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10-11-2009, 12:46 PM | #1 |
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Standard Stereo Upgrade - Stage 1 Complete
Stage 1 of the audio upgrade is complete.
As many other owners have noted, the standard stereo is simply not loud enough so I decided to do something about it. I purchased a Blaupunkt THA-555. This is a 5 channel amp that can take high level inputs. I also purchased a plug and play wiring loom that enables you to plug a loom in between the head unit multi-plug and the head unit itself and feed the signal wires (that would normally go to the speakers) to the amp and then the output from the amp back to the speakers. The first challenge was where to site the amplifier. I soon discovered a large space on the 'wall' between the boot and the cabin. I can only assume that is where the upgraded amplifiers are. On the opposite side was what looked like the phone module. On the right there was a large block of polysterene, presumeably stopping luggage pushing in and deforming the trim. So I cut a sheet of 12mm MDF - there are 4 mounting screws on the metal 'wall' and I used these to fix the panel. Second attempt gave me the perfect fit and I pushed the board onto the screws (they weren't long enough to get nuts on) and used liquid glue to fix the panel. The amp is screwed onto that panel and it fits perfectly! The wiring loom is fed from the back of the head unit behind the glove compartment, down the passenger sill and through the dividing wall and into the boot. I took power leads from positive and negative terminals on the right of the boot near the battery rather than use power from the head unit. The speaker loom just plugs in (and has the advantage that you can plug the plugs into themselves if you want to bypass the amp, which I needed to a couple of times while setting up)... When I first turned everything on, there was a regular pulsing noise through the speakers - so not a good start, and also, the volume seemed to be not much better than without the amp. The pulsing was fixed when I removed the head unit - the optical feeds had come dislodged from the plug. The volume was fixed when I realised that the gains on the amp were turned right down! I turned them up full and WOW! Having said that, I was getting no PDC through the rear speakers! My heart sank again until I realised that the rear channel low pass was switched on! Switching it off gave me full range on the speaker and the PDC tones. So now, the volume is now amazing! With the gain at about half way, I get to about 90% of the head unit volume and the speakers are about on their limit but the volume is very high - the stock speakers are not that bad. With the gains turned up more, not only did the amp start cutting out because I assume it couldn't handle the voltage but the speakers distorted and there was notable alternator whine. However, there was still one issue - the amplifier is designed to switch on automatically (without a remote signal) - I established that is does this by sensing a voltage on the speaker inputs. The trouble was, it never switched off. I even left the car locked for an hour (to allow all the 'systems' to shut down) and even after that the amp was hot and so had been on all the time. I'm guessing the speakers always have some kind of voltage going to them - if I unplugged the signal feeds from the head unit, the amp turned off. So I decided that I had to provide a remote signal and wire it into the amp. However, I couldn't find one out of the back of the head unit. On several BMWs it is in PIN 13 but none of the outputs gave me a switched signal! So I had to resort to picking up a feed from the cigarette lighter - yes this will give a positive feed when the car is 'on' even if the stereo is off but it's the best I could think of. Luckily the plug and play loom has a positve and negative wire (for taking power from the head unit to the amp) so I could use the positive wire to feed the remote signal to the amp. But, when I wired this into the amp, it still didn't switch off - because it was still using the signal from the audio input. Almost more worrying was that this remote wire was feeding about 7v back into the cigarette lighter circuit!! It took me a while to realise but my iphone (which I have on a Kensington Liquid Aux charger/aux-in device) started reporting that the device was not compatible (because it was not providing 12v to the iphone). So eventually, I had to put a relay onto the main power supply to the amp, switched by the remote signal from the cigarette lighter. This worked perfectly and although not the best solution, there wasn't an alternative. Update: The black wire on PIN 13 does in fact provide a remote signal - it's behaviour is not totally predictable, for example it can stay 'live' if you leave the car unlocked - for how long I haven't measured. Needless to say I have now replaced the cigarette lighter feed with this one as the remote switch for the amp. This has the advantage that you can hear the stereo when the car ignition is switched off (and power to the cigarette lighter is cut) So finally it was all working and peachy! I am very pleased with the result and by the fact that I could leave everything looking "stock". Some pictures below. While I had the car apart, I also hid the Kensington Liquid Aux (as it was too bulky next to the cup holders). I also mounted and hard wired my TomTom 930. So, Stage 1 complete. Stage 2 will be adding BMW tweaters to the front speakers (and maybe to the rears as well as the mid range speakers have sockets and there is a place in the plastic housing for them). Stage 3 will be adding a sub or subs. Challenge with that will be that the 5th channel on the amp can only run from an RCA input so I guess I will have to do that via a high level>RCA converter in parallel off the front audio feed (as the rears have the bass filtered out by the head unit)
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Last edited by jeremyp; 11-06-2009 at 08:39 AM.. |
10-11-2009, 06:22 PM | #2 |
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where did you purchase this plug and play wiring loom? Do you have a model number?
