Door speakers

[BiKenG]

A while ago I bought some decent speakers for the doors in my E53 which currently has the basic audio system with SatNav. The speakers are 165 mm (6.5") though and having now looked at the mounting pod from a door, I can see that's too large to fit into the pod. Looks like 160 mm (6.25") is about the limit. So, 3 options:-

1. Change the speakers to smaller ones that fit.
2. Modify the pods to accept the 165 speakers
3. throw away the pods and use adapters to mount the 165 speakers

1 - This would be a last resort as it will be expensive - again.

2 - I've seen some mods to the pods but that cut away almost half of the 'tube' that fits to the door panel, leaving a big gap like that is not ideal for audio reproduction as it should be sealed. I cannot see any way to modify them to accept the 165 mm speakers while maintaining the all around fit to the inside of the door panel.

3. - Without the pod, the speaker has to be mounted to the door or the door panel. There are apparently adapter rings that presumably attach the speaker to the door where the pod used to fit. But that must leave a gap then between the speaker and the door panel with the grill. Not ideal, but how does it sound? Anyone done this and used the adapters?

Or, mount the speakers direct to the door panel. I rather suspect this might be the best solution soundwise and since the car is now getting on, I'm not too bothered about the non OEM appearance of the speaker grills in the doors. But again, anyone done this and can comment of how it sounds?

Would appreciate comments from those who have done this sort of thing.

[graemeX5]

Hi

Try doing a s arch on the user sanj as I know he did a How to on the speaker upgrade on his E53 a while back and that gave all dimensions of the speakers in the doors etc

Graeme

[graemeX5]

Hi

Try this link

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/index.php/t ... l#msg95551

Graeme

[BiKenG]

Thanks, I've found a few threads, but Sanj suggests 6.5" and I KNOW they won't fit in the original pods without serious modification. I've also seen mention of the adapter rings, but haven't found anyone who actually admits to using them. I'd really like to know more about them, e.g. where they place the speaker, how or if they seal to the door panel etc.

Any Car HiFi experts care to comment on relative benefits or otherwise of mounting via adapters to the doors or direct onto the door panel?

[Razoor]

Hi,
I replaced the factory door speaker pods with some mdf adapters when I changed the front door speakers. There are plastic adapters available but are very flimsy. The pictured ones were removed from my X5 prior to sale and are now surplus. A decent front pair of speakers sure do make a huge difference to the sound stage and stereo imaging compared to the factory ones. Mine were also driven from an external amp.

[BiKenG]

[quote="Razoor"]
Hi,
I replaced the factory door speaker pods with some mdf adapters when I changed the front door speakers. There are plastic adapters available but are very flimsy. The pictured ones were removed from my X5 prior to sale and are now surplus. A decent front pair of speakers sure do make a huge difference to the sound stage and stereo imaging compared to the factory ones. Mine were also driven from an external amp.
[/quote]

Yes, I'm planning a full replace with JL speakers, amp and sub and Android head unit. But 2 questions about your adapters:-

How did you seal between the front of the speakers and the door panel? If there's just a big gap I can't help but think a lot of sound quality will be lost.

On the other hand, looks like you're also in the UK, are you wanting to dispose of your old adapters?

Did you ascertain whether there's wiring for 2 speakers into each door, from where they start and what colours they are?

[Razoor]

It’s been a few years since I had the e53 and don’t recall there being a large gap between front of speaker and rear of door panel. If you go ahead with the install and there is a gap, you could experiment with the gap or try sealing with some dense foam to fill any gaps in to see if you can hear any difference.
I did not use the factory wiring as I used an external amp. The oem factory amp (bm54 ?) was modified with 2 pairs of rca preouts which enabled me to use the factory head unit with an external JL audio 5 channel amp. So, I had a full active system,mids and tweeters up front and sub in rear with a bass controller. Didn’t have rear speakers as it ruins front imaging.

[BiKenG]

I'll also be using a JL 5 channel amp, but would prefer to use original speaker wiring if it's there, just to save the otherwise immense hassle of having to run new wiring everywhere. Obviously I'll need coax to run the pre-out line levels from the new head unit back to the factory amp (BM54 I guess) at the back, but I'm hoping wiring to all the speakers starts there. It's just so hard finding out this sort of stuff. It's clear BMW (and other manufacturers) really don't want to make it easy to modify the cars in this way.