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      09-29-2011, 12:33 PM   #639
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snerkler View Post
That set up you have does look very neat though, I wonder why BMW haven't done something similar?
I don't know, I guess that on some cars there is a speaker there?

Here are the English instructions....

BMW iPhone Station Install PDF
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      09-29-2011, 12:36 PM   #640
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Going back to the head units for a minute if I may. If I did decide to go down this route (I assume this is possible with the tweaks you mentioned; unless I've misunderstood?), I've just had an email from one of the audio centres regarding fitting a double DIN. They have told me that they need to lower the a/c/heater controls (which I obviously knew) but also to accommodate the Double DIN they would have to cut the air duct, which could affect the warranty. Is this correct? The other audio centre made no mention of this
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      09-29-2011, 12:39 PM   #641
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
I don't know, I guess that on some cars there is a speaker there?

Here are the English instructions....

BMW iPhone Station Install PDF
Thanks, much easier to follow Fitting position still the same though
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      09-29-2011, 12:45 PM   #642
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No they don't need to cut the air ducts. To be fair to them they are probably getting confused with the previous 3 series on that you do have to for a double din install.
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      09-29-2011, 01:39 PM   #643
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
No they don't need to cut the air ducts. To be fair to them they are probably getting confused with the previous 3 series on that you do have to for a double din install.
Thanks again.


The stereo sounded better still this afternoon. When I first turned it on yesterday I had to set the balance far over to the sound something like, today I've been able to put it back to centre and it's sounded great. Very strange behaviour, but at least I'm happy with the sound now
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      09-29-2011, 01:43 PM   #644
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Just do a test and fade it to the front and then fully left and again fully right.
Make sure they have wired it in correctly.
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      09-29-2011, 01:59 PM   #645
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
Just do a test and fade it to the front and then fully left and again fully right.
Make sure they have wired it in correctly.
Yeah I think so, front to rear works (although the rear's are pointless lol) and left to right is fine. At first it sounded so unbalanced, like most of the sound was coming from the front drivers side, so I altered the balance to the left to make the sound more central, although was still very front dominant. Today the sound has centralised much more within the cabin and now feel much more surrounded by sound. I've known speakers take a while to produce good bass, but never had it like this before. But like I said, I'm now happy with the sound. Nowhere near the individual audio of course, but still good and more along the lines of what I was expecting.

Now I have the dilemma of deciding whether to go with the unattractive looking iphone station, risk a head unit (in terms of the compatibility of the amp as you mentioned), or keep it as is having very little eq control, single CD, and going back to having a bluetooth headset. I'm not the most decisive person at the best of times
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      09-29-2011, 02:21 PM   #646
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snerkler View Post
Yeah I think so, front to rear works (although the rear's are pointless lol) and left to right is fine. At first it sounded so unbalanced, like most of the sound was coming from the front drivers side,

Well there is a mislabeling of the crossover on the passenger side, and if the installer is not aware of this you can get no mid range, just sub and tweeter.

Hence why I said fade it to front left and see if it sounds ok.

Front left only and front right only should sound the same.
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      09-29-2011, 02:29 PM   #647
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
Well there is a mislabeling of the crossover on the passenger side, and if the installer is not aware of this you can get no mid range, just sub and tweeter.

Hence why I said fade it to front left and see if it sounds ok.

Front left only and front right only should sound the same.
Oh right, I'll try this again tomorrow.

I've been looking at different head units, a couple of the alpine ones have 2v pre output voltage (pre clipping; whatever this means), I assume these would be OK to use with the amp?
The JVC one I was looking at says 4V line and sub output level so assume this would be no good? I have seen a JVC with 2.5V line and sub output, would something like this be OK?

As you're aware I don't really understand all this jargon
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      09-29-2011, 02:43 PM   #648
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A head unit outputs a certain voltage, you need to then match the amps input gain to match this. However the Alpine has no adjustable gain as it has been design to work with the BMW and only the BMW, so no need.

I don't know what the voltage is, the F range seem to want between 1-4v, so I am guessing that 2v would be default? I don't know, just a guess.
That is if the internal jumpers actually do anything, they say Hi Level and Lo Level but this may be a main board from another amp they do and on this it might not do anything?

You would be best to get in touch with Alpine and ask for the details on the amp before going any further.
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      09-29-2011, 02:51 PM   #649
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
A head unit outputs a certain voltage, you need to then match the amps input gain to match this. However the Alpine has no adjustable gain as it has been design to work with the BMW and only the BMW, so no need.

I don't know what the voltage is, the F range seem to want between 1-4v, so I am guessing that 2v would be default? I don't know, just a guess.
That is if the internal jumpers actually do anything, they say Hi Level and Lo Level but this may be a main board from another amp they do and on this it might not do anything?

You would be best to get in touch with Alpine and ask for the details on the amp before going any further.
Yeah, I think I will. The last thing I want to do is make the sound poor, or damage any of the components.

What exactly is the info I need to obtain apart from input voltage? Does the input need to match perfectly or could you get away with +/-1V for example? What voltage difference would cause poor sound, and what voltage would cause damage?

Is there such a thing as an intermediate device that would balance the voltages?

