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xj867 
Newbie
Joined: 08-April-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 24
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 Topic: Upgrading Car audio in E36 Saloon
Posted: 31-May-2004 at 19:01 |
Hi all,
I am planning to give my audio system an upgrade and I have a few questions:
1) What are the speaker dimensions for the door mounted speakers and the speakers in the kick panel?
2) I have adapters so I can fit 6x9s into my rear shelf, but the wiring is different. Is it just a matter of cut and crimp a couple of connectors on, or is it more harder/easier than this?
I plan to run a pair of audiobahn 6x9s at the rear from an audiobahn 2 channel amp, and the audiobahn componets in the door and kick panels running from the head unit. I just want good quality, crisp sound.....i don't plan on entering any soundoffs....hence no subs and multiple amps. Although, I do have the option of kicking some bass out with the 6x9s when i need to.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
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Danny_boy
Senior Member I
Joined: 11-February-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 128
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Posted: 31-May-2004 at 19:23 |
I have answered most of those questions in the other thread mate.
The kickwells are 13cm mate - the ones in the doors (tweeters) are moulded I think so are a bit of a beast to change. I don't think you will gain a lot from changing them anyway.
With regard to wiring the 6x9's, I have the wire colours here so you can get them right first time. Let me know when you need them.
You will be surprised how much bass you can get from 6x9's mate.
Dan
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xj867
Newbie
Joined: 08-April-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 24
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Posted: 31-May-2004 at 19:36 |
Cheers for all the advice!
If you don't mind, when you have time, could you explain how to remove the kick panel.......is it different from the method explained in the haynes manual? No rush on this one though, as I don't plane to do anythin for at least a couple of months still.
Also, how is your system powered? Is everything powered from the stock battery/alternator? Or do you have uprated parts or power caps?
Maybe one day I'll go for a dvd system in my car. Depends how much cash I earn this summer before uni LOL
Also, are you a keen modifier and if so, what mods have you made?
Cheers
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Danny_boy
Senior Member I
Joined: 11-February-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 128
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Posted: 31-May-2004 at 19:38 |
Shall we do this by PM mate?
dan
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Blackcat
Senior Member II
Joined: 09-January-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 168
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 00:15 |
The tweeters in the doors are perfectly adequate, but the 13 cm in the footwells should definitely be changed...I am in the process of fitting some new more powerful ones myself for a bit of extra oomph!!! and was chuffed to bits to find out about the 6x9 adaptor??? how good is that!
THIS IS FOR DAN, BY THE WAY:
A quick question...I've got a 4 channel amp that runs my sub and rear speakers, if i'm playing my music loud for about 5-10 minutes the amp cuts out completely...the fuse DOESN'T blow, it just seems to trip out, but the amp doesn't seem to be getting hot AT ALL before it cuts out. The amp has built in thermal cut out, and by switching the head unit off and on again the amp kicks back in until the next time it cuts out. When the amp cuts out there is still power going to it, but what I can't understand is that i'm not over driving the amp at all. I used to drive 2x12" subs (4 ohms each in parallel) from 2 channels bridged (out of the 4 channels) and the other 2 channels were connected to a pair of 8" alpine subs and a pair of alpine 6x9's on the shelf...and it only ever cut out when the fuses blew!!!
HELP ME PLEASE, IT'S DOING MY HEAD IN I'M OUT OF IDEAS NOW!!!
Edited by Blackcat
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Burning rubber??? I prefer to think of it as scorching tarmac!!!
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xj867
Newbie
Joined: 08-April-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 24
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 00:56 |
Blackcat,
I am no audio techhead, but your amp may be cutting out due to power fluctuations.....i could be wrong, but I think if you added a power cap to your system the amp might run fine.
As I believe, I may be wrong, but here goes....the cap stores power while also distributing power to the amp evenly, with the stored power compensating for the fluctuations due to peeks in power output.....i.e. contiunaul high periods of bass.
From the looks of your system, a high capacity cap will be more than adequate.
This is just my opinion, and I could be totally wrong.
Good Luck Mate
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Blackcat
Senior Member II
Joined: 09-January-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 168
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 01:05 |
But I never had any problems with my old set up and same amp. The old set up was definitely drawing more power...but never tripped out!?
Could it be the battery...I don't have starting problems ever, but is there a possibility that this amp has a high input voltage threshold, and I have a pathetically small battery on my beemer, and it drains to the point where the amp cuts due to low voltage as opposed to cutting because it is overheating???
and...lovely idea, but capacitors aren't cheap, I saw one for �60 and that was one of the smaller non-competition jobs!!!
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Burning rubber??? I prefer to think of it as scorching tarmac!!!
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xj867
Newbie
Joined: 08-April-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 24
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 01:12 |
hmm.....could be the battery, or maybe even faulty amp.
When I get my system sorted, instead of upgrading both the battery and alternator, i will just upgrade the battery and attcah a cap to it. I know they can be expensive, but i think it's cheaper and easier than alternator upgrade.....besides, I will only be running a high power 2 channel amp running 2 highpower 2way 6x9s, and relying on my headunit to supply power to the door and kick panel components.
