[IdTamer]

Originally Posted by Amgeater2

Ok so updates, we ended up with regular 6x9 Alpine and all I can say is Wow... Very very happy with the results just right amount of bass.

We had to do a little bit of trimming on the outside edges of the 6x9 so it will mount on the factory bracket but other than that it was a very easy installation, IMO a must so do upgrade on the car.

Any chance for a quick walk through DIY and a link to the sub purchased?

Need something to scratch the modding itch

[Amgeater2]

Originally Posted by IdTamer

Any chance for a quick walk through DIY and a link to the sub purchased?

Need something to scratch the modding itch

I guess I can make one later today or tomorrow..

[skinrock]

So...an unfortunate and interesting update from Bavsound, they are recommending *not* to attempt to do the Stage 1 upgrade yourself, but to have a dealer do it. He's saying it's a lot more involved than "you'd probably want to deal with".

I definitely don't want to pay dealer prices for this, though.

[skinrock]

Quick note - something I didn't even consider. I assumed the stock speakers were 4 ohm, but the 6x9 woofer is in fact 2 ohms. I didn't know BMW typically goes with 2 ohm drivers.

[IdTamer]

Originally Posted by Amgeater2

I guess I can make one later today or tomorrow..

Appreciate it, thanks!

[skinrock]

Put in a CDT ES-0690 GOLD tonight. Same problem - the bracket is going to have to be trimmed. I plan on using my dremel and just putting in a slit around the corners where it's hitting.

Separating the stock speaker was a bit tough - gotta be careful not to snap the bracket. They used a really sticky seal, but once you get part of it loose, you can just push the speaker out slowly.

The CDT definitely adds some good thump. I think it would still benefit from a full BavSound upgrade...and an amp upgrade would be amazing, but this alone provided the missing bass.

[skinrock]

In order to fit the CDT, I had to trim quite a bit. Basically the top and bottom of the frame stick out, so you need to cut a slit on both ends of the bracket.

It doesn't really impact the bracket too much, although it made snapping in the grill a little funky because it wanted to just bend due to lack of support. The grill is snapped in, though.

[IdTamer]

skinrock Thanks for the install pics. The CDT ES-0690 GOLD seems like a nice speaker but it has mixed reviews on Amazon. What made you decide to go with it rather than something you would not have to trim as much?

[Amgeater2]

Originally Posted by IdTamer

skinrock Thanks for the install pics. The CDT ES-0690 GOLD seems like a nice speaker but it has mixed reviews on Amazon. What made you decide to go with it rather than something you would not have to trim as much?

Oh I see what he did you (skinrock) trimmed the plastic housing/mounting bracket of the speaker on car... , I didn't do that I trimmed the speaker to fit the housing/mounting bracket.

Any how can you give us a Bass review of the CDT ??

[skinrock]

Originally Posted by IdTamer

skinrock Thanks for the install pics. The CDT ES-0690 GOLD seems like a nice speaker but it has mixed reviews on Amazon. What made you decide to go with it rather than something you would not have to trim as much?

Well you don't know how much trimming any one speaker will require. As the other poster alluded to, he trimmed his Alpine to get it to fit. I went with CDT because I owned them in the past, and was always happy. As far as I know, they are one of the few dedicated 6x9 woofers...the rest are coaxial.

You can't expect the world from a single under-powered 6x9, especially in an infinite baffle configuration. That said, it's a definite improvement over stock. I can actually feel the delivery now instead of cringing when the paper cone distorts under load. It doesn't really kick in until higher volumes, which is why I think an amp upgrade would really complete the package.

The difference alone makes me want to upgrade the rest of the speakers.

[ElSpa]

do you notice the upgrade at normal level ? let's say 50% ? or do you have to turn up the volume to feel the new speaker ?

I'm asking because I tried an upgrade with a 6.5" JL subwoofer with a plate adapter and I had to really turn it up to hear the new bass. At normal levels it was actually inferior to the factory speaker. I end up reinstalling the oem 6x9.

[skinrock]

Originally Posted by ElSpa

do you notice the upgrade at normal level ? let's say 50% ? or do you have to turn up the volume to feel the new speaker ?

I'm asking because I tried an upgrade with a 6.5" JL subwoofer with a plate adapter and I had to really turn it up to hear the new bass. At normal levels it was actually inferior to the factory speaker. I end up reinstalling the oem 6x9.

Which is why an amp upgrade is necessary.

