'06 Coupe ICE Install *Picture Heavy*

[th30d0r3]

just been doing some research on the crossovers, and it seems that there may NOT be a crossover in the head unit.
The reason I say that is because the crossovers are located within the amps on the top & hifi systems but I think the head units are all the same. therefore they would conflict no??

The only thing the head unit appears to do is equlize the sound so you wouldn't need a device to sum the audio range. simply a device to flatten the frequencies; so the cleansweep will do that fine, you can find them for around 160 in the states, possibly cheaper.

Can anyone give any imput for the headunits being the same on all 3 stereo versions of the Z4?

[Newbers]

I can't say with any surity but it seems likely that the head units would be the same regardless of the amp/speaker upgrade options. Otherwise there would have been loads of different upgrade codes and options with restrictions on what can go with what.

When you refer to crossovers in the amps I think your talking about something else. Those crossovers would be for each individual speaker (i.e. 10 of them as opposed to the 6 on the un-amped version). This is just making sure that each speaker gets a range of frequencies appropriate to its type.

I'm feeling pretty certain that the eq is programmed in the head unit to protect the factory speakers so that as the volume increases the mid and top (relatively) increases relative to the bass signal. I think there is then another circuit in the posh amps (either a fixed one or a fancy variable one with the DSP option) that effectively corrects this - or perhaps simply boosts the bass. I had the Harman Kardon in my e46 coupe and I was never aware of needing to fiddle with the bass and treble as I increased the volume and I imagine we are looking at a similar set up here.

The thing that currently does not quite compute is the rear mids. There must be some form of crossover or aggressive eq to stop them getting low frequencies which they couldn't handle. If the eq was set in the head unit to protect the basic speakers there would be an awful lot of correction to do to the signal in order to drive the subs of the Top HiFi. Did you notice when you changed yours (mids) if there was a capacitor soldered between the two terminal on the speaker itself? (I think that's how they used to create a crude high pass filter.)I think that the key test is going to be to plug some full range speakers - perhaps something from the house in to the front channel, then the rear (powered directly from the head unit) and see what difference in signal there is - if any.....

[th30d0r3]

When I mean crossover I mean exactly what you have mentioned in the second paragraph, the supposed crossover in the head unit will limit the frequency range of the rear mid, however when you tap into the rear channel at the head unit you don't have that problem.
The amps in the hifi set up use the exact same high output as the standard system, this is the analogue DSP version; it just them applies the crossover to each speaker and sends the signal out; pretty basic and pretty much what an aftermarket amp would do, minus the crossover.
The equilizer is definately altered dependant of volume, the amp would merely boost the lows accordingly dependant on volume. it's rather crude when you think about it.

Taking this in to consideration, I believe all you'll need is a cleansweep type device to flatten the frequency range; or an intermediate EQ (like the crude boss 7 channel eq I have) which you can tweak to then flatten the curve.

The rear mids being the same as the front mid have no resister that I could see; this is why I have completely done away with the stock loom, coz there's something not quite right about it.

Another thing I have noticed is that the head unit does feature a line out, it's just nothing is connected to it; the business CD unit I had before actually gave you an option to switch it on. not sure how that will work with the NAV unit, but I'm gonna wire up a line out to it and run an RCA directly to the EQ which will split it into FR/FL + RR/RL + SUB and then drive my amps from there.

More later...

[billy_beemer]

Hello,

Did you ever solve the interference problem? On my Z4M (with t**t-nav) I've taken my speaker feeds (from the footwell & from the rear just where the wires go to the rear speakers - not from the head unit)
> into a cleansweep
> then into a fli 900 4 channel amp
> rears off to 6x9s I fitted in the cubby holes (all stealthly hidden of course)
> fronts into the hertz component 163L setup (crossovers and 3 ways as you have done)

But with the amp powered up, and even with RCAs disconnected I get a small whining (key in position 1 so no engine malarkly running).

The whining is of a fixed level, e.g. you can drown it out by having the radio on. I've had the amp swapped out & tried using it with a speaker outside of the car to avoid it picking up interference. Tried re-grounding several places etc.

Any more ideas?

Would love to compare the systems!!


Chris

[krusty]

The original poster refers to the empty hole where he has dropped the amp ... as the amp hole.

On my Z4 coupe (with Carver system), that hole is empty? Why would that be?

[nicollow]

The original poster refers to the empty hole where he has dropped the amp ... as the amp hole.

On my Z4 coupe (with Carver system), that hole is empty? Why would that be?

On my 2003 roadster with the Carver setup, the amp sits there. Its a pretty obvious black aluminium box, but on later models I think its bedind the boot carpet attached to the rear bulkhead?!?

[nicollow]

Hello,

Did you ever solve the interference problem? On my Z4M (with t**t-nav) I've taken my speaker feeds (from the footwell & from the rear just where the wires go to the rear speakers - not from the head unit)
> into a cleansweep
> then into a fli 900 4 channel amp
> rears off to 6x9s I fitted in the cubby holes (all stealthly hidden of course)
> fronts into the hertz component 163L setup (crossovers and 3 ways as you have done)

But with the amp powered up, and even with RCAs disconnected I get a small whining (key in position 1 so no engine malarkly running).

The whining is of a fixed level, e.g. you can drown it out by having the radio on. I've had the amp swapped out & tried using it with a speaker outside of the car to avoid it picking up interference. Tried re-grounding several places etc.

Any more ideas?

Would love to compare the systems!!


Chris

I had a similar problem with my E46 when I mucked about with the ICE. I had alternator whine all the time (tried a few things like you), until I grounded the speaker to RCA converter to the head unit. Try locating the cleansweep close to the head unit and grounding it to the bare chassis of the head unit itself. Solved my problem with the whine instantly...