I will obviously leave it open to future upgrades, but I just want a full audiobahn install and they aint cheap LOL
Give a few specialists a call, I am sure they might be able to help you out with better advice than mine!
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Blackcat
Senior Member II
Joined: 09-January-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 168
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 01:22 |
Don't think it's a faulty amp, but i'll check it out anyway...
Thanks for your input, and hopefully now i've found out about these 6x9 adaptor things, I can install my beautiful set of pioneer 6x9's.
This is my set up
Kenwood CD head unit with 10 disk changer
Pioneer 2 way 13cm front speakers with standard door tweeters
Beautiful earthquake sub in a quality unbranded box
4 channel denon amp
Standard shelf speakers
.................................
and i'm fitting:
pioneer 6x9's on rear shelf instead of standards of course
driven by 2 channels from 4 channel amp
other 2 channels driving front 2 ways and tweeters
new smaller, but equally powerful denon amp to drive the sub...2 channels bridged
Think it'll sound awesome once it's finished
OH BTW do you know how to filter or get rid of an annoying "alternator" whine on low volume, you can hear a noise that changes with revs...obviously picking noise up from somewhere...any ideas???
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Burning rubber??? I prefer to think of it as scorching tarmac!!!
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Danny_boy
Senior Member I
Joined: 11-February-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 128
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 08:24 |
Hi lads,
Blackcat - where is your amp mounted. It definately sounds like the thermal cutout kicking in to me mate. The position of your amp with regards to air movement etc is highly important, as just moving it a small amount can make the world of difference. This happened the same when I had an amp mounted on the underside of the parcel shelf as the heat was coming out of the amp and rising up back to the amp. I got the cutting out problems with this.
Another thing you may want to check is the quality of your earth mate - the fact that you have whine leads me to think that this may not be made very well. Where are you earthing to at the moment. The best place is the rear seatbelt bolts mate.
I would also agree with xj867 - a power cap of 1 farad would make the world of difference to your system. It will not only enhance your bass but will help to solve any super-high power grabs from the electrical system on the car. It may also stop your headlights from dimming on a heavy thump :):):)
I would be tempted to invest on a larger battery too mate - they aren't cheap but they will help you out no end.
I had some problems with my TV recently where, when the system was up fairly high listning to films like F&F and stuff, the screen would dim with the bass - a larger and better quality battery has sorted this out now.
Anything else, just ask mate.
Dan
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Blackcat
Senior Member II
Joined: 09-January-2004
Location: United Kingdom
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Points: 168
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 11:18 |
Cheers my friend, I think you've hit the nail right on the head...
When I wired in the system, I decided to run a cable from the headunit to the amp to earth them together (makes a common earth) but this didn't help at all...BUT the amp is earthed by the most pathetic attempt on the planet...a drilled hole and a screw!!! How bad is that...what I will do is simply connect the earth straight back to the battery, so there is no sort of resistance variation between both voltage rails! Hopefully this will sort it out...cheers fella
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Burning rubber??? I prefer to think of it as scorching tarmac!!!
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Blackcat
Senior Member II
Joined: 09-January-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 168
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 21:55 |
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Well today I re-wired the earth cable to the battery, and it made absolutely no difference, I think it MUST be the RCA leads??? as it is picking the whine up on it's way to the amp, and not at the headunit! Would it do any good to use silver foil or something at the back of the headunit!!! I've heard that if you wrap all the wires at the back of the headunit, and then earth the foil it can help with preventing noise from the fan, the rear windscreen demisting thingy, and alternator whine! IS THIS TRUE, OR HOUSEWIVES TALE???
Edited by Blackcat
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Burning rubber??? I prefer to think of it as scorching tarmac!!!
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Danny_boy
Senior Member I
Joined: 11-February-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 128
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Posted: 03-June-2004 at 22:10 |
I have heard that it's not a good idea to earth stuff straight back to the battery -ve. I can't think why really as you are just cutting out the middleman.
Never heard of the earthed foil thingy - sounds like a load of crap to me mate.
Dan
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Defblade
Really Senior Member I
Joined: 17-May-2003
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 276
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Posted: 04-June-2004 at 00:14 |
Where did you run your RCA leads? Cos if it's down the passenger side, that's where there's a big chunky cable or two what takes power back and forth from the battery, and running the RCAs down the top of that will give you lovely "alternator" whine. Mine used to be v noticable when just starting - the amp would pick up the intial ECU throttle blip before the head unit came back in. My RCAs now run down the center of the car, problem solved:)
Jon
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Danny_boy
Senior Member I
Joined: 11-February-2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 128
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Posted: 04-June-2004 at 13:08 |
On a 6 pot the power cables run on the drivers said I think.
Not sure about the 4 cylinder cars though??
Dan
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Defblade
Really Senior Member I
Joined: 17-May-2003
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 276
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Posted: 04-June-2004 at 19:08 |
Is the battery still in the back on the driver's side? If so, I can't think they'd do anything else........
Jon
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Upgrading Car audio in E36 Saloon