E39 Front Door Component Speaker Upgrade (NEED HELP)

[siny528i]

Hello guys,


I need help with wiring for Front Door's Component Speaker System.
I think the original system is Component too.


Like for example, what wire should I use for new Crossover?

Thank you in advance,
siny528i

[siny528i]

Also, I recently installed the Double Din aftermarket Head Unit
Where do you think I should connect the Crossover?
Amp or newly installed Head Unit?

[MarcoZandrini]

Are you using the factory amp located in the left side of the trunk? If you are the factory amp has built-in crossovers. If you’re using the amp in the new double DIN head unit you’ll need to install a crossover for each doors’ speakers.

[siny528i]

Are you using the factory amp located in the left side of the trunk? If you are the factory amp has built-in crossovers. If you’re using the amp in the new double DIN head unit you’ll need to install a crossover for each doors’ speakers.

Thanks Marco,

Yes, I am planning to use Factory Amp. I also understand that I need to use Crossovers for new Component Speakers in each door.

Should those Crossovers be connected to the newly installed Head Unit directly, bypassing the Amp?

Thanks again,
siny528i

[pimp cauldron]

This is confusing.

Here are your options:
1. Power speakers with factory amp. In this case you will not need crossovers for your new speakers. You can wire them directly to the existing wiring.

2. Power speakers with amp inside the new head unit. In this case you will need crossovers.

Which are you planning on doing?

[siny528i]

This is confusing.

Here are your options:
1. Power speakers with factory amp. In this case you will not need crossovers for your new speakers. You can wire them directly to the existing wiring.

2. Power speakers with amp inside the new head unit. In this case you will need crossovers.

Which are you planning on doing?

Thank you, pimp cauldron,
We are getting closer to where I am going.

I like Option #1 (Factory Amp) since I am not sure my new HU will be able to match 75W RMS of each side of my Component Speakers.

Will I be Ok with Option #1 if I decide to upgrade my Amp later on?

Thanks again,
siny528i

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

As you've installed a double DIN head unit (which one?) then it's perhaps more powerful in RMS per channel output than the OEM amp, so it'd be best to omit it. One way is simple, connect the head unit's front speaker output to the 'input' of the new speakers crossover unit and mount that unit inside the door cavity. From the Crossover's 'woofer' output, connect that to the new speakers woofer terminals ensuring the correct polarity. From the crossover unit's 'tweeter' output, connect the new tweeter to that and again, ensure polarity is correct.

Now, I know all USA E39's use an external amplifier for the OEM audio and it's located at the rear of the car. So you'd need to connect the front head units outputs to the speaker wires at the rear of the car. You could 'extend' the head unit's speaker wires to the back of the car, but that's inefficient if you are going to do such work - it'd be better to run 2 cables to each front door from the dash area, and then 2 more runs for the rear speakers. However, this is also semi inefficient.

The ideal is to run 3x RCA cables from the head unit to the rear of the car and use a new 5 channel amplifier and mount it in place of the old OEM amp. The 'signal' from the head unit would come along those RCA's and into the amp. You'd then connect the front L & R and rear L & R speaker wires to it then connect the front new speakers the way I describe above. The 5th subwoofer channel on the amp you'd connect in the near term future once you purchase a 8/10/12 inch subwoofer & enclosure and install that. You'd then get a significantly improved performance level and if you have used a high quality brand head unit like Kenwood/Pioneer/Alpine/Sony/JVC, you'll get potentially excellent sound quality improvements too!

Keep in mind, as your new speakers are rated at 75W RMS, the OEM amp will give out perhaps 7W RMS and the new head unit anywhere from around 18-26W RMS. If you choose a good 5 channel amp, you'll get 75W RMS per channel depending on what you go for. I personally run two Arc Audio tiny footprint amps in my E39. One is a 4x75W RMS unit for the cabin speakers, and the other is a 1x300W RMS mono sub bass amp. Performance and sound quality is excellent as I use high quality products throughout my build - https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-Audio-Upgrade

Although my car is a Touring, the audio system design/fundamental is the same as in a sedan/saloon

Cheers, Dennis!

[siny528i]

Hi,

As you've installed a double DIN head unit (which one?) then it's perhaps more powerful in RMS per channel output than the OEM amp, so it'd be best to omit it. One way is simple, connect the head unit's front speaker output to the 'input' of the new speakers crossover unit and mount that unit inside the door cavity. From the Crossover's 'woofer' output, connect that to the new speakers woofer terminals ensuring the correct polarity. From the crossover unit's 'tweeter' output, connect the new tweeter to that and again, ensure polarity is correct.

