Biscuits Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 ORIGINAL POST BY GIZZE IN 1 SERIES THREAD: Mate, if you are going to upgrade the 5 series get the following... Blaupunkt THA-555 pnp amp. BMW plug and play cable with 5.5m extension. DLS R4 speakers. 2 earthquake SWS-8 subwoofers. (these guys make the BMW sub and it drops right in.) Totall cost around £600, it is all fitted without cutting a singe wire and it sounds absolutely fantastic. The locations of the BMW speakers is the best designed set up of any car, using the door sills as subwoofer cabinet is genius, plus having the subs up front intergrates the bass perfectly. I would now say to anyone speccing a new BMW to not add any audio upgrade and put this in. I always thought that the Logic 7 was just really good components for an OEM set up, but it is more the fact the stock locations are spot on and really do get the most out of them. Hi Gizze, Getting the kit priced up as we speak. Does the amp power the front and rear speakers as well, taking it away from the headunit amp ? Apparently (don't know for sure) the bog standard subs in the E60 are 6.5" not 8", as only the HiFi and Logic7 get 8". Any experience with this? Maybe if this is the case the 6.5" subs are in an adaptor ring? Cheers Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 The amp drives the 4 main speakers with 55w of clean power, (that is rms and all channels driven compared with 40w shared between all speakers as standard) and you get another mono channel that drives a sub (in the case fo the BMW the ones under the seat) with 250w into one or 125w into 2. The earthquake subs being only 8" run more than happily with 125W each, in fact they recommend no more than 150w. The cabinet that the oem subs sit in is the same for all systems, the only difference is the driver that is attached, the basic system and the hi-fi system use a 6.5" Philips driver and the Logic 7 uses an 8" driver. The subs are made for BMW by Earthquake in the USA, the SWS-8 uses the BMW surround, so it is a perfect fit (these are not compltely round). However, it is not airtight, they are bringing out a 2ohm version that can be driven off the Logic 7 system without an amp upgrade and I would suspect when this arrives they will also release a mounting ring to make it sit air tight. But for now you need to put sealant round the drivers basket before putting it into the cabinet, this will give you an airtight seal that then uses the door sills as cabinet volume. BMW have created simething very special here by using the sills as sub enclosure space, the best thing to happen to car audio since cars were invented. I don't know of anyone who sells these subs in the UK, I bought mine from New Jersey, around $280 shipped and £45 tax and duty. Having the sub up front allows you to cross over the front speakers at 150hz as you don't have to worry about that 'sound from the rear' effect you get with subs crossed over too high, and for the first time I have not felt I needed any time alignment to bring the bass/beats up front again, they are there, sat right up on the dash. You will probably find that simply adding the Logic 7 tweeters will be enough and the DLS R4 speakers are not needed, they are actually very good speakers, someone one a sound off using Genesis amps, alpine head unit and time alignment and the stock speakers. These are £30 a pair from your dealer and plug straight in. I love this system, my last system was... Alpine 9887 head unit with time alignment. Genesis amplification Rainbow Profi speakers up front. Aliante 10Si sub in a .6 cu ft sealed enclosure. This was a nice sounding sytem, however, I will say that withought having to speand hours setting up I have got a nicer overall sound from the BMW head unit driving the Blaupunkt amp, the DLS R4 speakers (1/3rd price of the Rainbows) and a pair of earthquake subs. Fitting the amp, and that includes running the harness to the boot down the passenger side under the carpet, took me 20 minutes. Running power cables to the battery takes 10 minutes, being a BMW with it in the boot is a godsend. While there I put in the 2 runs of speaker cable for the subs, and ran the bass volume cable (this is then routed into the pocket under the light switch for easy access to controlling the subs volume). Putting the subs in took an hour, I could probably do it again in 30 minutes. Total install time of no more than 3 hours and the car looks completely OEM. Job done!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 Should just add, this applies to all new BMW's including the 1 seires, 3 series, 5 and 6 series, X3 and X5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted April 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 Should just add, this applies to all new BMW's including the 1 seires, 3 series, 5 and 6 series, X3 and X5. I'm assuming your in the car audio trade then Gizze Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 No, clothing and footwear game!! I do love my music though, and I'm a sucker for gadgets and hi-fi/home cinema kit. But like to do it myself, whether it is calibrating a sound system or isf'ing the display, and like to put the kit in my cars too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted April 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 Having AV as a hobby is probably 10 times better than having it as a profession! I may need some pointers when it comes to fitting/wiring the subs and amp in. Think I'll get the L7 tweeters. I'm guessing the current sub wiring is made redundant, if you ran new speaker cable ? Cheers Paul+++ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 Having AV as a hobby is probably 10 times better than having it as a profession! Absolutely mate, been there and done that, took me 5 years to get back into enjoying it again. Having said that, I have sold my Meridian transport and AV Processor, Classé CAV-180 multi channel amp, Crystalio II video processor, one of my Rel subs, and downgraded the speakers from Dunlavey Audio Labs to smaller versions and just have a Panasonic commercial screen and an Onkyo 875 intergrated amp. And I am now back to enjoying films again rather than looking at everything that could be improved by just spending another grand here or another couple of grand there. Much better. I take it you sell AV then?? Of course I can talk you through it, it really is dead easy, but you need to do it before you realise, my stuff has been sat there for weeks, kept putting it off thinking it was going to be a real pain. I took loads of photos of the install so I can put up a 'How-to.." if anyone is interested? Have you got tweeter grills in the trim of your car?? They are behind the wing mirror?? If not you need to buy new trims. These are £15 each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 he cabinet that the oem subs sit in is the same for all systems, the only difference is the driver that is attached, the basic system and the hi-fi system use a 6.5" Philips driver and the Logic 7 uses an 8" driver.The subs are made for BMW by Earthquake in the USA, the SWS-8 uses the BMW surround, so it is a perfect fit (these are not compltely round). However, it is not airtight, they are bringing out a 2ohm version that can be driven off the Logic 7 system without an amp upgrade and I would suspect when this arrives they will also release a mounting ring to make it sit air tight. Does this mean I can put better subs in my Logic7 equipped 3 series in place of the OEM units? