Advice for stereo upgrade

[gsxrkiller]

I am the new owner of an absolutely mint 1992 325is (E36) The car has the factory head unit and factory cd changer. the CD changer just bailed. it will cost about $250 to have this unit repaired. However, I would love to upgrade the soundsytem in this car without rewiring the whole car. In other words, can i add a decent alpine head unit (thinking about the Alpine 9827) However do i need any kind of special adapter wiring? Crutchfields says i do, others say i need nothing other than a BMW adabter to slice the Alpine wiring into.

Now the bigger problem, Speakers. The factory units are poor at best. But BMW uses a 200 watt (yeah right) factory amp, with built in cross overs. My understanding is that there are not speakers that will work with this set up. also as most of you know the bass on this setup is pathetic. Sooo... what is the bottom line with regard to speakers, makes and models would be great I am looking for drop ins, as i said I dont want to start running wires and mounting cross overs and amps.

thanks for any help

[TrickyTrinni]

I am facing the same issues only with a 2001 E46. I wonder if anyone has found a web sites with detailed instructions on performing these types of upgrades?

[colin93 325is]

i have a 93 325is with two twelve inch diamonds, about 10 speakers, two amps for the speakers and one for the subs; plus an equalizer. the whole system runs great with the factory head unit and trunk mounted 6 disk. i had a guy i know that owns a speaker shop do it all for me. it is too complicated to do yourself in this car as far as i am concerned. the 6 disk requires a $50 - $100 adapter to hook up to any aftermarket head unit alone.

[CarolinaE36er]

I have a '94 325i and have put an alpine unit in my car... the only adapter needed is a wiring harness which you can buy at ANY car audio store for about $8.... this harness plugs into your factory harness and then has nice color coded wires to hook up to the after market CD player.
As for speakers you will probably want to get them installed professionally unless you're pretty handy with customizations. for my car I cut the factory grills off the factory speakers... yes they are attached.... and then glued them onto the door. The speakers were then attached to the back of the panel and the door panel put back in place (fronts). Both front and rear speakers are pretty restrictive with space, so you'll be using 4" in rear with tweeters and then you'll have 5 1/4" kick panel in the front, with tweeters (and depending on your cars options 4" speakers also) in the door.
As for a car with bass... either you will need to modify the door panels/rear deck to allow for bigger speakers , or you'll need to go (like me) with a sub in the trunk. Running the wiring for the sub in the trunk is wonderfully easy, since the battery itself (on a 325 at least) is located in the trunk. I hope this helps!

[kenr]

What kind of sub did you go with? Are you happy with it?

Ken

[CarolinaE36er]

I went with a 10" sub from eclipse, paired with an amp from Xtant. The sub is 500 watt rms max (1000 peak), with a 150 rms amp (300 peak). Its a pretty nice sub with excellent response and hits pretty hard. I got the eclipse because of its reputation, but more because I got it for an incredible price (local car audio shop stopped carrying eclipse). If you're looking for an awesome sub, go with a JL, they have incredible subs. The kind of sub you're going to get depends greatly on how much you're willing to spend. You can get a pair of Fosgates and an amp for pretty cheap, and they'll be loud, but not as accurate & tight. If you're going to get an expensive Sub, you'll need a nicer amp to go with it... if the amp has distorsion your sub wont sound good anyways. You'll need to do a lot of reseach before jumping in if you dont want to end up regretting your purchase.