HiFi retrofit?

T

tomTVR

Active member
Apologies if this has been covered but had a good search and can't seem to get a definitive answer so here goes:

I have a roadster with the 10 speaker HiFi stytem and it's excellent. I have just bought a coupe which has the standard stereo which is absolute poo by comparison.

How hard would it be to swap them over before I sell the roadster? I appreciate it would be a bit of a faff trying to seperate the correct wires. But in terms in intergrating with the car would it be possible?

Thanks
 
Speakers are a fairly easy straight swap except the ones behind the headrests, if the coupe doesn't have nav or bt either then you'll need the extra loom to run into the boot I'd reckon, then just the amp in the back firewall and swapping the headunit.

Maybe a good Indi would do it side by side in 3-5 hours?
 
tomTVR said:
Apologies if this has been covered but had a good search and can't seem to get a definitive answer so here goes:

I have a roadster with the 10 speaker HiFi stytem and it's excellent. I have just bought a coupe which has the standard stereo which is absolute poo by comparison.

How hard would it be to swap them over before I sell the roadster? I appreciate it would be a bit of a faff trying to seperate the correct wires. But in terms in intergrating with the car would it be possible?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Probably an absolute ball ache!

I have the 10 speaker analougue system in my roadster and am in the middle of swapping it for an aftermarket stereo amped with 4 channels. BMW have made the wiring impossible to follow so I spent all day yestersday removing each speaker and recording the colours of the wires.

In short, dont bother
 
Yes but if you stuck to OEM it'd be plug'n'play (and free)

I've got amps & subs in mine & it was done properly so cost & took longer, but if it was purely a trim swap per car it wouldn't be *that* complicated, just time consuming & fiddly
 
Is the headunit the same with just the extra amp and speakers? If that's the case then would it be possible to add the amp and extra speakers and plug them in rather than having to swap the whole lot?

I've had a listen and it seems the door 'speaker' in the standard setup is just a blank so i'd need to install those by taking the doors to bits and then add the subwoofers where the storage panels are.
 
It's even harder to take the roof down as well. :poke: I'd stick with the fun machine with the decent sound system and bin the hot hatch.
 
tomTVR said:
Is the headunit the same with just the extra amp and speakers? If that's the case then would it be possible to add the amp and extra speakers and plug them in rather than having to swap the whole lot?

I've had a listen and it seems the door 'speaker' in the standard setup is just a blank so i'd need to install those by taking the doors to bits and then add the subwoofers where the storage panels are.
Click to expand...
That is my understanding on all counts. Except I wonder how the wiring is different. On basic, goes from head unit direct to speakers. On hi-fi, goes head unit to amp to speakers, not similar at all. May matter if Hi-Fi or Top Hi-Fi. Like there's a coax connector for the CD changer only on Top Hi-Fi. There's speed dependent volume settings on Top Hi-Fi, how does that get enabled only on Top Hi-Fi if they all use the same head unit?

I would suggest researching the wiring on WDS (spaghetticoder.org), then start by just swapping the amp to see how things work so far. If no problems, continue with speakers. If you do have to swap head units, no big deal, easiest thing to swap.
 
Its because the basic units use an amp within and it's straight to the speakers, the ones with the amp use optical, all within the loom. :)

Question is whether your basic loom has the optical stuff in it - check Realoem perhaps - thats why i asked about whether you had nav or bluetooth or as the loom is more likely to be there already.
 
Andy said:
Yes but if you stuck to OEM it'd be plug'n'play (and free)

I've got amps & subs in mine & it was done properly so cost & took longer, but if it was purely a trim swap per car it wouldn't be *that* complicated, just time consuming & fiddly
Click to expand...

Andy have you any pics of your setup (or a link showing what you have done)?

I don't understand how it would be plug and play as the wiring for the speakers in my car come from the amp (that is wired from the HU) and in a non amped car the speakers are wired direct to the head unit so no speaker feeds/power/remote or anything to the boot?
 
Ah sorry I should have mentioned neither car has satnav but the coupe has bluetooth.

It's looking like if I want to swap I'll have to remove the whole lot..
 
