossover to feed mid-hi ranges to the other two amplifier inputs, the outputs will feed the crossovers which will feed the speakers in the front doors.


Question 1 ... so - what do people think? Is my plan flawed? Is the use of two separate amplifiers (to save having to run power or speaker cables from the front to the back) ok?

Question 2 : does anybody have an easy way to get to the back of the factory fit stereo, so I can get at all of the speaker wires and fit a 6-channel amplifier in the dashboard somewhere? I know that BMW can fit an auxilliary input which attaches to the back of the stereo, which takes an hour or so, so it can't be _THAT_ hard to get to the back?

So.... everybody feel free to comment and assist in my quest - and the forum shall be rewarded with full step by step instructions (with photos) on how to perform a complete amp/speaker upgrade.

munkyone

Fellow UK standard stereo owner here and this point has been burnin the depths of my soul... I yearn for better sounds. I'm really kicking myself for not paying more attention to the stereo option on the car when i was purchasing. Its alot of money to pay for a car for such a poor stereo.

ANYWAY - So how is this plan going?

forge197

I have owned a number of of BMW's Group Cars E36/E46 and a MINI all three of these had appaling sounding stereos relative to the value of car. I had a Seat Toledo V5 before my E46 and that had an awesome standard system.

With the MINI I had the standard kit ripped out and a new setup put in but, I was, like you seem to be, concerned about taking the car to pieces and with my E60 I would be apprehensive in pulling panels (I used to do competitive ICE when I was a lot lot younger) so not adverse to pulling a car to bits

You might be wise to speak some assistance from a Car Radio Outlet and see what they suggest you may find the fitting cost out weights the stress

AlVal

Hi! I'm in exactly the same situation as you, and currently planning my upgrade from (very) basic uk spec sound., so I'm very interested in your comments.

1) Replace the rear speakers with a set of Focal component speakers with crossover and separate tweeter.

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Sounds fine, personally I'm going to order the logic7 rear shelf speakers as i expect the fitment will be pluig and play, I dont fancy hacking at connectors where i can avoid it.

I think this is the biggest flaw in your plan. taking speaker level inputs is a no-no to me, you need to grab the signal while its pure, before the bmw amplification gets hold of it. maybe i can help you with this, see later on for my instructions on getting to back of "head unit". Also the plan appears to involve 2 amplifiers, why not a single 6 channel amp?

sounds good, again, I'll be trying to get logic 7 speakers for front doors and front door tweeters in order to get better sound without any possible fitment headaches

I'll be doing the exact same here, doing the best I can with the underseat subs (probably sws-8 like you say) I won't be putting a sub box in the boot, because it's a) a large compromise on the car's design, and b) I don't have "through-load" option to open up between the boot and car's cabin, and with the good soundproofing in this car, a lot of the effort in getting the bass working in the trunk would be wasted as a lot of it wouldnt reach the cabin.

to my mind there's only one place for the amplifier, the boot. this is because of power, to get a clean and powerful supply to the amplifier, and so as not to fry any of the car's electrics, I'll be mounting the amp in the boot, this is surely also the most "out of the way" location compared to losing your glovebox. I'll be putting a 6 channel amp in the boot with direct power from battery (not sure yet whereabouts to get the ignition "power on" signal for the amp from). I'll be examining the MOST connector at the back of the in-dash cd unit/amplifier, trying to determine which wires are low-level line inputs on this unit, and diverting them at this point by running cables back to the boot (the biggest pain obviously, but the only way for me) so that instead of the input going into the dash amp, the inputs are now diverted to my 6 channel amp in boot, then take the speaker outputs from the amp and bring them back to the same most connector in the dash, where it should be easy to tap into the speaker outs there. This method I plan is, to my mind, the purest way to divert sound from going into the bmw amplifier in the dash to a better amp for all 6 channels.

I will also be putting in suitable crossovers by the sws-8 subs and the door speakers/tweeters. Wonder where the logic 7 crossovers are located?

unclip the hazard light/door lock switch unit by using a screwdriver or other implement and prising it from the bottom (careful not to scratch anything!). Some cars there is a screw behind this switch which helps hold on dash trim, not on mine. the big long dash trim piece including the centre vents then pulls straight off, but you should lever it at the right points, do a search for replacing trim and you should eventually find rudy has posted proper bmw instructions on removing this trim piece. once you have that off, its really easy to unscrew the various units under the vents in order from top down, the section around the cubby hole is just held in with clips and pulls out once you've unscrewed any visible screws.

