E46 Audio options

Six6siX

Six6siX

Six6siX

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Joined
25 Nov 2004
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Hertfordshire
I have come to realise that the standard audio setup is pretty dire for what is supposed to be a premium car...and from what i can see the factory HK upgrade is not much better!

so im looking to go after market, just speakers for now. keeeping the stock amp and HU for the time being.

I have done a bit of research across the various e46 forums and the speaker sizes i have found are 6.25" , 2.5" , 1" in the front in a 3 way setup and 6.25" , 2.5" in the rear.

has anyone done any upgrades to the audio on their e46, recommend any threads with info or speakers that work well?

to save the hassle im seriously tempted to get one of the bsw stage 1 packages which are apparently just rainbow custom speakers... however i want to explore the fully custom options first.

any advice?
 
yeah i plan on changing the amp at some point but want to take it a step at a time.

I could stick my pioneer HU and amp in but having seen pics of some single.din units in the e46 it doesnt look all that great.
 
lol well my reasoning is that im going to have to change them anyway if it works then thatll be a stop gap till the amp+hu get changed...if not then ill have to do those as well! :p

doesnt the system have a basic amp anyway??
 
interesting. I may shop some pics to get an idea of what my pioneer will look like...as it is a good HU!

changing the HU also raises the question of connection to the existing system. can you get an adapter to convert ISO to the BMW loom? or is it just better going for an amp at the same time?

as for a sub, apparently the boot is pretty well sealed so subs sound didnt get into the cabin too well. the best option was a custom mount on the shelf for subs or punch through the center ski hatch... any truth in this theory?
 
ok so ill need a pioneer to BMW adapter and a steering wheel control adapter, both specific to whatever my car uses?

considering i already have the headunit, i may try this first ... as long as it looks ok... can anyone link me to a facia and or examples of wiring adapters? just so i know what to search for when i get home
 
Khaaan! said:
This is what mine looks like but if your car uses flat pin connectors then you'll probably need something like this

You won't need a Pioneer HU adapter and a steering adapter individually, one of the above will do both jobs.


[/ img]


It's an extra addon because by default the steering controls won't work, you need to have the steering control unit installed between the ISO and the HU with a lead plugged into the steering socket on the HU if yours has one.


:o Honest it doesn't look bad because the display on teh HU is aligned perfectly with the climate control display too.

Edit*

Pic:
[img][/ img]

I still need to tuck the cables behind the HU further back as the fascia pokes out slightly at the edges, I had to remove the lot last week to take out the steering control unit to get a new one so ignore it sticking out at the edges a bit.[/QUOTE]

That doesn't look bad actually! Do you have the plastic surround that comes with the HU on in that pic? I can't tell.

My Pioneer unfortunately has blue backlighting :( so won't match the rest of the lighting but has a similar offset main control stick so maybe the side aligned facia would work too...

Thanks for the links to the adapters, I don't know which I have in the car so I guess I will have to take it apart to check first before buying one. Why are there soooo many variables! :mad:

So once I have checked which adapter I need, that should, in theory be all I need to replace the HU right...?
Click to expand...
 
Just thought, what about antenna connection? For good ol' fashioned radio? Does that need an adapter too?
 
Mine will look worse as it will be blue, but the OEM sound is making my ears bleed :p ;)

Ok, I have been out in the car and taken the BMW radio out to check and the cables look like they go to a sort of plastic harness and there appears to be 3 main connectors

- Big round pin connector which I recognise from the above links
- 2x smaller block connectors under it (these I guess are to do with the cd changer and navigation drive in the boot?)

- There is also the odd BMW antenna connector

I'm right in saying that this will do the trick?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pioneer-BMW-E..._Vehicles_FasciaPlates_SM&hash=item27b1639895
 
Fitted my Pioneer over the weekend and I must say that things sound largely more 'musical' but although I have tweaked the HU settings to some extent, I still feel there is something lacking.

For the moment though, I think I am going to stick with this setup and play about with the settings some more but will eventually change the speakers too.

One thing I noticed is that there really is not a lot of room in that dash, it was a VERY tight fit getting things squeezed in behind the HU!
 
Khaaan! said:
It is pretty tight in there aye ¬_¬

The audio options, I am assuming your HU has similar options to mine so in your AUDIO options menu do you have an EQ1 and EQ2 menu? EQ2 controls the frequency range options and when I changed these to wider values the sound changed for the better and then I enable STR to a value of 2 (max) which further improved treble and bass. It's all being done via the built in amp so there's no distortion so give those a try.

Also if you have a BASS option in the main menu I have it set to a value of 4 and set the BASS onscreen slider in EQ 1 menu to 0.
Click to expand...

I will have a check when I finish work, thanks. I can't remember off hand whether there were 2 EQ controls, though there definately is 1 but I don't remember any range settings, hmm. There are also LPF/HPF frequency controls + bass, subwoofer mode, etc etc

What is you HU by the way?
 
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