Audio upgrade in E60 535d

[karman1977]

The next big upgrade is to add a good amplifier (like the THA555) and drive the under-front-seat subs separately (as standard they are wired in with the front door speakers)

but from where then You took wires for those subs? why THA555, its 5channell amp, right?

can U explain a bit more about that, how You mean drive subs?

[99ron]

If it helps some folks, here's how I approached this.

Stage1 - Added the L7 tweeters in the doors. Easy upgrade for approx £100. 10 Mins a door. If you do nothing else, do this. Plenty advise on here about how to do it.

Stage2 - AMP! - I started with Blaupunkt THA275 located in the glove box but soon realised I needed to have it in the boot and wired to the battery, which seems like a scary job but not really that hard once you do the research. Hardest part was working out how to get cables through into the boot but some googling soon revealed the hidden quick release catches on the rear seat back accessible from the boot. I decided that having gone to the trouble of running cables into the boot I may as well get a 4 channel amp so I can do stage 3 later. So I bought a bargain Vibe litebox stereo 4 brand new for £150 from a well know auction site (there's more - go look:D). So I have the Vibe driving the front channels only currently with Tweeters, mids and Subs (Technically an ohms issue but seems just fine). Rears are on the head unit still. I used the blaupunkt 5M pnp cable and snipped the front plugs off to connect to the vibe and looped the rears back with the pnp connectors. There's other ways to connect but as I already had the loom it seemed the easiest option for now. Vibe obviously wires direct to the battery with nice AWG8 power cable. Finding trouble locating the AMP somewhere hidden in the boot of the E60 so its just screwed to the floor of the left side removable panel thingy for now.

If your doing an E60 with Auto - make sure you put it in drive before you disconnect the battery otherwise you can't get the head unit out to connect the pnp loom and can't move it out of park because you can't start the engine, cos you disconnected the battery

Stage 3 - Subs. Replace with the SWS-8 4ohms and wire to the spare rear channels on the amp with new speaker cables (removing the sill covers again isn't a big deal). I haven't done stage 3 yet but plan to later in the year when I can slip the cost past the missus. Guess I could have wired the existing subs in this way but wanted to wait to get the Earthquakes.

The Vibe is sweet and a massive massive difference to the sound quality and much better than the blaupunkts. I can't wait to get stage 3 done.

[kevman]

Im at the final stages of this upgrade on a UK spec E61 LCI (2008). Vibe 4 Litebox installed in boot, ran three wires down each side (intention being to take signal back from the underseat sub and to power new subs and existing door speakers with the last wire).

I read that it was a simple case of tracing the wire which goes in to the sub (blue/white and blue/brown) back to the sill where it splits the feed from HU between the sub and the door speakers.

My problem when doing the install of the SWS8's today is the sub wire actually traced back all the way to the bulkhead WITHOUT splitting. It seems the under seat sub is fed directly from HU or it splits much further back.

So now I am wondering what to do. My intention is to take the wire going into the existing sub and feed this in to the input to the amp.

I will then power the new SWS8 from the Vibe amp.

My question is will this work. Is the signal to the existing sub ok to use as a high input to the Vibe amp?

My second question is how do I now connect in the door speakers (I assume my feed wire from the sub is not going to supply high frequencies to the Vibe ?)

Hope someone can help .......

[gizze]

That's weird.

I am not sure if the signal is full range, I think it may be, the mid has a filter on it and the tweeter has another filter in line too, so all frequencies are filtered at the speaker.

Have you got a hifi speaker you could wire up quickly and see what happens??

I bet it is, so you could just go ahead and use the sub to fee the amp everything and then find the speaker wire and crimp onto that from the amp.

[kevman]

Good idea. I will connect a speaker in and see what happens. I noticed that the "sub" actually had at least mid frequencies going to it before I removed the wire.

If the mid in the door is filtered and I leave this in place but feed the new sub with the low pass filter from the Vibe, is there not a possibility there will be a frequency band effectively missing (because the BMW "sub" had some mids and its not gone).

I am wondering if i now need to get fresh components for the doors in other words to ensure the whole frequency band it there ???

