[Captain Buumer]

Hi everyone,

I've bought E90 with CCC and soon enough figured the base system needs to be updated.

Searched quite alot and narrowed down to following setup:

*CCC replaced with AVIN 8.8" that adds tons of functions.
*Adding a OEM mic.
*CCC coded for HiFI

Front doors/subwoofer: Jehnert 3 way kit. [link]

Rear doors some similar 4" (will cut a hole to fit them there).

Rear shelf: factory speakers to retain PDC (or upgrade slightly?)

AMP/DSP: Alpine PDP-E800DSP (8x100 rms)


The idea was to run active front tweeter, front 4", subwoofer 8" and rear door 4".
Leave rear shelf 4" for PDC sounds.


However i'm unsure in the following things:
Are rear door worth adding active?
Are rear shelf speakers getting signal from CCC and DSP gets signal from CCC RCA connectors?
Will the HU be master volume control with the DSP (retaining steering wheel volume adjustment)?
Is this setup even going to work or i missed something?

Thanks for any input, i'm really novice with this audio stuff.

[ctuna]

Are rear door worth adding active?
No and if you go active with the fronts (floors doors and tweeters0
you will only have 2 channels left on a 8 channel amp anyway
Are rear shelf speakers getting signal from CCC and DSP gets signal from CCC RCA connectors?
CCC doesn't have RCA's but the analog signals for left right rear and front come
from the head unit and they are basicly 5 volt pre out signals since they are
differential they are more like reduced speaker outs.
Will the HU be master volume control with the DSP (retaining steering wheel volume adjustment)?
Yes the regular volume controls still will work
you are not controlling the dsp through those though.
Is this setup even going to work or i missed something?
Sound like it will work. I have not see the Alpine dsp/amp used here before.
If you came from a base system you will need to split the front parallel connection between the floors and doors and add another set of wires to the doors for active.

[Captain Buumer]

Thanks for clearing that up ctuna.

Rears active seems quite pointless indeed which gave me better idea (i think).

Read the DSP manual which had this setup and quite like the center channel + subwoofer option better.


Did i understand correctly, that FR/FL +/- (4 wires in total) will be low level inputs for DSP after coding? (Base = high level, HiFi = low level).

I read somewhere that this balanced differential signal is ranged up to 5v however the DSP supports low level input of up to 3.5V.

Does this require use of LOC to reduce vrms from HU?

Also since DSP accepts RCA inputs for low level, convert cables into:
FR- and FR+ -> RCA (right)
FL- and FR+ -> RCA (left)
2 input channels used?



Sorry if this is easy stuff. Trying to understand and learn.

[ctuna]

RCA generally mean single signals in which the shield is ground .

This will not be the case if you wire -FR and -FL to the shield .

Some amps will detect this and adjust you need to make sure this amp will.

I would call Alpine and ask them about this or you could not
change to Hi Fi and run the inputs on speaker outs using the DSP to tame the eq curve by using up some of its range.

You said you have the base system so its set up for speaker out's at head unit level until you Program to Hi Fi.

[bluewater328]

Ok, so I'm a little uninformed with the CCC involved, but I'll tell you what I did, and you can take what you want from there:

Original: 2011 E90 328i with Base stereo (no amp, deck powered).

Coded Base to $676 HiFi and got a Technicpnp (.com) harness. I actually got the HiFi harness so I had the option of the rears later, but I installed the harness and then bridged the RCAs for the rears back to the stock wiring so the deck would power the rears. I maintain PDC (softer though) and I changed the deck fader front so on the rare occasion that the amp takes a bit to kick in, I don't hear music in the rear(or get off axis stuff due to that as well). With it set that way, I can still get PDC sounds (again, softer since it's only 5V). I have toyed with the idea of putting a small line amplifier (meant to boost voltage from weak decks...so about 3-5V) on that rear line to get PDC back to normal without activating the rears, but haven't gotten around to it.

So from the Technic 676 harness, I take the front RCA signals and send that to the trunk where my aftermarket amp sits in the stock location. I am using a JL VX800/8i which is the same concept as your Alpine.

I bought new sails for the tweeters since the base doesn't have it (I have a brand new extra set if anyone is interested, don't ask why I bought two). I ran separate active lines to the door tweeters (CH1-2), which are from a Focal K2 KRS100 set. I used their crossover anyway for passive protection against a surge or a screwup.

Another separate line to each door mid 4" (CH3-4), mounted in stock location. Technic and another forum member also makes door mounts for non-drop in door speakers, but I had someone just make some locally. Keep it slim depending on your car, esp E92; E90 has a bit more room (The Jenehrts you mention were made for the car, so you're solid there).

The underseat mid-woofers were replaced with Focal IFBMW sub v2 drivers which were basically drop in (CH5-6).

