All
Much has been talked about this, I am a new 07 530i owner. This forum has been so helpful, so I decided to help people on my part.

SWS-8 many of you would know earthquake makes a drop in replacement for our cars in the front seats, power this with a 300 W amp, you would have good bass. you can search for this in many topics.

Now there are not a lot of people who sell this product. So I have a recommendation. I just bought mine (well i just ordered it, it will take five days to come in), from lightav.com

Jerry Edwards is a nice guy and gave me a good price on the subs. If you are looking for one, get in touch with him, tell him Ram recommended and he might be able to give you a good price on the subs, they run from $130-$199 , i think his site is infiniteelectrnix.com ? .... I will post updates with pics on my install once its done ...

Have fun until then - R

 

thanks for the reference

 

I'm wondering if we can just replace L7 75W sub with this SWS-8 (RMS 105W, 300W max). Would those L7 sub channel drive well those SWS-8 sub?
I'm thinking about swapping but just wait for who is going to do it first.

 

After reading this post, I was finally convinced to get these subs. So I went in to a professional sound system shop, they recommended ALTO subs instead of the SWS-8, they said that the ALTO subs will sound a lot "deeper" and that ALTO is a much better brand for subs compared to Earthquake. The mounting depth was a little bit off, the ALTO subs were 3" Mount Depth, while the SWS-8s were 2-1/8". He also recommended a 600W Amp from Fosgate or something like that. The only thing I was wondering was, the ALTO subs are 300W each, so do I need a 300W 2ch amp or will i need a 600W 2ch amp? Thats my question and also, will the little difference in mounting depth make it so I can't use the ALTO subs? I mean its only a little bit different, will it still fit? They also mentioned that they will use a seal box for the subs under the seat, and I was like, how the heck are you gonna fit a box under there??!! One last question would be, are "ALTO" subs any good? Never even heard of them before. Please comment. Help me out my530i.

 

I did my part of the research on this,I am not a expert but I did not want to do any mods to my current setup such as a sealed box and so on, ALTO I do not know how good they are as well. I wanted a good priced install and decent bass and from what I see the SWS-8 will match even in your screw holes, its a drop in like i said, they are 150W each i think, I am thinking of infact using a Mono 300.1 from JBL GTO Series or a JL which has the automatic regulator, I also have a MTX sittin gat home for 250W and I am pretty positive that can move these as well, these are shallow mounts, if you really want a bigger Wattage, I would recommend a sub setup in your trunk, search the forums for sub setup you will find plenty of configurations.

 

I dont have L7, but I would think if you use a amp that drives 75W , they would have designed it to run at like 65 W Peak or so, I would probably move the Subs but from what I see the SWS has a thick rubber sidings, the bass might be a little muddy, id just use something atleast 125W per channel

 

Ok Finally I did the mod.
Installed a JBL 300.1 Amp in the trunk. Mounted my SWS-8 , I can see that the bass is improved but still not as good as a single or dual 10's.... it is still better than the factory standard system!

 

did u do the mod on your own? if so, how easy was it to drop in the subwoofers.... and also, where did you mount your amp?

 

I mounted it right on the backplate , I seem to have trouble with the woofers, I swapped the cs300.1 to a alpine 4001, my woofers blew, i swapped it first place because it clipped when i played it loud, now when i put in the alpine first one woofer blew up now the other is blown too, the SWS is not really a good quality sub, the terminals come right out the side by the aluminium basket and there is only a small cardboard between them. I am thinking of another idea to mount JL 8 inches right under the seat...


I did not do the installation by myself, as i needed good tools to slide the seat and so on, so I goto this local shop and work with that guy in the shop.... and it is not easy to drop in the woofers cos u have to tilt the front seats, it takes atleast two hours or more....now I have to do it all over again...

I have an idea to get a 9 inch pipe? or pillar columns so i can cut two inches out of it and sit in a 8 inch JL which is about 4.5 inches in depth, ill let everyone know and maybe post pictures if I am able to do it.