Monsoons in door
http://e38.weebly.com/speakers.html
You all will really love the sound of these speakers.
Can't wait to hear the feedback.
These speakers will outlast your car for sure.
One trick I did to my car was to cut up a black t-shirt and hot glue it to the underside of the removable speaker grilles.
Cuts down on the sunlight beating down on the speakers and does not affect the sound.
e38.weebly.com
My E38 Project...................DSP Rear Deck Subwoofer box with Monsoon Speakers and Metal pulleyed window regulators NO longer for sale (click link to see how to make your own)....................................
Hey, new here...But am interested in this, as I come from the VW community and am familiar with the Monsoon speakers, and learning more about the complicated systems that the 750 entail.
I am helping my friend revitalize his car, and we just got the amp working (his car had the "tweeters only" syndrome until he swapped the amp two days ago), and the rear speakers are shot.
I have to ask, what is the reason for going 4 ohm across the board, and not mix and matching the 2ohm rear deck speakers with the 4ohm front door speakers from the Mk4 Jetta/Golf with Monsoon? Does it have to do with the ability of the amp to drive them efficiently, a sound issue, or does it just sound like a distorted mess?
Just want to know before I slog into the mess that is the junkyard near us that has two 7 series and about 12 Mk4 and many more B5/B5.5 Passats to dig through.
Each speaker in the sub box is driven by a separate amp channel that was designed for 8ohm. Front door Monsoons lower the impedance on each channel to 4ohm which produces more power with the consequence of increased current draw and heat dissipated which the over engineered amp seems to be quite fine with.
Not sure how you would mix and match without loading different channels with different impedance.
I did one time try a series combination with only 2 channels in use driving 4 speakers but I was underwhelmed.
But if you know me, I'm all about the experimenting. So if you do try something different, share the results please.
e38.weebly.com
Last edited by dville; 02-17-2017 at 12:33 PM.
My E38 Project...................DSP Rear Deck Subwoofer box with Monsoon Speakers and Metal pulleyed window regulators NO longer for sale (click link to see how to make your own)....................................
I think the rear deck speakers are originally 8ohm, so you can switch to the 4ohm Monsoon speakers and overdrive the amp a little bit without detriment. But heading down to the 2ohm might be a step too far.
Edit - dville beat me to it.
Yes I agree. 2 ohm may be asking too much of the amp.
e38.weebly.com
My E38 Project...................DSP Rear Deck Subwoofer box with Monsoon Speakers and Metal pulleyed window regulators NO longer for sale (click link to see how to make your own)....................................
I don't think a 16+ year old amp could handle the 2 ohm load for very long. These amps might have been decent when they were new, but if they only set on a shelf for 15 years some of the parts will have degraded and the amp won't be able to handle the stress it would have when it was new. at 4 ohms for the rear speakers they are already louder in my car then the rest of the speakers at the same volume. When you crank it up it is not very noticeable, but at really low volumes it definitely is. If you could run 2 ohm speakers on this amp without a problem, the volume difference in the speakers would be even more pronounced. If you upgraded the doors to 4 ohm then that wouldn't be as much of an issue but I still don't think the amp could handle it.
"Lead by example, follow by choice."
I believe the doors are already 4ohm.
Good stuff. Won't worry about the door speakers right now, but if another window regulator should break (knock on wood) that would be a great time to do them.
I put a few different CDs in the mag this morning in an attempt to get some more bass to better hear the before/after.
Like most here I assume, I don't use the "DSP" function (sounds too echo-y) just the standard, equalizer mode.
Literally as I was typing the above I got a text, telling me the speakers were delivered on my front porch.
Nice! Now get those installed
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"Lead by example, follow by choice."
My door speakers are 4ohm on my 1996 but wasn't sure if they were the same in my 01
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"Lead by example, follow by choice."
I think that's due to the bass control of the circuit rather then the impedance of the speakers. I have a set of aftermarket 10" subs run by an Alpine amp that gets it's signal from the rear deck speaker outputs of the stock amp. It dials back the bass quite a bit at high volumes (probably to protect the small stock subs.) So at low volumes my subs are overpowering, at high volumes they kinda disappear. Because of this, I'm thinking about doing the Monsoons in the rear deck box so I can get some truck space back and lose the weight back there, too. I already managed to score a set of the Monsoon speaker from my LKQ, I get a better deal than the Pick-n-Pull apparently, they cost me 2.98 each! I just need to get an oscillating saw so I can remove the spacers, plus I need to find one more pair of the Monsoons to put in my rear doors. (I already replaced the fronts with ones from BavSound.
ok, about 1.5 hours in and I'm exactly half-way through the job. And now I have an even greater respect for DVille, removing these boxes from junkyard cars.
Stretch your back first!
