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This place said they could repair my 5 1/4 inch OEM spakers for $31 each. I think maybe I'll go that route. The OEM speakers have better bass than the ones I installed, but I don't know the watt rating for the OEM speakers, in-case I want to boost them a little. What to do? What to do?
http://dixiespeaker.com/pages/repair-shipping-form
Does anyone know the channel watt rating for the OEM amp?
Last edited by DuWop; 09-29-2014 at 02:12 PM.
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Just bought a 2001 Z3 with low mileage at a very good price...but needed some work (replaced various hoses, seats, front bumper, convertible motor, fixing leaks etc.). I noticed the audio system was lacking in sound and bass, but I did not want to invest in a lot of money to do a complete upgrade because of the money I've already dished out for other fixes. After reading other posts on this Forum about stereo upgrades, I've opted to just replace the head unit and speakers and keep the OEM Radio and subwoofer Amps. Here is my experience that may help others:
Head Unit (HU) - I replaced an older aftermarket HU that had no Bluetooth with a Kenwood HD radio. Affter reading various posts there are two types of connectors that could be used (Low level RCA connector or Line Level). The Existing unit had line level connector, but I wanted to try the RCA connector to see if it made a difference.... It did not. I had to turn the volume up to max and still not getting much sound out of it. I went back to the line level connector and sound was much better but still lacking bass. I'm now convinced that the RCA connector type is not compatible with the OEM Amps.
Subwoofer - Thanks to all the posts on this topic, I've opted to go with the 6.75" Kicker Sub. Yes, this will have to be modified (Grinding of edges) to fit the OEM single subwoofer enclosure. The reason I was lacking bass was that the previous owner had a “no name” single voice coil subwoofer at 8ohms. The Kicker is a dual voice coil at 4 ohms (As with the original OEM subwoofer). Grinding was done with a Dremel. Little bit of work required but take your time and you will get a professional finish. Next, I added some additional poly fill to the enclosure and connected the existing wires. There are two sets of wires (Red +/Black-) for one voice coil and (Green+/Gray-) for the other voice coil. The last step was to make sure I had a good seal buy purchasing some 1/2” foam weather stripping at Home Depot and placed it on the underside circumference of the speaker. Place the speaker in the whole and tighten down the screws. The results were significant upgrade in bass. I now needed to turn it down!
Rear Speakers - These were straight forward…I replaced the OEM with Kicker 4” speakers. This is a perfect fit with no modifications. I cut the wires that were soldered to the posts and spliced the new connection wires (provided by Kicker). Note; the wires are solid green and green with black stripe. Despite common wisdom thinking that the green/black was negative…I was wrong. After stumbling around online, the green/black is POSITIVE. I’ve tested this out and noticed that the sound was better with green/black connected to positive.
Front Speakers – I opted to replace the kick panel speakers only. The tweeter and mid-range speakers in the doors seemed ok and will be replaced at some later point. Another big reason why I was not getting good bass was that the kick panel speakers were deteriorated! Only the cone in the middle was left. The outer paper material was gone and crumbled!
The kick panel low range speakers are 5.25” 2ohm rated. Finding 5.25” 2ohm speakers at reasonable price was difficult. The majority of the speakers are 4 ohms. I preferred not to go 4ohm because of the decible drop that will be experienced going from 2ohm to 4 ohms. However, I did find 5.25” Infinity component Speakers (woofer and tweeter) at 3 ohm that would not have a significant decibel drop. These were plug and play the connectors were not soldered like the rear. The bigger connection post is positive and smaller post negative. The speaker screw holes lined up but there was a very slight gap between the kick panel a speaker. However, I was able to eliminate this gap with the ½” foam weather stripping.
Fine Tuning - After replacement of the HU and speakers the sound had a night and day difference! However, fine tuning of the HU will be required to meet your needs. My HU had a 13-band equalizer that I used to tailor the sound. My recommendation is to not turn on any Loudness or Bass Boost controls. For crossover control, let all frequency through. Your Amps already have built in crossover no need to reduce it any further. If you adjust your equalizer accordingly… you can tailor your sound
Bottom line I spent less then $300….Maybe some day I will replace my amps but for now, it meets my needs even with the top down! Enjoy the ride!
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Can you give me the model numbers of the sub, rear and kick panel speakers? Were your old speakers HK?Originally Posted by delvec
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Campy, here are the model numbers
6.75" Sub: Kicker 43CWRT672
4 "Rear: Kicker 43CSC44
5.25 Kick Panel: Infinity 5020CX
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Thanks for the info but when I looked them up at Crutchfield they say the rear and kicker speakers do not fit.
