Speakers for 850

[theforce]

Hi Guys

Can any audio shop install speakers in my 1991 or I need someone who actually knows the 850 , looks like it not an easy job - any ideas? recommendations?
Anyone knows a shop in NJ that can professionally install speakers?

THANKS

[spikec]

It's not as easy as it looks, if I recall there are 10 drivers distributed around the interior and imho you're better served with a pair of component fronts in the kick plates (tweets in the door panel), rear coaxes in the rear shelf, and a small sub where the ski bag is. I think your best bet is a DIY, which involves minimal fabrication along the lines from a middle school wood shop. To be honest, there are much better setups with modern drivers than replacing ones that are 20+ years old. Several DIY tutorials on here. you'll get a thousand different ideas, money is the limiting factor. If you wanna go hog wild do what these guys did:
http://www.clarionbuilds.com/bmw-850ci/

I did a double din Alpine with Alpine amp, sub and drivers. Probably a grand or two but at my age my hearing sucks so it sounds pretty good :-) PM me if you need any help!
Spike

[clubE31]

it will never be good in an 850 (without completely modifing.......and a lot off work).

Standard HIFI system sucks (the only thing they forgot to do correctly !). For originality mine are standard and always OFF.

[jinbal]

I had excellent result replacing the speakers in the stock speaker pods.

I was able to source direct correctly sized speakers to replace the originals - I did upgrade the fronts to take advantage of the 2 ohm output of the HK amp I use.

Head unit:
BMW CD43 --> Pioneer DEH-80PRS
https://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/pro...rs_p-27505.htm



here's what I replaced the the rear speaker pods with - note that the front speakers are all the same size, but they spread out in separate pods

Rear speaker pods (containing Bass, mid, tweeter):
All replacement speakers connected to existing stock wiring


Bass:
Dayton Audio CF120-4 4-1/2" Woven Carbon Fiber Midwoofer 4 Ohms
Dayton Audio CF120-4 4-1/2" Woven Carbon Fiber Midwoofer 4 Ohms
These drop straight in - the only tweak i had to make was to drill pilot holes for the screws as they dont quite line up. Also needed a tiny bit of RTV sealer around the edge as there was a tiny gap. These can also be dropped straight into the footwell pods as they are the same size speaker


Mid:
Faital Pro 3FE22 3 inch Speaker Driver 20 W 4 Ohm
https://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=FTP3FE22CF
100% straight drop in everything lines up. These will drop straight into the door pods as again, these are the same size as used up front


Tweeter
Pioneer TS-S15 tune up tweeters - although any similar sized tweeters would be fine
Pioneer TS-S15 | eBay
My initial plan was to prise the original tweeter from its plastic mount then silicone the new one so that it fits perfectly - but as it happened, when the new tweeter was sat in one of its mounts it fit nicely on top of the original tweeter mount and it meant it would be angled a bit higher and more toward the cabin, so I siliconed them in place there.

THe biggest improvement came from an active sub:Subwoofer:
Alpine SWE-815 Fully Active Amplified Subwoofer enclosure
Alpine SWE-815 | eBay
Really easy to fit as I had the new head unit with dedicated RCA sub out, so all that was needed was to run a RCA with built in remote lead from the dash, up the middle of the car and into the boot through the hole right underneath the ski hatch. Connected the fused power lead to the battery and a ground point on rear light. You can also tap into high level speaker cables to get a signal - it accepts both, but I really wanted to use separately controllable sub out on the head unit, which allows you have fine control over the power/frequencies it gets

Very very happy with the sound

[72tpik5]

Nice work jinbal. Well done indeed.

[jinbal]

Thanks - for reference heres what I did with the fronts - as said, I wanted to take advantage of the 2 ohm output of the amp

Footwell woofers:
Infinity Reference 5030cs - 2 ohm 5.25" in 2 way component speakers (the woofer in the foot well and the supplied tweeter on the door mirror internal panel)

Had to use the dremel to carefully open out the pod then used some black rtv silicone sealant to seal any gaps round the edges - this took a bit of practice and I trashed one of my spare pods getting this right (dremel veterans will be fine though)






Door mid:
JBL GX302 - 2.3 ohm 2 way 3.5" speakers
GX302 | Ready-to-use design 8.7 cm 2-way speaker with high output, (2.3 Ohms)
These dropped straight in, I used a washer so that the screws would hold them in properly - the speaker gets all the top end frequencies so the built in tweeters do work - it would seem that the active x-overs in the amp are high pass only.


Door

TweeterInfinity Reference 5030cs - the tweeters from the components used for the footwell pods - these plugged straight into the existing door wiring then i positioned then with good sticky foam pads although if you're feeling a bit more "arts and crafts" you could prise the existing tweeters from their mounts and silicone these in there, but as i had the additional tweeters in the replacement door mids it made sense to try these a bit higher up - and it sounds great.

[theforce]

Jinbal

which Crossover did you use for the 3 speakers he used in the rear box?
can you recommend a passive Crossover that can be used with this "Trio" (since all speakers are from different manufacturers and with different impedance and specs = meaning they are not formed as a "kit" and correctly aligned to each other)

[jinbal]

I just re-used the existing crossover thats in the speaker pod.

I'm not an audiophile - I doubt I could tell that the speakers were not "matched" - they are all 4 ohms though.

I also used the buildt in sound calibration that you get with the pioneer head unit DEH-90prs - you plug in a supplied mike - position it on the head rest then let it run through its program. It sets the equalizers, sub level/frequency cut off, speaker freq cutoffs and time alignment. It made a much better job of it than I could and it sounds awesome totally different and better than when you switch back to manual mode

[rjbaren]

I made some changes to my system somewhat similar to Jinbal's. I did a Similar mid-bass change in the foot well but I can't remember what driver I used. I went with a 3 ohm driver looking for a lttle more bass. It wasn't nearly enough so I added a sub with a JL Audi 10" driver and a JL Audi motor cycle mono block amp. The JL Audio sub amp is small and it fit where the phone amp might have been mounted, just next to the stock amp, hardly any work had to be undertaken to just bolt it right in place. The sub speaker went in a home made cabinet. Then I replaced the rear shelf speakers with new OEMs. Next, a Becker head unit. Lastly, I installed a pair of Faital Pro 4 ohm Neodymium speakers in the door. I think the two greatest improvements in my case were the Faital Pros and the sub (the head unit didn't hurt either). The Faital Pros came from Parts Express and they make two versions 1). Neodymium and 2). Ferrite. I went with the Neodymium. Just drop them right in. I'm not an audiophile either, but I can't get in my car without first grabbing a CD and I am really pleased with the way it sounds.

[Major Cheese]

If during this process, you end up NOT using the rear speaker grilles, I'd be interested in purchasing them.

[peezen]

When I did this I replaced all of the speakers and was able to replace them all in the stock spaces as well.

The differences:

I installed the tweeter in the door panel where the stock ones were

I used larger kick panel speakers, used the existing enclosure, but cut out the cover panel grill and attached the speaker cover over top.

I dumped the rear pods entirely. There was no need for a rear stage and I preferred having the speaker covers remain but allow the bass to come through from the sub in the trunk.

I had an amp for the speakers, mounted in the original amp area, along with the two crossovers

I used a self powered Bass Link sub in the trunk.

I installed an Alpine ILX-007 CarPlay head unit

The sound is sooooo much better, and I'm partial to how it all looks too

[theforce]

thanks guys

Zen this is exactly what I want to do - stay stock as much as I can

[theforce]

Zen

Can you post some photos?
Thanks