E39 Touring - Complete Custom Audio install

[DennisCooper]

Hi all E39 Touring owners!

For a little more visibility, I'm posting this thread in the main section now that we've had our dedicated Touring sub forum for quite some time. Although I do have the link in the FAQ Touring thread that's parked, I know many users don't take the time to read and see those threads. I still have some more to do, including getting another small amplifier to drive the front slim subs and a little tidy up of some loose trim etc. I've also since changed the head unit to the Parrot Asteroid Smart shallow depth double DIN unit. I hope you all like it and feel free to ask questions etc - I'll be happy to help! - Cheers, Dennis!

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My setup was conceived and developed by myself so that only perhaps a maximum of 5-10% of oem looks would be lost. I wanted zero loss of trunk space and I achieved that aspect. I also made custom C Pillar pods to better create a rear fill solution - and all in an E39 Touring. These variants hardly ever have audio upgrades to this or higher levels and I wasn't happy with the oem stuff at all (never have been in any prior BMW's either!)

All of which was to be achieved at intermediate pricing levels so as to appeal to more of the OEM crowd and show them a substantial increase in sound quality needn't cost the thousands they stereotypically think.

I've kept the system deliberately simple, and my sound quality 'aim' was to perhaps achieve 60-70% of the sound quality, staging, imaging etc of a similar product quantity competitive and award winning install. In recent months, perhaps 4/5 enthusiasts I know on the professional car audio circuit have heard my setup and given me fantastic feedback and I'm very happy I've achieved what I set out to do. Some improvements and tweaks remain though!

Setup - Alpine double DIN mechless head unit, 3x Stinger interconnects, 300W RMS Arc Audio KS Mini mono amplifier, 4x75W RMS KS mini 4 ch amplifier. DLS R5A 5.25 2 way components front, DLS 4 inch co-axial for a little rear fill. JL Audio 8W3-V3 8 inch subwoofer.

Discreet front door builds which blend with the door card shape and part of my design was no more than 1 inch in depth. These also house Earthquake SWS6 slimline subs (not functional yet - 3 way passive crossovers on order) which when working will add a further lower bass response to bring the imaging of the bass further to the front of the car.

Rear C Pillar mods. These were custom made as I do prefer a little rear fill and the oem locations are dreadful in so much as they are in the roof lining and fire vertically downwards towards the trunk/boot floor. The pods ensure the sound is projected correctly.

Subwoofer. My stipulation was to have an enclosure and suitable bass response that had zero loss of trunk/boot space, full access to the rear light cluster. I wanted to keep my spare wheel so that location couldn't be used.

Pictures;

Head unit



Currently it's temporarily looking like this;





Lumidock





Door Builds










Amps



These were mounted utilising a recess space under floor trim piece and the perspex covers are yet to be installed to finish completely. Very efficient and thus only minimal heat produced even under full current draw when playing. This mounting location was the logical choice for keeping things discreet. I extensively tested with them mounted under a standard trim piece so totally invisible and perfect results there as well - never overheated.

Rear C Pillars




Was a little difficult to photograph them but will get better images later with a photographer I know. A little on the larger side as the speaker grille was incorporated, I'm considering making some slightly smaller ones. Performance wise, exactly what I wanted and provide that rear fill in a much better way.

Subwoofer.









I'm just waiting on the 3 way passive crossovers for the front subs to work. I applied a small perhaps 8x8 square of dynamat directly behind the door builds in case any flexing occured, otherwise I have no other sound deadening. Tweeters in oem corner window locations, angled slightly to give a better soundstage and makes well recorded material sound like it's emanating from the lower windscreen area. Relatively 'brighter' sounding as a result. I'm more than happy with the bass output by the 8 inch subwoofer and it constantly amazes those who hear it - they all think it's a 10 or 12 inch with one or two saying if it was a 15 inch !I had to compromise a little on the enclosure volume size in order to make it fit in the space available but to me, the difference isn't worth worrying about.

A few more pics



Parrot Asteroid Smart head unit upgrade




Full thread here

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...-DIN-head-unit!


Any questions or feedback warmly recieved!

Cheers, Dennis!

[whity]

Hi Dennis.
Nice touring you have. I'm also a owner of a 530d from 1998 and I'm also going to upgrade my sound.
I would like to ask you if you have performed any change on the rear speaker at the top of the touring where are the original speakers.

I will upgrade my system to:
Boston pro series 6.53 lf at front
Boston pro series 6.53 lf at rear, but I haven't seen any touring with the 6.5 at the rear mounted.
At the trunk i will put one or two 12.5 lf boston pro series also.
Amplifying this system i will have
Alpine mrd-m1000 for subs
Alpine mrf-t420 for speakers ( more than one)
Also putting a capacitor 2farad from braxx and a pxa-h700
The main unit is an aftermarket almost like original but android so.

It a huge project, I know, but its my dream touring
The only help I need now is about the rear speakers at the top.

Cheers

[DennisCooper]

Hi Whity,

The original locations, in the roof of the Touring have the speaker play vertically to the load floor, which is zero usefulness if you want better rear fill. For that reason, I had the custom D pillar pods fabricated so that my DLS co-axials would play 'forward' into the cabin. I've completely and totally not bothered with the oem locations.
When you take out the oem full range speaker in the roof, you'll see there's very very little space to put in a larger speaker so another reason not to use this location if you want better sound quality.

Those Alpine amplifiers are large units with big heatsinks, so if you are thinking to mount them under the load lift up floor and in the little storage area there, then you'll most likely run into heat dissipation issues. Do you mean the MRV-T420 amplifier? and two of those given they're 2 channel units? Where/how are you thinking to mount/install them? in relation this install locations, will you be trying to fit the 12 inch subwoofers into the side storage locations? or are you thinking of an enclosure sitting in the trunk area? if in the storage locations, I think you'll struggle to make them fit given the very small volumetric space available.

If you have one of those low quality Android unit's from china, then having the higher end Alpine Processor will be bit of a waste as those head units don't produce good enough sound quality. You can use it, but it'll not perform to what it's capable of.

The Capacitor is also bit of a waste as the Alpine amplifiers will contain a high quality internal power supply. As long as you have suitable guage power and ground wiring connecting them to the car's power supply, a capacitor isn't really required.

When I evaluated and designed my setup above, I did it to remove all the limitations/issues that you've mentioned you are thinking to do!

Cheers, Dennis!

[gaspump]

You should finish that soon, and then give your dog his hair back. Nice