Now, I know all USA E39's use an external amplifier for the OEM audio and it's located at the rear of the car. So you'd need to connect the front head units outputs to the speaker wires at the rear of the car. You could 'extend' the head unit's speaker wires to the back of the car, but that's inefficient if you are going to do such work - it'd be better to run 2 cables to each front door from the dash area, and then 2 more runs for the rear speakers. However, this is also semi inefficient.

The ideal is to run 3x RCA cables from the head unit to the rear of the car and use a new 5 channel amplifier and mount it in place of the old OEM amp. The 'signal' from the head unit would come along those RCA's and into the amp. You'd then connect the front L & R and rear L & R speaker wires to it then connect the front new speakers the way I describe above. The 5th subwoofer channel on the amp you'd connect in the near term future once you purchase a 8/10/12 inch subwoofer & enclosure and install that. You'd then get a significantly improved performance level and if you have used a high quality brand head unit like Kenwood/Pioneer/Alpine/Sony/JVC, you'll get potentially excellent sound quality improvements too!

Keep in mind, as your new speakers are rated at 75W RMS, the OEM amp will give out perhaps 7W RMS and the new head unit anywhere from around 18-26W RMS. If you choose a good 5 channel amp, you'll get 75W RMS per channel depending on what you go for. I personally run two Arc Audio tiny footprint amps in my E39. One is a 4x75W RMS unit for the cabin speakers, and the other is a 1x300W RMS mono sub bass amp. Performance and sound quality is excellent as I use high quality products throughout my build - https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-Audio-Upgrade

Although my car is a Touring, the audio system design/fundamental is the same as in a sedan/saloon

Cheers, Dennis!

Thanks, Dennis,

I am afraid to disappoint you, but my HU is not at high-end.
Its called AboutBit for $70 from Amazon. It works well and does what needs to be done so I kinda like it.
My Components are JBL GTO609C. Woofers are 6.5", so I use MDF Adapters for them.

According to what's written on the box and specs in the manual the RMS for Head Unit is about 30W per channel.
My Components RMS are 75-90W.

That's why I kinda like what pimp cauldron suggested in Option #1 (Factory Amp)

I see your point about connecting the HUs front speaker output to the 'input' of the new speakers' crossover unit and mount that unit inside the door cavity.
That's option # 2. But what about Option #1 (Factory Amp)?

Between these two which approach is going to get me better results?

I am not planning to get a new Amp. At least not for now.

Have a nice weekend everybody!

Thanks again,
siny528i

[DennisCooper]

Hi Siny528i,

Thanks for the update!

This is an example of where research prior to purchasing is important !

There's no 'input' to the OEM amplifier, the BMW audio systems are bespoke, closed in this regard.
The low end head unit will not be putting out 30W RMS per channel, it'll be less, round 17/18 to 22/24 RMS per channel.
The OEM amp (non DSP) will be putting out 5-7 W RMS.
The JBL speakers handle between 75-90W RMS. If you supply them with 7W RMS from the factory amp, then thats what they'll provide, if you supply them with 22W RMS, then that's what they'll provide. The OEM amp when running at full output can easily be pushed into distortion and when you put that 'distorted' signal into speakers, then it causes the voice coil to heat up. The number one reason for speaker failure is a overheated voice coil. 6.5" speakers don't directly fit in the E39 as well, so to make them fit, you've got plenty of work to do to achieve it.
Another issue for what you are thinking is that the OEM amp and speakers are impedance matched to each other and don't use the aftermarket convention of 4 Ohms. So, if you connect the JBL 4 ohm speakers to the oem amp, they'd provide output, but it'd sound 'off' or 'wrong'.

It makes no sense to try/want to use the OEM amp when the new head unit puts out about triple the output, plus there's no easy way to connect the head unit to it. If you are set on using the JBL's, then you'll need to make them fit, so you'll need to remove the OEM plastic enclosure and make up/buy a MDF panel to go in it's place and mount the speaker to that and be mindful of mounting depths so as not to foul/catch anything. There are 6.5" smaller mounts/adaptors listed on UK ebay for around £18.50 (about $23 USD) so you could get those and ship them over.

So, you have some thinking to do as to what you'll do. It sounds as though sound quality and reliability (of the head unit) aren't really a concern for you and thus if the results are acceptable to you then all good. I'd suggest getting a more reliable and higher quality head unit etc where the results would be significantly better.

Cheers, Dennis!

[MarcoZandrini]

My recommendation is to leave the factory amp in place and use converters to change the signal from the head unit to levels expected by the factory amp. At some point in time BMW went to balanced differential signals between the factory head unit and the factory amp. My 2001 330Ci use this type of signals.
As far as the new front speakers, just wire them up as if they are factory speakers. The factory amp has built in crossovers.