[billy_beemer]

thanks for the suggetion, however the amp makes this noise even with the RCAs disconnected and it did it before I bought the cleansweep.

I've also had a problem (which I thought I'd cured but has just come back) where there is no sound at all (eeek) I spoke to BMW who said the headunit detects the ohm resistance of the speakers and if there's an issue or mis-match it goes into safe mode and kills all the sound.

Rebooting the cleansweep cures the problem, but I don't want to do that every time I go out to the car! I guess the next step is to re-do all my connections and see if that cures it but it's very odd (I'm sure it kills the output from the headunit as the active sub behind the passenger seat comes off a lineout convertor prior to entering the sweep)

Best bet, turn it off and listen the engine lol ?

So irritating, I've just about got the system sounding top now as well !!

[nicollow]

Oh well, so much for my help. Defo a ground loop issue, but if its the amp itself, thats maybe a bit harder to find the source. One other thing to try is get some seriously heavy duty power cable, 0AWG or something, and ground the amp directly to the battery -ve. Ground loop issues, as far as I know, are related to the potential difference of the compents being dissimilar. Thats why they say keep the ground cable as short as possible, so as to keep its resistance as low as possible. One other way is to have super thick cable which has a low Ohm resistance in the first instance, and then take it to the battery itself. Worth a shot if you havent tried it already?

I know what you mean though, my E46 sounded amazing. I put the ignition on, checked it was all working, was amazed at how good it sounded. Then spent 2 hours tidying the wiring up etc. Fired the engine up to drive home and a massive whine started

[billy_beemer]

Anyone ever seen the BMW head unit go into protection mode? As in all is working, sat nav, phone etc but NO sound? I'm baffled, I had this before and solved it by re-seating all connections but this time I've found just unplugging and reconnecting the cleansweep brings back the tunes......

...until I leave the car off for a minute or two, then ignition on and voila, nothing.... when I spoke to BMW (thinking oh crud I need a new head unit) the engineer told me if it detects any differences in resistance it goes into protection mode as it has intelligence built in..........

Someone must have had something similar?

[nicollow]

I read somewhere that the BM stereo checks the system on startup and if everything is ok, powers up normally. Some guy put a 5 second delay relay into his system to overcome it...

[billy_beemer]

You're not wrong.

See I was getting it to work by unplugging the speaker inputs to the cleansweep so there's no resistance at the head unit, reconnect and it was away.

Now for people out there with Cleansweeps if you get a similar problem I spent all last night re-crimping and checking polarity's, no result, until I unplugged the RCAs between the cleansweep and the amp, re-powered up the system and reconnected them - been fine ever since !!

Once the car has been 'asleep' for a minute it's after that point a 'check' is initiated, so for anyone out there with head units that appears fine but no sound - disconnect whatever you've wired up and add a stock 4ohm speaker one by one till you find the problem.

I actually found out about the protection check when I phoned up Harwood Basingstoke parts dept and the sales guy put me onto an engineer who said "much as we'd LOVE to sell you a £500 head unit, it's virtually always the case that there's a snagged cable that's causing the headunit to go into protection mode" of course the dealer recommends putting it back to stock - but then, where's teh fun in that

Right, all fixed, 26 degrees outside............ guess I know what I'm doing this afternoon....... it's M time

[billy_beemer]

Just more info for anyone out there searching....

If BMW head unit + Cleansweep = no sound, try re-calibrating it while the head unit is in it's 'protection mode'

Works a treat and explains that it wasn't anything to do with re-seating random RCA cables!!

[spr_bimmer]

Just thought i would add to this thread rather than creating my own... Awesome write up and detailed pics.

Mine is a 2004 roadster, the previous owner had done a horible job adding two amps to power the 10 stock speakers
so I decided to re do everything including all wiring.

here is the previous owners wiring...


Most of my system is by Alpine, a brand i have trusted for a long time.
Added the Bluetooth and the little red box is to adapt the steering wheel controls.
The head unit is really made for ipod, i had the original in my old car and loved it. The mids are 4" (100cm).

Not pictured is the PDX-F4 amp that i'm using to power the 6.5" components and the JL 6w3v3 Subs, the 4 mids are powered by the deck.

Almost every panel in the car taken off, just shy of 17 hours of my time to install, paid a shop to do the steering wheel controls, front kick panel speakes
with tweeters located in stock locations and to wire up the bluetooth, 3 hours. Almost a full 100 feet of wire went into this install to get to all the speakers...


Started raining so i had to improvise, i should have done this at my condo in the underground parking instead.
Note the awesome random license plate i happened to get when i registered the car!


The original owner cut the factory harness so i had to solder in the new one in the dash, kind of a pain.


head unit lights up blue or red. kind of matches the interior lighting.


for the 4" speakers in the back, these alpines fit great, two top screws in the factory holes and the two bottom tabs drilled into the cars metal with self taping screws.


The door speakers i used two original mouting holes then cut up a full bracket that came with the speaker to make a little holder for the third location.
Seen on the left and cut the 2 tabs from the speaker. They are all sealed with 2 way foam tape.

The original speaker grills will need a bit of tweaking for bothe the front and rears... i will be bumping them out since the tweeters touch the grills if installed rightr now.

The subs were mounted on the factory metal plates, 3 of the 8 screws and bolts for this sub could not be installed because of clearance.


Always use proper connectors!


I'm very pleased with the result. parts and the 3 hours labour came to less than $2000 CND.

[Darren Slone]

What a fabulous write up, top-drawer and then some!