E60 Stereo Upgrade

Ghostrider

Well-Known Member
Should not be a problem. You can call JM Audio @ 64447277 and ask for Jimmy. He has done it on a C Class & E39 before. What is added are component speakers and amps to lift the overall ambience of the sound stage. Tuning can be done if you add a electronic x'over.

You can give him a call and discuss. No obligations. You must first be comfortable with him before you jump into the water.

Important is to tell him your requirement before discussion so that he can recommend the choice setup for you.

My old tank is done by him...so far so good. The car maybe old...but at least my sound system is up to date !! :laughlik: :laughlik:

No money to buy E60...so mod ICE !!
 
Thanks for the recommendation. Will go check it out.

Actually spoke with Tony from Tye. Strange thing is he is dead against a ghost headunit setup! Wanted to sell me his package of 2 amps (1x4 channel, 1x 2 channel), 2 pairs of tweeters and a pair of woofers mounted on the rear deck. All Lanzar for 1899 plus GST.

As mentioned by others here, guess we are paying for their tuning expertise but am a bit weary of Tony's complete dismissal of my preference of getting a

ghost headunit, amp and new front speakers.

In terms of music preference, it is almost completely classical as well as golden oldies from the 50s and 60s (no 60s rock and roll even!)
 
What is the amp power that is gonna drive your free air woofer ? If it's not enough, your sub may sound like s**t. I kenna cos I swap my entire ICE setup from my Civic (which has a smaller boot) to the current ride. The boot is so much bigger and my poor freeair like no air !! Not enough juice to drive the sucker !! So had to buy a new amp to drive my sub.

What is the ghost HU that you are talking about ? Meaning that install another HU while the orginial one sits there idling ? I saw a Accord did that before...but that is bacause the owner wanted total control over the sound...he op for the Alpine F1 series. So the stock HU got no place in his setup...end up sitting there doing nothing.

Tuning can make or break a setup. I know some of the moderate installer just tune the gain up and call that tuning...good installers can perform wonders on your setup.

Well...in music perference, I not so into classical (unless its BOND !! Yahoo !! :p). I do like the 50s & 60s...do you know that you can find gems over at the resale counter at Gammaphone in Orchard Specialist Centre. Must have the time to sniff thru the stuffs there. I found a couple of Big Band ablums there....going for $1.50 or thereabout a DISC !! What a steal !!

I listen to almost anything infact...jazz, fusion jazz...rock...etc BUT no techno please...only when I want to fall asleep...then I will play it. My setup is primary for SQ more than blasting. Do you visit the blasting zone over at Yishun before ? I used to go there to clean my eardrums once in a while. Now I dunno if they still have it over the weekend.
 
try calling Sam at Swift Motion; last time i was there few weeks back for some ICE upgrade and "other" installations, he old me he done several e60 already.
 
Ghostrider:

Dont know the specs of the 2 channel driving the free to air woofer but would imagine that Tye would have done their homework on the amount of power needed cos their package is specific to the E60 5 series.

Re music: Need to clarify, this E60s is my mom's car. She is out of town for 3 weeks and wanted me to sort out some issues for her including the stereo. So the musical taste is hers. I would say that 90% of the time, she listens to classical.

Thus I am wondering about the relevence of installing subs on the rear parcel shelf. Am thinking that the current mid-woofers installed below the front seats on the floorboard acutally have enough oomph for her. Just need some decent amplification to drive the set up and some TA to raise the soundstage.

I really am leaning towards a slightly less mainstream package where I get:

new 5 inch 2 way seperates for the front doors
new tweeters to complement the speakers in the rear parcel shelf
new ghost headunit (alpine 700 or 701) to allow for TA
new amp (4 channel or maybe 5 channel?) to drive the whole setup

Thus I will keep
existing rear parcel shelf speakers
existing mid-bass speakers in the floorboard
existing headunit with all the functions intact

NS,

I hear that you have done a ghost setup as well. Can listen to your new setup?
 
