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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum > BMW E90/E92/E93 3-series General Forums > Regional Forums > UK > UK Technical Forum > E92 Audio Upgrade Intro and Phase 1 - Vibe Litebox Stereo 4 Amplifier Install



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      04-01-2010, 05:44 PM   #23
toxicnerve
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sniffer,

Just so I have this right in my head:

1. The cable looms shown above are in the sills (in the tread plate area) of the car

2. To see what is shown in pciture 2 above you just unravel that fabric tape that's around the bulge in the loom?

3. Those rubber/plastic joints just pull off to expose the 3 separate wires?

Cheers!!
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      04-01-2010, 06:05 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by toxicnerve View Post
sniffer,

Just so I have this right in my head:

1. The cable looms shown above are in the sills (in the tread plate area) of the car

2. To see what is shown in pciture 2 above you just unravel that fabric tape that's around the bulge in the loom?

3. Those rubber/plastic joints just pull off to expose the 3 separate wires?

Cheers!!
1. Yes. As I said in my description, on the drivers side, it was mid way along the door arpeture, on the passenger side, it was right at the front of the door arpeture, probably because this side of the car is much "busier" with wiring.

You can feel along the loom to where you feel a bulge then peel a little tape away until you see the blue thing. If it is not there, just put the tape back and move along a bit. . .

They are not really under the tread plate. The looms run along the inside of the sill, behind the carpet which is vertical and goes up into the sill cover. Remove the sill cover and you can see it. To get working access to it, you need to remove the sill cover, the kick panel cover, the seat (tilt back) and the sub grille. You can then move the carpet back enough to get decent access to work with it all.

2. Exactly. BMW have even been kind enough to give each of the three wires a bit of slack, so when you undo the tape, you can pull the plastic cover and three wires away from the main loom and work with it all.

3. Almost. When you pull the plastic cover off the three wires are sort of "fused" together somehow. I think it is simply a very strong clamp which has crushed them together. You can simply peel each one away with a bit of force, do that twice and you are left with three seperate wires. I then had the radio running and touched each wire together with another so I could work out what one was the head unit signal, what was the sub and what was the mid. I then labelled them with my coloured tape and did the same for the other polarity.

There are obviously two of these blue connectors for each side. + and -. I think I posted up the colour code in my initial post so you know what ones are + and -.

Last edited by sniffer; 04-01-2010 at 06:13 PM..
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      04-02-2010, 08:19 AM   #25
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dude, you are the man. your info is really helpful.

so now I just need to order up some bits.
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      06-18-2010, 06:13 PM   #26
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Just to let everyone know, the tuning with this set up is VERY important.

The pots on the vibe amp are not the best at all. They are not at all linear so you need to spend lots of time setting it up, especially the crossovers.

I blew 2 mid range drivers trying to set it up properly. One original paper cone and another logic7 one!

Am going to do a final tune tomorrow so will take a pic of my settings in case anyone else goes this route.

I must say though, now it is all done it sounds absolutely fantastic. The only issue I have is an interference whining noise which seems to be related to engine load. . . .if you put your foot down, after a few seconds the noise comes in much louder than usual and when you ease of the throttle after a few seconds, it goes away.

My car is a 335i so I am assuming this is somehow related to the fuel pump. Anyone got any ideas on how to get rid of this noise? I thought of re-running the power wire so it does not run across the boot floor next to the speaker wires.
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      08-20-2010, 03:42 AM   #27
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Just to finish this thread. . ..a few months on and all is well..

I cured the whinney interference noise by re-running the positive power cable across the rear of the boot under the plastic where the boot latch is and across to the amp on the other side.

This way it is away from all the signal wires. Turned the gain down a little and the noise has now almost completely dissapeared and is not an issue.

The amp gets pretty hot but has not hit the thermal cutout yet, even after 5 or 6 hours of constant high volume.

So, to summarise, my car had standard audio and now has:

Logic 7 Tweeters in Front

Logic 7 Mids in Front

SWS-8X (2 Ohm) Subwoofers

Vibe Litebox 4 Amp powering front door speakers and subs

Dension Gateway 500 MOST Interface for I-Pod / Hard Drive control

Total cost around £650 - 750.

System sounds fantastic....Worth every penny.

Took some time to adjust the levels and get them right, but now have it all sorted and I am very happy with it.
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      12-12-2010, 11:06 AM   #28
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Great thread Sniffer,thanks.

Just completed mine,slightlly different amp mount location as I dont have the raised boot cover as no CD changer,amp mounted on plastic tray below boot liner.

I used two 5m long phono cables to the head unit signal wires and just snipped the ends off.

It sounds great already,I'm awaiting my sw-8's but as you say,theres already a big kick from the factory subs if a little distorted at full volume.

Big thanks to Anneke at Sytner for suppling the tweeters,really great service from them and a MASSIVE thanks to Gizze,he's a top bloke and an internet legend!
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      01-13-2011, 02:12 PM   #29
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Hi wanted to say Thank You very much for the write up! has been a massive help!!