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Stinger

If you have problems finding the Earthquake 8" shallow subs there is a new such from Pioneer.
http://www.pioneer.se/se/product_detail.js...onomy_id=25-130
Not sure if this will fit since I have not got delivery of my car yet and can check.

AlVal

ok! so im almost done planning out my install for my uk standard spec system, with the aim being a big improvement over bmw system sound quality and volume, using quality branded parts, while COMPLETELY maintaining the oem look of the car and functionality, without going to crazy expenses.

here's the shopping list:

?224 for 2 X sws-8 from ebay inc shipping from us
?260 for 2 X pairs of mb quart rua-210 components with xovers from ebay inc ship from germany
?170 for decent (infinity 5760a) 6 channel amp off ebay with speaker level inputs
?50? for wiring

so looks like total of about

?700 + lots of time.. (about 40 hours according to my530i)

I now have the diagram for the connections at the back of the e60 "headunit" so I know how to wire it properly. (there are speaker level outputs at the back of the e60 headunit for front left, front right, rear left, rear right, and central bass left and central bass right)

there is no amp in the boot in the standard uk system, so the inputs cant be taken from anywhere in the boot.

I will be running 12 speaker cables (6 pairs) from the back of the headunits speaker outputs to the amplifier, which will be placed in the boot, these will go into the speaker level inputs of the amp.

I will run new speaker cables to all 6 speakers from the amp in the boot (i believe front right door will be a pain!), maybe I will simply run the speaker cables back from the amp to the back of the headunit where they can be joined up to the speakers there (this will depend on whether in uk standard spec system the underseat subs are wired back to the headunit seperately, which would be ideal, or, as I fear, that they are wired inline off the front door speaker wiring, which if im correct, is the way eu spec standard system is (underseat standard speakers in eu spec arent even subs, theyre actually full range 6X9s!)


at a future date I may increase quality by spending ?400 on a proper jl audio "cleansweep" speaker level converter which does a PROPER job of converting the speaker level outputs before sending them to the amp.

the ideal solution would be to take out the head unit and analyse its electronics, find out where inside its electronics a proper clean 4v line out signal can be taken from, and fit 4v line out rca connectors to the back of the headunit.... dont say it cant be done...

my530i did a similar install, but used mb quart units which were higher up in the range/more expensive

my530i

Hi Al,
The fitment for MB Quart to current E60 housing is OK. No problem at all. However, I recommend you buy amp with more than 95dB Signal-to-Noise ration. Infinity Amp S/N is in 82dB or so. Too low to me. This induce noise when you crank up gain over 1/4 of the way.

In addition, please buy decent and noise isolated twisted speaker wires. I know it's more expensive it it's a must on your E60.

To save wire run, grab speaker level signal from rear speakers. This saves you 8 meters of wires.

If you still have any further question, please don't hesitate to post it here or PM me. Preferably, post it here so whoever wants to upgrade his/her sound systems will get a little benefit from it.

Cheers.

AlVal

thanks for the info, very useful - do you think its worth running nejw wire to all the speakers or just run the speaker wire output from the amp back to the headunit where it could be joined to the original speaker wire?

on the back of the headunit, there is an output for "central bass", and a different output for rear speakers, I wonder is the signal that goes to the rear speakers "full range" - does it include all the bass? or does the headunit filter out the bass from the speaker signals and only send the bass out through the "central bass" channels? ill be happy as long as its a "full range" signal from the rear speakers.

it must be frustrating for you after buying such expensive speakers to find noise in your system, did you cure the noise? or is the above what you plan to do? im also thinking because your speakers are so good, maybe they are so clear and detailed that you can hear every little imperfection?

I think the biggest problem is using speaker level outputs, this is a very "dirty" signal to use as an input.

I really wish to either modify the headunit and make a proper 4v line out or to use the jl audio cleansweep (?400 is crazy though!!)

ill go and look at some different brands of shielded speaker wire now!

cheers

BigAardvaark

Did anyone find out if the speaker level signal at the rear speakers on the EU Standard system is full range or not? Also, does anyone know where the underseat "subs" are physically parallelled, if at all, to the door speakers?

Any help appreciated!

Cheers,

Ian.

bruce_miranda

On the standard UK set-up the underseats are connected up the front door speakers. All speakers should be full range. However if you were determined I would advice getting Line level outputs from the back of the CCC.