Speaker Advice

[northernlight]

Morning all,

After a couple of weeks of driving the new beast, I still have a large grin and loving the experience.

However, the stereo feels a little 'muddy' compated to the Bose system i had in my 'ol Audi. Can anyone advise on what the speaker system was that came as standard?

I have the nav, so presume i have an amp in the boot, but i don't have the second set of speakers in the rear doors, so imagine i don't have the 'loudspeaker' upgrade that was an option when new? How many speakers did the X5 come with as standard? Is it 6 in the front (dash, A pillar, door) and the two in the rear doors? What else was different in the liudspeaker upgrade?

Any easy 'plug n play' upgrades i can do? I have seen that the front dash speakers are easy to pop out? Any straight swaps? Saw the Bavarean werks ones you can get in the states, but not seen anything similar over here.

Cheers guys!

[ChrisLux]

Well mine has the 'standard' set-up and I have 2 on the dashboard , 4 in front doors and 4 in back doors
plus as you say the amp in the boot , so not sure why you have non in the rear door .

Bav Sound as you say is a good option , except I'm not sure what P&P will be like these days .
The only other option I found when I was looking are Rainbow speakers . Very good , but also quite
expensive . JBL might be worth having a look at too .

[northernlight]

I don't know why some have 4 speakers in the rear doors and others not. I presumed it was the loudspeaker optional extra. Mine has the speaker in the door bin area, but not the one higher up just in front of the rear door pull.

Will check out Rainbow speakers tho!

[Sanj]

So 3 options were available for the E53 X5. Don't know the official naming - it did change throughout the life of the car.

Option 1 - Standard Speaker setup (6 speakers)

2 x in the dash
2 x in the lower part of the front doors
2 x in the lower part of the rear doors
RCM is your amp

Option 2 - HiFi Speaker upgrade (10 speakers)

2 x in the dash
2 x in the lower part of the front doors
2 x in the upper part of the front doors
2 x in the lower part of the rear doors
2 x in the upper part of the rear doors
HK separate amp

Option 3 - DSP

Same as option 2 but with the addition of DSP unit (I think) and the sub setup in the right rear compartment.

BSW is the plug-and-play swap out (expensive but straight swap and very good).

To save on the costs, upgrade your front door speakers to components and add a sup with an external amp. Will improve the sound no end. Add the BSW's or anything else that might fit in there and you'll get even better sound and so on.

[jevansio]

My 05 X5 has 4 in the rear doors, but only 2 in the front doors???  Also where should I look to see if I have a seperate amp? thanks

Edit I just had another look and found the front uppers behind the wing mirror pods

[Sanj]

[quote="jevansio"]
My 05 X5 has 4 in the rear doors, but only 2 in the front doors???  Also where should I look to see if I have a seperate amp? thanks

Edit I just had another look and found the front uppers behind the wing mirror pods
[/quote]

Yeah the grills are there regardless of a tweeter being fitted behind them or not.

Amp is in the rear left compartment. Look behind the metal bracket holding the changer/satnav - you'll see the bluetooth module mounted at a 45 degree angle on the front side.

[northernlight]

Thanks Sanj,

I presume that i don't have the front tweeters then, just assumed they were there as the grille is there!

Does anyone know if the tweeter unit wiring is already there to just plug the speak er in, or if it would need a wiring loom running from somewhere? I see a few of them for sale on fleabay for not much.

[jevansio]

[quote="Sanj"]
Yeah the grills are there regardless of a tweeter being fitted behind them or not.

Amp is in the rear left compartment. Look behind the metal bracket holding the changer/satnav - you'll see the bluetooth module mounted at a 45 degree angle on the front side.
[/quote]
Many thanks,

Also does anyone know the spec of the stock amp, how many channels, rms per channel, how the speakers are configured

The BSW website seems to indicate stock is 10-15 RMS per channel, surely that can't be correct?  I don't know for sure the wiring on teh X5, but assuming rear door is one channel, front door is one, and front dash is one per side, that's 6 channels?  Max of 90W???  My XJR had a 400w system as stock. (http://www.bavariansoundwerks.com/produ ... 00-06-E53/)

Thanks J

I seem to have found something indicating it's a 10 channel amp:
http://wds.spaghetticoder.org/en/e53/Co ... fi_system_(Hifi_system_(10_speakers))/

Nothing definite indicating rms per channel but I've noticed quite a few threads on US forums with speaker recommendations quoting around 10-15 rms speakers so it's prolly correct.  Hell that's 150 RMS max, I expected more :/.  I'm starting to think a straight speaker upgrade would leave me underwhelmed

Se

[dgm]

[quote="northernlight"]
Thanks Sanj,

I presume that i don't have the front tweeters then, just assumed they were there as the grille is there!

Does anyone know if the tweeter unit wiring is already there to just plug the speak er in, or if it would need a wiring loom running from somewhere? I see a few of them for sale on fleabay for not much.
[/quote]

I went through this recently, there is no wiring for the tweeters but it's simple enough to fit them and then tap into the front door speakers.  It works well on mine.  Here's a link to the thread where it was discussed.

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/https://xdr ... 3#msg41193

[jevansio]

Sorry for the hijack but I keep finding more speaker related info and this seems like a relevant thread

I found this e46 10 speaker amp info:
http://www.bmwgm5.com/Stereo_amp.htm

All the pins match the e53 amp pinouts so I'm assuming it'll be the same one used in an e53.  The wattages add upto 370W, much closer to what I would expect from an amp in a car of this class/age

[Raj]

Just upgrading (like for like replacement) speakers generally will not do much but adding the extra tweeters at the front will. The other thing is don't get hung up on wattages, etc. Truth be told, they are very misleading. Most speaker systems that quote large wattages will struggle to actually achieve it and its about how clean the signal us not the power.

Just my 2p's worth.

[northernlight]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

dgm, I was slightly confused by your tweeter install experience. Did they actually have a connector somewhere in the door once you took the panel off? And did they work when plugged in? Or did you need to actually cut into the existing speaker cable for the lower door speaker and patch together?

I would quite like to add the tweeters, but slightly concerned if its a big job.

Thanks

[Raj]

[quote="northernlight"]
Thanks for all the replies guys.

dgm, I was slightly confused by your tweeter install experience. Did they actually have a connector somewhere in the door once you took the panel off? And did they work when plugged in? Or did you need to actually cut into the existing speaker cable for the lower door speaker and patch together?

I would quite like to add the tweeters, but slightly concerned if its a big job.

Thanks
[/quote]

I don't think the wiring is there so it would be a matter of tapping off the lower speaker.

[dgm]

The connectors are there for the tweeters but unfortunately they are redundant and don't work.  I used OEM tweeters and cut off the plug before extending the wires and splicing into the existing front door speaker.  If you can get the door card off then it's a straightforward job to do, there's a guide on here for the door card.  There's also a guide on the BSW site for replacing the tweeters which will assist.

[northernlight]

Great, thanks for that. Will give it a go!