Speaker Repair - Sonic improvement

[Pedro Rabie]

Hello World,

You know, I was wondering for two years how was possible that a luxury sedan as the 740 could have such horrible sound system. Well, happens that I discovered today that the sound system is very good, you only need to have working speakers!! :eek:

Indulge me and allow me to share what I learned today:

I took of the door panels and discovered that my 98' 740 has a three way speaker system in the front doors and two way speakers in the rear doors.

The speakers systems are composed of:


** Front (per door): One 5-1/4” dual voice coil 4+4 ohms woofer, one 1-1/2” 8 ohms midrange and one 1/2” 8 ohms tweeter. I’m guessing that the second voice coil is related to a negative feedback loop because no power came through those cables.

** Rear (per door): One 5-1/4”, dual voice coil 4+4 ohms woofer and one 1” 4 ohm tweeter.


This is a sample of what came out of my 740 today. Please note the woofer and the two different tweeters

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/IMG_0702.jpg


Considering that my two front midranges were OK and I had a pair of boxes of Focal 130 A1 component speaker sets,
sleeping for months in my warehouse, I decided to give them a try. There is NO use for the crossovers.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/focal.jpg


I’m not going to explain how to remove the door panels because is very well explained in www.e38.org (http://www.e38.org/), so after removing the panels I decided to remove the front doors tweeters that were producing almost no sound.

First you just pull out the tweeter with the help of a screwdriver, mine just desintegrated in my hand

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/IMG_0693.jpg


And then you remove the plastic basket that holds it.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/IMG_0692.jpg


After removing them, I removed two plastic pins that remained using my dremel.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/IMG_0694.jpg



Then I fixed the tweeters with a good binary (Two components) adhesive allowing some minutes to cure

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/IMG_0696.jpg


Then wired the new tweeters respecting the wire polarity (marked wire with marked wire), isolating them with tape.

And then replaced the 5-1/4” woofers that remained in the door. You must notice that the OEM woofers has 4 wires joined in
two pairs and the focal speakers only has 2 connections. Just choose a pair and try if the speaker sounds.
The pair that remains unconnected must be isolated with tape. Reuse the foam cap.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/IMG_0700.jpg


While testing be careful of not touching metal parts with the speaker wires or short circuiting some connections.
Three of my 4 woofers were working but considering they were 10 years old, I decided to change them all.
The rear doors had larger tweeters that required additional care to be removed, because if you applied too much force
there’s a risk of breaking the plastic support. Otherwise is pretty similar to the front doors.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee429/pedrorabie/Speakers/IMG_0701.jpg


Then reinstall the door panels and voila!!! The highs will be bright again and you’ll be amazed by the good quality of the sound.

Please just expect clean and honest bass from a 5-1/4 woofer, if you look for loud bass then start thinking in a sub woofer.

I was so happy that I drove for two hours just to listen the “new” sound system.
:redspot:redspot:alright:alright


Best Regards


Pedro


PD: I'll include some more photos tomorrow.

[IcemanBHE]

More pics of those shoes. :D

Good Job Pedro...

:thumbup:

[April445]

I'd like to upgrade my sound system soon. :)

[Pedro Rabie]

I shaved my legs just for this ocassion.

Regards

Pedro

[Sarvinder]

Awesome install Pedro, and choice on the components.

[Pedro Rabie]

I'd like to upgrade my sound system soon. :)


Upgrading your sound system it is a very hard task if you are an e38 owner my dear friend...

Regards

Pedro

[April445]

Not exactly upgrade, just replace the speakers like he did with newer speakers. ;)

[Pedro Rabie]

Awesome install Pedro, and choice on the components.

Thank you. Tomorrow I'll include some more pictures that I noticed should clarify the process, also I would edit some of the already posted because need to look a little bit more "pro".

Regards

Pedro


Not exactly upgrade, just replace the speakers like he did with newer speakers. ;)

If you are talented enough to remove door panels, then this task is a piece of cake.

Regards

P.

[April445]

It really is, I've seen videos on how to remove the door panels and how it's just one screw, then after that it's just pretty much pulling and tugging, making sure the light on the bottom goes through okay, making sure the window buttons are out of the way, and pulling it over the lock. I say anyone can do it.

But more importantly, how much better did the sound become? =]

[novasol]

Not exactly upgrade, just replace the speakers like he did with newer speakers. ;)

Exactly. I doubt they sound better than good working stock ones using the existing amp and head unit. It's a no brainer though if yours are shot and you just happen to have a nice set of Focals lying around.

Good job Pedro, glad you got your sound system up to snuff.

[Pedro Rabie]

But more importantly, how much better did the sound become? =]

Let's put it this way, my 4 tweeters and one of my woofers were blown. No matter the quality of the source I was hearing something like the AM radio. I'm a audiophile and also an electronics professional, so you can imagine my frustration.

The sound quality now is like the one you find in modern luxury cars. That is very good. I'm extremely happy and that's way I'm writing this at 3:44 am. I thing I should go to sleep now.

Regards, I'll be back in a few ours.

Pedro