Z4 Audio Install
- Thread starter Richard!
- Start date
Progress update
Front speakers installed, woo!
Whats happened since the last update, my brother did a superb job of upgrading the tweeters. You can see the before and after below. Not much difference to see on the front, quite a difference on the rear though. A big thank you to him for doing this
From left to right, original BMW / stripped Dyn / original Dyn
Side on comparison of the stripped Dyn and original BMW.
Mid range required stripping to fit in the stock location. The mount hole spacing was not quite right, made a couple of cuts with a Dremel. That allows the speaker to fit on to the original mount threads. A small spacer is needed to stop to the cone from touching the speaker grill on the door card. End effect a completely stock looking door.
Mid range mount ring
To get the wires into the doors I’m using the stock door connector and adding extra pins & wires.
New pins
Had to remove a few strands of copper to get the cables to fit into the connectors. Its only a few strands and for a really short distance so shouldn’t make any difference.
The passenger side had the BMW wiring for the midrange in place. This was removed to make way for the thicker gauge wire I’m using.
Bass speaker with mount ring and foam sealant to isolate the front and rear of the speaker.
Added some sound deadening behind the bass speaker.
Only had a short listen to it, really happy. It needs a little EQing, but I don’t think it too far off. My brother suggested setting up a cross over point. At the moment the fronts are playing full range ( it was easier to get it going quickly ) It has nice clear vocals, instruments sound really good. I am amazed how much bass the Dyns are producing in this setup. The subs add low end volume to complete the sound. Once setup properly should work well.
As a little extra I’ve added puddle lighting to the doors. This required an extra wire though the door for power ( hooked into the interior lights ). I have also prepared the wiring to added the Z4 extended lighting into the door handles. This will be an orange glow on the inside under the handle.
White wire added to pin location 1.
Up next will be to changing the signal processor to an Audison bit Ten D. This will add EQ functionality
Front speakers installed, woo!
Whats happened since the last update, my brother did a superb job of upgrading the tweeters. You can see the before and after below. Not much difference to see on the front, quite a difference on the rear though. A big thank you to him for doing this
From left to right, original BMW / stripped Dyn / original Dyn
Side on comparison of the stripped Dyn and original BMW.
Mid range required stripping to fit in the stock location. The mount hole spacing was not quite right, made a couple of cuts with a Dremel. That allows the speaker to fit on to the original mount threads. A small spacer is needed to stop to the cone from touching the speaker grill on the door card. End effect a completely stock looking door.
Mid range mount ring
To get the wires into the doors I’m using the stock door connector and adding extra pins & wires.
New pins
Had to remove a few strands of copper to get the cables to fit into the connectors. Its only a few strands and for a really short distance so shouldn’t make any difference.
The passenger side had the BMW wiring for the midrange in place. This was removed to make way for the thicker gauge wire I’m using.
Bass speaker with mount ring and foam sealant to isolate the front and rear of the speaker.
Added some sound deadening behind the bass speaker.
Only had a short listen to it, really happy. It needs a little EQing, but I don’t think it too far off. My brother suggested setting up a cross over point. At the moment the fronts are playing full range ( it was easier to get it going quickly ) It has nice clear vocals, instruments sound really good. I am amazed how much bass the Dyns are producing in this setup. The subs add low end volume to complete the sound. Once setup properly should work well.
As a little extra I’ve added puddle lighting to the doors. This required an extra wire though the door for power ( hooked into the interior lights ). I have also prepared the wiring to added the Z4 extended lighting into the door handles. This will be an orange glow on the inside under the handle.
White wire added to pin location 1.
Up next will be to changing the signal processor to an Audison bit Ten D. This will add EQ functionality
Hi Richard
Had to ask you about the lc6i , do you just need to put one input in it and is rear speaker connection enough for the 3 outputs to connect for rear speakers and woofer output ? How's the quality like ?
I've installed a simple hi level converter from the rear speaker connection to a 12" sub the sound quality is really rubbish .
Any suggestions would be helpful as im thinking of getting a new head unit
Thanks
Had to ask you about the lc6i , do you just need to put one input in it and is rear speaker connection enough for the 3 outputs to connect for rear speakers and woofer output ? How's the quality like ?