Dennis, you’re the E39 expert so correct me in f I’m wrong.

[siny528i]

Hi Siny528i,

Thanks for the update!

This is an example of where research prior to purchasing is important !

There's no 'input' to the OEM amplifier, the BMW audio systems are bespoke, closed in this regard.
The low end head unit will not be putting out 30W RMS per channel, it'll be less, round 17/18 to 22/24 RMS per channel.
The OEM amp (non DSP) will be putting out 5-7 W RMS.
The JBL speakers handle between 75-90W RMS. If you supply them with 7W RMS from the factory amp, then thats what they'll provide, if you supply them with 22W RMS, then that's what they'll provide. The OEM amp when running at full output can easily be pushed into distortion and when you put that 'distorted' signal into speakers, then it causes the voice coil to heat up. The number one reason for speaker failure is a overheated voice coil.

Thanks Dennis,

With new 4 channel Amp will I get better results?
Will I be able to keep my current HU?
How wiring will go?

6.5" speakers don't directly fit in the E39 as well, so to make them fit, you've got plenty of work to do to achieve it.
Another issue for what you are thinking is that the OEM amp and speakers are impedance matched to each other and don't use the aftermarket convention of 4 Ohms. So, if you connect the JBL 4 ohm speakers to the oem amp, they'd provide output, but it'd sound 'off' or 'wrong'.

My Components JBL GTO609C are 3 Ohms.

Will it change anything?
Will it be solved with new Amp?

If you are set on using the JBL's, then you'll need to make them fit, so you'll need to remove the OEM plastic enclosure and make up/buy a MDF panel to go in it's place and mount the speaker to that and be mindful of mounting depths so as not to foul/catch anything. There are 6.5" smaller mounts/adaptors listed on UK ebay for around £18.50 (about $23 USD) so you could get those and ship them over.

That's exactly what I did. They are from UK.

As far as the new front speakers, just wire them up as if they are factory speakers. The factory amp has built in crossovers.

Thanks Marco,

Honestly I would love to try that FIRST. I just have slight confusion with the wiring.

[MarcoZandrini]

Go to www.newtis.info and enter the last 7 characters of your car’s vehicle identification number. Hit enter and bookmark the page. Start digging through the audio system wiring diagrams. Be advised that the color abbreviations are for the German words for the various colors. Go to google translate and enter various wire colors to get the German words. Then the abbreviations will make sense.

[siny528i]

Hi,
The ideal is to run 3x RCA cables from the head unit to the rear of the car and use a new 5 channel amplifier and mount it in place of the old OEM amp. The 'signal' from the head unit would come along those RCA's and into the amp. You'd then connect the front L & R and rear L & R speaker wires to it then connect the front new speakers the way I describe above. The 5th subwoofer channel on the amp you'd connect in the near term future once you purchase a 8/10/12 inch subwoofer & enclosure and install that. You'd then get a significantly improved performance level and if you have used a high quality brand head unit like Kenwood/Pioneer/Alpine/Sony/JVC, you'll get potentially excellent sound quality improvements too!

Thank you guys,

Dennis,

I've decided to go via "ideal" way you've mentioned above. I received today Pioneer GM-A6704 4-Channel Amplifier. With 60 watts x 4 ch (4 ohms) and 95 watts x 4 ch (2 ohms) I hope/think it should do it.
Did you mean 3 pairs (L + R) of RCA cables?

Thanks again,
siny528i

[siny528i]

Hey guys,

It's been a while and I just recently came back to this project...

I have already ran 3 pairs of RCA (1 for Front, 1 for Rear and 1 for future installations like Cam or Sub) and mounted my Pioneer GM-A6704 4-Channel Amplifier.
For the Front I will be using JBL GTO609C components. Woofers are 6.5", so I will use MDF Adapters for them.

Now, friend of mine suggested that I used new 16 G wires at least for Front woofers.
He said that I will probably going to want to use new speaker wire because the new amp will be pushing more power causing VOLTAGE DROP or the wire GETTING WARM.

So first I started running two extra 16g Speakers wires along with RCA cables.
Then I heard here and there that factory wires would be enough and abandoned this idea. Especially since running Speaker wires through doors is real PITA.

Now where's my confusion...

A bunch of wires coming out of the amp in the trunk. I got it.
I'll connect them to the new amplifier. Well, not exactly. There will be crossovers in between. I am planning to put them in trunk. And then from crossovers wires will go to Speakers.

But the same bunch of wires come out of HU into dash.
What to do with that "bunch?"

How to connect wires coming from new Amp to the Speakers?
Or are they already connected?

Thank you in advance,
siny528i

[siny528i]

Ok guys,

I think I got it.
I need to splice X605 and discard X606 because I have RCAs