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Which rear speakers do you have. The 4” or the 2.25”. I have the 4” and went with Alpine S series. They fit the stock mount pattern and the stock grills still work
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I respect Crutchfield...but I can assure you the Kicker 4" speakers fit the existing mount pattern and hole size and they are practically identical in depth/size to the existing HK rear speakers.
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The rear speaker fitment depends on the year of your vehicle. A 4" speaker would never fit in a '98. It should in a 2001 with the HK system.
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They fit.
So do the Rockford Fosgate ones. Crutchfield also said mine didn't fit.
Funny story .... I ordered the Rockford Fosgate ones thinking my car had OEM speakers in the back only to find ..... someone had already installed the same d@mn Rockford Fosgate speakers ....
needless to say ... I swapped them anyway and now the box I ordered mine in have the same speakers sitting in it that are ... not very old,... but I don't know how old.
If you pay shipping you can have them.
Zed's dead baby. Zed's dead.
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PM'd
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I ordered the Kicker sub and should have it Monday. I understand these have to be modified to fit so does anyone know what has to be done?
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I can only speak specifically about my HK equipped 2002 3.0 roadster (there are a lot of other stock sound system variations for different years/models). My setup has a plastic box bolted inside the subwoofer compartment that the sub itself is screwed to. The box has large protrusions at the sides of the subwoofer, allowing only enough room for the stock size. Those were the problem areas for me (because the mounting ring of the kicker is wider) as well as some of the plastic structure around the back of the kicker.
I did a lot of grinding on the sides of the kicker mounting ring (a lot more than I would have liked, to the point of questioning the structural effects on the speaker). If I had to do it over I would probably get a heat gun and re-form the protrusions on the plastic box so they are out of the way enough. You might still have to do a little grinding (and also the plastic on the back of the kicker) but it would be a lot less invasive.
Anyway once you get the stock sub out and try to fit the kicker onto the plastic box you'll see where it doesn't fit (assuming you have the 1 sub, plastic box setup like me).
If you have a roadster, you might check this out before trying to open the subwoofer compartment lid:
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...tails-and-pics
Last edited by raubritter; 04-20-2019 at 11:02 AM.
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Yes, The Kicker sub will need grinding. If you don't have a bench top grinder, use a Dremel with a stone grinding bit. The Kicker sub has a black plastic ring on the outside where the screws go through. I 've read that some have grinded the ring and metal together. I opted to remove the black plastic ring. If you decide to take off the ring, it is glued in place. You will need a hair dryer to loosen up the glue and a knife to pry the ring from underneath. take you time and continue to work around the ring and keep prying off at the lip...Let the heat work for you...be careful not to pry aggressively or you may break the ring. Once the ring is off , begin your grinding on the speaker metal at the 3:00 and 9:00 positions. When done use the Dremel cutting wheel and cut the plastic ring accordingly at the 3 and 9. Lastly, you will see some protrusions in the bottom inside of the sub box...use your cutting wheel and grind/scrap them off this will give you a little more depth. Put the ring back on and screw in place..your done.
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I received the sub today and that model is a 2 ohm not 4 ohm. Here is a picture of what is stamped on my sub box. Will this work or do I send it back?
sub woofer.jpg
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Meter the coils of the stock speaker for resistance to verify what you need.
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I have the exact sub box. When you wire the red and black to one coil and the green and gray to the other coil it will be wired for 4ohm.
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Just a follow up on my sub. I stopped by a Kicker dealer and they had the older version 40cwrt672 which is a smaller unit than the one that replaced it. One of their guys took my sub box and modified it by using a torch to heat it and then he pushed it inward and then filed a little. It was still not sitting all way down but once you remove the ridges on the bottom it sits pretty good. Here are a couple of pictures.
IMG_1162.jpgIMG_1163.jpgIMG_1164.jpg
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Seal the bottom of the ring with a good silicone before screwing the speaker down and call it done.
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Nice! What ever it takes to get it in! You can also use 1/2" black weather stripping from Home Depot to seal it shut. Let us know how it sounds
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Got it installed and it's more bass than I like but that's ok. I also replaced the blown foot well speakers with a pair of Kicker CS series for $28 on sale at Best Buy. The system sounds so much better now.
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My first confusion: those are 4Ohm speakers. But from I was reading they should be 2Ohm, shouldn't They? Is that maybe why there is hardly anything coming out? But they look like the original ones, don't they?
I also have the original amp still installed
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Which apparently is garbage and should be replaced in the first place.
I am looking for an economical solution with a decent change in performance (I am not an "audiophile"), which i believe I could achieve with working speakers in the front and less distortion.
