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