I've installed a simple hi level converter from the rear speaker connection to a 12" sub the sound quality is really rubbish .
Any suggestions would be helpful as im thinking of getting a new head unit
Thanks
Richard! said:
I think it should work since the unit has LED's that state 'Connected to Main Channel'. >> http://images.sonicelectronix.com/images/285589/big/lc6i-gray.jpg I don't have the manual anymore so I cant check how this would be done.
I didn't try running it like that since I had the wires already in place from installing the front speakers. I had the 6x9 subs running of the rear signal for years and was very happy with it. I did breily run the the new front speakers / amp with the LC6i. For the brief time I had it like that it sounded quite good.
I have since installed an audison bit Ten D. It sets a base EQ from whatever the HU outputs, that cleans any factory sound fudgery ( yeah thats a word
). Sound is pretty good like this. I have a loose plan to use the optical input on the bit Ten, that way I can send uncompressed audio directly to the sound processor. Its a future plan.
I didn't try running it like that since I had the wires already in place from installing the front speakers. I had the 6x9 subs running of the rear signal for years and was very happy with it. I did breily run the the new front speakers / amp with the LC6i. For the brief time I had it like that it sounded quite good.
I have since installed an audison bit Ten D. It sets a base EQ from whatever the HU outputs, that cleans any factory sound fudgery ( yeah thats a word
). Sound is pretty good like this. I have a loose plan to use the optical input on the bit Ten, that way I can send uncompressed audio directly to the sound processor. Its a future plan.A little update:
Alternator whine
booo... So yeah had that, after a fair amount of looking around and testing i found that the following items help to pretty much eliminate it .
- Moving the earth point for the amps directly to the battery.
- Moving everything as far away from the 0 gauge starter / alternator cable in the battery area.
- Adding a little EM shielding to the short speaker cable run in the boot where the is a power cable.
Also had great fun locating a battery drain issue. At first I thought it was related to the audio install however even with that disconnected no change. In the end it was due to my GapTech softtop module keeping the car from going to sleep. Also the Dice iPod link preventing the stereo from shutting down completely. ( which kept the amps on for a big drain on the battery something like 4/5 amps )
The Dice iPod link has been fixed by cutting the permanent 12v connection and installing a relay that is activated by an accessory ignition cable. The link will turn on when the key is put in position one in the ignition.
I've not got a solution for the GapTech module so for now have just removed the fuse for the lighter socket. ( this removed the modules power ) I suspect that the module has failed as it worked really well so far. I will look at this later in the year once I take the hard top off.
Car happily sits at 20mA now once asleep so wont have any more issue with a flat battery. See chart below, the bit at the start is me testing the audio system. The logger was left on overnight to see how the battery discharges over a longer period of time. When it was run initially the current draw when up and down all night between 0.5 / 1.2 amps.
Alternator whine
booo... So yeah had that, after a fair amount of looking around and testing i found that the following items help to pretty much eliminate it .- Moving the earth point for the amps directly to the battery.
- Moving everything as far away from the 0 gauge starter / alternator cable in the battery area.
- Adding a little EM shielding to the short speaker cable run in the boot where the is a power cable.
Also had great fun locating a battery drain issue. At first I thought it was related to the audio install however even with that disconnected no change. In the end it was due to my GapTech softtop module keeping the car from going to sleep. Also the Dice iPod link preventing the stereo from shutting down completely. ( which kept the amps on for a big drain on the battery something like 4/5 amps )
The Dice iPod link has been fixed by cutting the permanent 12v connection and installing a relay that is activated by an accessory ignition cable. The link will turn on when the key is put in position one in the ignition.
I've not got a solution for the GapTech module so for now have just removed the fuse for the lighter socket. ( this removed the modules power ) I suspect that the module has failed as it worked really well so far. I will look at this later in the year once I take the hard top off.
Car happily sits at 20mA now once asleep so wont have any more issue with a flat battery. See chart below, the bit at the start is me testing the audio system. The logger was left on overnight to see how the battery discharges over a longer period of time. When it was run initially the current draw when up and down all night between 0.5 / 1.2 amps.
