decent car audio system-E39

[Mad Mike]

The quality of the sound system in the E39 is driving me mad, mainly because as the car has such a quiet cabin it is a pretty good place for listening to music. The BMW business stereo CD is just not meeting my requirements. It sounds awful, very hollow with no bass and it hates any sort of volume.
I was wondering if anyone has upgraded sound system and if so- how? And more importantly with what results?

Here is few pic. one of my experiment

I kick out stereo
P1010077.JPG

time for some sound deadening material
P1010132.JPG

door cards upgrade
P2180036.JPG

first look
P1010131.JPG

A-pillar tweeter pods
P1010146.JPG

car is still under construction

[Dave]

This is pretty cool.

[GERMANIKS]

Interesting, fair play to you for going down the custom route. Very hard and lots of work.
If you want to listen to the sound system in my e39 feel free to ask. We can share experiences.

[Mad Mike]

My favorite part is bass, subwoofers aren't easy, sure, adding a decent subwoofer to a system to supply more bass is no big deal, but getting the best possible sound out of a subwoofer IS.
Now, if one subwoofer is good, are two or more subs even better??
Of course it depends from the car size, type of music, how old you are etc... Anyway, if the car is not in every day use I think more subs are even better.
So here we go, what about 2x15" or 4x12" or 2x18" I'm still not 100% sure, but I have one of my old setup already tested-
and it's this one
P3020367 11-16-00.jpg
another shot
P3020364 11-16-01.jpg
nearly whole setup
P3050377 11-16-00.JPG
Yaeh, I know, question is how to place all of them inside boot. Well I'll manage somehow :-/ For me most interesting are 2x18"- so will take this decision soon

[GERMANIKS]

My favorite part is bass, subwoofers aren't easy, sure, adding a decent subwoofer to a system to supply more bass is no big deal, but getting the best possible sound out of a subwoofer IS.
Now, if one subwoofer is good, are two or more subs even better??
Of course it depends from the car size, type of music, how old you are etc... Anyway, if the car is not in every day use I think more subs are even better.
So here we go, what about 2x15" or 4x12" or 2x18" I'm still not 100% sure, but I have one of my old setup already tested-
and it's this one

another shot

nearly whole setup

Yaeh, I know, question is how to place all of them inside boot. Well I'll manage somehow :-/ For me most interesting are 2x18"- so will take this decision soon

Well bass is a science on its own, you can have all sort of enclosures, ported, vented, frequency adjusted...a real headache.
Bass is not for young people in my opinion, bass is one set of frequency, which is part of any music, and without bass you do not have a genuine reproduction of the music.
But in my opinion too much bass also kill the music. You can be a bass junky but you also have other higher frequencies to reproduce. If the bass is overwhelming, you could have a not so good system at the end of the day. To be a nice balanced system is what works best for good reproduction.
I have a brand new sub box I designed and got made recently by my carpenter. It takes 2x10" subs. It is 60cm long, sits on the floor and subs are pointing inside at a 45' angle.
It uas been designed for shallow subs though. But you would be surprised at how powerful it is is. Will dig the pictures.

[GERMANIKS]

There you go, if that's any help to you...

[Mad Mike]

Could you be more specific pls about your install? How did you sort out front speakers and amplifiers? Why did you choose slim mount depth subwoofers?
Anyway I believe your speakers deliver good hard back massaging bass with decent sound quality. I previously had a couple sealed boxes used to the tight punchy bass that such an enclosure provides. So you claim the port on your enclosure it's something like (a low noise design) and you don't prefer little boomy sounding because you listen mostly rock music?
Anyway, do you have some previous car audio installs even non Bmw? We can make new tread-previous car audio installs. I have couple pictures but is non Bmw install, I don't want drive admins crazy.

[GERMANIKS]

Could you be more specific pls about your install? How did you sort out front speakers and amplifiers? Why did you choose slim mount depth subwoofers?
Anyway I believe your speakers deliver good hard back massaging bass with decent sound quality. I previously had a couple sealed boxes used to the tight punchy bass that such an enclosure provides. So you claim the port on your enclosure it's something like (a low noise design) and you don't prefer little boomy sounding because you listen mostly rock music?
Anyway, do you have some previous car audio installs even non Bmw? We can make new tread-previous car audio installs. I have couple pictures but is non Bmw install, I don't want drive admins crazy.

I use all original speakers spots basically.
Well, I have the following actually:

- Front
2x Gladen 5" midrange + 2 Gladen 25mm tweeters.




- Rear shelf
2x Gladen 5" midranges (Shallow midrange) + 2 Gladen 25mm tweeters







- Amplifier
1x JL Audio 600/6



- Subwoofer (Work in progress still)
As of now I have a 150w alluminium enclosed subwoofer mounted on the rear of the back seat.
It pulses very very well and I get a deep and tight bass all over the car really. You need to listen to it to really understand what I am talking about.

To me it does the job very well, I actually listen to all sort of musics, R&B, Jazz, Rap, etc. and it works very well.

I think I am going to install the 2 x 8" shallow subs under the rear shelf, OEM emplacement, as I can not afford to lose my trunk space.




I could have gone further, use another amp just for the sub, use AB class amp(s), use a much bigger sub etc...but I am keeping it simple but yet very nice to listen to, even at high volume, not noticeable distortion, as it is used as a demo car to show the Gladen speakers mostly that I sell and nobody is going to pay me 5000-10000 euros to get competition speakers and equipment.

Next step for me though is going DSP soon...

Yeah I got tons of other installs pictures/experience based on previous jobs, mostly BMW, examples:

[Mad Mike]

Nice work, I always using Focal, Morel, MTX, JL Audio hard to get them here too. Anyway I would like to try Gladen component speakers, it's new brand for me, any dealer here in IRL?

[GERMANIKS]

Nice work, I always using Focal, Morel, MTX, JL Audio hard to get them here too. Anyway I would like to try Gladen component speakers, it's new brand for me, any dealer here in IRL?

I am the Gladen distributor in Ireland. I resell JL Audio kits too.
Feel free to pop down to get a demo
I am in Blanchardstown