X3 Icelink and Audio thoughts

[el_duderino]

May the guys that run the CD-C cables in the X3 - under the carpet - and then bolt the center console in OVER the carpet - be sentenced to installing Icelinks into those X3s in the afterlife.

We charged for an hour of labor to install an Icelink, and we took a bath on this job. Easily took 3 hours not counting Tom G's time spent helping us.

Afterwards, I removed the pass front door to look at the speakers. The OEM tweeter looks easily replaceable with a better sounding model, but the shallow 4" is already too deep - it presses on the foam between it and the metal fo the door.

Right now my audio upgrade path would be to add a soft-dome 1" tweeter in place of the OEM tweeter, retain the OEM 4" mid, but add a low-pass series inductor to it (I would have to calculate the value after checking the impedance at the frequency I want to use), and then match sensitivities with a meter and an L-pad - and then build in one or two 8" woofers in a fiberglass molded enclosure in the passenger side rear corner.

You could put a 10" in the driver's side rear - IF you didn't have the nav computer or the CD changer - but that's just aft of where the OEM amp is, so I'd rather put my new amp there.

The whole audio system would be stealth - couldn't even tell it's there.

I figure installed we could do that system for $1750 installed with no rear door speakers and one 8" woofer, and for $ 1950 with two woofers, and for $2250 with rear door speakers. (Just in case anyone asks).