Some tips:
- No need to saw the plastic surrounds from the new speakers. Just carefully clamp it in a vice (soft-grip jaw covers) and use a sharpish chisel and moderate hammering to split the glue-joint. Takes repositioning 3-4 times in the vise to work all the way around. The 4th one took me about 2 minutes. Then used a ~400F soldering iron to hit the soldered pads, while gently prying up on it with a flat screwdriver. Voila.
- No need to remove the armrest or first-aid kit holder (on my '01 shorty, at least).
- The 4 tiny torx screws under the speaker grilles holding on the main speaker box cover are size T-10. Luckily, after scrounging around one of my tool boxes I found one that must have come in some cheapo kit 20 years ago.
- BMW must have used some kind of locktite on the 13mm bolts holding down the child-seat latch brackets at the back of the box. Took some muscle to get these out, and not a lot of room to work with the rear window right there.
So, the crumbly old speakers are out, I just have to find a jar or something else the right size to enlarge the 2 inside speaker magnet wells after heating them up with my trusty Harbor Freight hot air gun and then tomorrow I'll get to soldering, caulking, and reassembly.
Fun job!
Raising my pint glass to Dville and Thrawn right now
Last edited by Nurburgringer; 02-17-2017 at 09:20 PM.
The other day I noticed my sub is not working. I figure my mechanic unplugged it while doing the rear shocks. Is there any way to access the plug without removing everything?
All done.
Damn. Sounds GREAT to me!
Played Sting Soul Cages (BIG bass) then Dire Straights CDs, messing around with the customizable "memo" DSP functions but ultimately going back to non-DSP.
I haven't listened to any high-end car audio to compare it to (probably better that way) but has a rich, clear, balanced sound with very nice bass IMO.
final tips:
- I couldn't find a jar of the right size like Thrawn used, but had a Stanley metal thermos to enlarge/form the inside magnet-wells. You'll need something ~4" in diameter, and don't worry too much about melting through the plastic box. It can take a lot of heat.
- drilled 3 holes in each Monsoon to use the stock hold-down screws, then with a smaller bit drilled through them into the box.
Then soldered the leads (green/black is positive, thanks again Thrawn), laid down a small bead of silicone caulk, set the speakers in place and located 2 of the screw holes with toothpicks until I got the first screw tightened down.
- The center child-seat attachment block was a bit cocked, so couldn't use the spacer to bolt down the hook. I'll never put a child seat in the center position anyway, so just snugged it down against the cardboard speaker box cover.
- there are two screws on the bottom/outside edge of the seat backs, just outboard of the bottom seat belt receptacles. They were a pain to remove (should have taken off the seat-belt fixtures with a 17mm socket first), and I COULD NOT get them back in on reassembly. Must have spent 30 minutes effing with them, but couldn't get them to bite in the threads. With the lower seat cushion in place the seatbacks don't move anyway, so 2 leftover screws from the job...
Took the opportunity to clean/condition all the leather, gently wipe down the mouse-hair trim with a damp microfiber cloth and dish soap (it looked ok but quite a bit of dirt came out), vacuum the car, and clean the inside of the rear glass.
For a final time, thanks to all that shared their tips/instructions, and also the heads up on the Ebay deal.
VERY happy with the sound system now
20170249_134045.jpg20170249_122821.jpg20170249_120535.jpg
Last edited by Nurburgringer; 02-18-2017 at 08:59 PM.
Looks great! Good job! I too am pretty pleased with the sound quality now too. It can't compete with some of the custom setups I have done, but sounds great for modified stock
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"Lead by example, follow by choice."
Love it!!!!
Clean factory look and know that those speakers won't dry rot as long as you have that car.
e38.weebly.com
My E38 Project...................DSP Rear Deck Subwoofer box with Monsoon Speakers and Metal pulleyed window regulators NO longer for sale (click link to see how to make your own)....................................
Thanks for the info, folks. Your answers are very helpful. We may have to pull the rear seatback to address a non functioning, but running (on startup) rear headrest motor, at least that's what it appears the noise is coming from, so we will check this out then. Much obliged. Great community!
Awesome, thanks for the update. I received my monsoons on Monday. I only seem to have about an hour of free time in any given week, so this "mod" will take me a while. I did at least get the leads unsoldered last night as I had the soldering iron out for something else. My plan is to grab a DSP sub box from a wrecked 740 at the pick-n-pull, so I can do all the modifications at my leisure, otherwise id be driving around with the back seats apart for a month :-D
Lol!
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"Lead by example, follow by choice."
2000 740i - 149K - Dville Monsoon rear deck speaker upgrade, GROM audio Bluetooth
1998 528i - 204K - GROM audio Bluetooth setup, Drilled/Slotted Rotors, BSW Stage One speaker kit, Facelift Xenon's with Angel Eyes
2003 M3 - 210K - BMW Euro Cross Drilled Rotors
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