Stealth high end audio install in E70 - with a lot of photos

[lakai]

how does this all integrate with your oem audio system in terms of usage and problems ?

[brian5]

digiteye,

What a tremendous job you've done there!

I can't help feeling just a teensy bit envious. OK, I admit it; I'm more than just a teensy bit envious...

[digiteye]

Originally Posted by lakai

how does this all integrate with your oem audio system in terms of usage and problems ?

The 3Sixty.2 is connected after the head unit - mostly for smoothening out the factory settings (that are horribly biased - bass and treble cranked up, like the "loudness" in old stereos). The signal then goes to the amp and from there to the drivers - thats all.

So the radio signal, CD and iPod signals are all coming through the OEM head unit, all you can see installed are after the head unit, therefore there is no interaction whatsoever. I use iDrive for selecting music, when I receive a phone call the music is muted, my navi bitch talks in the middle speaker (that has not been replaced, being good enough for voice), iPod works.
Its funny though - I prefer CD-s now, this system tells the difference between iPod and CD even if I use high quality conversion in the iPod.

Actually, the head unit could be better, but its no point to replace it - too much of a hassle. The rest of the audio system has been thrown away

[digiteye]

Originally Posted by brian5

digiteye,

What a tremendous job you've done there!

I can't help feeling just a teensy bit envious. OK, I admit it; I'm more than just a teensy bit envious...

Thanks brian5, I take it as a compliment To make you really envious, I tell you that the money I paid for this system was way less than one would pay for the premium audio... For music I cant see the benefits of the premium - on the other hand if you play DVD-s you need the surround sound of the premium.

In fact installation was much easier than I thought (thanks to BMW for finally using industry standard holes...) - I am sure you can do the same - but to replace your premium audio, you would need 2 sets of Morels and 2 amps (one for the front and another for the rear sound), or a 5 channel amp to drive both. The 3Sixty.2 can handle all your drivers.

I personally prefer stereo and front stage only, so actually my rear door speakers are not even connected anymore.

Despite of the weird location of the woofers under the seats, the bass is pretty surprisingly good, for sure I wont install a subwoofer.

Unfortunately typing in a forum does not allow me to explain how this system sounds. It is f@cking unbelievable.

And the Morels need 50-60 hours run to break in...

[chefwong]

I must ask.......or if you can ask your installer and post the info.

LOVE the cloth wiring loom.
Got a source, etc.

I ended up sourcing mine from Mercedes parts and it was godawful expensive......

Love the install ! Hows the staging due to OEM locations ?

[08WhtX5]

[quote and an extra battery

Ver nice install, what's the extra battery for?

[digiteye]

Originally Posted by chefwong

I must ask.......or if you can ask your installer and post the info.

LOVE the cloth wiring loom.
Got a source, etc.

I ended up sourcing mine from Mercedes parts and it was godawful expensive......
Love the install ! Hows the staging due to OEM locations ?

Errmm...not sure what do you mean by cloth wiring loom..?

Staging is great - sounds unexpectedly good. We worried about the woofer location under the seat, but there is actually a huge space behind the driver, acting as a box, allowing pretty deep basses to sound.

[digiteye]

Originally Posted by 08WhtX5

[quote and an extra battery

Ver nice install, what's the extra battery for?

According to the installer guy it helps the system in case of power peaks - otherwise the computer might shut down the audio to provide power to the more essential parts of the car. This situation is very rare but theoretically it can happen.
Basically the battery replaces the condenser, that is usually built in audio systems for the same reason (and a good one is quite expensive). This battery was very cheap.

[X5Mod]

Nice install! I have a new '08 E70 and want to do a similar install.
I'm going to go with the Morel Elate, a JL Audio HD 600/4 and the Rockford 3Sixty.2 .

After a lot of research (TIS, technical manuals, forums, etc.) I'm left with more questions than answers.

It seems that most of the speakers (except the "speakers under the seats") are wired in PARALLEL. This makes for more than a simple determination of which wires go to which speakers, if one wants to use the preexisting wires, as (unless I'm mistaken) impedance will have to be calculated, etc. Moreover, if the speakers are wired in parallel, how can there be any signal separation between tweeter and midrange speakers??

I've used the OEM wiring in the past and had good results....I reeealllly don't want to rewire the car, mostly because it's leased. I think the install by Digiteye was with a re-wired car, not using OEM wiring.

Any ideas from anyone?

[digiteye]

To be honest, the car is mine, the install was not
I have found this guy who is a keen car-audiophile - he did it all. Sorry, I have no idea about parallel and stuff - what I know for sure is that he re-wired the system as he considered the OEM wiring low quality. He used some thick stuff as for wires, at least this is how I understood.

One more thing I realized in the meantime - we have not given enough boost to the system initially, therefore I noticed some distortion at higher levels. This is one thing where the Sixty comes handy. I have "logged" on with my laptop and cranked up the input levels - the problem has gone right away. With other systems i might have needed to visit the workshop again for level adjustments. Now I can do it all myself, can freely play with the sound as long as I have the originals saved in a file, which I do.
If I reach a point where it sounds bad, I just restore the saved file and everything is back to normal.
If I happen to find some setting which sounds nice, I save it under an expressive name. Unfortunately these settings cannot be executed on the run, only when you take your laptop, hook on the Sixty via bluetooth, run the app and fiddle with the settings.
I am curious how the original wiring will work with the Morels. Which does not mean I try to suggest anything, I am just really curious.
Please let me know.