Replaced stock speakers in front
 

Thanks to reading all the posts on this forum I was able to do this fairly quickly and easily. For my upgrade I chose to use Diamond Audio D362 components. The mid driver is 6.25" and would fit in the baffle without mods. These speakers were reasonably priced and available locally so that I could listen to them before hand. I wanted to keep the largest mid possible to help with mid bass duty up front.

Install was a piece of cake. After removing the door panel I removed the woofer baffle. I scored the edge of the OEM driver with a utility knife (per a previous post). I was able to use a screwdriver to get the speaker past the little tabs. I pushed on the back of the speaker and it popped right out.








http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06045.jpg

I used a soldering iron to remove the wires before popping out the speakers. Notice the OEM speaker is 2 ohms.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06047.jpg

Comparison pics

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06051.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06052.jpg

I did not take pics of the mounting. I used the gasket supplied with the speakers and screwed the mids down to the baffle. Not pretty, but effective. The 6.25" woofer was just slightly smaller than the baffle. A near perfect fit. I also ran a small length of speaker wire from the new woofer to the OEM connections on the baffle. All connections were soldered and the OEM tab was used to hook up the speaker.

Next the tweeters. The Diamond Audio tweeters are 3/4" aluminum. The set included a surface mount cup and a recessed mount cup. Here are some pics of the OEM tweeters.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06041.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06043.jpg

Notice the OEM tweeter is 8 ohm. The cone is made of a paper material and felt very cheap.

The OEM tweeters are mounted in a plastic cage that is screwed to the door frame. There is also a styrofoam piece that surrounds the cage.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06040.jpg

I could not fit the Diamond tweeter in the cage, so I used the recessed mount cup. This fit snuggly in the styrofoam.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Xmas06049.jpg

I cut the OEM tweeter wire very close to the tweeter. I used these wires to connect the new tweet with the hardware provided.

The sound is MUCH improved. All frequencies seem a lot tighter. I have lost some mid bass. I thought this would happen due to the 4 ohm driver were there was a 2 ohm previously. The new tweeters are very bright. This may be due to the 8 ohm to 4 ohm change. An aftermarket amp and the crossovers could even this out. But with <20 watts rms it does sound good.

All in all this was a good move. The tweeters are too bright for my taste, so I may replace them with silk. This is stage 1 of my system upgrade. I plan to proceed with the following:
Install DICE
Replace all speakers
Install concealed sub (10"?)
Install amp for speakers

:thumbup: Good job - you mounted everything almost exactly the way I did. Unfortunately I cut one of the midbass wire harnesses off before realizing I could just solder them like you did, so I had to reinstall the harness and then do the soldering. My tweets went in the same way - snug fit into the styrofoam.

Guess I will be replacing the rear speakers next - I noticed one of them rattling the other day while trying out my new sub.

Congrats!!

Thanks. Got pics of your sub install? What equipment are you using?

Looks and sounds like you did a great job. Diamond Audio tweeters are ear-bleeding bright, they all are. I've owned them before, and that was a mistake I will never make again. They are even brighter than MB Quart tweeters.

Have you seen our stealth subwoofer for the X5?

http://www.bavariansoundwerks.com/pr...I=509/_cid=196

great write-up:thumbup:

I went with Fosgate Stage 2 8" sub and a mono Alpine amp (MRP-M450). Built my own box for the factory location. Man what a difference!!

They are VERY bright. That was what bugged me about my MB Quarts I had in my Saab. I switched those out for CDT's with silk. Very smooth.

I wanted to try something out to see how it would sound, and my CDT mids would not fit. The Diamonds fit nicely, but I have decided I do not like metal tweets. So, it looks like back to the drawing board. It seems like the crossover settings in the factory (non-DSP) are limiting the SQ by rolling off frequencies at the wrong point for aftermarket.

Bill - First off, thanks for the great write up with pictures. I wish more people would post pictures of their custom installs. Have you identified a replacement for the dash midranges?

I never heard Diamond speakers play before but I am willing to give them a try. When I search the internet I only see D362.5. I would think that they are pretty much the same as the D362.

Similar question here: I see a D3 (D362) which is a 6" component set; and they were actually the correct size?

They are a near perfect fit. I have whatever the current D3 version is; 625 or whatever. They sound great, but I think they could sound better with some clean power. I plan to install an amp at some point....