A question though, when mounting the sub about 1/4 is covered by the carpet...how did you cure this or did you just leave the carpet covering it?

thank you!
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      03-07-2011, 01:01 PM   #30
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Just installed my sw-8's yesterday!
Total time 45 minutes,on one side i removed the whole box assembly but realised its not really necessary,just removed the sub on the other side which means those twatting sill caps can stay on

I cut the carpet to suit but left the grilles off,sounds amazing even at full volume,no distortion at all,amazing and a great upgrade.
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      03-07-2011, 01:28 PM   #31
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Did you seal the driver in the enclosure?? It needs to be air tight.

Without it being airtight they go down to around 50hz, with it airtight they go down to 30hz and gain around 6db, which is twice the volume.
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      03-07-2011, 05:33 PM   #32
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Yeah I did mate,used two layers of double sided 6mm window tape and sealed the small square with silicone so its pretty much airtight
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      03-08-2011, 08:12 AM   #33
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Quote:
Originally Posted by script View Post
Yeah I did mate,used two layers of double sided 6mm window tape and sealed the small square with silicone so its pretty much airtight
Coolio!!
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      03-15-2011, 03:38 PM   #34
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Now I have read this i might upgrade
My crappy stereo in my 325
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      04-10-2011, 11:33 AM   #35
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I had a feeling that the Base Stereo (no tweets or amp) would be easy to work with but I haven't seen many write-ups to confirm this. Lets just make sure I've got this right:

So, essentially you just grabbed the speaker wires, ran them to your amp's speaker-level input, then out from the amp to the speakers?
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      04-10-2011, 11:46 AM   #36
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Nice install. I never realised they had subs under the seat. I'm guessing only certain models have this?
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      04-26-2011, 09:38 AM   #37
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisE91 View Post
Nice install. I never realised they had subs under the seat. I'm guessing only certain models have this?
Nope, all models have it.
They get better as you go up in audio grade though.
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      05-03-2011, 06:04 AM   #38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by script View Post
Yeah I did mate,used two layers of double sided 6mm window tape and sealed the small square with silicone so its pretty much airtight
Did you also sealed the hole for bass reflex? In my E90 European model , the subs box has a large side hole for bas reflex, do I have to seal that to? What do you recomand for sealing the enitre subs box ?
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      05-03-2011, 09:36 AM   #39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by larry_bml View Post
Did you also sealed the hole for bass reflex? In my E90 European model , the subs box has a large side hole for bas reflex, do I have to seal that to? What do you recomand for sealing the enitre subs box ?
No!!

That is part of the design and gives the excellent cabinet enclosure size, using the sills.

I use silicone sealant, stuff you use round the bath to seal them.
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      05-03-2011, 10:12 AM   #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
No!!

That is part of the design and gives the excellent cabinet enclosure size, using the sills.

I use silicone sealant, stuff you use round the bath to seal them.
Yes,use black,a little dearer but worth it
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      01-11-2012, 03:31 PM   #41
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Did you change the front door speakers? Im trying to find out what the mounting depth is on the e92.
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      10-15-2012, 06:06 PM   #42
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Changed my door speakers to Logic 7.

I am now looking to code the car to programme the CCC to Hi-Fi from Stereo. This should reduce the output to line outputs and reduce the volume of the gong.
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      11-01-2012, 06:06 PM   #43
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Coded the CCC so it is down to line level inputs.

More midrange but amp needs re setting up now.

So today had a go and completely mucked it up.

Switched the amp setting to line level inputs.

Set it up quickly as it was getting dark. Have the loud whine noise back again, which I have worked out is the water pump.

Sound quality ruined and not as good as it was with the speaker level inputs but I think this is just more fine tuning that is needed. At least the gong and other car noises are now at the correct volume and the volume control goes all the way up without any distortion because the head unit amp is now not being used.

Will try and fine tune it over the weekend.
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      12-06-2012, 11:27 AM   #44
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Looked into this in more detail today:

Tried changing the ground location - no luck.

Tried moving the input signal wires away from some of the cables in the boot - no luck.

I was not sure if the problem (whistling noise which rises and falls with revs and electric water pump interference) was a result of the inputs or the power to the amp.

So I took my i-pod outside with a 3.5mm to RCA jack and plugged this into the amp for the input signal. Started the engine and the noise is then completely gone - so the issue is interference on the input wires. Strangely the interference is on L and R because I tried unplugging them one at a time but the interference noise is still there.

The input wires are running to the BMW connector on the left hand and right hand sill of the car.

Tomorrow I am going to change these to shielded RCA cables.

I plan to move the vibe speaker to RCA convertor to the sill and from here connect the RCA and run back to the amp with shielded RCA cables.

I bought two RCA splitters today so I can then split into the FRONT and REAR channels of the amp.

Will report back tomorrow, but for anyone doing this, it is probably worth running RCA cables for the signal input to the amp as the poster above has done.

I will post back tomorrow with the results.
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