rjcastr

I agree with KU that the Alpine of past has been a lot better quality that the newer versions , although i have heard they have made a long stride in the last year and with the new PDX and head unit product. To answer some of KU questions, no im not merging any of the factory BMW system with mine. The prohub will be a completely separate system. getting the signals from the factory head unit and running all of it from the touchscreen Alpine TME M740bt. I have heard a lot of speakers, some of the higher end and of course Morel, Dynaudio, Focal BE series and Seas come to play, i chose CDT audio, not many people do know about them, but that's because they have never heard these babies. Outside of the Rainbow and probably Dyanaudio CDT makes some of the best drivers, the clairity and engineered driven quality is just amazing. Most people don't beleive me when i tell them this. If youre in socal theres a place called Speakerworks knows for winning a lot of SQ and SPL competition, they are a huge CDT dealer.

In terms of wiring, it is important but can your ears really tell the difference between A stinger expert or Xios, i think not, there was a challenge some years back to try to notice a difference and amongts the top quality speakers and it was impossible , it is possible to tell crappy from good ones but very difficult from excellent to excellent.

In terms of insulation, theres a link to tests perfomed to all mfg and Cascade was rated very bad there is a new generation of cascade that is supposed to compete with the best but rated very low.

ill try and get the link fo ryou, i can't find it but it was an independant test with the results being revealed at the end it covered, strenght, sound barrier, how it reacted to heat and what the top temperature rating was. Secondskin placed 1st just a little bit ahead of Dyanmat Extreme.


My setup will consist of the

CDT audio Competition top of the line Gold series
Soundsplinters 2 12" subs all SQ built by TC aduio, TC audio builds the best sub in the world.
All Alpine PDX amps, yes there are better but, for size, and current drive none of them beat it.
PXA H701 Processor
Alpine Pro hub
Alpine TME M740bt screen

All custom trunk in Fiberglass with a custom box tuned to 70HZ being pushed forced in to the cabin bolted on and going through the ski pass

all and all once its all done it should be nice.

KU530

I have used the cdts in the past they make great drivers many people sleep on them becasue they don't know much about them. So let me get this right you are not using the idrive at all? can you control the H701 throught the hub or do you still need the seperate controller? I am leaning more and more towrds this alpine stuff it just seems to be user friendly. your set up will be great sounding I wish I was in SOCAL so could check it out when you are done. I thing you have inspired me to go ahead an put the midbass in the doors I really did not want to but it may be easier than moding to get them under the seat. What did you do about speaker wire throught the door dont these cars have molex plugs? I am getting ready to run my wires and would like to know the best way to attack this 5 series. This is the first new bimmer I have worked on.

KU530

oh and the difference between the expert and exotica most people can not hear the diff but with sensitive ears and components that let you hear everything maybe. But mostly it is an ego thing wanting to have something that most people wont. Not to mention if I was being well taken care of I more than likely would be running my experts again too.

rjcastr

KU--

You can run the wires like any other car through the side railings in to the trunk and in to your amps. In terms of the processor it will be plugged in to its dedicated slot in the prohub and controlled by the Alpine TME-M740BT touchscreen, now be aware that what i am hearing is that not all functions are accessible or operations with the screen and Prohub, time correction being one of them. The way all tunning options will be displayed would be in menu forms rather than slopes etc. In any case you can always go to a shop plug the RUX controller and have them tune your car without actually buying it.

I will be dropping my car off Monday and will probably be done with the install on Friday afternoon. I have set the design so that the installer can view what im trying to do. In terms of speaker locations, according to my installer which is really, really good, it was very difficult to place the midbass in the doors as you can see it looks almost stock but he had to bring the speaker cutout , out a bit, if im not mistaken yours will have to come out even more as the depth on the rainbow CS is a little more than my CDT audio. A baffle will probably be impossible since the window railing is right behind. There needs to be enough clearance for the window to slide up and down. Make sure if your installer can't make a baffle for it that you do not remove the stock 4" speaker from the door and keep the door sealed completely that way there is no cancellation on front to back.

Will take pictures next week and show them, hopefully if i can make it to the shop i can take some install process pics.

Still, i congratulate you on your choice of components and sound equipment, very very good taste in sound Quality, SQ all the way!!!!

KU530

Actually you are talking to the installer. I do my own work always have. fiberglass, mdf, birch I work with it all. Good to know that the space in the doors are limited. your speaker wire for your midbass how did you run that through the door. did you drill out the bottom of the molexplug, between the car and the door? I dont thing I am going to do the hub but I may try the H650 when they release it or just stick with my orginal plan and do the H900 but there is a huge cost difference. We will see. I will more than likely deaden the car this weekend and run all my wires.

rjcastr

Yup that should take you all weekend long. I have done my share of installs but being that our car is so sensitive in terms of the computer cluster and all types of computer erros that can occur from making one simple mistake i much rather take it to an installer that has done installs on an e60.

There is a huge difference in price fom the H650 to H900, the H900 is the best processor in the world, not one competitor can touch it, it is the best designed unit money can buy it runs everything and modifies all tunning points on its own. It is the beast of auto sound processors, while i hear the H650 should be very special it will provide a different sound to that of the H701.


i guess there are two ways you can do the speakers you can get the speaker points from the factory amp already in the trunk and extend them or just run them through the side door and through the trunk. I personally im not running a rear fill as it would utilize some channels on the processor, if sound quality is not as good or better said, if staging is not that great i will custom build FG tweeter pods for "A" Pillars, perhaps some CDT hd1's with a frontstage passive xover facing the windshiled. if there were anything else left to do for staging would be these tweeters in the "A" pillars and some centerstage tweeters in the center of the dash facing eachother.


Of course all of them tuned at different frequencies.

If you are doing your trunk you will have to make a bezel and cut out the ski pass, my installer is doing a push force box in to the cabin from the trunk that way there will be no rattling int the trunk. the backing will be plexi with lighting, i think it shall look very nice.

KU530

That is going to look nice. I can t wait for final pics. I have already built my pods for my tweets they are going in the a pillars. My subs are going in the rear deck IB. So no enclosure for me. I may have one of the installers here set up my signal from the factory to the processor since you say that the computers are so touchy on this thing. I am still leaning towrds the h900 I just looked at the h650 and I can not control it from my seat. You have a remote but no display to see what you are doing. And you can t tune from the trunk lol. I am not running rear fill I am not of a fan of rear fill who wants music coming from behind you. It is supposed to be like a concert.

subterFUSE

If you want sound quality, then why not do an aperiodic membrane sub enclosure?

KU530

RJ this would also not be a bad option for you as well.

rjcastr

KU--

You wont be able to control any processor from your seat unless you have the controller installed or a touchscreen that is compatible that gives you the capability to control it. If money is no object the H900 all the way baby!!! nothing will beat this thing, i have heard a Merc with all Alpine F#1 status components and processors and let me tell you , i dont think i have ever heard anything like this before. Money for all of us is usually an issue and at whopping 4000$ its out of my pocket range i ca put a small system together for that much. Anyhow, i say if you can come up with the money go for it!

hers a link to a used one i found on line
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/ele/328220119.html $1100

If you are going with an infinite Baffle make sure you insulate the living crap out of your trunk as it will serve as your enclosure, even then i hear you will get some rattling coming from the rear bumper brace metal, at least that's what i was told. do share some pics of your pods id love to see them


RJ