ICE speaker issue

[Sean d]

I was having a play with the HU tonight and noticed that when I fade to the rear speakers they sound very tinny in comparison to the fronts that have all the bass, they are all 5.25 Vibe slicks so should sound the same, I did notice when fitting that the wire for the rear is very thin, I am assuming this is the issue,
I will be having the centre console out in a couple of weeks so I may as well replace the wire,
Where would I route the new wire from, do I take it from the harness at the rear of the HU
Cheers

 

[handsomejackuk]

Could be crossover fitted somewhere for rears....rolling off the bass and extending the treble.......

 

[Devon Z]

Unfortunately the problem is the location, the rears will never sound the same as the fronts. For a speaker to produce a good bass it requires reasonably sized sealed area behind the speaker. If the consider home speakers bassie speakers have large cabinets, less bassie have smaller. So the fronts mounted in the footwells have a reasonable air space behind them but the rears do not hence the lack of bass.

 

[Jjim]

My rear speakers sound pretty good, but they are running off an amp.

I don’t think upgrading just the wiring will make much difference if your only running the speakers from the head unit.

If you do want to just upgrade the wiring then it would be from the stereo head unit connection harness to the speakers.

 

[Mario]

Are you running the stock amp? if you haven't deleted the stock amp and you are running with the HU using the existing cabling through an ISO adapter then you will have the stock amp as the limiting factor, I would run all speakers from the back of the HU if you haven't already with good quality cables.

 

[Braz86]

Are you running the stock amp? if you haven't deleted the stock amp and you are running with the HU using the existing cabling through an ISO adapter then you will have the stock amp as the limiting factor, I would run all speakers from the back of the HU if you haven't already with good quality cables.

That's interesting to know. Where is the stock amp located? Behind all the controls somewhere?

 

[Jjim]

That's interesting to know. Where is the stock amp located? Behind all the controls somewhere?

Not all OEM stereo systems have amps.

The basic system has no amplifier. Although some setups have a booster on the side of the speaker in the passenger footwell.

The Hi-Fi system and Harman Kardon systems both have amplifiers in the boot. The amplifiers are either on the right side of the boot, or under the carpet lump above the CD changer.

 

[pgunter]

Stupid question this.. did you get the wires on the right terminals ? POS & Neg. BMW wiring is not to a standard config. That being sometimes the one with the dotted line is not always the negative.

Also sometimes the bigger cables are not always the best as it’s the quality of the copper that’s important. Hence high end are less oxygen.. the term oxygen free copper. Thinner, more expensive but less drag on the current.

A good head unit should be able to power reasonable speakers with no issues.

 

[Mario]

On UK cars the passenger side footwel speaker has an amp stuck to the back ofthe speaker that powers all the other speakers, that's present in every single Z3 I have seen with factory stereo that's not a Harman Kardon. It's a small box but if you remove it you will know what I am taking about. If you want an aftermarket stereo to operate at its best you need to bypass it by cabling the speakers straight to the head unit.

 

[Natrolite55]

Hi all,
I fitted some new speakers to my zed at the weekend (2x mids in footwells and 2x tweeters in doors), keeping the original amp on the left hand side and all the original cabling. It has a Pioneer aftermarket HU. All seemed fine until I cranked the volume. It gets to a certain sound level and then all 4 speakers crackle badly. Am I best just to ditch and bypass the amp in the left hand side, diverting the 4 speaker cables from there? My understanding is the 2 rear speakers are directly fed from the HU. I think they are working fine.
Cheers

 

[Althulas]

Speaker impedance when removing front amp - zroadster.net

 

[137699]

Only use original BMW headunits - they're the only way to ensure the amp gets powered and will sound better as a result.
Don't bother with aftermarket headunits - they're just a downgrade and totally unnecessary now you can add Bluetooth to the original BMW units.

 

[Natrolite55]

Only use original BMW headunits - they're the only way to ensure the amp gets powered and will sound better as a result.
Don't bother with aftermarket headunits - they're just a downgrade and totally unnecessary now you can add Bluetooth to the original BMW units.

Pioneer headunit was in the car when I bought it (month ago), so I dont know what process it has been through for connection etc. Spent an hour taking the left hand footwell apart (again) and taking a look at the amp and connector. Tried the stereo without this plugged in and the two rear speakers are acting the same when load is increased (crackling at a mid/higher volume). Makes me think now that its the HU - possibly the amp in the HU??

 

[137699]

If the original quadlock wiring is still there (usually it is and an adaptor cable is used to wire up an aftermarket HU) then your best option will be to unplug the adaptor cable and refit an original radio. They're available on fleabay and if you get a rover or MG badged version, they're cheap as chips also.

 

[Natrolite55]

If the original quadlock wiring is still there (usually it is and an adaptor cable is used to wire up an aftermarket HU) then your best option will be to unplug the adaptor cable and refit an original radio. They're available on fleabay and if you get a rover or MG badged version, they're cheap as chips also.

Thanks. Pardon my ‘newbness’ but is there a particular original unit that is best to look for? Not sure yet if I will head this way or just rip the lot out and start from scratch. Cheers

 

[137699]

I have the CD43 which is excellent - single CD slot unit made by Blaupunkt but badged BMW, Rover, MG or Land Rover (depending which flavour your buy) the BMW & Rover badged ones light up the correct colour.

 

[137699]

Looks like this & you can also stick an "M" badge over the rover/MG badge to make it look in place.
I have a Bluetooth module plugged into the back of mine which allows me to stream from the phone - and as you can see, a Brodit mount which means my phone doubles as sat nav.

 

[Natrolite55]

Looks like this & you can also stick an "M" badge over the rover/MG badge to make it look in place.
I have a Bluetooth module plugged into the back of mine which allows me to stream from the phone - and as you can see, a Brodit mount which means my phone doubles as sat nav.
View attachment 154607

Thanks for the info, I will look into it.

 

[DrWong]

Looks like this & you can also stick an "M" badge over the rover/MG badge to make it look in place.
I have a Bluetooth module plugged into the back of mine which allows me to stream from the phone - and as you can see, a Brodit mount which means my phone doubles as sat nav.
View attachment 154607

Do you have details/link for the bluetooth module you're using pls mate? I think I have the same, single-cd Blaupunkt unit and was under the impression BT could only be added to the 6-disc changer models
Cheers!

 

[Natrolite55]

So my issue with severe crackling at a mid volume and up - a poor connection and insulation to the pass side tweeter...???? Fixed, that and problem has now gone entirely. I wouldn’t say great sound quality, but hey, I can always listen to the engine instead