Noob: What stereo/speakers? (is the right forum?)

E

Evil_elvis

Member
Hi,
Bit of a noob question but what stereo and speakers will I have in my car?

It's a 2008 coupe 3.0si sport with "comfort pack", business CD, cd changer and no bluetooth.

There are some speakers behind each seat, are these standard fit or a BMW upgrade?
Also the front speakers barely seem to work, is this normal?

Thanks....
 
Hi. Lovely coupe. :thumbsup:

You likely have the 6 speaker system - two tweeters in the doors, two bass (lol) units in the footwells and one midrange speaker behind each headrest.

There are speaker grilles in the doors but nothing behind them - adding 10cm speakers here can be an inexpensive upgrade, although you will be polishing a turd with the basic system, to some extent, unless you refit everything. Here are a couple of threads on the door speaker install:

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53812
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52665
 
Much easier to enhance the basic 6 speaker system than to try upgrading either 10 speaker systems :thumbsup:

A cheeky sub in the boot would make a big difference
 
I quite fancy putting in the missing 10cm speakers up front. The soundstage is behind me too much.
Will the wiring be there?

What would make a nice tonal match? Something HK (infinity)?
 
Personally I'd advise against running a 3 way up front.

Not really sure what sort of budget you want to play with here, but a pair of decent 2 way components up front with a decent 3 or 4 channel amplifier and a sub somewhere will leave you more than happy I'd imagine. (essentially what I've ended up with in my system)
 
I didn't have much issue myself, but I used to work for a car audio company a few years back. :lol:

Regarding what components, I went for the hertz hsk165 mainly because I ran them in my previous car and also because they have some remarkable sound quality when given the right amount of power.

To be honest, car audio is easy for those savy enough with a spanner or such, but when there are issues, that's where the specialists come into their own (or just post your problems on the forum and I'm sure one of us will happily help you out!)

This is what I ended up doing for mine: (starts half way down the page)

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=47027&start=45

NB: I did attempt to play with the idea of rear speakers and as great as they did sound (and they were seriously loud at that) it just didn't feel right from a staging perspective.

I also didn't end up using a HRT iStreamer as they were ridiculously expensive to get hold of, instead opting for an Apple Airport Express to give me wireless streaming from my phone (and optical out as well, great bonus)
 
Airport express in the car!? Great idea!

Don't get me wrong I've done plenty of installs before but some cars (jap) are more willing to pop apart and back together without too much difficulty.
 
Yep! Can't take credit for it (http://blog.bmn.name/2013/06/airplay-enabled-car/) but it's literally got the comfort of bluetooth streaming but with quality of actual connectors.

Worked out better as I was then able to circumvent the weird grounding issue that these cars seem to have when the device plugged into the aux in is also being charged.

If you've had past experience then you might want to give it a go. Get yourself plenty of speaker wire, run a length down either side of the car, hide the crossover in the kick panel, then you'll be able to run your wire for the tweeter into it too.

Signal you can grab from the back of the headunit, rest is pretty straight forward. Only hurdle you need to get over is what method you use to convert the signal from the headunit to your amp.

Cheap line out converters are £15, better ones are closer to £100 and full on processors are £300 and up. Some amplifiers have line out converters built in which might be something to consider (and will also turn on trough sensing signal which makes your life even easier)
 
Resurrecting my old thread...

If I don't want to add a sub due to space/ cost/ not wanting to mod away from the OEM...

What kind of results have people had from just upgrading the front components?
Something like the Hertz mentioned above or Focal Access or Infinity ref...

Or does it really need an amp?

I'm looking for more volume up front and better more defined, clear bass.
Not looking for major returns just 10-20% better if that makes any sense at all :/
 
I have the Hertz 3 way component through a Hertz amp. The sound quality is excellent. The head unit I have enables the sound staging to be moved and fine tuned to your taste. I have a pre-set for roof up and roof down. The Hertz speakers give an excellent bass. I do have a Hertz sub but even without it running the set up is way better than stock.
 
Where are you guys mounting the amp? In the boot?

Also where are you getting power from for the amp? Straight from th battery?

Cheers
 
Hi,

I have my Hertz amp behind the drivers seat mounted vertically. Fits well. No issues re cooling either.

Cavey
 
Danderton said:
Where are you guys mounting the amp? In the boot?

Also where are you getting power from for the amp? Straight from th battery?

Cheers
Click to expand...

On the back wall for me and a nice short run from the battery too.
 
I would probably go boot, but I seem to recall NeilP went under seat?
Boot is a bit exposed unless you cover it?
Spare wheel well?
 
This is what i am trying to do..

all kit is here..just need to get myself to fit the speakers and then get the amp and JL clean sweep installed.

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=76923
 
Evil_elvis said:
I would probably go boot, but I seem to recall NeilP went under seat?
Boot is a bit exposed unless you cover it?
Spare wheel well?
Click to expand...

I initially planned to put mine under the seat...but realised I'd be hiding the sheer beauty of my amp, I couldn't go through with it! :evil:
 
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