Alpine iDA X-305 HU Upgrade.

R

RichardG

Senior member
 An Englishman Abroad.
Never having been one to rush into things I have finally got round to doing some mods on my Z4.

I have upgraded the head unit to an Alpine IDA X305
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Was being a bit thick with Fascia Adaptor and took me a while to realise it fitted in front of the vents and not behind as with the original head unit.
This gives me full control of an Ipod/Iphone with all the menus on the Ipod replicated on the head unit. I am waiting to find out if it is possible to connect the head unit to the MFSW, Alpine have a solution for the 2005 onwards car but are not sure of it's compatibility with 2004 car.

Whilst on with head unit I have fitted some new speakers
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The speakers are JBL GTO 937's fairly cheap but we just liked the sound through them, I also upgraded the footwell speakers (I bought the speakers to put in the doors but they were to big, I'm sure that I read the speakers thoughout the car were the same size somewhere)
The speakers are fed via an old Alpine Amp I had in the garage that was fitted to previous car a long time ago but it still works fine and sounds OK to me. (piccies to follow if people are interested)

I also as many people have found that I had 2 broken rear coil springs, I have now fitted a full set of Eibach Pro Springs, the rears were changed without a problem but when we went to change the front springs the Claw Style Coil Compressors we had would not compress the springs far enough to remove all the tension from the retaining plates fitted to the struts, not seen any mention of this little problem anywhere so maybe it was just me, anyway managed to get the springs changed using a Hydraulic Press the difference in the car is unbelievable and I would highly recommend them to anyone, I am also running 452's and was before the springs were changed.(piccies to follow if people are interested although I think it may have been done enough on this forum already)
 
Nice choice on the head unit. :thumbsup:

I put an iDA-X100 in my wife's X3 and we are loving the results. Makes the DICE interface in my Z4 seem like a joke for access to iPods.
 
interested to see more pics of the audio.. did those boxes behind the seats have anything in before the mods, ie do you have the base stereo?
 
Andy said:
interested to see more pics of the audio.. did those boxes behind the seats have anything in before the mods, ie do you have the base stereo?
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Andy,
yeah I had the base stereo fitted all be it with a now defunct autochanger and a MFSW, the boxes behind the seats were just storage bins, see attached photo for the removed bins and head unit.
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but contain speakers in the HiFi versions of the Audio Equipment supplied by BMW. The boxes just pull out and you are left with the holes you see in the pictures, I lined them with an acoustic mat (don't know what difference it makes but thought I'd try it), I then made paper templates of the metalwork and made the speaker mounts out of 6mm MDF.

The iDA has a USB port on the back of it, the lead supplied is long enough to go to the storage bin between the seats but I only took it as far as the glovebox, the central wheel on the head unit works in the same way as the clicker wheel on an iPod, it brings up the same menus as the iPod and if you have the album artwork on it it will display that aswell.
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I fitted Alpine SPS-17C2, 2 way speakers in the footwells (sorry no Pix) and connected them and the JBL's to my ancient Alpine Amp
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Which I'm just in the process of mounting when I make my mind up exactly where I want it.

Hope this helps
 
Would it not of been better to fit components in the front like the stock system to give a better sound stage. I'm just waiting on my surround and iso adapter, ive got the bass covered so will be looking at upgrading the speakers at a later date.
 
un1eash said:
Would it not of been better to fit components in the front like the stock system to give a better sound stage. I'm just waiting on my surround and iso adapter, ive got the bass covered so will be looking at upgrading the speakers at a later date.
Click to expand...

I had every intention of leaving the front woofers in place and adding the mid range Alpines into the doors but like I said, I messed up and misread some info and ordered the wrong size speakers, as I intended to connect them to the amp and not the head unit, I took the decision rightly or wrongly to put the new mids in the footwells, I wasn't looking to to put in a sub or create the perfect sound, just make it easier to hear with the roof down, which I managed to check out at the weekend. I might in time yet put in the door speakers but am happy with the reuslts I have achieved so far.
 
Are you able to get the rear speaker grills over those 6x9's? I wanted to go this route but ended up installing 6.5" coaxials so the stock grill could be put back.
 
Cunning Linguist said:
Are you able to get the rear speaker grills over those 6x9's? I wanted to go this route but ended up installing 6.5" coaxials so the stock grill could be put back.
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I did but only after cutting the rear shrouds off.

I can take one off and take picture of what I did if you want as it will only take 2 minutes.
 
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