Last edited by snerkler; 09-29-2011 at 03:02 PM..
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      09-29-2011, 03:17 PM   #650
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If it is expecting 1v and you give it 2v it will be twice as loud and probably be distorting at all levels, also when you gong goes it will scare the shit out of you!!!
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      09-29-2011, 03:18 PM   #651
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
If it is expecting 1v and you give it 2v it will be twice as loud and probably be distorting at all levels, also when you gong goes it will scare the shit out of you!!!
When me what goes lol?
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      09-29-2011, 03:59 PM   #652
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Whilst I'm waiting for a reply from Alpine does anyone happen to know what the input sensitivity (V) is of the alpine amp? I think the model is PDA F200?
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      09-30-2011, 06:09 AM   #653
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Here's the reply I got from Alpine

"The amplifier runs off the speaker outputs of the original headunit 12-15 volt level, inside the amplifier are jumpers (connectors) which you change the position of to reduce the gain to 2volt input....

most of the aftermarket range are 2 volt output, some of them are 4 volt, that is not a big problem, the voltage is only as high as the volume level set, i don't believe any damage can occur....
"

From this am I right in thinking that the voltage output from the head unit is volume dependent, so 4V is the max it could be, but it could be as low as 0v with no volume, and 2V with mid range volume?

In order to widen my search for a head unit (as I don't want front loading USB) is there any difference in sound quality if playing back from a USB stick, or SD card? I tend to rip all my music at 320kbps and the just drag and drop from my PC to the USB stick? Could I do the same with an SD card and get the same sound quality? Also, if I arranged the folders in the same way would they be displayed from the SD card in the same way as they would from a USB stick.

P.S. gIzzE, what were you referring to with the gong? If you used a 4V head unit, how would this affect the buzzer of the PDC, would the PDC be incredibly loud?
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      09-30-2011, 06:46 AM   #654
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You won't fry the amp with 4v going into a 2v input, but you will need to run new cables from your head unit to the amp, as the head unit is taking the signal at speaker level currently, and using the adapters you can buy will be doing the same from the new head unit.

Maybe just get the head unit you want and try it speaker level first and see how you get on.
12-15v I would have thought is about standard.

My point was if you set it up for a 2v input and then left the wiring the same you would fry the amp.


The gong will be twice as loud if you put 4v into that amp.

But use speaker level and see how you get on.



Files from sd or usb will be the same.
There is an app you can use to drag files from iTunes to an android phone, download that and use it to drag to your usb or sd card, you will keep them in a proper order than and it will write an index file so it will show you your card/stick contents straight away, it won't have to read through them all.
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      09-30-2011, 02:19 PM   #655
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
You won't fry the amp with 4v going into a 2v input, but you will need to run new cables from your head unit to the amp, as the head unit is taking the signal at speaker level currently, and using the adapters you can buy will be doing the same from the new head unit.

Maybe just get the head unit you want and try it speaker level first and see how you get on.
12-15v I would have thought is about standard.

My point was if you set it up for a 2v input and then left the wiring the same you would fry the amp.


The gong will be twice as loud if you put 4v into that amp.

But use speaker level and see how you get on.



Files from sd or usb will be the same.
There is an app you can use to drag files from iTunes to an android phone, download that and use it to drag to your usb or sd card, you will keep them in a proper order than and it will write an index file so it will show you your card/stick contents straight away, it won't have to read through them all.
Thanks for the heads up on the app
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      10-01-2011, 05:14 AM   #656
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If anyone is thinking of selling their alpine upgrade, I'd love a pm!

Thanks!
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      10-02-2011, 04:27 AM   #657
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Hi gizzie,
Sorry fir hassling you with more questions but um just about to install the kit into my e93 (2011), I'd got the X1 kit but it all looks the same except the amp setup instructions say before installing set it to position 1, doesn't mention anywhere about setting to position two for different stereos (I have the 609 pro nav).
I also apparently need the car coding but I'm having an issue setting up my cable to do this at the mo so would it be ok incised in the short term? Haven't a clue what the coding part does to the setup.
Thanks
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      10-02-2011, 05:14 AM   #658
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The X1 kit is the same, the only difference is cable length as far as I know, I would think that you will be fine though, where are you mounting it, under the boot floor? That is where it will have to go as that is where it goes on the X1.

I would book your car in for the coding, not sure if it is available using your own cable yet, I couldn't find it anywhere.
They charged me for 30 mins labour to add it.

It flattens out the frequency curve and reduces the head unit level slightly so it doesn't clip the amp.
You can use it, but sounds a bit pants before coding.
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      10-02-2011, 10:45 AM   #659
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gIzzE View Post
There is only one switch on the bottom of the amp, so maybe slide your hand down there and feel for it, then switch it while the amp is playing some music with some bass, a dance track is ideal.
Make sure the bass and treble is set to 0 on your head unit before doing it and listen to which switch position gives you the most bass, you want that one.

.
Is this the switch towards the top right as you're looking at it?


Also looking at photos I can't see any RCA inputs for the AMP, where would I find them?





I'm still trying to get my head around the different outputs and inputs and why they're at different levels?
I understand what RCA cables are (look like 3 phono cables). From the info you and Alpine have provided the RCA input for the Alpine Amp is 2v, and from looking on various websites head unit RCA outputs range from 2V to 5V. I understand that to get the ideal sound I should have a head unit with 2V output so that I don't suffer any distortion and so the parking sensor doesn't scare the living daylights out of me. I'd assume that if the parking sensor buzzer could potentially be very loud, the same could be said for the phone ringer?

What is it you're talking about when you refer to speaker level connections? From what I've gathered from you the speaker level input on the amp is 12v, so ideally a 12V speaker level head unit? However, I cannot find any info on head unit spec lists as to what their speaker level output is. Where can I find this info?
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      10-02-2011, 11:41 AM   #660
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After my endless hours of researching this on t'internet I've got a couple of more questions.
I've read that if you install an aftermarket head unit you can no longer get software updates from the dealer, is this true? If so what software updates (ie is it general updates such as ECU) and is this true for all BMW head units, or just if you replace the professional?
Also, when I've been looking at single DIN replacements a lot have been off centre, why is this? I really couldn't cope with an off centre stereo
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