I have not heard the stock setup of the E60 before so I cannot comment on the effectiveness of the stock drivers. But if your mom does listening to a lot of classicial music, I would recommend that you invest in a good pair of front drivers to play the music. A good driver can pick up those fine details that is always a feature on classical pieces. Look at drivers like Focal Utopia or the kevlar series (sorry cannot remember the model) or DynaAudio (this you need at least 150W RMS to drive cos Dynaaudio very power hungry)

Or if you want the new boy on the block Bewith brand is very impressive too. But the blardy tweeter is 2' big !! My god. Very unsightly to mount. IMHO...if your mom drives most of the time herself, it would be better that you leave the rear untouch as it is used mainly as a fill in only.

Since you are getting a "ghost" HU, I would suggest that you look into investment in a electronic X'over to tune the sound stage. Go for a 6' component is your front mounting can take it. But you will still need a sub to bring the bass ambience up.

You can look into a 6ch amp if you do not want to complicate installation....but since you are going to have the existing HU intact while running a seperate HU, your HU function will still be there but all not workable since the playing and processing is done by the seperate unit.

Too many parameter and possibility....can talk for 3 days and 3 nights also cannot finish. But if you want to listen to my setup, you are welcome to listen to it. Nothing to shout about really. BTW...I am not running a "ghost" setup (ie got 2 HU but 1 working only) cos mine is a E34 so it does not have those nice HU found on the newer BMWs.
 
Boris

What sound system specs does your mom's E60 comes with? I am curious about the woofers below the front seats.

I strongly recommend Swift Motion. I heard that those E60s that he had installed are mainly amps and speakers upgrades. If you want TA, you can get an external processor, Sam had done a few E-Class with Alto Mobile. So you don't really need to get a ghost HU. However, AFAIK, he has not done any Alto Mobile on an E60.

I would be very keen to listen to a time-aligned ICE set-up in an E60. Anyone has this set-up can allow an audition session?

E60s are handicapped when it comes to ICE. The stock mid-range speakers are only 4-inches, no way you can fit 6.5", but may be able squeeze in 5".
 
Wah! Dont know the exact size of the midbass below the seats but they are definately small. Would hazard a guess that they are no bigger than 6-6.5 inch?

Anyway, having listened to the system for a week or so, I have come to the conlcusion that the speakers used are actually decent (hence the reason why the tye elec upgrade only changes the front pair of speakers and enhances the rears with tweeters). Only issue is the soundstage being at basement level. Think that I will just live with the thing for the moment... :drool:
 
tategoi said:
Boris

What sound system specs does your mom's E60 comes with? I am curious about the woofers below the front seats.

I strongly recommend Swift Motion. I heard that those E60s that he had installed are mainly amps and speakers upgrades. If you want TA, you can get an external processor, Sam had done a few E-Class with Alto Mobile. So you don't really need to get a ghost HU. However, AFAIK, he has not done any Alto Mobile on an E60.

I would be very keen to listen to a time-aligned ICE set-up in an E60. Anyone has this set-up can allow an audition session?

E60s are handicapped when it comes to ICE. The stock mid-range speakers are only 4-inches, no way you can fit 6.5", but may be able squeeze in 5".

Hey Bro...watt wind blow you here !!

Anyway...is TA still the pop in ICE now ? I thought that it has gone back to staging and imaging thru tuning again using crossover ???
 
I still believe in TA as this is the only set-up I have listened to and am very satisfied with. But I'd love to hear a cross-overs set-up without TA. Its hard to imagine that without TA the staging and imaging could be accurate.
 
Ahh..my friend...then you have yet to see what some tuners can achive without electronic components. I have seen the power of TA....but recently sort of died down. I am playing some degree of TA too...but that is bacause my HU supports it. If you ask me to get a outboard processor...I rather get a active X'over to do the job.
 

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