I guess my question is, do I have to replace amp AND speaker, or should I just start with the speaker first? Since I have a replacement HU already, Do I even need the amp still? And if not, how do I wire the speakers directly to the HU? Does that mean I have to run new wires? There was a guy asking if he could just jumper the wires at the amp to bypass it, but I think he never got a clear answer on that.
I hope you guys still 'run' this thread since the last post is from over a year ago already. But I didn't want to start a new one for this old subject and get yelled at, why I didn't search for my answer. I swear I did! ;-)
Please help me out here.
Thanks in advance
Last edited by MauiM3Mania; 10-28-2020 at 03:11 PM.
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My 97 1.9L had the base stereo setup with 6 speakers. The two in the kick panels and two in each door. The kick panel speakers were original and they were labeled as 4 ohm. You might want to pull the passenger side kick panel just to verify if you are dealing with 2 ohm or 4 ohm. I assume you have already played with the fader settings in the HU.
You also need to think about the crossovers when you use component speakers. For the base stereo system in my 97, the crossovers are built into the factory amp. I believe that it is the same for your 98. If you bypass the factory amp, you will still a crossover wire in the crossovers.
Are the rear speakers in your 98 two-way speakers ?
In my roadster, the first thing I did in my was replace the HU. That got me bluetooth and USB capabilities, but the sound quality wasn't good and you couldn't listen to an audiobook or newscast at highway speeds with the top down. I waited a year and then replaced the amp and bought new speakers. Rockford-Fosgate T-16S component speakers. The kick panel speakers are labeled as 6" in size and bolted right in. No drilling or cutting needed. I will be pulling the doors apart this winter and will replace the other speakers at that point. I kept the factory wiring to the maximum extent I could, but it took a some effort to trace down everything in the trunk and make sure all of the splices were correct. I mounted the new amp on the same bracket as the factory amp and the new crossovers were mounted where the old 6-disc cd changer had been. The stereo sounds significantly better and is good enough for my ears. I wouldn't consider it audiophile quality, but I'm not sure audiophile would really be good value for a roadster.
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Hmmm, so I should replace the Amp AND the front speakers?
The kick panel speakers are 4ohm and I don't know what the rear speakers are. My idea was to get component speakers with crossovers that would all fit into the kick panel.
What/where Exactly did you splice ? The cables to/from the new Amp?
Thanks For your input
Member
Instead of getting bogged down in 2 ohm vs 4 ohm, you need to look at speaker sensitivity. The higher the sensitivity (sound output vs power fed into it), the louder the speaker will be given the same amp. What I did with my first (now totaled) Z3 kicks was to drop a pair of PRV Audio 6MB250-NDY-4 6-1/2" Neodymium Midbass Woofer 4 Ohm speakers (see part's express). Granted, I wasn't happy about cutting my sheet metal, especially in a difficult area to work in. But, using the stock H-K system, it sounded 100x better. This speaker is a pro audio vs a home or car audio. This means it can take lots and lots of power and pay very loud doing so and with stock amps, play more like amplified car speakers.
But, there must be catch or everyone in car audio would be using such speakers. And for the guys into the SPL (loudness) contests, they are the choice. The caveat is a loss of the lower bass, made up for by increased output in the upper bass in the all important mid range (human voices). The way to compensate is with a subwoofer, which most of these cars have. (Granted the stock one isn't great).
Being someone how has fooled around with car audio for sometime, my recommendations on these cars is to buy a cheap 4 or 5 channel small class-D (that's important for small size). Recommendations for inexpensive ($100 to $200 range) units: Soundstream Nano series (and even smaller stealth units) and Precision Power Ion series. These units are so small, I'm fitting a 5 channel Soundstream into one side of the first aid kit area along with a DSP to handle crossover/time align/tuning. These DSP units, like my Dayton Audio DSP-408 (around $150) have been getting cheaper and cheaper. Our cars are also easy peezy with respect to 12v power being the battery is right there in the trunk where you need it.
I still haven't figured out if I'm going to replace the sub driver (aka speaker) or custom fab my own box. Another sub project in the line of others.
FYI: I'm kind of shrilling for my other forum, but https://www.diymobileaudio.com/ is the place where I got most of my audio knowledge (plus having some computer and electrical engineering background). Its also a good place to see how others did their cars, and there are a few Z3s there if you search. I was also able to buy used high end equipment at very reasonable prices from some of the members (before the recent wave of newcomer rip offs).
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ok, I will look into that. How easy/cumbersome is it wiring with/for a new amp? I assume every brand has its own stupid connections?
The thing is though, I neither have a H&K system nor a sub and don't want to deal with the implementation of the latter either.
I'm sorry your Z3 is totaled, thats a real bummer. Its such a nice car.
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