For the front tweeters, do you mean in the upper part of the doors near the side view mirrors? They look like they have tweeters in them but are actually empty in cars without the upgraded stereo system. Fyi, why bmw tweeters??? You say the stock speakers aren't too bad. Do you happen to know the speaker size in the doors and behind the seats? Are they 5 1/4 or 6 1/2 or ... ? As far as the auto-on/off on speaker level inputs, you sure there wasn't a switch on your amp to enable that? I've had amps with this feature, but you could enable/disable as you wished based on a switch. Finally, great job! |
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10-11-2009, 06:35 PM | #3 |
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was the adapter a blaupunkt 7 607 622 016 001 ? I've heard that these work if you car does not have navigation, but will not work if you do. I have no idea if this is true. Do you have nav?
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10-12-2009, 03:08 AM | #4 | |||||||
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10-12-2009, 04:51 AM | #5 |
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Very nice update & pictures, we are thirsty for more! Please keep us posted...
What is the "blue spot" ? Can other guys that have got the premium stereo, comment on where you placed the amp? |
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10-12-2009, 11:09 AM | #7 |
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Good work jeremyp ...
Glad to hear that you overcome the problems with PDC tomes, volume and remote on/off signal, cause I think I will be the second one who's gonna try it. There was another member here who did the same thing but with a NON pnp amplifier. Here's the link (post #12): http://e89.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280841 I asked him a lot of questions and he really gave a lot of info. Take a look at the attached file and pay attention to question number 7. He says that there's indeed a small gauge black cable for the acc on/off signal, which is common to all BMW's and you can't miss it. Why didn't U use that cable to feed the acc on/off signal to the amp ? I think you should give it a try and let us know.
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10-12-2009, 11:20 AM | #8 | |
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10-12-2009, 11:29 AM | #9 | |
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Can U post a picture of the Kensington Liquid Aux and your Tom Tom mounted in the car. Does it look factory made ?
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jpapg - E89 Z4
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10-12-2009, 11:33 AM | #10 |
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Thanks! I'd worked that one out already
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10-14-2009, 03:30 AM | #12 |
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Mike, when you have component speakers (i.e. sub. mid and tweeter) - they act as one speaker (i.e. one channel). Therefore the front speakers are two channels, the rear speakers are 2 channels and the sub is the fifth channel.
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10-14-2009, 03:07 PM | #13 |
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Hey jeremyp, do you know if I just add the BMW tweeters by the mirrors if they will work? Are they prewired from the factory and is there any signal on the wires in the base audio system? I was thinking since tweeters don't draw much current that the base system could easily drive the tweeters but BMW may have decided to just eliminate the tweeters to save some money. Thanks in advance.
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10-25-2009, 04:25 AM | #14 |
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Hey jeremyp ...
I need a little more clarification regarding your method of powering and switching off the amp. First of all the problem was that the amp never switched off because for some reason it continued to sense voltage from the speaker input wires. Finaly your solution was to use a relay utilizing a remote signal from the cig. lighter circuit. Right ? 1. How did you power your amp ? Did you plug DIRECTLY to the positive pole of the battery or did you plug into one of the empty holes of the black box (power module) located right in top of the battery ? My sense is that this box controls the power distrubution to the car and it puts the car into sleep mode when needed. If you had plugged into this box and NOT DIRECTLY to (+) pole the amp should have switched off together with the other systems of the car. 2. If (1) is not an issue, then using the cig. lighter circuit as a trigger to turn on the amp, I think that you will NOT have sound when the car is in radio mode (radio mode: when we listen to radio, WITHOUT having inserted the key into the hole). Is this true ? 3. Did U finaly keep the cig. lighter relay solution ? 4. Why not power the amp using the same power leads from the head unit, provided already by the blaupunkt harness ? Would appreciate if you keep us informed Thanks !
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jpapg - E89 Z4
Last edited by jpapg; 10-25-2009 at 04:48 AM.. |
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10-25-2009, 04:45 AM | #15 |
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Maybe this could help:
To get a radio power ON signal, I have used in my E85 the +12 volt signal of the antenna amplifier (attached to the antenna and easy accessible in the trunk). So besides the coax cable there is a 2nd wire. I never check my E89 if it uses the same system. I use the power on signal from the Pioneer head unit. EdP |
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10-25-2009, 05:05 AM | #16 | |
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Was it the same on the E85 ? Sounds good to me, if this is really the FM antenna amp and not something else !!
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jpapg - E89 Z4
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11-01-2009, 05:54 AM | #18 |
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11-06-2009, 08:45 AM | #19 | ||||
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No, relay still there (as the amp is still detecting power from speaker feeds), but now switched by remote feed from head unit Quote:
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11-10-2009, 01:59 PM | #20 |
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jeremy, my z4 comes with the 6 speaker setup. i believe in this configuration there is no amp in the trunk. however, i can get a bmw amp (the one used in the 11 speaker configuration) for around $300 or so. when you took things apart, was there a wiring harness present that a factory bmw amp could simply plug into?
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11-10-2009, 02:09 PM | #21 |
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I count nine speakers... two small ones right behind the driver and passenger, two on the doors, two on the sides (by footwell), two tweeters and one on top of the dashboard... and i tested to make sure if sound was coming out of each speaker and it does. what the hell kinda system do i have??
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