A number of people have askedhow the aftermarket amplifiers have been integrated with the DSP system and below I will illustrate some of the details. However it is important to understand that you really need to find an installer such as Sound in Motion who understand DSP and have integrated systems into it, many shops will claim they have done this many times but in most cases they have not even seen a DSP equipped BMW.


One of the issues with DSP is that the signal from the headunit is
amplified before it is passed into the DSP amp, therefore it is not
really possible to bypass the DSP amp and get to a low voltage
input. You have to use the high voltage output from the DSP amp and
use something like the Soundgate hi-voltage LOCs (low voltage
converters) to retrieve a full range semi linear pre-amp signal to
feed your aftermarket amps (in my case Phoenix Gold). The factory
equalization is very unlinear and requires a good amount of
fine-tuning to make it acceptable

Below are some pictures of


the actual integration

• Soundgate hi-voltage LOCs
  • 2 x for the factory subwoofer
    
    outputs (labeled S1 and S2)
  • 2 x for the rear door outputs
    
    (labeled RL(ow) and RH(igh) )
  • 3 x for the front door
    
    outputs (labeled FL(ow) , FM(id) and FH(igh) )

Cabling of the Soundgate LOCs

from the rear (input and outputs to the amps)

As for the cabling coming

from the DSP amplifier into the Soundgate LOCs I've created the
following table

Soundgate LOC	Cable Color (Input) 1		Cable Color (Input) 2
S(ubwoofer)1	Yellow/Brown	Brown	Blue	Brown
S(ubwoofer)2	Blue/Red	Blue/Brown	Blue/White	Blue/Brown
R(ear)H(igh)	Yellow/Blue	Yellow/Brown	White/Blue	White/Brown
R(ear)L(ow)	Yellow/Blue	Brown/Black	Blue/Black	Brown/Black
F(ront)H(igh)	Blue/Black	Blue/Brown	Yellow/Red	Yellow/Brown
F(ront)M(id)	Grey/Blue	Grey/Black	Blue/Yellow	Brown
F(ront)L(ow)	Blue/White	Blue/Brown	Blue/Red	Blue/Brown