Speaker recommendations to replace the original 6 speakers?

K

karsta

New member
Hi all,

My 2003 Z4 has the standard 6 speaker setup (S648 Radio BMW CD). I already changed the headunit to a 1 din Pioneer, as the OEM was starting to lose pixels from the screen, and I needed the bluetooth capability.

The original speakers sound quite horrible and they are next on my upgrade list, within a reasonable budget. I am not planning on investing in a separate amplifier, but would like to hear what kind of upgraded speaker setups fellow owners have implemented.

I'm thinking there are roughly two options: with or without the rear speakers.

Option 1: upgrading the footwell low-range woofers + door tweeters, and removing (fading) the rear mid-ranges speakers.

Option 2: upgrading the footwell low-range woofers + door tweeters + rear mid-ranges speakers.

Which option would you go for, and can you recommend some speakers for these setups? I reckon in option 1 it would need a wider frequency low-to-mid-range speaker to substitute the frequency range from the rear speakers, am I correct?
 
I've got a Focal 3-way setup (I forget the code) that's pretty well drop-in and they're awesome. I printed some adapters to get the mid-ranges in the doors and added pins to the door connectors to wire them tidily. You won't want the rear speakers with those in. I do have a little AliExpress amp running them but they ought to be fine on the headunit.
 
smorris_12 said:
I've got a Focal 3-way setup (I forget the code) that's pretty well drop-in and they're awesome. I printed some adapters to get the mid-ranges in the doors and added pins to the door connectors to wire them tidily. You won't want the rear speakers with those in. I do have a little AliExpress amp running them but they ought to be fine on the headunit.
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Thanks, but I was not planning on moving the mid-ranges to the doors, and I don't have a printer for these adapters. I wonder if there is even speaker wiring inside the doors in my case..?
 
I've not upgraded to after market speakers, but adding the door speakers to both my zeds with 6 speaker setup made a huge difference. Mid-level being fired into the cabin near your torso makes a huge difference, rather than having to travel around the seat from behind or up from the footwell.

Yours is an early car, might already have wiring in place. (My 2003 had wiring in only one door, oddly. Adding the wiring in the other door wasn't hard, just split off the tweeter feed.)
 
SAinSurrey said:
I was looking at those - Focal AS3s? So bass response is fairly good with the 6.5inchs? Were they an easy fit?
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I don't recall having to chop anything about to make the footwell drivers fit. The mids went in with an adapter. The tweeters in the stock location went in with a craft knife and hotmelt. The hardest bit is finding somewhere to put the crossovers. I squirelled mine away under the dash. One side ended up near the centre console, one up behind god knows what and where. Although, when I much later came to take out the cupholder/vent, there it was so, if I was doing it again, I'd go in through the opening to secure them and they'd both go there!

The bass response is, and I use the word advisedly, immense. I later put some subs in the factory locations and they pale by comparison.
 
I have upgrade JBL's in the front ( car came to me like that) I added one Pioneer underseat amp on a bracket that moves with seat and is bolted to the first aid mount .( I have another to add to the drivers along with focal 165 A3's in the rear and an amp). The under seat sub , is brilliant for the money. Cant wait to hear it when I fit the rest of the gear I have for it.
 
smorris_12 said:
I don't recall having to chop anything about to make the footwell drivers fit. The mids went in with an adapter. The tweeters in the stock location went in with a craft knife and hotmelt. The hardest bit is finding somewhere to put the crossovers. I squirelled mine away under the dash. One side ended up near the centre console, one up behind god knows what and where. Although, when I much later came to take out the cupholder/vent, there it was so, if I was doing it again, I'd go in through the opening to secure them and they'd both go there!

The bass response is, and I use the word advisedly, immense. I later put some subs in the factory locations and they pale by comparison.
Click to expand...
Great thanks, I was thinking of the same set up with bass/midbass in the compartments behind the seats, but if it all AS3s all works without needing extra bass, will keep it as such. I am a child of the 90s so enjoy upgrading my ICE but I also have to remember that the car is only worth £4k so dont want to go overboard.
 
I think I was a bit forward about saying the footwell speakers are drop-in. After my last post, I happened across a CAD drawing of my door mounts (FWIW, it's a 3 hole arrangement) and noticed there were also some spacers for the main drivers in the footwell - can't remember the details but I think the magnet bottomed out. There's quite a bit of space behind the grill panel though. Possibly I trimmed off a rib too (it's 3 years ago!)

I started driving in the 90s and have always piddled about with audio. Never full boot builds or fibreglass door pods and this was more of the same so nothing insurmountable if you've done this before!
 
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