Hi Guys,

Not sure if it helps, but I have a 2005 E53.

In the front doors, I installed Dynaudio Esotec System 342 3-way splits. The woofers are 6.5" inch I think, and would not fit in the standard plastic bracket. I had to make an MDF spacer to mount the woofer onto the door. I'm not using the std plastic bracket at all. This isn't ideal; there will be some audio artefacts with the woofer sound diffracting off the edge of the hole in the door, as the plastic tunnel isn't there to guide the sound nicely from the speaker out the hole in the door like the factory ones do..

Putting 6.5"s in the front doors was not easy, and not sure I'd bother again. At the time I didn't have a sub, so wanted as much bass as I could in the doors...

I bought a reprappro 3d printer (should arrive in a few weeks), and want to print a customised bracket for bigger speakers. Will post here when I eventually get the brackets sorted (will post the 3d file so you guys can print them too)..

I put extra noise dampening felt carpet stuff under my carpet in the car (took all seats and carpet out, and put in a whole extra layer (1/2") of noise absorbent carpet. The car's a diesel, and I'm a bit anal, so I wanted that extra quietness.

While putting in the felt carpet stuff, I ran really heavy gauge wiring from the rear wheel well, through the doors, into the door cavities. I have these wires going to the System 342's in the front, and some Focal splits in the back doors. I think the wires made a little difference in the quality of the bass, but not a great deal.

FYI: My amp is an Alpine PDX5, mounted in the back near the spare wheel. I also got an Alpine PXA-H800 and RUX-C800, which do a great job of cleaning up some of the low frequency standing waves and resonant peaks etc..

I hooked the output of the factory radio + CD player into the speaker level inputs of the PXA-H800 (via alpine adapter plugs), just so I have std audio and retained standard head unit..

I use optical input on the PXA-H800 for my main audio input, with the iPhone -> Optical adapter (Pure), and an optical cable from the Pure into the PXA-H800.
Big bummer is that the steering wheel volume controls won't change the volume on the PXA-H800. If anyone solves this, please let me know!


FYI: I have an Alpine PXA-H100 in the Missus car, and it is quite good. The PXA-H800 is much much better though, if you can scrape the $ together...

HTH.
Scott.