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

[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?

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

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?

Yeah, I stuffed it down in there with the factory harness as much as I could. I was concerned mostly with rattle from the bits. I have not had any troubles with rattles.

I saw on some install somewhere that an E46 mid mount just screws into place on the door panel. The screen and everything come out. I did not do it this way on my E53 and I think I may have done it the hard way. Working with the speaker free of the door would have been easier. I will try this when I do the E46 mids in the front doors.

[Ricky Bobby]

^Yes - are you talking about the rear door midrange? That housing will unscrew from the door, but that black ring on the back of the housing might drop into the door panel so if you have the door panel removed just unscrew the black ring on the back and then you can free the whole housing with those retaining tabs on the bench -

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

^Yes - are you talking about the rear door midrange? That housing will unscrew from the door, but that black ring on the back of the housing might drop into the door panel so if you have the door panel removed just unscrew the black ring on the back and then you can free the whole housing with those retaining tabs on the bench -

[Ricky Bobby]

Another note as I was curious that semcoMike posted up about his factory non-DSP door woofers being 2ohm and did a bit of digging -

the DSP door woofers are 8ohm just like the other speakers that are shared between the E53 models (front door tweeters, rear door mids, and dash mids)


WAIT PROP - Did you say JL powered BSW sub?

[Clockwork]

Originally Posted by semcoinc

Just finished installing the JL C2-600CW woofer and C2-075CT into the front of my X.



It's like pillows were removed from the front door speakers

BTW, I noticed that the front factory woofers are 2ohm.

Some pics later.

Will tackle the rear doors when my Dayton Audio woofers arrive on Monday.

Pics:

Note that the front door tweeter has a green with black stripe for the POSITIVE and is an 8ohm!



JL Tweeter using their supplied mounting ring in factory foam mount. Added silicone adhesive to close the deal




Mike

Mike when you used the Styrofoam housing to hold the JL tweeter, you didnt have to reuse the black plastic "arm" which is held in place by the Torx 30 screws right?

[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 Ricky Bobby

WAIT PROP - Did you say JL powered BSW sub?

I went juuuust a bit overboard. In fact, the size of this JL amp has pushed forward the notion that I will run the Android 6.0 offering pretty soon. The difference in the amps is ridiculous. Now, that could be that BSW sent me a for sh!t amp- which I believe is true. But for a couple hundred $, the difference in what I had versus what I have now is outstanding.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by PropellerHead

I went juuuust a bit overboard. In fact, the size of this JL amp has pushed forward the notion that I will run the Android 6.0 offering pretty soon. The difference in the amps is ridiculous. Now, that could be that BSW sent me a for sh!t amp- which I believe is true. But for a couple hundred $, the difference in what I had versus what I have now is outstanding.

You're a braver man than me to go balls out like this. Doing the speakers is enough to me - at my limited time doing some splices on the speakers or minor soldering to swap the speakers out. I'm just hoping the stock DSP amp taking the 10 speakers to 4 ohm is livable and won't shorten lifespan of any components.

But thanks to you guys and Jay, im not worried. Super stoked to get the JL components in and installed