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      07-09-2018, 03:39 PM   #1
scootz
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Speaker Upgrade

Hi Guys

I know... I know... this has been done to death on many Z4 forums, but most of the information out there relates to the US markets.

I have a UK car. sDrive35iS. Production date of December 2012.

I do not have iDrive. The only reference I can find in relation to audio on the vehicle information option list is that it has S663A - Radio BMW Professional. There are no speaker options listed.

What I have...
One speaker in each footwell.
One speaker on each door.
One speaker at each seat-belt upper anchorage point.

Six speakers in total.

I guess this is the bottom rung of BMW's speakers option as, a) it sounds terrible, and, b) I'm seeing posts from lucky folks with eleventy-million speakers, tweeters, woofers and amplifiers.

So...

Is the speaker wiring-loom the same throughout the range, so I can pop-off the dummy-grilles and hook-up the missing speakers to conveniently located plugs? Or am I stuck with 6 points to work with?

If it's the latter - and I strongly suspect it will be - can someone please point me in the direction of a tried-and-tested 6-speaker kit (and amp if necessary) that will markedly improve the sound quality.

Thanks in advance.

Scotty
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      07-09-2018, 04:35 PM   #2
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I've done extensive work on the sound system of my Z4 and would like to offer some suggestions that I believe are not too expensive. I will forewarn you that it is possible that you might upgrade your speakers and then determine you want to upgrade the amplifier. This is not a given, but a heads up.

Good news is in Europe there are plenty of replacement choices, compared to the USA.

Footwell speakers are considered "mid-bass". There may be straight replacements available in Europe. I chose Hertz 165.1 speakers. Posts #54 and #55 cover that in my build thread. Ignore anything I say about rerunning center channel wiring, since you don't have that setup. Footwell speakers are an optional change. I would not start here, if you are cost conscious. Start with the midrange speakers.

Mid-range speakers. These are 4" mid-ranges. Change them both in the door cards and in the rear shoulder locations. Look on UK amazon and buy speakers for the BMW E90 (more common) that are 4" - lots of brands work, like Rainbow, et cetera. Bavsound has a Youtube video for doing the replacement that will help you.

I would then suggest that you wire in some tweeters up front, to the mid-ranges. These will come with built-in crossover. You will need to decide where you want to mount them. I would suggest doing these on the front mid-ranges. To give you an idea how to do this, check out my post on this in my build thread. Please note, I did these for the rear 4" mid-range speakers, but you can apply the same technique to the fronts. You don't need to do the rears - the fronts are what matters most. Wire tweeters with crossovers just like I did, but in front.

That's my advise. Maybe others have suggestions. Check the UK z4 forum as there are others with your configuration and they may suggest speaker purchases as well.

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Last edited by fmorelli; 07-14-2018 at 08:53 PM..
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      07-09-2018, 04:37 PM   #3
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Thanks very much for your detailed reply Filippo! Much appreciated!
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      07-10-2018, 04:23 AM   #4
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scootz,

Firstly a quick question.... Do you have an AUX and USB combined socket in your centre console?
If yes, do you have Bluetooth?

If the answer is NO to both of them then you can just buy a newer upgraded head unit and retro-fit it and the USB / Bluetooth components along with a pair of tweeters all for around £300 to £350. I can give you ALL the information you need to do all of this (it's relatively straight forward if you're handy with a car).

If it's the base stereo (as you describe above) then there is no amplifier as it's done within the head unit, so you have very little other options without spending huge amounts of money. This upgrade I did myself (after a massive amount of searching around the net to gather all the info in one place!!) and was very pleased with the end result, I would go as far as to say a 100% improvement, much better sound both in quality and volume and the tweeters are simple plug-n-play options.

HTH
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      07-10-2018, 05:14 AM   #5
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Hi Dave

Thanks for the reply.

Yes - I have the AUX / USB socket and cable in the centre console, and also BlueTooth.
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      07-10-2018, 06:02 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scootz View Post
Hi Dave

Thanks for the reply.

Yes - I have the AUX / USB socket and cable in the centre console, and also BlueTooth.
Arrrrr, right that complicates matters then.
Well at least the tweeters are still plug n play

Probably means it has a MULF2 and maybe an amplifier then behind the carpet looking material in the wall between the boot and the seats (boot side (That's "trunk" for you guys across the pond!!)) But I'm basing that on a standard installation, but you could have a combined head unit that has the control for the Bluetooth and USB built in. This can be identified by a cream plug on the back of the head unit and a Bluetooth symbol on the sticker on the top of the head unit.
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      07-10-2018, 10:28 AM   #7
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Nav equipped cars have artificially enhanced high frequency output due to lack of tweeters. This is done by coding. Not sure what the situation is with BMW pro radio. If you add tweeters you may need to re-code the stereo.

