1st Mod -Rear centre speakers

[Zed Five]

Hi All,

Did my first mod this morning on my E89. I don't have the loudspeaker system, so am basically retrofitting the missing speakers (including the door tweeters courtesy of advice from Maniac).

This morning I retrofitted the centre rear (2) speakers that sit in the rear bulkhead behind the seats. - It takes oooh, at least 15 minutes :roll: and is really effective.

If you don't have this, but want it, You need to purchase:

Centre rear speaker grill (from BMW dealer) - this comes with a tweeter/cable and connector in place
A 'Mid' rear speaker. (they are pretty universal and I got mine on Ebay for £18, from a 7 series)
1 metre of speaker cable (halfords)
4 speaker cable connectors (halfords)
2 BMW speaker connector plugs (£5 from Ebay)

Total cost about £70

Basically:

1. Remove the blanking plate from the rear bulkhead
2. Remove the speaker grill from the passengers side speaker behind the passengers seatbelt.
3. Remove the 3 torx screws that hold the speaker in place.

On the back of the speaker that is already fitted to the car, next to the speaker plug there is an unused socket. You will piggy-back your speaker into here.

4. Thread your speaker cable under the bulkhead trim , so that it enters through the centre speaker hole on the bulkhead and exits with the existing speaker. Fix the BMW plugs to both ends.

5. Plug in your new centre speaker and plug the other end into the passengers speaker.
6. Plug in the new tweeter (attached to the new grill) to your new centre speaker. (it has two sockets as well).
7. test
8. Screw the speakers in
9. Clip the grill in.
10. Cup of coffee.

The rear speakers add much more depth to the sound in the car as its directly behnd you, plus fills in the unsightly blanking plate behind the seats.

I'm going to hopefully do the door tweeters this weekend, so I sound have even better sounds then !

 

[sars]

Well done with your mods, could do with some photos please

My only concern would be that whilst you may produce a better sound the amount of power available hasn't changed (4 x 25 Watts) and volume levels are my biggest gripe with the standard system.

 

[Maniac]

My only concern would be that whilst you may produce a better sound the amount of power available hasn't changed (4 x 25 Watts) and volume levels are my biggest gripe with the standard system.

After many people told me that the original system was rubbish, it was the first thing I tried on my car when buying and I have to say its not half bad. Yes it could be better tonally, hence adding the tweeters which allows me to fade the sound back slightly to get a better overall cabin sound, but for what I believe is the standard system it goes to such a volume that it is uncomfortable (albeit at very high volume the mid range distorts due to bass incursion). Bass also is good, giving a good thump in the cabin, again albeit too low in frequency causing the mid range issues I mention. It makes me wonder if the amp used for the standard car is different in the amp used with the iDrive equipped cars...? I'm constantly asked to turn down the volume when passengers are in the car, and it compares favourably with my brothers Bose setup in his TT (not quite as good as that, but close). I guess I'd have to hear another car, perhaps one without iDrive to figure it out..

 

[Zed Five]

My only concern would be that whilst you may produce a better sound the amount of power available hasn't changed (4 x 25 Watts) and volume levels are my biggest gripe with the standard system.

After many people told me that the original system was rubbish, it was the first thing I tried on my car when buying and I have to say its not half bad. Yes it could be better tonally, hence adding the tweeters which allows me to fade the sound back slightly to get a better overall cabin sound, but for what I believe is the standard system it goes to such a volume that it is uncomfortable (albeit at very high volume the mid range distorts due to bass incursion). Bass also is good, giving a good thump in the cabin, again albeit too low in frequency causing the mid range issues I mention. It makes me wonder if the amp used for the standard car is different in the amp used with the iDrive equipped cars...? I'm constantly asked to turn down the volume when passengers are in the car, and it compares favourably with my brothers Bose setup in his TT (not quite as good as that, but close). I guess I'd have to hear another car, perhaps one without iDrive to figure it out..

Agreed. I think that my set up is pretty good/loud/clear. and getting better by the day at present I have the nav, so maybe there is something in what you say.

I recommend adding the rear centre speakers.

 

[Maniac]

I recommend adding the rear centre speakers.

So you've connected up a centre rear to a single rear passenger feed? Does that not mean that you're putting (what is presumably a specific centre derived channel signal in HiFi equipped cars) out just one rear left channel? (which is also frequency filtered)

Surely that means more passenger side bias to the audio or can't you tell?

 

[Zed Five]

I recommend adding the rear centre speakers.

So you've connected up a centre rear to a single rear passenger feed? Does that not mean that you're putting (what is presumably a specific centre derived channel signal in HiFi equipped cars) out just one rear left channel? (which is also frequency filtered)

Surely that means more passenger side bias to the audio or can't you tell?

You are correct, but the sound is good, you cannot tell

 

[cjp2k]

Are you going to retrofit the amp as well I have the business upgrade and think its very good. Better than my old a3 anyway!

 

[Zed Five]

Nah, don't think so. Sounds ok now, so I reckon with the door tweeters added it'll be there. I'm going to have a poke around in the doors at the same time, looking for a plug and play for my OEM extended lighting loom