[gizze]

From my very basics testing (using a frequency sweep cd) I think the under seat subs start to roll off at around 130hz, so quite high, and the door mids take over from there.

So when setting the vibe I would do a low pass on sub at 130 and the mids the same with a high pass, you can't tell the sub is so high as it is up front, if it were in the rear it would sound weird.

[kevman]

Tested as you suggested. The wires into the under seat sub does appear to be full frequency. I have now connected up the Vibe and its powering the under-seat Earthquakes. My problem is now how to tap into the door speakers. I am considering opening up the door panels and tapping from there. Is there an easier way ?

[99ron]

For those interested in L7 front tweeter installation - great guide here with pictures and some tips on buying from ebay.de

E60 / E61 Speaker Upgrade – Logic 7 Tweeter Retrofit DIY Guide

[DWJames]

Hi All

Some good info here

I've added Logic7/Tophifi tweeters and I'm very pleased with the results for such an easy plug and play job

I'm in a similar situation to Kevman's posts in that I'm just working out the specifics of wiring to add an amp in.

Here's my guess so far.... If someone could verify one way or another, that'd be great

I think that the wiring is similar to that of the 1 and 3 series as detailed in the BMW aftermarket amp install guide linked here:

OEM Alpine amp and speaker installation instructions - BMW 1 Series Coupe Forum / 1 Series Convertible Forum (1M / tii / 135i / 128i / Coupe / Cabrio / Hatchback) (BMW E82 E88 128i 130i 135i)

If so, it's almost as though it was designed for an amp to be introduced and there's no real need for a plug and play harness as the wiring job is simple.

This guide seems to suggest that under/near each door trim on both of the front doors, there is a point where the front speaker wires for each side meet. It appears that on each side there are 3 pairs of wires joined together:

Full range feed from the head unit

Wiring to the mid which links through to the tweeter if fitted

Wiring to the Sub

So, as standard, a full range feed comes from the stereo and is distributed to the front door and underseat speakers. This seems to be an ideal place to tap in and separate the wires needed for a 4 channel amp.

There's a high level feed from the head unit which can become the amp's high level input channel

Then, you can run 2 speaker cables down each side of the car and join 1 cable onto the wire running to the door speakers. Then the other could theoretically join to the speaker wiring going to the underseat sub, but I figure if you're running wires anyway and they're going to be higher power than the original and need different connectors for the new SWS8 speakers, it's worth just running those cables the extra foot or so, all the way to the new sub.

Then power wiring's easy as it's all in the boot and most amps with high level do an auto switch on so no remote wire is needed.

have I over simplified this or is it just that straightforward?

Also, does anyone have any opinion on whether I should run my 4 ohm SWS8 speakers as 2 seperate 4 ohm channels on the amp or wire them in parrallel to give one bridged mono 2ohm channel?

Thanks,

James

[kevman]

I have the subs and amp installed. Problem is finding a point to tap into the front /door speakers on my E61 LCI BMW. I need some help inspiration. Basically the wires going through into the door are very hard to get to to tap in (and its hard to id which ones are the correct ones). I was going to run a wire direct from the speakers (easy to tap into once the panel is off) but can do this as the wires going from the door through the body are connected through a solid plug.

All I need is somewhere to tap into the door speakers. I am now thinking the best point might be directly behind the unit in the dash. Would this be a plan ? How to identify which wires to tap into ? Is there an easier way ?

Cheers

[gizze]

Yeah you could do that.

Blaupunkt sell an adapter that is for their plug and play amps, you could buy that and splice into that, leaving the oem wiring intact.

[kevman]

Yeah you could do that.

Blaupunkt sell an adapter that is for their plug and play amps, you could buy that and splice into that, leaving the oem wiring intact.

Yup - was thinking of doing that. What would i need to do beyond connecting into the speaker wire of the Blanupunkt adaptor ?

I also had a thought that if I was doing this I might as well go the full hog and by the Plug n Play amp as well. Effectively having this powering the front door speakers (with the vibe just handing the under seat subs. Would this be sensible ?

[kevman]

Yup - was thinking of doing that. What would i need to do beyond connecting into the speaker wire of the Blanupunkt adaptor ?

