Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormbitch
DuDE this was shocking
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I had decided on using the following components -
Rainbow CS210 4" components (midrange and tweeters) for the front speakers
Earthquare SWS-8 2ohm subwoofers for the underseat locations
Rockford Fosgate 360.2 DSP
Diamond Audio D700 amplifier
All this lot was installed first time round as a temporary measure, just to see what it sounded like. And, if I'm honest, it was crap Too bright, a bit thin, no integration between the midrange and the underseat woofers. In fact, there was no integration anywhere at all. The setup just didn't work as I was intending and if anything the stock system sounded more complete. Infuriating to be honest!
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You had spent £1300 and it sounded thin... are you serious...? I would have hit the roof..
Please see my thread to see what I am going through  Oddly the last suggestion from a reputable fitter suggests the following...
Rainbow x planes and C5 tweeters £300
JL XD600/6 £400
Audio Control LC6i £180
3x RCA cables £ 60
Dynamat £ 30
power cables, sundries, bass control etc £ 50
Labour £375
Its £1395....I cant take the risk of that not being a nice sound man... |
Yeah well, things don't always go according to plan first time round!
The biggest issue was the Diamond Audio amp that I was using - it was just far too harsh. I'm an audiophile and a musician, so having a great audio system is exceptionally important to me!
Anyway, to your system...
Rainbow X-Plain woofer + CS tweeters... the tweeters are lovely, the woofers are lovely, but you'll have a major problem with the midrange. I'm assuming you're thinking of the CS220X system, that uses the W200 X Plain 8" woofer that will mount underneath each seat. The CS265X (which uses a 6.5" driver for a door location) won't fit due to the size of the woofer.
The CS220X will have a lovely bass, quite a sweet treble, but probably lacking in the midrange, due largely to the location of the woofer underneath the seat and the fact you have no midrange specific driver. In the 3er it is really difficult integrating the sound to get a credible spread of staging in front of you - the standard tweeter locations in the doors are way too close to the listener, and the seats will prevent the midrange from projecting into the cabin. I'll come back to the speakers in a bit...
Are you going to be using the OEM headunit? Do you have iDrive, or do you have the standard single unit radio? It's not as easy as people think installing a really great sound system into the 3 series (at any price level) - the speaker level outputs from the radio are full-range on the fronts, but only band-pass (midrange) on the rears. And there is a weird EQ factor using the speaker-level outputs. It's much much better to recode the radio to the HiFi spec, which converts the speaker-level outputs to line-level, and full-range on both front and rear outputs. This gives a 5V balanced differential output that uses conventional RCA cables to run down the length of the car to the amplifier in the back.
This also totally negates the need for an output converter like the AudioControl LC6i. If you have a local BMW servicing place with an Autologic programming system, they can download the recoding service direct from Autologic and you can recode the radio in a matter of minutes. Will probably only cost you £50, and you'll end up with a MUCH better solution for signal output.
Having recoded the headunit, I would then run two pairs of RCA cables from the headunit to the back of the car (one pair for front, one pair for rear) and invest in a 5-channel amplifier, either the Genesis Profile 5 or the Audison SRx5 (both around the £470 mark). Both exceptional amplifiers, regardless of their price, and very compact as well for what they do.
The 5-channel amp will power a set of front component speakers in the factory locations (maybe with the tweeter moved to the bottom of the A pillar), and a set of rear coaxials in the door cards. That takes care of 4 of the channels. The 5th channel I'd use driving a pair of Earthquake SWS-8 subwoofers (4ohm versions wired in parallel to present 2ohms to the amplifier) mounted in the factory locations underneath the seats.
These subs would integrate nicely into a set of Rainbow components, but unless you were a really mad audiophile (in which case your budget would be more like £3000 rather than £1500) I would use a set of SAX230.20 5.25" components, rather than the much more expensive CS X Plain range. The 5.25" drivers in the standard locations do fit, just, but require careful manufacturing of a angled teardrop to help push the projection angle into the cabin as opposed into the dash. Exactly the same install procedure as in my own car. The SAX230.20 system uses 20mm silk dome tweeters, so you get a really sweet treble without the glare that is sometimes associated with metal dome tweeters.
The rear speakers I would swap the OEM units for a pair of Rainbow SL100 coaxials, just for rear fill and rear PDC beeps!
This lot would be a great sounding system, that's simple to install and setup. It makes the most of the head unit's outputs, the speakers really are very very good, and the sound will be very coherent and well integrated.
Cost?
Recode of radio to BMW HiFi spec (not Logic7) - £50
Two pairs RCA cables, power cables, fuses, speaker cable - £120
Genesis Profile 5 or Audison SRx5 amplifier - £470
Rainbow SAX230.20 5.25" components (front) - £170
Rainbow SL100 4" coaxials (rear) - £110
Two single Earthquake SWS-8 4Ohm subwoofers - £300 (£150 each)
Labour - £450 (allows two days, includes rings, mounts, materials)
£1670 total