paul p (chi-town)
09-01-2008, 06:17 AM
As mentioned by Attack Eagle and others, the 94-95s e34s do not have the separate passive crossover & amp section. This presents problems with a budget aftermarket install.
In my case the amp went out completelty ... so just slapping in the head unit didn’t work (of course i woulnn't be bothering if stock werked). Sending raw speaker signal to all 10 is a recipe for crap sound at least, blown tweeters at worst so no h/u hack in.
You can scavenge the old style connector from the amp box (which sends to the main drivers f & r), but the newer 26 pin (head unit, tweet/mids) is difficult to solder with decent thickness wire.
Eventually i’d like separate amps, but for the moment a Clarion 745 puts out pretty clean and powerful.
To split the signal for the component speakers i cobbled together a passive crossover and spliced it in where the amp was. Just some caps to keep the bass from the mids & tweeters, no coils to roll of the highs ... yet.
Gotta play with it some, but it sounds pretty good so far.
A definite improvement over stock and with a bit of tuning a bit more volume is surely available.
While i’m tempted to do a sub it isn’t necessary like in the NX or MR2.
The stock drivers are poly coated, the fr mids are paper and the tweets are ‘silk’. Comparing the woofers to same size Kenwoods i had left from teh Volvo the bmw has a bigger magnet, unless one is getting really high end sh!t, stock are more than adequate imho.
Oh and free.
Pictures and cap/coil values when i finish sorting this out.
The Clarion is a hand me down so the upgrade has been $30 at Radio Shack so far. Some higher quality hardware and this might crack $50. ;-)
Hang up & Drive!
94 BMW 530iT&A 140K, ‘Helga’ ( Boat bus, mit musique ... nonstop )
92 BMW 325i 150K, ‘Rolf’ ( WI deer survivor *whew* )
93 Datsun NX2000 185K ‘Carla’ ( RUST, that’s charact.....ok fine, it’s a beater *shakes head* )
85 Toyo MR2 130K ‘Jerry’ ( museum piece / track toy / 28mpg *grin* )
“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking. “
- George S. Patton
Bob Barr 2008 (http://www.bobbarr2008.com/splash/?s0618)
In my case the amp went out completelty ... so just slapping in the head unit didn’t work (of course i woulnn't be bothering if stock werked). Sending raw speaker signal to all 10 is a recipe for crap sound at least, blown tweeters at worst so no h/u hack in.
You can scavenge the old style connector from the amp box (which sends to the main drivers f & r), but the newer 26 pin (head unit, tweet/mids) is difficult to solder with decent thickness wire.
Eventually i’d like separate amps, but for the moment a Clarion 745 puts out pretty clean and powerful.
To split the signal for the component speakers i cobbled together a passive crossover and spliced it in where the amp was. Just some caps to keep the bass from the mids & tweeters, no coils to roll of the highs ... yet.
Gotta play with it some, but it sounds pretty good so far.
A definite improvement over stock and with a bit of tuning a bit more volume is surely available.
While i’m tempted to do a sub it isn’t necessary like in the NX or MR2.
The stock drivers are poly coated, the fr mids are paper and the tweets are ‘silk’. Comparing the woofers to same size Kenwoods i had left from teh Volvo the bmw has a bigger magnet, unless one is getting really high end sh!t, stock are more than adequate imho.
Oh and free.
Pictures and cap/coil values when i finish sorting this out.
The Clarion is a hand me down so the upgrade has been $30 at Radio Shack so far. Some higher quality hardware and this might crack $50. ;-)
Hang up & Drive!
94 BMW 530iT&A 140K, ‘Helga’ ( Boat bus, mit musique ... nonstop )
92 BMW 325i 150K, ‘Rolf’ ( WI deer survivor *whew* )
93 Datsun NX2000 185K ‘Carla’ ( RUST, that’s charact.....ok fine, it’s a beater *shakes head* )
85 Toyo MR2 130K ‘Jerry’ ( museum piece / track toy / 28mpg *grin* )
“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking. “
- George S. Patton
Bob Barr 2008 (http://www.bobbarr2008.com/splash/?s0618)