I also had a thought that if I was doing this I might as well go the full hog and by the Plug n Play amp as well. Effectively having this powering the front door speakers (with the vibe just handing the under seat subs. Would this be sensible ?

Hoping for an answer before I go to buy the adaptor. Basically two questions :

1. If I connect the Blanupunkt adaptor into the back of the existing HU, I am clear that this will allow me to link into the speaker wires Im looking for. However does this not also mean I need to do something with the plug that would have gone into the Blanupnkt amplifier ??? Would it still work if I didn't ?

2. Would it be worth the hassle / money to go full hog and get the correct PlugnPlay amp ( and be left with the Blanupunkt driving the door speakers and the Vibe driving the subs) ?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

[mikoskin]

I have the subs and amp installed. Problem is finding a point to tap into the front /door speakers on my E61 LCI BMW. I need some help inspiration. Basically the wires going through into the door are very hard to get to to tap in (and its hard to id which ones are the correct ones). I was going to run a wire direct from the speakers (easy to tap into once the panel is off) but can do this as the wires going from the door through the body are connected through a solid plug.

Cheers

Actually, I've been working on the exact same problem (2009 E61 LCI audio wiring). At least on the passengers side footwell I managed to find the wires just below the glove compartment. The wires can be found within the black fabric (you need to slide the fabric up). There are two sets of connected wires (3x blue/white and 3x blue/brown) within heat shrink tubing. See the photo below (with temporary test connections).

Haven't done the drivers side yet but it I guess it isn't much worse.

[kevman]

Thanks - this is a great help. Did you have to cut into the wires to make the connection ? Also how did you select the appropriate pair for the door speakers ? (ie if you have three blue/white and three blue/brown, what are the pair I need to splice into). Part of my problem is i can get into the wires but dont know the appropriate colours for the LHS and RHS door speakers.

[mikoskin]

The wires (headunit-door speakers-sub) are actually connected together there. I just removed the heat shrink tubing and disconnected the wires from each other. You don't have to cut any wires. The door speaker wires are thinner than the ones coming from the head unit and subs.

The door speaker wire colours seem to be the same as the sub wire colours.

[kevman]

Thanks. This is great information. Still cant figure where the three sets of wires join together. See photo of wiring looms at glovebox side (RHD). See photo where I have stripped back the back tape (red circle on photo). I can see a twisted pair (blu/wt , blu /brn) which I think are going into the door and therefore the speakers im after. Where do the three pairs join relative to this ? I guess it might be further back (where the blue line is on the photo) ?

[kevman]

Quick update - all installed and working well. Front connection to speakers difficult on drivers side but doable .

All sounds great. Two bits of further advise please :

1. Sometimes at high volume, bass does not sound great on some tracks. Tuned the system with DMM / voltage out from speakers so pretty sure not over driving the subs. I was wondering if i should have left the standard grills OFF as there did not seem to be a lot of clearance.

2. My next upgrade options. Considering Morels with some door deadening OR JBL MS-8 sound processor. Any thoughts on which of these options would give the biggest bang for the buck ??? (in terms of improvement in SQ)

[Mook]

Gents, this is categorically NOT a thread for trading. Anything for sale or wanted goes in the General Marketplace, which has rules for posting.

Thanks

[carlejo]

Sorry mods. I was only asking for link to eBay if they were being sold on there. Will check classifieds on here. Once again, soryy

[kevman]

Fine. So I said accidentally I was going to sell xxxxx. But why then remove the rest of my post which was relevant to the question originally asked (which your have also removed). Taking your "mod" power a bit far............(guess this will be promptly deleted as well)

[99ron]

Hope this isn't against the rules - but where is everyone getting their SWS8's from? I have some on order from a UK supplier and after 3 weeks and taking my money - no product.

[kevman]

I got them from uk supplier online. Dont want to say who incase of a rule break.

[CarMad]

Guys relax, no trading but the rest is fine, it was just Mooks time of the month.

[carlejo]

Kevman. If you post your goods for sale in the classifieds, I'll have a look and see what I can do

Cheers

Carl