[MCoupeinBoca]

I upgraded my 99 MCoupe from the HK 9-speaker setup with the BSW 6-speaker replacement recently (sans door midranges, which area in their opinion worth keeping), only to find my OEM subwoofer to be kaput.

After an hour on the phone with BSW's generous tech, I found my subwoofer voice-coils were shot.

Being a 6.5" Dual Voice Coil (I THINK it's 4-ohm, but not sure if it's technically , it's nearly impossible to find aftermarket. I am hoping to DIY and not to replace the sub-amp.

I would really like to stick to stock and just replace the cone; any experiences? anyone got a track set-up with a speaker to spare?

Happy 4th to all.

Keith

 

[reidconti]

Wow, I didn't even realize they had a plug-n-play system for our cars.

I care less and less about car audio every year, but this seems like an attractive option, especially now that one of my rear speakers is buzzing.

How does it sound??

 

[MCoupeinBoca]

I can't really tell b/c the sub is out... there's no bass whatsoever. Actually, I was the lucky one to find out that BSW had a mis-match with the Coupes and sent me rear speakers for the 3-series, I think... they had to send me the 5.25" plates to mount the little mid-ranges to the car. The speakers (OEM and BSW, both) are only like 2" or so. I then had to hot-glue the speakers myself, but no biggie.

Mine were both ripped, and I had terrible buzzing. Stealer wanted like $110/speaker and BSW replaced 6 for $329, so I opted BSW. Install wasn't hard, but getting those rear grills off was a bear. I snapped a bit of the mount inside on the first one, and I tried before I pried. Rest of the install was about 2-3 hrs and I work slower than death.

The sub replacment BSW offers is a speaker+amp (my amp is ok), and an external box that eats up more trunk space. I really just want to replace the cone, and don't really want to learn any more than I now know about car audio, either. I just want some bass and not to blow up my sub-amp. This Dual-Voice Coil thing is a real pain in the neck... nothing in 6.5" seems to be available. There's a lot of wires going into the amp, so I'm nervous trying to replace it myself and just spent plenty on my car and bike.

I hope someone has a race rig somewhere...

 

[Let's Go!]

I replaced my sub with a JL Audio 6W0-4 in the stock location, but I also replaced the amp. Pretty straightforward once you get the wiring diagram in front of you and can match color codes to wires. Absolutely no regrets.

 

[DCC]

The stock sub does not move much air at all and therefore will not sound like its worth the effort to replace in stock form.

 

[MCoupeinBoca]

Larry, which amp did you buy? did you just throw out the old amp and put your replacement amp in that location? do you just wire right into the same wiring harness for the stock amp? Do the HK-radio coupes have one amp under the trunk floor and the sub-amp in question is up on the right on a shelf?



Frankly, I've done a huge amount of mechanical work recently and am plumb worn out... i would really like to plug-and-play but it seems that's out of the question.

I found an old Honda DVC 6.5" subwoofer made by Alpine for their Elements... thought it may fit but i don't want to throw good money after bad. MORE importantly, i don't want to blow anything else up. The seller thinks it's 4amp, but isn't sure.

I am not an audiophile and was content with the stock sound but now i am looking for an acceptable cheap fix.

 

[MCoupeinBoca]

strike that... it's an Audax woofer, 3.5 ohm:
Fs: 45 Hz
Vas: 19.9 L
Qms: 4.93
Qes: .55
Qts: .49
Re: 3.5 ohms
Sd: 136 Sq. cm.
Pe: 50 W
Sens: 90.8 dB

will this work and not do damage?

 

[calys003]

I replaced my sub with a JL Audio 6W0-4 in the stock location, but I also replaced the amp. Pretty straightforward once you get the wiring diagram in front of you and can match color codes to wires. Absolutely no regrets.



How does it sound with the 6" jl? I ripped out the whole oem system and put in all jl audio speakers along with a 10w7!

 

[Let's Go!]

Larry, which amp did you buy? did you just throw out the old amp and put your replacement amp in that location? do you just wire right into the same wiring harness for the stock amp? Do the HK-radio coupes have one amp under the trunk floor and the sub-amp in question is up on the right on a shelf?

Sorry for the delay; we've been out of town.

I did a stealth install retaining the business CD. Took the better part of a weekend, but I already had the rear interior apart for new shock mounts.

I put in an Alpine MRP F250 40x4 amp with the back channels bridged for the sub. It was a tight squeeze but fit after removing the CD changer frame. Or was it the amp frame? I chose the Alpine because (a) it would barely fit, (b) it also had speaker inputs, which I ended up using and (c) the bridged power level kept in the 6W0's range. I had to clip the stock wiring harness and extend some of the wires; pretty straightforward with color coding and careful labeling. Ran a new fused power cable and ground; 12 gauge, I think. Also ran 16 gauge speaker wiring to the new component Polks up front, but probably didn't need to.

Most of the labor went into the sub box. I used Second Skin, similar to Dynamat but supposedly handles hot temperatures better, to cover every square inch of the stock box. Easy with a utility knife and small wallpaper roller, but time consuming. Also sealed the port to make the bass a little tighter. Bolted in an adapter/spacer for the 6W0 made from half inch MDF, as the new sub was a bit too deep to fit to fit the box. Added some polyester fill, secured the sub and let her rip. Woohoo! Blues, swing, reggae, bluegrass, rock - whatever I put in sounds great.

I was a bit concerned at first about not having rear speakers anymore, but don't miss them one bit.

 

[Let's Go!]

How does it sound with the 6" jl? I ripped out the whole oem system and put in all jl audio speakers along with a 10w7!

Sounds good to me. I don't think I could handle SPL of a driven 10!

 

[MCoupeinBoca]

Larry, why'd you lose your rear speakers? 4 channels only allowd you 2 front speakers and a bridged sub?

You lost your door tweeters and midranges, too, right? now you just have 2 polks and a sub? I hoped to keep my new 6 BSW speaker upgrade + 2 stock door midranges (BSW's suggestion) and JUST upgrade the subwoofer/subamp. Does your layout disallow that?

 

[Mpire]

Serves you right for spending good money on crappy speakers from BSW before you do a search on stereo systems on this here forum.

LOL... There is more knowledge here than anywhere else, and I garantee that no one, not even the stealership, knows more about your car than the people right here.

 

[MCoupeinBoca]

I don't know what to do with that last reply... whaddyuthink i'm doing here?

Does anyone know if this unit on ebay will work? it's described as 8ohm, but my VC's are burned out... zero resistance, so i can't test them. no writing anywhere...

http://cgi.ebay.com/6-1-2-DVC-CLEAR...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

 

[Mpire]

go buy a JL Audio 6w0, get a MDF spacer ring and a small amp and you will be way ahead of the game for not much cash.

 

[bob lindquist]

go buy a JL Audio 6w0, get a MDF spacer ring and a small amp and you will be way ahead of the game for not much cash.

ditto

search this forum car audio sub

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18693&highlight=big+book+of+car+audio

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18063&highlight=dynamat&page=2

 

[Mpire]

Ironically mine looks identical.

In the coupe, the 6W0 gets very loud after bouncing off the rear glass.

 

[Let's Go!]

Keith
Here are some of the threads I found useful before diving in

Some disassembly
http://bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61487&highlight=speaker

6W0 Spacer
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91408

Wiring pdf
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47017&d=1111642399

Wiring color code pdf
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47018&d=1111642399

A nice install
http://members.cox.net/apanigrahi/stereo/z3stereo.html
http://members.cox.net/apanigrahi/stereo/sterpics.html

Sound deadener comparison.
http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/
At one time there was a discount on SecondSkin if you joined their forum.