You people suck. 12 years later, I finally replace speakers.

[Ricky Bobby]

Memphis Midranges installed - subtle but you can definitely hear clearer sound from those speakers. For $35 an excellent upgrade.

Now on to the rest of the front door component to really open her up!

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Memphis Midranges installed - subtle but you can definitely hear clearer sound from those speakers. For $35 an excellent upgrade.

Now on to the rest of the front door component to really open her up!

Awesome perspective. I think you might be the 1st just to do those. That tells us the impact they have.

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Memphis Midranges installed - subtle but you can definitely hear clearer sound from those speakers. For $35 an excellent upgrade.

Now on to the rest of the front door component to really open her up!

Just got the Vifas yesterday afternoon and they look solid from physical perspective. I won't be able to do the install them right away but will get them in there and report back. On another note replaced the front passenger door carrier on Wednesday but had a couple of the door mounts come undone from the inside of the door panel. So I did some research and a couple of BMW enthusiasts performed their door panel mounts using 3M Window Weld. I put this on the mounts with some small clamps and this stuff is awesome/solid. In my opinion its better than than the epoxies because of the part A/B mix. 3M window weld comes in a tube for use in caulking gun.

[semcoinc]

I drove in my E46 today with its stock HK speaker system and Eonon GM5150 head unit and WOW, what a difference the upgraded X speakers make. My E46 system sounded so flat like they had pillows over them.

I gotta get the E46 speakers upgraded.

Did someone say that the mids in the E53 doors are the same as the mids in the E46 doors?

Mike

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by semcoinc

Did someone say that the mids in the E53 doors are the same as the mids in the E46 doors?

I think that was RB.

Here's what I am thinking on my E46 sedan:

JL component up front (4 speakers) ($150) I'll use the Xovers in my E53
Memphis mids up front ($40)
JL component tweets in rear doors, 160mm mid base in rear deck. ($150)

Subs? I'm not yet sure. But I want to do something in it now that I have heard the JL powered BSW sub. Or wait. Did I tell you guys that I replaced the BSW sub in the E53? I did.

[semcoinc]

Originally Posted by PropellerHead

I think that was RB.

Here's what I am thinking on my E46 sedan:

JL component up front (4 speakers) ($150) I'll use the Xovers in my E53
Memphis mids up front ($40)
JL component tweets in rear doors, 160mm mid base in rear deck. ($150)

Subs? I'm not yet sure. But I want to do something in it now that I have heard the JL powered BSW sub. Or wait. Did I tell you guys that I replaced the BSW sub in the E53? I did.

Are those 6" woofers in the E46 doors like in our E53?

I have HK tweeters in the front at the base of the window molding. So I was thinking 4 mids in my sedan doors and 4 JL or Dayton Audio component woofers in the doors and 2 JL component tweeters.

Oh, then I have the rear deck woofers.

I have a self contained sub in the trunk, so I'm good to go there.

The E53 upgrade in speakers I did really made me hear how bad my 2003 E46 sedan HK speakers are!

Something I'll put on the drawing board for March maybe.

Mike

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by semcoinc

Are those 6" woofers in the E46 doors like in our E53?

I think they are. Same parts in front doors as are in the rear deck. I pulled the grills from the rear deck tonight and found what looked like brown paper bags surrounding the speakers. The biggest consideration here is the 3 legged 10mm(?) hex screws. The 4 mounts in the JL's I have aren't offset like the HKs. I am sure an adapter would fix this, but I am actively seeking a solution that keeps my snips and silicon to a minimum if possible.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by PropellerHead

I think they are. Same parts in front doors as are in the rear deck. I pulled the grills from the rear deck tonight and found what looked like brown paper bags surrounding the speakers. The biggest consideration here is the 3 legged 10mm(?) hex screws. The 4 mounts in the JL's I have aren't offset like the HKs. I am sure an adapter would fix this, but I am actively seeking a solution that keeps my snips and silicon to a minimum if possible.

Pop in your sedan info onto BSW they actually give pictures and sizing of the speakers for replacement - looks like the midranges are the same 65mm versions on the front and rear doors of the E46 sedan so those Peerless/Vifa midranges found previously would work -

And yeah I definitely could hear a difference with the Memphis midranges installed by themselves, as Mike would say "pillows were lifted" from that speaker location - well worth the $35, even if I had to do some trimming with tin snips and the tight location made getting the factory wiring harness/capacitor tucked back into place a PIA -

I'm assuming the doors will be a much more fun and sound-changing install - but those will probably wait until spring -


I will say, after comparing the two side by side, the rear door midrange as well as the dash midrange is the same driver on DSP and non-DSP E53's - it just has a different mount (the two "wings" for the dash) -

I did some RealOEM digging as well and if you guys really want to know more, the only difference in non-DSP and DSP speakers on the E53 is the 4 door woofers (and the sub obviously) - the front door tweeters, rear door midranges and dash midranges are the SAME part # whether you have DSP or not - I am curious to see if the DSP door woofers are a factory 2ohm like semco Mike found out, or if they are 8 ohm like the other factory speakers -


And you want to talk about OCD - I am contemplating buying another set of Memphis Midranges just because when the set was installed I felt like I had to trim with the tin snips a lot to get them to sit flush in place, and probably should have made the mounting holes more oval in order to get the screws properly started, yes I know, with the grille in place you can't tell a damn thing but that OCD gets me - part of it was that factory capacitor was taking up a lot of room in the space - did you end up stuffing it down where the rest of the wire harness went Prop? Or did you just wrap it in place around the midrange speaker like it was when you took the factory driver out?

[Clockwork]

Originally Posted by X53Jay4.8is

Just got the Vifas yesterday afternoon and they look solid from physical perspective. I won't be able to do the install them right away but will get them in there and report back.

who is the ebay seller? I'm not looking for a group buy but imagine how nice it would be for the seller if we all buy from him/her.

I'm finding these only
Pair Vifa NE65W-04 2" Full Range Woofer Speaker 4 ohms 40W 82.2 dB 1" Coil | eBay
$70 USD

too bad not as cheap as the Memphis mid ranges.

small video about the e46 community using them too in their component setups
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyzPG1ZJ3ig

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by Clockwork

too bad not as cheap as the Memphis mid ranges.

Ok boys.. in the interest of... I dunno.. keeping things interesting...

I ordered these 2.75" mids today from Amazon. They will be used for the E46 (pics from earlier post):

My thought is that I will trim the bumfizzle out of this thing and see what that's like as a replacement for the E53 rear doors. In my heart of hearts, I think upon all that is thoughtable... That these are the exact same things as the Memphis Audio mids. And they're $25 less.

Anyway.. it's worth a shot.