My ghetto E36 ICE install

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DRZ

DRZ

DRZ

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The 325i I bought already had the makings of a semi-decent ICE installation, but it was time to hit the bay with a vengeance and snipe me some bargains to really round things off.

To start with, the car had a Sony CDX-GT616U - not a bad head unit really, USB port on the front, reasonable amount of power, decent number of inputs/outputs on the back for messing about with etc. I had a choice between this and a similar Kenwood HU that I had in the MR2. The Sony is MUCH faster at reading my 4Gb USB flash drive, so I went with it for that reason.

The red also goes better with the BMW dash IMO.

hudark.jpg


I have no desire to take apart the trim down in the front footwells to find out what speakers are down there, but they are definitely not the stock units - for a start the cones are blue! They sound reasonable anyway (although the fact they are down at my feet isn't exactly brilliant!) and the tweeters in the door are extremely effective.

The rear speakers have been replaced with Toxic 6x9s. I really, really dislike the presentation 6x9s give you, but these are there and they are free and to be fair to them, they are ridiculously bassy considering. They are also completely invisible from above, the stock BMW grilles etc have been retained so that unless you knew they were there, you wouldn't know that the stock speakers had been removed.

toxic.jpg


I got lucky and found a sub for an astonishingly small amount of money, and an amplifier for a hell of a lot less than that again - I couldn't believe it!

sub.jpg


amp.jpg


After some head-scratching and investigation I found a 'convenient' hole to get the wiring through:

bootwall.jpg


Finally, in place amidst the junk in my boot:

subfinal.jpg


I sat in the car and tinkered with the EQs and levels for about an hour until I was happy with how it sounded and considering the whole thing set me back less than £40 including the petrol to collect the sub and lunch on the way, it sounds pretty damn sweet :D
 
I know you are into your sound so i'm interested in knowing what you think about the sound from a technical point of view. Any weaknesses in the system? Also I often hear very mixed views regarding the use of 6x9s with subs, what's your conclusion?
 
gurdas said:
I know you are into your sound so i'm interested in knowing what you think about the sound from a technical point of view. Any weaknesses in the system? Also I often hear very mixed views regarding the use of 6x9s with subs, what's your conclusion?
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I knew this was coming :p

What I have tried to do is to get the sub to handle the really low stuff that the 6x9s had no hope in hell of doing and have the 6x9s filling in the top end of the bass extending into the mid range.

It is by no means perfect - there is a fairly big lump where the crossover point is and there is a fairly hefty midrange hole just above that, but when you listen to the kind of music that I tend to listen to in the car (trance, DnB, etc), it doesn't really matter. Its not really a problem when I do listen to rock etc because I don't get into my car expecting audio perfection.

Its a hell of a lot better now across the board since the 6x9s aren't having to work to produce all of the bass frequencies.

One thing irritates me though and I am convinced that it is down to the perspex screen enclosing the sub at the front, but certain impulses seem to make the sub slam just a bit too much, which sounds really stupid if you notice it (I daresay its not all that noticeable, but I picked up on it and it annoyed me!). I will experiment and over time I will probably massage out all of these little niggles :)

EDIT:

I should probably add to this post that I wouldn't have used 6x9s in this setup unless they were already there. I probably would have chosen some 6.5" or 8" coaxials for the back :)
 
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DRZ said:
I should probably add to this post that I wouldn't have used 6x9s in this setup unless they were already there. I probably would have chosen some 6.5" or 8" coaxials for the back :)
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Like most people I used to think 6x9s were the be all and end all of sound quality, and couldn't see beyond the sort of tat Halfords sell.

Check out the TalkAudio forum for help & advice, you'll soon find out that speakers in the back is a really bad idea in any car (unless it's just for a trivial amount of rear fill, or watching movies).
 
Skeeter said:
some more unfortunate proof that E36 = Chav...
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You haven't seen the car or Martin have you? :confused:

Go trash another thread. I suppose you think my e36 is "chav"?

Looking good Martin, oddly mine has different front speakers and 6x9's in the rear also, so I guess that a) the stock stuff is bobbins, and b) that 6x9 is either the stock size, or a common size for the rear.
 
I have an amplified sub in the boot of my car. The sub driver (a fairly decent JL Audio 10") cost me £2 from a car boot sale, the amp (again a fairly decent JBL GTO) cost me £30 from Ebay and the enclosure for the sub was another tenner or so. Does that make me a chav too ;)

It works fairly well actually, my new Pioneer head unit (P7000UB) has all the right crossover/EQ settings to help with this.

Oh and it makes quite a lot of noise with Pendulum ;)
 
DRZ said:
One thing irritates me though and I am convinced that it is down to the perspex screen enclosing the sub at the front, but certain impulses seem to make the sub slam just a bit too much, which sounds really stupid if you notice it
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It sounds like it could be hitting the natural/resonant freqency of your car. :)

Personally I prefer no rear speakers at all... I did run for a while on my old car with some 6x9s in the back, but after a few months I went to take them out... turns out the suspension on the 6x9s was utterly ruined (they were just really floppy and not tight) because of the air pressure exerted on them by the subs in the boot. :o

Try Mos Def feat. Massive Attack - "I Against I" for some proper bass. I've set off car alarms with this. :o
 
Nice one Martin, can't beat a bit of ghetto ICE installage.

I really need to get my front speakers installed and a proper box built for my sub.

Going to sound deaden the entire front doors and build some MDF rings to mount the speakers too. Then I need to get rid of the crappy ported box which my 12" Directed sub currently sits in.

Still, it sounds pretty good at the moment due to the masses of EQ settings my Pioneer headunit has <3

Oh and rofl at the chav comment... if chavs have beards and listen to rock music then I guess you are actually a chav, Martin :p :D
 
agw_01 said:
Then I need to get rid of the crappy ported box which my 12" Directed sub currently sits in.
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Definitely - if you have a ported sub box not specifically designed arond the T/S specs of the sub then it's more than likely going to sound bad and a simple sealed box will not be as loud, but will be "tighter" and more consistent through the range (not peaking at a specific tuned frequency/harmonics of the tuned frequency).
 
Firestar_3x said:
Love the 1 Toxic 6x9, have you managed to figure out if the other is the same make? :p
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They are both exactly the same, but the Toxic logo is missing from the other one. I assume it was damaged when the cabling was changed on the other one (looks like the spade has snapped off at some point in the past and has been repaired)

daz said:
It sounds like it could be hitting the natural/resonant freqency of your car.
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Nah, sounds nothing like that (unfortunately). Having slept on it, I think I might have an answer but I will have to have a tinker and see.

I suppose doing an acoustics degree helps in that I can bowl up to one of my lecturers with any symptoms and there is a chance they can think up some kind of oddball way around the problem.
 
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Ghetto ice rocks, ive had loads of crappy installs, my first setup was made up from an old 12mm thick teak coffee table, loads of bass and....... rattles:P

Ive got a decent set up now, no subs as i cant find a decent small sub, but i have some Helix RS6's, picked up for £100 from TA, these were £400 odd a while back, with bass out of these, i dont really need a sub.
 
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