I kept them all active separates so I could control their effects more. With your amp, you may want to do the same. Then you can really control the crossover points, time-alignment, and power setting functions. The tweeters are the only units firing on axis. So you'll need to find a balance between time, power and crossover points so it all blends nicely. Otherwise, IMHO, you've wasted the advantages (and money) for that amp. I also re-ran most of the lines, but kept the stock wiring in place in case I needed to go back. Personal choice on what you do with that -- I don't think it would terribly hurt to reuse stock wiring where you could.

Going back to the rear-discussion, I've always felt a front stage is the way to go. That's how you normally listen to everything but SACDs and movies (I know ICE was cool back then but....). And it's not as if the rear speakers are in any great positions either (well I guess they could bounce off the glass). Nix them as it's not worth it and usually just manufactured effect when it is an actual factor in source. I also think that even if you were watching movies in a vehicle, the 3-series is hardly the ideal setup to appreciate surround...SUVs are better suited, if any are.

Sub is a JL 12TW1 as I found it got me a bit more range. I had to do a cutout (no fold down for me) through the rear seat (where you could have a ski-passthrough). Created a ported box (sort of a reverse wedge shape) that was flush mounted to that hole and then had a false wall created to the trunk. I like the 12TW1 as its a slim mount that didn't require a lot of cu ft for the enclosure. So I keep most of my trunk compared to what a traditional 12W6 might be. I'm actually running that sub bridged on the same amp. The bridge gets me right in the RMS range of the 12TW1 so I'm happy. I'm not exactly a bass-head as I like more live music, but if I put on the latest Drake songs from Scorpion, it holds it's own very well. If I get basshead happy one-day, I could always just connect later, or if I wanted to waste some channels on the rear, and still maintain full control of the sub output within the JL TuN Mobile app. Mantra here is if you're not taking advantage of what that Alpine gives you, you should go down in series and save some $$.

For me tuning made all the difference. I'll attach a screenshot of the JL TuN Mobile interface when I get the chance. I actually think the Alpine might have a few more options. But the fact that I can do crossovers and even time/distance alignment on my iPad (via Bluetooth connection) sitting in the front seat is pretty nice. Had a local shop do the initial tuning with their full system since I wanted them to validate the setup and give me base values (they also did the subbox trunk hide) -- since then I just sit in 15 min intervals (many of those) in my driveway tuning it based on my preferences/music. I have about 4 settings set that I can push a button (DRC-100) for settings for driver-focused, true center focus, and one more for a separate channel input I have that uses a HiBy R3 as a source instead of the deck for my true HiDEF FLAC stuff. DRC-100 leaves me one more color-coded LED option I can put in (VX800/8i leaves me several more) and I'll probably use that to tune to R&B (mid/low bass heavy) vs Rock & classical (my typical). If I end up needing more (probably later) I will upgrade my push button to a DRC-205 with all its trick features and sexy lights...ok little sarcasm there.

Side Note: The JL Vxi series allows line-level input sensing as well...so maybe Alpine does that too? I would think so given the competitors segments.

[ctuna]

"Side Note: The JL Vxi series allows line-level input sensing as well...so maybe Alpine does that too? I would think so given the competitors segments."

What you said above though it wouldn't hurt to verify.

[bluewater328]

Originally Posted by ctuna

"Side Note: The JL Vxi series allows line-level input sensing as well...so maybe Alpine does that too? I would think so given the competitors segments."

What you said above though it wouldn't hurt to verify.

Seems that his Alpine PDP-E800DSP should have it:

REF: https://www.alpine.co.uk/p/Products/...ew/PDP-E800DSP

The PDP-E800DSP is extremely versatile and flexible – it can be added-on to virtually any factory or aftermarket car entertainment system to build the sound system you require. Connect the DSP amp to your factory system through the 6-channel speaker-level inputs with remote sensing, or alternatively, use the 6-channel pre-amp inputs (RCA). There is also an Optical input (max 24bit / 96kHz) to connect additional sources.

Also thought this was a nice little awesome addition:

If you use an Android phone, you can use the micro USB connection on the Alpine PDP-E800DSP to transfer and enjoy lossless audio files in full bandwidth. You can also connect your phone to the DSP amp using WiFi (wireless module is included with the PDP-E800DSP). We recommend to use the USB Audio Player Pro app for Android.

[Captain Buumer]

Thanks ctuna and bluewater328, really helpful information.

One last question.

Should i use twisted RCA cables to retain the balanced output which eliminates almost all noise?

I've read that the regular shielded RCA cables won't transmit negative singnal meaning balanced signal becomes unbalanced. This means guaranteed more noise from EMF.

Also shielded RCA creates additional ground between HU and DSP = ground loop (unless DSP has ground isolator small value resistor) and if DSP should for any reason have slightly bad ground or loose it equals fried OEM HU.

Can this info be somewhat correct?