If you have the DSP amp then it's a single digital wire from the head unit to the boot then all the speakers are wired from the amp and not the head unit so the loom will be easier to retrofit, the only problem would be replacing it with something else since you'll have nothing to hook into.
I had this same dilema when I was upgrading from the poo 6 speaker setup. in the end I unplugged all the stock speakers tucked away the loom and ran my own from the back of the head unit to a sound processor which feeds the amp and then the speakers. it's not a small job. But you don't need to go to those levels; the good thing is you can find small class D amps that can be easily hidden with a few crossovers and a line driver then all you need to do is wire in the speakers.
I did that for Peddy and the results were amazing.
 
Sorry to take it a little OT but where do you hide the crossovers and amp? I was hoping to mount it all in the passenger footwell to keep cable runs short and trim disturbance to a minimum.
 
delarge said:
Sorry to take it a little OT but where do you hide the crossovers and amp? I was hoping to mount it all in the passenger footwell to keep cable runs short and trim disturbance to a minimum.
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All on the firewall in the boot, theres good mounting places where the original amp / bluetooth would be & the carpet should fit back over nicely.
oli445 said:
Andy have you any pics of your setup (or a link showing what you have done)?
Click to expand...
I've taken my head unit outputs in the boot and fed a Cleansweep, which then feeds an Alpine PDX4.150 with Focal Components & JL 6.5" subs in the stock locations behind the seats.. No pics of it because you can't see any of it, but sounds pretty good :D

Here's the realoem part numbers for the loom :)

If you have a look at my FAQ on the General forum there's two good audio links there too :D
 
Andy said:
Its because the basic units use an amp within and it's straight to the speakers, the ones with the amp use optical, all within the loom. :)

Question is whether your basic loom has the optical stuff in it - check Realoem perhaps - thats why i asked about whether you had nav or bluetooth or as the loom is more likely to be there already.
Click to expand...
You are correct in implying top hi-fi amp is driven by a digital signal, however it is over copper. The only fibre optics in the car are related the airbag system.
 
Yes it is a single copper digital wire that links the HU to the AMP; speakers are fed from the AMP.

Here's my install for a little more info '06 Coupe Install

Depending on what you want, you need to be mindful of where you place crossovers; the passenger footwell is not a good idea since the main wiring loom runs behind there and you will pick up massive Alternator Whine and other interference; as the previous poster mentioned, the back firewall is the best place to hide the components.
There is plently of hidden spaces in these cars to hide crossovers and line drivers. Just keep the far away from power looms, motors and other EMI emitting devices such as the NAV drive, battery, aircon controls etc...
 
Andy said:
delarge said:
Sorry to take it a little OT but where do you hide the crossovers and amp? I was hoping to mount it all in the passenger footwell to keep cable runs short and trim disturbance to a minimum.
Click to expand...
All on the firewall in the boot, theres good mounting places where the original amp / bluetooth would be & the carpet should fit back over nicely.
oli445 said:
Andy have you any pics of your setup (or a link showing what you have done)?
Click to expand...
I've taken my head unit outputs in the boot and fed a Cleansweep, which then feeds an Alpine PDX4.150 with Focal Components & JL 6.5" subs in the stock locations behind the seats.. No pics of it because you can't see any of it, but sounds pretty good :D

Here's the realoem part numbers for the loom :)

If you have a look at my FAQ on the General forum there's two good audio links there too :D
Click to expand...


Thanks Andy that info is great.

I am thinking 6.5'' Focal 2 ways where the standard rear speakers are and Focal 3 way components in the front (6.5'' in footwells, 4'' in doors and tweeters in mirror covers).

Have you mounted the woofers from the 2 way components in the footwell then?

If so, any problems fitting and does it not miss the 4'' mid?

:thumbsup:
 
Just an update for you, I've been made an offer on the roadster today and the bloke is coming to collect in about 30 minutes time so swapping the systems over is now out of the question!

I like the look of some of the aftermarket solutions posted on this thread. I hate the standard system so think I'll investigate this option first thing tomorrow :thumbsup:
 
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