New deck lack power to the speakers (Sony CDX-S2000 with original E34 speakers)

Hi everyone, new guy on the forums.

I recently bought a used Sony CDX-S2000 to use in my BMW e34. The problem is that it seems like it really lacks speaker power. I have to turn the volume up to 3/4 to hear it, and to maximum to have a comfortable sound level. At 3/4 the sound is pretty good quality (although very silent), but when turned up it gets really raspy.

As some of you might know the original e34 speakers only take + from the deck, negative is wired from somewhere else. Could the Sony deck have a problem with this?

The Pioneer cassette deck I got with the car has no problems with it what so ever, and the sound is very clear and good considering it still has the original speakers.

Does anyone happend to know how many OHM's the original speakers work on? AfaIk the Sony deck is designed for 4 OHM speakers.

Ken

Its hard to say how to fix this problem really. Are you stil using your factory amp? You should be because the crossovers are still contained in it and your deck is not capable of powering 10 speakers so I will assume you are.

Sometimes people wire in PAC OEM2 or equivalent premium sound adapters, which is simply not needed in our e34's.

You deck should be wired directly to the speaker leads (which are really the amps 4 inputs) using only the positive wires and all the negative leads should be connected together. YOur remote turn on wire (blue/white) should power the factory turn on wire (white)

THis is the way all e34's should be wired.

Perhaps you have wired one or more of your speakers backward results in a out of phase system. Double check your speaker polarity.

More details will get you a more detailed troubleshooting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gmannino

...THis is the way all e34's should be wired.

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hmmm... that seems to be the consensus from everything i read, but i connected my jvc to the 4 positive AND the 4 negative inputs going to the factory amp and it worked waaaaaaaaaay better than when all the negative wires were tied together. i can use the f/b fader on my head unit, too.

i should admit i have some unsolved electrical gremlins, but i don't think the stereo is the cause.

there is a post here somewhere on how to bypass the amplifier in the factory unit and connect directly to the crossovers inside. haven't got around to it yet, but i am looking forward to it. still sounds ok for now through the factory amp, and i have plenty of volume.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gmannino

This is the way all e34's should be wired.

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Should read

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gmannino

This is the way all COMMON GROUND headunit e34's shoud be wired.

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don't remember if 91 or 92 was changeover year, but 92+ they are no longer common ground heads, and thus are wired positive and negative.

If an aftermarket pioneer head worked fine, and the only thing changed was the head, (with the install remaining the same), I would blame the USED head and try benchtesting it before blaming the install.

His car is a 1990 e34, it will require all negative leads to be tied together.

EDIT: All e34's with BMW harness adapter can be wired postive to positive and negative to negative.

Here is a pic of what your factory end of the stereo harness should look like.

http://www.roverupgrades.com/images/rover_install35.jpg

Older generation e34's with common ground wiring does not have a single wiring harness. It will be wired with tied negative leads like many older Mercedes Benz, BMW's, and other european cars.

http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Upgrad...ldWire_big.jpg

Hope this clears things up! specific questions can be PM'd or emailed to me.

BTW, if your car does have a harness. Please make it easy on yourself and purchase a wiring harness. A BMW harness from 93-02 will work. I believe those are the total cutoff years for when that harness was in production.

Sometimes the blue/white remote turn on wire is not fed into the aftermarket radio harness. But the harness manufacturer usually includes this wire in the packaging. Reason beings is this lead does not correspond to all european cars particularly Audi.

You want to make sure your blue/white remote turn on wire is connected to the white factory amp turn on lead in the factory radio harness. This will allow your amp to turn on and off by signal from the new aftermarket deck.

Thank you very much for the replies. I actually think that the amp remote wire isn't connected, so I will have to check that. Sadly I don't have the original BMW audio connector.

Does someone happend to have or know where to find a more detailed description on the factory sound system wiring? The only one I've managed to find is this one: link, and it isn't very complete.

Try searching Bimmerforums.com Wiring schematics from e39's and e36's should all be the same or very close.

the problem could be your grounds... if one of them has been disconnected it screws up the whole series.

when i was doing my install i saw at least three different wiring schematics for a system with a power amp and power antenna. also, some early models (like mine) have the antenna built into the rear glass.

your original stereo, was it a bmw pioneer model or was it aftermarket too?

Sounds like they are phasing problems...

The E34 10 speaker system isnt on ALL E34s and I cant see where he states that he has the 10 speaker system?

My money is on the system being out of phase for some reason or the deck could be at fault....