Rear 6.5" speaker retrofit

[cwfe21]

Even though I have upgraded sony 4x6 speakers all around and an upgraded headunit, the sound from the stereo is still grossly inadaquate, so I did some research into getting 6.5's or 6x9's in the rear without cutting anything up. I mocked up with some wood templates, and found that the speakers definitely need to sit above the rear tray, as there isn't much room for a bigger magnet down there. 6x9's sounded better, but at least the ones I had were pressed right up against the rear glass, so I decided to go with 6.5's for a cleaner look / easier fit.

Next step was upgrading from the wood templates to something not embarassing. Since I just got a 3d printer, I did some measuring, and took a crack at printing mounting adapters (when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail! ). The idea was to keep the original screw holes (so they can bolt into the OEM mounting tabs), minimize the amount they protruded, and not look like some guy hacked it together with MDF in his garage. You could also make wood adapters and then bondo or fiberglass for aesthetics, but i'm not that fancy.

The tricky part is that the rear decklid actually raises up right behind the speaker, so you can't just use a flat base or it will sit unevenly. I've attached a few photos of the finished results, and a link to the blueprint: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4558213 in case anyone wants to tinker with it / make it better / mock my 3d design skills

Anyway hopefully this helps someone, feel free to post your own pictures of what you've done (or maybe you prefer to listen to the natural born bmw sounds

IMG_20200731_145606.jpgIMG_20200731_145545.jpgIMG_20200731_145530.jpg

[cwfe21]

a few more pics

[Somjuan]

Nice! What material / printer are you using?

[Beam318ti]

Very creative. Thanks for sharing. Looks good.

[jjgbmw323]

Nice - can you print these out for the front? I want to put some 4 x 6 Infinity Kapa Plate speakers in
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4245112

[cwfe21]

Nice! What material / printer are you using?

I printed these on an ender 3 using just solutech PLA. Seems to be sturdy enough.

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Nice - can you print these out for the front? I want to put some 4 x 6 Infinity Kapa Plate speakers in
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4245112

Replied to your PM. do the kappa speakers sound noticeably better? I haven't found a good solution for the fronts yet. If so, might get a set for myself...

[Somjuan]

You could shove 4” or 5.25” separated woofer/ tweeter plates in that spot. I wouldn’t bother with the 4x6s, there’s just too much distortion in that size no matter what brand you use. 4” sounds better. There’s pretty limited space behind that area though, so the further out you can put them the more space you’ll have for a proper sized driver.

If money (or luck) is no issue, A/D/S 300i setups could fit up front with a printer easily. Careful using PLA anywhere that’ll get hot, it distorts. Depends on your climate though, Seattle is probably just fine.

[Erik Dlux]

I also wanted bigger speakers for the back. I went with a boat type enclosure found on Ebay.

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[jjgbmw323]

I printed these on an ender 3 using just solutech PLA. Seems to be sturdy enough.

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Replied to your PM. do the kappa speakers sound noticeably better? I haven't found a good solution for the fronts yet. If so, might get a set for myself...

Thank you. I know the Infinty KAPPA 4 x 6 are really good. Not sure if they work with the spacers but we are gonna try them....

[cwfe21]

I also wanted bigger speakers for the back. I went with a boat type enclosure found on Ebay.

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Yeah i looked at those, I don't think they would clear the hump on the rear shelf without taking some chunk out of it (whatever model you have would have been much easier to integrate with given that nice flat rear shelf). But that would have been much easier than designing my own