I wish to add door speakers to my standard 6 speaker set up. I know this has been covered plenty of times before, but I cannot find any info on maximum speaker depth and impedance. I am planning to fit a pair and wire them in parallel to the tweeters. Any help (or speaker suggestions) would be much appreciated.
Door speakers - help
- Thread starter grayboots
- Start date
Funny you should ask that, since only today have I ordered some mid range speakers (same as the ones behind your head) for the doors since are identical and will fit the exisiting mounting holes; I will splice them in as you've described.
The reason for that is although BMW don't know sh*t about how to make speakers, they do know how to bounce sound around their cars. if you put after market speakers in the door you will mess up the finely balanced crossover frequencies that BMW set up in these cars; and the speaker angle may possibly be incorrect therefore messing with the acoustics of the inside of the car also. The best solution for people like us with 6 speaker setups is to use the exisitng mids as mentioned above to maintain the crossover frequencies and acoustic balance and install some subs in the cubby holes powered by an amp to manage the low frequency sounds.
I have installed some 6.5" JL 150w subs in each side and an amp configured to only play ranges 20hz - 165hz (crossover frequency is 150hz) which is just below the woofers in the foot well. so coupled with the mids going in this weekend, my configuration will be similar to the Hifi in terms of layout meaning in the front I have Low/Mid > Mid > High and in the back I have Low > Mid.
If that does not convince you then you can always pop into halfords who have a book that tells you speaker dimensions for the door and will also provide you with an adapter to fit after market ones.
The reason for that is although BMW don't know sh*t about how to make speakers, they do know how to bounce sound around their cars. if you put after market speakers in the door you will mess up the finely balanced crossover frequencies that BMW set up in these cars; and the speaker angle may possibly be incorrect therefore messing with the acoustics of the inside of the car also. The best solution for people like us with 6 speaker setups is to use the exisitng mids as mentioned above to maintain the crossover frequencies and acoustic balance and install some subs in the cubby holes powered by an amp to manage the low frequency sounds.
I have installed some 6.5" JL 150w subs in each side and an amp configured to only play ranges 20hz - 165hz (crossover frequency is 150hz) which is just below the woofers in the foot well. so coupled with the mids going in this weekend, my configuration will be similar to the Hifi in terms of layout meaning in the front I have Low/Mid > Mid > High and in the back I have Low > Mid.
If that does not convince you then you can always pop into halfords who have a book that tells you speaker dimensions for the door and will also provide you with an adapter to fit after market ones.
Thanks th30d0r, I didn't know about the book at Halfords, I will have to have a peek next time I'm down. I had thought about buying some from BMW as they will be the correct specification and fit straight in without any adapters. I assumed (maybe incorrectly) however, that they will also carry a BMW price tag. If you don't mind me asking, how much should I expect to pay at a dealer?
How would fitting aftermarket speakers mess up the crossover points or the mounting angles? BMW standard speakers are directional speakers? Thats really very strange if its true.
If they are wired in parallel to the tweeters then that will mean they will just take the same output that is meant for the tweeters in terms of frequency wont it? So you will have mids in the doors sharing the same output that is meant for the tweeters in parallel? So your mids would just have the tweeter frequencies?
Where are the crossovers installed? In the head unit itself?
If they are wired in parallel to the tweeters then that will mean they will just take the same output that is meant for the tweeters in terms of frequency wont it? So you will have mids in the doors sharing the same output that is meant for the tweeters in parallel? So your mids would just have the tweeter frequencies?
Where are the crossovers installed? In the head unit itself?
Richtea78, I believe the tweeters have a built in crossover, therefore the whole frequency range is available for the extra speakers. The only issue is the resistance (impedance), which could in theory be too low for the head unit as the resistances would be in parallel. However, I believe that the head unit is good to go as low as 2 ohms, so 2 x 4 ohm speakers in parallel should be fine. Of course I could be wrong, in which case a new head unit will be in order 
That would make sense re the passive crossover built into the tweeters but I still dont see the need to buy the BMW speakers though as any after market would fit as theres only a few standard sizes and if you look at most of the aftermarkets they have a number of screw holes pre drilled for different mounting options. Im pretty sure they would be cheaper and better than the BMW ones too 
If you blow your head unit up let me know as Im junking mine to replace most of the system. Im planning on an Alpine head unit and Jehnert door cards with a JL TW5 in the boot at the moment so will be selling the standard stuff off I expect. I will also be removing the speakers from behind the seats as the Jehnerts will take care of the mids and trebles adequately and the sub will be plenty. The BMW "subs" are terrible, they arent really subs at all, just mid bass.
If you blow your head unit up let me know as Im junking mine to replace most of the system. Im planning on an Alpine head unit and Jehnert door cards with a JL TW5 in the boot at the moment so will be selling the standard stuff off I expect. I will also be removing the speakers from behind the seats as the Jehnerts will take care of the mids and trebles adequately and the sub will be plenty. The BMW "subs" are terrible, they arent really subs at all, just mid bass.
The mids in the door have a strange 3 bolt design so fitted after market speakers takes some thought. When i upgraded my fronts i put the tweeters in the door and replaced the mids in the footwell. Never bothered with upgrading the rears and had a 80% fade to front.
The BMW headunit really is limited and although not to everyones taste if you want good sound aftermarket headunits are the only way.
The BMW headunit really is limited and although not to everyones taste if you want good sound aftermarket headunits are the only way.
benlumley said:
I've picked up the front speakers today and will take some pictures of the whole setup tomorrow when I fit them.
As for crossover frequencies, the aim is to balance the various frequencies between the front and back of the car, you want the sound waves to overlap and amplify which is why you should aim to use components that don't drown others out. look at all the other setups BMW create for the Z4 (even though they're not the best) they are very balanced. Getting a powerful mid range that cuts into the high or mid/bass will throw off the balance in the front especially if it's louder than the others. The ideal solution would be to replace all the speakers in one go and have them running of an amp (hence the hifi and top setups with their uprated speakers and amps)
Perhaps it's just coz I have small ears... Each to their own really.
The only reason I was considering OEM speakers is purely down to fitting. Until I get the door card off, I really can't start to decide how to fit after market speakers. I am also unsure about how much depth there is, but many after market speakers are less the 50mm deep so I think they will fit. This was really the reason for the original post, to try and glean some info from people who have already done this.