The RMS of these are much higher. The higher mass and thicker materials...gonna need more power to get it moving. It's not surprising it's less than ideal at lower volumes. So to your question, it's not really noticeable until I crank it up - but then again, that's why I got it.

Once I get the car back, I might start poking around and seeing what options there are.

[ElSpa]

great, let us know

[LT]

I installed a JL Audio ACS110LG in my wife's '17 Rex with HK and holy hell does her system rock socks. Sounds amazing. Incredible.
Phenomenal!!!

[Orange fever]

Originally Posted by LT

I installed a JL Audio ACS110LG in my wife's '17 Rex with HK and holy hell does her system rock socks. Sounds amazing. Incredible.
Phenomenal!!!

do have any pics like to do that to my Rex too.

[Iain123]

I've found these old threads really useful!

I’m currently in the midst of upgrading mine and went for the easy options first but it’s not been as simple as I hoped.

I didn’t really want to change the door speakers as I was concerned about adding more weight to the doors and thought the rear speakers looked much simpler to change – first mistake!

I bought some Audison Prima APBMW K4M component plug and play speakers for the rears. These look good quality and have the advantage of being a direct fitment. However, at £270 you pay for that privilege and I’m not sure they are worth it – not that there is much competition in the 4” speaker market but I might go for the similarly priced Focal equivalent next time. Fitting looked easy......but was a bit of a ball ache. You have to be quite vicious with the head lining to get access to a couple of the mounting bolts but its easy once you’ve done one side. (I’ll add some pictures once I’ve finished the install). I left the speaker wires easily accessible to allow wiring an after market amp later so I don’t have to remove them again.

With the new rear speakers installed there was disappointingly little improvement with the stock HK amp. The high frequency’s sounded better but little else. (the rears aren’t enclosed like the doors which probably impacts the performance)

So turned attention to the sub. There is little to no choice for 6x9” subs that fit in the existing space and as I had a 8” Alpine 400watt (120rms) lying around the house I thought I’d get it to fit. I used a rectangular section of 19mm attic floor chipboard, with chamfered edges, a circle cut in it, and covered with self-adhesive felt tape from ebay. By drilling 4 new holes through the existing plastic sub box and using 4 bolts it fits and looks fine. (also making sure it can go back to stock easily) I was expecting the weak stock Harmen Kardon amp would struggle to drive this but it does and offered a slight improvement but again not much.

So now going for more power! Choice of amp is the hard bit. I didn’t want to start dragging battery supply cables from the front hood so I choose the low power Pioneer GM-D1004 4channel 400Watts (4x45w rms into 4Ohm). This has the advantage of accepting speaker inputs, being only 7” long, auto power on/off and being able to power it from the cigarette lighter socket under the arm rest. This is also small enough so it can probably be mounted under the plastic ‘parcel shelf’ trim at the back or even within the sub speaker enclosure itself. (but its currently sitting on the back seat until I’ve checked it doesn’t get too warm)

After a lot of head scratching, what I found is that the Hardon Kardon amp disables channels if it doesn’t see a speaker and by wiring in my amp to the HK speaker wires it didn’t offer enough resistance to fool it. So I've wired in 150 Ohm resistors across each input and it finally works.

Where I’m at now…..

The new amp is wired with input channels 1&2 for the 2 rears speakers and input channels 3&4 are both wired in parallel from the sub speaker(with 150Ohm resistor) . Amp outputs 3&4 are then bridged to drive a single sub output of 90W rms.

The rear stereo speakers now sound fine and clear but I still have too little bass from the sub. Questions;

1) By using the sub speaker input in parallel to both channels 3&4 have I weakened the signal too much?
2) Should I get a lower power, more efficient sub speaker?
3) Should I ditch the amp or just get a mono amp to drive only the sub?

Any suggestions welcome!

[Nachbar]

Originally Posted by skinrock

Which model exactly? I just realized the CDT speakers are pairs...

