A friend of mine has Alpine components in his Renault and they sound bright and brash, as do the JBLs in the back of his car. I run Macroms (similar to Dynaudio) in my E46 and they sound fantastic, but expensive.
It all comes down to this. If you are going to run them off the HU you need something efficient like Infinity Ref. If you are amping up it is worth spending money on better components. JLLPHAN lists what are some good selections for BMWs.
I really like my CDT Audio's but they are a flat sounding speaker; if you like B&W home speakers then you'd like these. When combined with my Infinity Basslink the car system sounds remarkably close to my living room setup (Arcam & PSB Stratus).
I just took a look at the Dynaudio 340 three way component setup. I've heard a lot of people say that a two way component is plenty but I don't like the idea of have a 3" hole in my door that isn't doing anything or having the main driver way down in the kick panel... it just seems as though it's not accoustically the best place to put it if the midrange isn't used.
The problem is the 340's (and most of the other 3-way systems I've found) have 6.5" or larger main drivers. I have a 94 325i, will those actually fit into that model car? what is everyone elses thought on the 3-way systems? I've never heard an after market stereo in the bmw's so I don't really know what to expect...
The point of putting the mid-bass in the foot well is that it gives you better imaging. Putting the 3" in the door will then pretty much destroy that imaging. The best E30/E36 I have heard (I think they both use 5.25") was using a 2 way 5.25 component system in the front, nothing in the back, and a single 12" sub in the trunk. A very simple system. It went loud enough but that was not the point. The sound quality was in a different league to most. Simple and sttraight forward.
hmm... interesting. I'd figure that, being obscured by your feet as well as being way down to the floor, have the woofer down on the floor and then just a tweeter up high would distort the imaging more than anything else and having the 3" in the door would correct the middle freqeqncy distortion gained by putting the bass driver in the footwell.
And I couldn't care less about SPL, I want the most perfect soundstage I can find. I'm a sound engineer by trade and quality is my biggest concern, not too mention turning it up would just ruin my ears anyway. I'd like to be able to hear it before I do anything... but oh well. I guess the next question then is what have people done with the 3" hole in the door if it's no longer used for a speaker?
Dave, I too have similar interests although I am not a sound engineer, SQ is all that matters to me. Firstly, you will not get any serious bass out of the front. The best thing to do is use an amp with a high pass filter at say 100-120hz to prevent any bass going to them at all. This will allow those speakers to perform best at the frequencies they are designed for. As you know the majority of imaging and soundstage is produced by the tweeter. A good set of components will have a comprehensive crossover which should ensure a smooth transition to the high frequencies. The position of the tweeters is the critical thing. I use double sided tape to hold my tweeters in place so that they can easily be moved in order to find the best position. I often find that bouncing the sound off the windscreen can produce the best image but if the tweeter is too clost it can take on a sort of horn loading characteristic. Trial and error is the only way though.
As I said above forget the rear speakers and install a sub crossed over below 100hz. This will fill in the low end. This will make it a three way system with clarity and detail at the top end and real punch at the bottom, a bit along the lines of a JBL 4311 or something.
As for the 3" hole, can you not just leave the old speaker in it but disconnect it?
Ok, so you're saying just disregard both hole in the doors and bounce the tweeter off the windscreen? sound like that could set up a pretty decent sound that way.
I could leave my 3"'s in there and just not use them... interesting solution. I wonder if there's something that those holes could be utilized for then....
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