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 The ones that they are releasing shortly, will be 2ohm and designed specifically for doing just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 Great stuff, if they are plug and play then I'm well up for that How do you get to them under the front seats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 You need to undo the 4 big hex bolts that hold the seat in place, tilt seat back, remove grille and take out the sub. Swap the driver over and do back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 sounds like something even I could manage, is there a link for where I can order them from? I've added a sub of some variety to nearly every car I've owned - will this pair of replacements make a big difference to the Logic7 standard fitments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 The direct replacements (2ohm version) are not out yet. A month or so as yet. I would wait and see what people say first, I think the L7 sub is quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted April 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 I take it you sell AV then?? Have you got tweeter grills in the trim of your car?? They are behind the wing mirror?? If not you need to buy new trims. These are £15 each. I'm not in AV as such, part own a lighting control manufacturing company... fancy dimmers. Press a button and all your lights com on, curtains open, etc... just google Rako Controls. I have the tweeter grills in the door/mirror location, so should be able to get the L7 ones in without any reworking. If you do get chance to do a "How to guide..." it would be very much appreciated... always better to work from pictures and a "FOR GOD SAKE DO NOT TRY AND TAKE THIS BIT OF TRIM OFF!" kind of guide Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 The direct replacements (2ohm version) are not out yet. A month or so as yet. I would wait and see what people say first, I think the L7 sub is quite good. Cheers, will keep an eye out for reports Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted April 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 Cheers, will keep an eye out for reports You should sort the ecu before the subs Bazza... £350 very well spent on mine... you know you want to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 Haha, agreed. That's interesting Paul, how do your prices compare with Creston and Lutron??? What do you use as a control panel?? Do you have guys who will come and programme the systems on site working along side custom a/v installers?? Sorry for all the questions, we were talking about lighting systems last night, something in the pipeline, so I may be able to pass a company onto you mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted April 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 Haha, agreed. That's interesting Paul, how do your prices compare with Creston and Lutron??? What do you use as a control panel?? Do you have guys who will come and programme the systems on site working along side custom a/v installers?? Sorry for all the questions, we were talking about lighting systems last night, something in the pipeline, so I may be able to pass a company onto you mate. Creston and Lutron Homeworks are about 30% more that our whole house product. Just a simple fact of our system being based on more upto date components and dimming technology has come down in price over the past 15 years. Our system uses wireless push button 'scene' controllers, giving 4 scenes, off and fade up/down. Additional control is available using infrared or more comonly with Crestron/AMX/Netstreams/Etc RS232. Our systems are frequently "behind the scenes" with a Crestron front end. We ditribute our products through a network of AV/CEDIA installers, most of which will know (if not use) our products. If you want any help/advice let me know. paul at rakocontrols dot com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 Excellent, I will pass your details on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 Pictorial for the amp install.... http://www.tyresmoke.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1312474 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted April 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Pictorial for the amp install....http://www.tyresmoke.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1312474 That is excellent ! I'm guessing in the 5, you remove the climate controls, and the connections you show going into the BMW Business Headunit, will be in the back of the two-slot CD/DVD player (as I have iDrive) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Yeah, you remove the alumnium/wood trim, pull away starting at the passenger side. Then slide the climate out. You then put a long screwdriver down behind the radio either side and pop it out. I will find a pdf for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Well you have it out I would also put in a female lighter socket into the ciggy lighter power and ground using crimps, and tuck this down under the steering wheel trim. This makes hardwiring a camer detecter or anything else a complete breeze at a later date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandle Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 I assume you guys doing this upgrade already have cars with the Hi-Fi speaker upgrade? If not how have you split the feed from the underseat speakers to the front door speakers as I've read they are wired in parallel. Also have you added the tweeter in the grill by the door mirrors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 This upgrade is for cars that do not have the hi-fi upgrade. If you have the hi-fi upgrade you can buy any 3 or 5 channel amp that takes a balanced level input, blaupunkt, Audison and I think DLS from memory, and use the cables that went into the oem amp, simply chop that amp out and wire the new amp in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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