My ghetto E36 ICE install

[DRZ]

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.

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.

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!

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

Finally, in place amidst the junk in my boot:

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

 

[DRZ]

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?

I knew this was coming

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

 

[DRZ]

some more unfortunate proof that E36 = Chav...

I take it you know me somehow then? Or are you just making up some bull based on the strength of someone having a bit of a laugh?

 

[DRZ]

Love the 1 Toxic 6x9, have you managed to figure out if the other is the same make?

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)

It sounds like it could be hitting the natural/resonant freqency of your car.

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.

 

[DRZ]

nice DRZ lol. i bet you'd prefer it if the driver was sitting in a sealed box.

I'd prefer it if I had a listening room with wheels

I treat all car audio stuff as a bit of a laugh really. You can never really have it sounding fantastic (compared with what I am used to, at least) so you might as well throw caution to the wind and just have a bit of fun with it all.

 

[DRZ]

What, like a coffin?

 

[DRZ]

My soundstage is perfectly balanced as it is.

daz, I cannae be bothered finding the TS params to make a new enclosure - that would be like hassle and effort. Ported is fine

 

[DRZ]

Just a thought, but won't the 6x9s get a hammering from the sub when they're trying to push air against each other? Is it possible to box them into their own airspace?

Technically, the air should all be moving in the same direction unless there are phase issues.

Ultimately, I couldn't care less about this setup, its a bit of a laugh and not really anything more than that. If the 6x9s popped tomorrow, I wouldn't really care.

 

[DRZ]

He's been through this with me, but basically, the box has a slight annoyance issue when kicking down into a gear which I forget (2nd I think), regardless of mode of the box.

However, after a bit of reading, it is potentially a pretty (relatively speaking) cheap, if fiddly, fix.

Already got the bits required to change the ATF which should do it by all accounts. I am fairly sure its 3rd but it hasn't done it in absolutely ages.