+1 please let us know

[Msizzle]

great info here

[Iain123]

(Continued)

I fixed the poor bass after realising my new 4 channel Amplifier was switched to accept only 2 source inputs so was only ‘looking’ at the signals from the rear mid range parcel shelf speakers for the 'sub' source. (I suspect the BMW HK rears have had the bass signal ALLREADY filtered out by the HK amp). Switching my new amp to accept 4 inputs, fixed this and it now ‘looks’ at channels 1&2 to drive the stereo rears and channel 3&4 to generate a bridged output for the sub (both amp inputs 3&4 are wired in parallel from the rear sub HK speaker signal and the amp channel outputs 3&4 are bridged to create a single sub output)

As for routing and amp location, I gave up looking for space in the rear. Yes, you could maybe fit the amp under the rear parcel shelf plastic or the rear seat side panel (under the rear seat belt ) but both would require a fair bit of plastic hacking. So I bit the bullet and ran all my speaker cables forward towards the front fuse box under the glove box. This has the advantage of lots of power sources with piggyback type fuse holders or the use of the 20amp fused cigar lighter under the glove box – which is what I used (although not many earth points) This allows me to easily unplug or switch off the amp if necessary. (I bought a male plug with integrated switch)

It was easy enough to run the cables and I used the link below to help remove the panels
https://bmwi.bimmerpost.com/forums/s...light=SPEAKERS

I drilled a hidden hole in the top of the BMW plastic sub box for the sub speaker wire to run up and under the plastic parcel shelf, before joining the 4 rear speaker wires and all routed down the passenger side of the car.

Currently my mini amp is ‘temporarily’ taped on top of the fuse box cover so hidden from view and plugged into the (20amp fused) cigar lighter under the glovebox with a male plug with a switch on the top. You could mount the amp directly to the underside the plastic glove box.) Note, I did run the amp on the seat for a few weeks to judge how hot it got but it never got above slightly warm.

You can only vary the amount of gain going to the amp and sub using the BMW media fade front/rear setup. There is now a reasonably good bass signal to drive my oversized sub and for the first time, I have to turn down the bass from the media controls.

Issues :
I was getting a small amount of mobile phone ‘comms’ interference on first start up (you know, that blipping modem type noise?) and what I thought was a wheel bearing going when running electric only but what turned out to be the amp picking up some faint speed based interference. I tidied up the cables under the fuse box and this has helped. I’m also finding the ‘sport mode’ and rear parking beeps now a little too loud! (Aaargh…. this isn’t controlled by the media front/rear fade control!) and obviously, you don’t get rear parking beeps with the amp switched off......BUMP.

What I may do:
1) The amp is probably just sufficient for my needs with just enough power. I may ditch this amp and get a mono amp just to drive the sub as driving the rear parcel speakers is probably not necessary given they appear to be just upper frequency’s. This amp is certainly nice and compact and easy to power.
2) Replace the door speakers and try my amp on those.
3) Replace the sub speaker with a lower powered more efficient model.

Pictures:

Rear sub & felt tape covered chipboard mounting. (Pleased with it as it doesn't really stand out as a mod)

Underside of Glove box fuse box panel with amp ‘temporarily’ taped in position (adjacent to the heater vent cutouts)

Plastic glove box underside with flexible plastic heater vents– you can see the cigar lighter position orientates the photo.

Fuse box panel refitted with cigar lighter plug

[askmeaboutkfc]

Does anyone here have the 2019 i8? There is now 12 speakers advertised. My 2015 has 11. Where was the extra speaker added?

[zorgzx]

Originally Posted by skinrock

Put in a CDT ES-0690 GOLD tonight. Same problem - the bracket is going to have to be trimmed. I plan on using my dremel and just putting in a slit around the corners where it's hitting.

Separating the stock speaker was a bit tough - gotta be careful not to snap the bracket. They used a really sticky seal, but once you get part of it loose, you can just push the speaker out slowly.

The CDT definitely adds some good thump. I think it would still benefit from a full BavSound upgrade...and an amp upgrade would be amazing, but this alone provided the missing bass.

Thanks for providing this valuable information. Looking into upping the sub quality in my car as well.

One question thou, the CDT ES-0690 GOLD, when I look it up: it's a 4 OHM speaker no ? I'm no car audio guy, but if you add a better speaker with more resistance, I guess the quality of the unit will give you slightly better sound, but as the AMP has levels adjusted for a 2 OHM unit, I guess it would be a bit underpowered thru the range from the amp?

So perhaps a better route would be a 2 ohm, higher quality 6x9, regardless if it's coaxial or not? the amp filter would only send the lower freq to it anyway so the coaxial should not matter ?

PS: Just purchased a B&O equipped RS4 for wife, and now I really need an upgrade for the i8 HK stereo. first world problems.

[char1982]

I want to replace my 6x9. How do you disconnect the main battery?