[Marmelademad]

Hi.

Getting a little frustrated with the base level audio package in my F31, I find my thoughts wander of to some of the previous audio setups in cars, that I've done in the past.

Having had a closer look, I'm a little stunned to see that the door speakers are only 4", even in the HK package, and they closed the big hole in the sheet metal with a piece of foam mat.. The doors are well big enough to support 6,5"s, and with a little plating to seal the cavities, it would be even better... My Golf IV does great with the speaker size upgrade.

To install 6,5"s You'd need to cut larger speaker holes, and there seems to be enough room for that while maintaining the position of the speaker.

So, my question is this:
Is there any reason not to upgrade the 4" speakers to 6,5", apart from having to cut the doors and install a custom audio package?

Have anybody done this??


It's still a fairly new car to me, and I'd have a hard time cutting the doors if I wasn't sure it would turn out good.

If i throw myself into it anyway, my plan would be:

- padding up the doors with a metal plate instead of the foam mat, line the inside with butyl and akouastic foam
- 6,5" component sets in all doors
- Earthquake SWS-8XI 8" OEM-replacement woofers under the seats
- An average priced 4 channel amp and mono block to pull everuthing
- My DSP in front of it all with preferably optical input signal, or whatever is available from the head unit..

I'm currently lining the trunk with butyl and foam, because i'm tired of the road noise, and i have enough for the whole car. I figure it will make a good candidate for a nice audio build once i'm done

Have a great weekend!

[Billfitz]

When you have under seat woofers handling below 100Hz there's no particular advantage to using larger than 4 inch midrange drivers. In the doors the only upgrade I Recommend is to add a layer of butyl. Acoustic foam won't do anything.

[J555]

Originally Posted by Marmelademad

Having had a closer look, I'm a little stunned to see that the door speakers are only 4", even in the HK package

This is a standard solution of BMW Group and most of their cars of current-gen use the same size of speakers. Not just the HK, but 4" mids are used in different cars even within B&O, B&W, or RR Bespoke systems.

Originally Posted by Marmelademad

they closed the big hole in the sheet metal with a piece of foam mat..

I did the three-layer door sound deadening: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...4&postcount=12

The positive impact to sound quality is not as big as you may expect (the massive improvement is in noise isolation).

Originally Posted by Marmelademad

The doors are well big enough to support 6,5"s, and with a little plating to seal the cavities, it would be even better... My Golf IV does great with the speaker size upgrade.

To install 6,5"s You'd need to cut larger speaker holes, and there seems to be enough room for that while maintaining the position of the speaker.

So, my question is this:
Is there any reason not to upgrade the 4" speakers to 6,5", apart from having to cut the doors and install a custom audio package?

As you seems to be sure the 6.5" mids will fit, you need to carefully consider the speaker depth to not hit the window glass, as there is not that much space in between.

Anyway, what is your motivation here? Considering the components you have mentioned, you are obviously not aiming at the best sound quality. Personally, I would save the money and efforts on mediocre 6.5" speaker installation and spend it on the better 4" mids, tweeters, subs and amp. There are plenty of options and even 4" can sound amazing and be very powerful.

Originally Posted by Marmelademad

Have anybody done this??

I haven't seen that before. If you want to go for something special, you can consider a three-way door installation with 6.5" bottom in the modified door board, and 4" and tweeter in standard positions . However, that is another level of complexity and cost... but would like to see that