As Filippo says, upgrade the doors first with new speakers, dynamat them and it should be good.
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      07-10-2018, 11:56 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vr6er View Post
.... If you add tweeters you may need to re-code the stereo.
...
Absolutely no need to re-code anything for the tweeters, they are totally plug n play guaranteed!
There are two sockets on the back of the door speaker (and a few others around the car) one is for the loom plug and the other is the outlet for the tweeter - Hence why it is plug n play as they are fed via the same feed as the door speaker, that's why it is such a good mod
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      07-10-2018, 02:46 PM   #9
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Quote:
b) I'm seeing posts from lucky folks with eleventy-million speakers, tweeters, woofers and amplifiers.
i wouldn't necessarily call those of us with HiFi and TopFi "lucky" in regards to the number of speakers in our cars. I have the TopFi system and it has 11 speakers for it's surround sound setup. Well, guess what? The surround mode that uses all of those speakers sounds like shit. Let's not even mention that fact that the "subwoofers" behind the seats don't do much of ANYTHING surround mode on or off. So, I keep that feature turned off. By doing so, it virtually eliminates any sound from those so-called subwoofers, rear speakers, and center channel. So what I am left with? 6 speakers. In all practicality, that's all I use of my 11 speaker sound system. Now, I do think the remaining 6 sound fine as they're pretty well powered from the stock TopFi amp, therefore, all I did was throw a high powered JL Audio, low profile 10" sub in a wedge box that fits perfectly in the very rear of the trunk. I've lost a whopping 4" of cargo space in that small ass trunk and the sound system bangs pretty good.

Last edited by davis449; 07-10-2018 at 04:49 PM..
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      07-10-2018, 03:56 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavesZed View Post
Arrrrr, right that complicates matters then.
Well at least the tweeters are still plug n play

Probably means it has a MULF2 and maybe an amplifier then behind the carpet looking material in the wall between the boot and the seats (boot side (That's "trunk" for you guys across the pond!!)) But I'm basing that on a standard installation, but you could have a combined head unit that has the control for the Bluetooth and USB built in. This can be identified by a cream plug on the back of the head unit and a Bluetooth symbol on the sticker on the top of the head unit.
Thanks for the help Dave!

I’ve checked and there isn’t an Amp.

I’ll pull out the head unit tomorrow, see what I find, and report back.
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      07-10-2018, 09:23 PM   #11
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I had the same system in my 09 z4 s35i. I added the stock tweeters, which was easy as they were plug and play. That raised the sound stage a bit and made it a little easier to hear music with the top down, but it was still pretty poor quality. Then i had a local shop add a small alpine powerpack amplifier, which helped with the volume allot, this was the biggest upgrade. Then I went ahead and replaced the fronts with the bavsound stage 1 upgrade, which I didn’t think was worth it. They did not carry a replacement for the woofer in the footrest, only the tweeters and the midrange. Sound quality was limited by the poor oem woofers. If I was going to go at it again, I would follow fillipos advice and go all aftermarket.
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      07-12-2018, 12:10 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kosd View Post
I had the same system in my 09 z4 s35i. I added the stock tweeters, which was easy as they were plug and play. That raised the sound stage a bit and made it a little easier to hear music with the top down, but it was still pretty poor quality. Then i had a local shop add a small alpine powerpack amplifier, which helped with the volume allot, this was the biggest upgrade. Then I went ahead and replaced the fronts with the bavsound stage 1 upgrade, which I didn’t think was worth it. They did not carry a replacement for the woofer in the footrest, only the tweeters and the midrange. Sound quality was limited by the poor oem woofers. If I was going to go at it again, I would follow fillipos advice and go all aftermarket.
The addition of the Alpine power pack is a pretty damn brilliant idea for the basic stereo setup. Glad you posted this.
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      07-12-2018, 01:57 PM   #13
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Thanks guys.

Where did they place the Alpine amp Kosd? Was there space behind the OE head unit for it?
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      07-13-2018, 07:35 PM   #14
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They placed it under the dash to the left, and slightly above the stock head unit. It was a pretty tight fit which is part of the reason I didn’t do it myself. You couldn’t even see it with the head unit out as it was tucked so far back.
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      07-14-2018, 09:00 PM   #15
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Guys the tweeters are easy to add. The midrange speaker has a full-range signal. The tweeters take almost no power, come with built-in crossovers, and you wire them straight to the midrange, and mount them wherever you want. Seriously it is easy. My build thread shows you how. I used JBL GTO19T tweeters, but you can use the equivalent from your favorite manufacture. The JBL kit is awesome as it comes with several different installation mounts allowing you to do the install however you'd like.

