Speaker sizes

[rjbaren]

Can anyone tell me the size of the driver in the front doors of my 2000 528iT? Do you guys know the size of the driver in the roof at the rear? And lastly, what size driver is in the Factory sub? I believe everything is still original and I noticed Faital pro speakers are on sale on Parts Express for the next two months. I installed a pair of Faital neodymium 3" in another car and it sounds very nice.
Thanks

[geargrinder]

Some info is mentioned here in my old outdated thread...

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...lection-Thread

All this stuff is out there someplace, you need little more Google-fu I think.

Rear roof locations aren't hard to swap or fit. Although grills may be tricky to refit depending on what you use IME.

Front doors are super shallow and any beefy driver will contact on the backside of factory sealed boxes. I had to make Masonite shims to space out the speakers I used. The sealed plastic boxes are more functional than people think but are low-volume and so the factory or bsw speakers are designed for that, and most generic speakers won't be. Many either make or buy MDF panel replacements for those boxes that convert the door to basicallt an infinite baffle application lkke many car doors so generic speakers work more normally.

Same is double true for factory sub. It's a weird little tiny speaker optimized for the box. However it can sound great if you power it from an aftermarket amp. Also see the deadening treatment i did in that thread. It really can sound surprisingly great, w the factory weirdo nokia thing in there. Some guys have cut the face out and slammed big subs on the plastic box but i dont feel thats a great idea. Again its a weird low volume box. Once you abandon the carefully ported tuned design of the oem box + driver, youre far better off going straight to a stand alone aftermarket enclosure like the Basser item for the touring.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

I got Alpine Type R components for the front door, I will have to make a wooden mount to hold the speakers at the same surface level as the stock plastic housings from the factory. I got 6.5's that will fit behind the stock grills in the inner door panel, should be fine. The cool thing about the new speakers is, they are only 2.75 inches deep. The max depth allowable is 3". The Type R's use an electronic voice coil, no magnets. For the rear in the roof of the Touring, I got the 6x9 Type R's, I believe the stock speakers are 6.5's? I have not checked. All I know is, I will make them work and they will be great. Planning on a dual voice coil Kicker Comp 12 in the spare tire well. The amps, I have a ton of kick a$$ amps, have not thought about where yet, but one day, they'll get in the car.... Lol.

[rjbaren]

I just came across Bavsound stage 1 speakers. They look very interesting but a bit expensive. But since the car is now 17 years old I am sure the speaker's surrounds have to be disintegrated. At some point I will get around to opening up the door panels to reveal the what I have.
I may try to build a small sub to replace the factory unit and get a little mono block amp to increase the testosterone level in the sound system.

[geargrinder]

The E39 surrounds are usually not foam and no usually they are fine. The BSW / bavsound options for sure are easiest and work fairly well for a light easy upgrade but you didn't ask about that, you axed about fitting generic aftermarkets...

[rjbaren]

Hey geargrinder, I went through your sub installation and I have been watching the same sub box out of England on ebay. Bye the way it is quite impressive to see what you have done. I don't posses the skills or knowledge to take it to such a high level of sophistication. Did you order your sub box from Poland, I think it is less expensive, like under $100.00 shipped after the conversion rate from Zlotys to $? Next, did you use the 2 ohm Dayton sub driver with the dual voice coils? I see it available from parts Express in Ohio. If I were to do the modifications per your instructions, can I use my stock stereo setup (I do not have DSP) to drive the sub with the 2 ohm driver? Next, I am thinking to maybe go with the Bavsound stage 1 upgrade? I want to keep this simple. I could build a sub box, but the one available looks way too nice for the price. Did you add any insulation to the box? Thanks.

[geargrinder]

Yep, I got it straight from poland. The mod I had to do to mine other guys have reported not having to do so maybe just my box was defective. I thought maybe it was a "with / without assploding battery terminal" feature but maybe it was just the one I got. I still recommend it for sure even though the fit could have been better on mine...

It would be a MUST to use an aftermarket amp though. There's no way the factory amp for the Nokia thing is gonna do squat with a big fat proper sub driver. You want an amp with "speaker level" inputs. I used this, it works great but throws up a crapton of RF interference on the FM radio which irritates me - even doing extra grounding and shielding work hasn't really helped that.
http://soundstream.com/product/pn2-350d/

And for speaker - I used the Dayton Reference series which are really highly regarded for price-performance, and used the HO model which is designed for smaller enclosures.

Pretty sure it was this dual 4ohm: RSS265HO-44

[rjbaren]

I looked up your Sub post and it is dual 4 ohm voice coils. Looks like a perfect match between the speaker and the box/volume. I will be undertaking this project in the near future, thank you for the information.

[geargrinder]

You want an amp with "line level" inputs.

WTF that was the complete opposite of what I meant to say. SPEAKER level inputs. Too much wear and tear on the brain cells.

[tlydon]

Hey GG,
If you don't mind a little more wear and tear on the grey matter, would you recommend driving the front drivers directly or driving the woofer and tweeter like stock ? I am using a 4 channel Soundstream amp . So I could drive each front element and then drive the rears directly from the HU . I have a Dynavin N6 that I will be installing for the HU . Plan on using the crossover in the HU as opposed to a DSP - for now anyway . [non-DSP 525iT - 2001]

Thanks

[geargrinder]

Yeah SOP is to use your "good" amp channels for the front, then use whatever else for rear. External biamping the fronts and using the internal amps for rear fill is a fine approach usually. Rear speakers are not nearly as critical unless it's a "limo" build where you want the backseat to be primary.