Loudspeaker/Line level converter

[Oscarguitar]

Hi,

I have had an after market Genesis Profile 4 amp fitted to my 2005 X5 for the last 3 years. The time has come to replace the car so I have removed the amp which was fitted by local specialist car audio shop. Despite posts to the contary on this site, in truth I was never really convinced that the sound was much of an improvement on the original standard set up. Louder and no distortion but no real improvement in midrange clarity or depth.

Removing the amp I found that the signal to the amp was by way of the speaker outputs of the original BMW amp near the battery, connected to two speaker out to line level converters which feed the input to the Genesis amp which then boosts the signal back up for the speakers.

If I am right the whole of the BMW pre and power amp was being used before the signal was reduced and then boosted again. Thereby keeping all of the compromises of the original set up, s/n ratio, distortion levels, equalisation, frequency restrictions etc.

My questions are:
1, is this a "normal" set up for an after market amp?
2, if I get a new (new shape) X5 is there a better way of installing this amp to use just the pre-amp section of the BMW head unit and bypassing the power amp?

Thanks in advance

Oscar

[robertzas]

This is essentially the same question I have asked, I'll let you know what i find out. I am in more dire need because my factory amp is blown and i plan on spliceing and trying to bypass it entirely with the mids tomorrow with a standard infinity reference 4 channel amp.

[carlgo]

Amps designed with line-level inputs work just fine connected that way. No company would provide a set-up like that if it didn't work. You just have to be sure you are tapping the correct wires, the same sort of care that any installation of any sort requires.

I set up my Alpine sub amp this way and it is fine.

Now, in your case the entire audio system is evidently being powered by an aftermart amp and you think it is only louder, not better. I think that with the stock speakers that is all you could expect. They aren't very good and a million watts isn't going to make them better.

Another issue to consider is that there are a million wires back there connected via that fancy plug. Are they all tapped correctly? That is a lot harder than just hooking up a sub amp! There is a huge possibility of error unless a really knowledgeable person set this up.

In addition to that, I have no idea of how the frequencies are crossed over or blocked or not. You would have to know how the head unit controls the amp as well. Just powering up the wires might not work as intended because it might bypass all this and mess it up.

An X with DSP would complicate matters even more.

BSW is introducing a specialty amp soon I believe. It will be very interesting to see how they solved all these problems.

If I was forced to do a serious X5 audio upgrade I would replace everything, starting with a modern aftermart head unit, amps, speakers and wiring just to take anything BMW out of the equation and enter the realm of the known stereo world. There is at least one local X where a shop did just that. It was a model without the nav system or dsp.

As for the E70s...lots more wiring, and a far more complex interface. I would be very afraid to tackle that one beyond maybe better speakers.