You will want the tweeters up front. You can install them in the rear as well, though they likely won't make a difference given their location. So in summary - replace the four mid-ranges, add the front tweeters (wiring shown in my build thread) and you should be all set. If you get adventurous, you can do the mid-bass footwell speakers.

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      07-23-2018, 03:45 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavesZed View Post
scootz,

Firstly a quick question.... Do you have an AUX and USB combined socket in your centre console?
If yes, do you have Bluetooth?

If the answer is NO to both of them then you can just buy a newer upgraded head unit and retro-fit it and the USB / Bluetooth components along with a pair of tweeters all for around £300 to £350. I can give you ALL the information you need to do all of this (it's relatively straight forward if you're handy with a car).

If it's the base stereo (as you describe above) then there is no amplifier as it's done within the head unit, so you have very little other options without spending huge amounts of money. This upgrade I did myself (after a massive amount of searching around the net to gather all the info in one place!!) and was very pleased with the end result, I would go as far as to say a 100% improvement, much better sound both in quality and volume and the tweeters are simple plug-n-play options.

HTH
I've aux and USB and no bluetooth Mfg date 07/2010 with 11 speaker audio. What do you recommend to add bluetooth and audio upgrade?
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      07-23-2018, 04:16 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by taranfx View Post
I've aux and USB and no bluetooth Mfg date 07/2010 with 11 speaker audio. What do you recommend to add bluetooth and audio upgrade?
If you are the same taranfx that has recently joined the Uk forum z4-forum.com then you have already answered this question.

But for clarity.....
If you already have USB/AUX then you'll already have a MULF fitted, well you'll need the Bluetooth antenna, a microphone, the microphone housing for the steering wheel and the cable to the MULF, then a bit of coding.
But for a quick-fix (can't comment on quality as I simply don't know) there is the Vocomo KX 1 Bluetooth Hands-Free Kit https://www.vocomo.de/en/bluetooth-f...-2-bmw-v3.html which, by the description, does everything for you without coding.
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      07-25-2018, 04:36 PM   #18
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I emailed Focal customer service to ask if their IFBMW-S component speakers would be compatible with the E89 (door placement).

They've completely ignored my query, so I figured that as I'd read in various places that the E89 and E90 have the same door speakers, and because their adverts say the kit will fit the E90, then I would just go ahead and order a kit.

Turns out it doesn't fit the E89. Not even close! Oops. Oh well, hopefully it's only cost me the return postage - I guess I'll find out soon enough!

The only positive is that having now seen the OE speakers (65139133409-03), I can understand why the sound was so poor - they are particularly cheap and weedy looking little units.

So back to the drawing board! Can anyone recommend a pair of component speakers that will definitely fit the E89 door?

Thanks again.
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      07-26-2018, 01:48 AM   #19
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Exclamation

For a quick check (this is not a recommendation as I don't have them)....

You have some options....

Ground Zero component set-up - around £230
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ground-Ze...EAAOSwDTNaoTiP

Rockford Fosgate T3 component set-up - around £350
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rockford-...4AAOSwarNZqDgZ

And then the Bavsound Stage One upgrade - around $500
https://www.bavsound.com/Stage-One

HTH
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      07-26-2018, 03:40 AM   #20
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Thanks again Dave. I've gone for the Rockford Fosgate T3-BMW3.

I'll let you know how I get on with them once they arrive.
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      07-28-2018, 06:01 AM   #21
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Rockford Fosgate T3-BMW3 door speakers / tweeters installed.

The sound is definitely better - not sure it's £275 better though, but it's a start!

I was so busy focusing on the door speakers that I've only just noticed that the speakers located at the upper seatbelt mounts are barely audible - even when the Fader is adjusted fully in their favour. I thought the speakers may be damaged, so I tried out the ones I removed from the doors, but just the same - barely audible.

Is this normal, or could this indicate a fault with my head unit?
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      07-28-2018, 12:07 PM   #22
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First test was whilst the car was static.

I've since been for a drive and listened to some 80's electronica. Pleased to revise my thoughts on the RF kit - MUCH cleaner sound than standard!

Maybe a little bit 'bassy', so will look at doing something about the foot well speakers.

Still be keen to hear folks thoughts on the barely audible (shoulder height) rears in my car - normal?, problem and worth replacing?, or forget all about them and just Fade fully to the front?

Cheers

Last edited by scootz; 07-28-2018 at 12:16 PM..
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