ICE customisation advice

[hcsiow]

Hi Bros
I need to get a custom ICE fitment for my ride. I need to make a holder for a head unit which will then be covered in alcantara leather and attached underneath the dashboard. I also need lightweight speakers with good sound.
Any recommendations for workshops capable of doing this?
I also need advice on head units which have a decent inbuilt amplifier so I don't need to attach external amplifiers. Also if possible it should have a motorised display with GPS function.
Please send me your recommendations for this and very light weight speakers ( 2 coaxial units and 2 separate tweeter set ups only)
Many thanks guys!

 

[snowmanyee]

Re: ICE customisation advice

Heard good reviews about Soundwerkz. You can go to site sponsor thread to find more details.

 

[xj40]

Re: ICE customisation advice

Make sure you go to good installers who do proper jobs especially when it comes to cabling.
I had a very unpleasant incident recently.

Just last month in Sept I decided to try out one of the new audio shops who started posting recently in the forum.
My budget is was $7k excluding using 2 of my old amplifiers.
(My E60 already came stock with tweeters/3 way front with a very tiny small 2 channel amp from factory in the rear upper part of the boot.)

After the install and Bit One, I wasn't impressed with the sound to say the least.
I used to do up ICE in my previous cars with far less budget and my current setup sounded much worse. (I'm an avid home hifi enthusiast.)


I decided to get a used amp to swap out one of my older amp in my attempts to try to improve the sound quality....chanced upon a new installer where the seller was dekitting.

And boy am I glad I found the new place.......when I went there to install my amp subsequently, the installer showed me the wiring done up by the previous installer.
The wiring done was all in a mess--- some of the power cables used were only half the gauge of what's recommended for the amplifiers even when they've used 'branded' cables.....

I've only had time to re-run all the power cables this visit and basically just 're-set' the Bit One to factory settings and the sound was much better compared to the previous 'tuning' and EQs settings....

It's really true what you read in those DIY forums....It's terribly important to get the basics right---right sized power and speaker wirings.
Even the tapped audio lines should be done well to minimise poor sound and potentially premature failure of the equipments later on.

Heard good reviews about Soundwerkz. You can go to site sponsor thread to find more details.

 

[normal3]

Re: ICE customisation advice

You can consider Hong Guan, they did many European model including BMW, and familiar with our CANBUS system (how to bypass, prevent error, etc ..).
Did mine there recently.

In general, speakers are light weight. The heavy ones is the woofer, but there are also "light weight" option, like mine. I mount mine on the board and no need box. Headunit with decent amp, you can start with Alpine. But to have "solid" sound, you need external amp.

 

[robecom1]

Re: ICE customisation advice

what speaker component brand and model can i use for an E60? likewise can i add a DVD head unit to it without taking out the stock hu and at the same time does not screw up drive?

 

[aoshi]

Re: ICE customisation advice

what speaker component brand and model can i use for an E60? likewise can i add a DVD head unit to it without taking out the stock hu and at the same time does not screw up drive?

U can use ground-zero OR gladen audio. $900 - $1200 for tweeter, mid-range and bass speakers suited for E60. Need to hook ur DVD head unit where ever u deem nice if u want to keep the stock hu. Alternatively, u can install multimedia interface to ur i-drive to display DVD. Apparently, I have ground noise interference on my DVD player connected to the multimedia interface and the audio workshop who did for me cannot solve the problem. Irritating....

 

[me0ri]

Re: ICE customisation advice

you can change to a DVD head unit but not advisable if you want to link to your stock unit.