Has anyone done kick panels in their E53 X5 ?
 

I am planning on doing a whole aftermarket system on my X5 ,but the stock speaker location looks like a design flaw to me for a good sounding image and stage ,especially with 6" midbass slightly facing down and firing to the floor carpet (totally have no clue why BMW did this)

I am trying to do a 2 way speakers mounted on kick panels ,but the space on the driverside looks very limited to me ,I am wondering if anyone has done this ,pictures would be great ,thanks.

You may be wrong on the sound-stage consideration. The factory tweeter location is right where it should be for those directional high frequency sounds. The midrange speakers, on top of the dash, reflect their sounds right back at you from the best location possible.

The midbasses in the doors are just that: bass speakers. Their sound is not directional so it does not matter how they are pointed.

I do not believe you can improve on BMW's speaker location.

You can improve on the actual speakers. BSW offers direct replacement designs that I can tell you are very much better than stock. The highs and midranges are really superior and I don't think there is a way to do much better at all.

Even if you get real spendy and get the very most expensive component speaker system (the kind where you get a 6.75" midrange, matching separate tweeter and dedicated cross-over as a kit) you probably will get some vanishingly small quality difference, but lose it to BMW/BSWs in terms of mounting location.

You will lose your soundstage, not enhance it. This would be especially true for the two-way speakers you are proposing. That is simply a step down.

I believe that you will be better off in every way if you go for the BSW system along with the biggest and best sub you can make room for and the amp to power it.

You could maybe do a little better substituting the BSW mid basses, front and rear doors, with more expensive JLs, Alpines, etc. I can tell you my Alpines are far better than stock, but I have not compared them with BSWs.

You could talk to BSW about their new amp. That would I am sure be an improvement, but the little stock amp runs efficient speakers pretty well.

I think you can do very, very well without spending a fortune or modifying a bunch of stuff. The BMW is rightfully condemned for their cheapo speakers, and no sub, but they did their homework on location and cross-overs. I would take advantage of that.

On another car I would give completely different advice.

Totally agree with carlgo :thumbup:

I highly doubt the factory speaker location is the ultimate solution unless my ears told me the wrong story,I would suggest you go back to your car and listen to the sound stage from "Factory location" again ,play any vocal music and tell me where the mouth of the singer coming from,if that's the best image you think that can be done on this car ,congrats ,cuz you don't have some troublesome ears like us audiophile guys.

the bass is non-directional only if it plays low enough ,but that doesn't happen on the 6" midbass on this car ,you can still tell the source of some midbass coming from that location when playing the music.

I used to compete in IASCA few years back with my Acura couple and won few local championship ,I can tell you that very few car manufacture has set their speaker location ideally ,and BMW is definitely not one of them.

BSW does make better speakers than factory ones ,I do admire the time they devoted on this forum and the research they have done to improve factory system ,but I believe it is still design more toward to user friendly purpose which there is no question ask will make 90% of the X5 owners very happy .I am just looking for something a lot more as a crazy audiophile junkie.

I don't play with JL,Alpine speakers ,they aren't in the hi-end market except the F1-status model ,which was also outsourced from another hi-end brand.

Again,anyone has tried kicks on this car ?

and here is a very good review from Ken about the factory audio setup that I found in the archieve,Ken@avincar is a very respectful and reputable guy in the industry ,too bad he is no longer in this business due to the different priority.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bsws-mobile-e...io-system.html

Actually, my ears are troublesome... and image (short for "imagination") is everything.

Sorry that I mis-read your original post. Your question didn't identify you as an audiophile. My answer was indeed for the 90% of us who have lower standards, or less knowledge.

No problem carlgo ,any input is helpful ,that's what the forum is for.

Bringing this back up from the dead............... I have done this once........... and recently embarked on it for a second time but due to time constraints, the entire project got scrapped. I have been an IASCA SQ judge for many many years......... and I think I know what you are trying to achieve. both times I've gone down this road, the setup was a 3-way. I've not tried a two way in the kicks.

My first attempt had DLS 8" in the kicks, the 2.5 dome and tweet both up on the dash up against the window where the stock mid is. The 2.5" dome fired straight up and the tweeter fired across the window and slightly up. The tweeter and mid work very very well for staging and imaging. The 8" in the kicks had issues though. I think we were loosing midbass output in the foot well somehow. It never progressed beyond that as the vehicle was turned over to my wife........ so out came the system. I would have luv-ed more time to play with that problem........ although it also may have been the driver.

On the second go, 3" domes were going in the dash against the window and the tweets were to be custom mounted in the a-pillars. Instead of the DLS 8", the kicks were to get a really nice set of Rainbow 6.5" midbass drivers which are quite the bear to install as they are very deep. The rest of the gear was Pioneer P9, TRU tech amps (T03 4.150 and a C7.4 tube hybrid) and an enclosure built to accomodate two 12" built into the passenegr side rear wall (back end was completely gutted). Of note, if you're looking for places to hide gear, have a look under the spare tire where the battery is.......... and tear down that area beside the battery under all that black plastic. I was hiding my processor in that area along with a few other things !!

Regarding the kickpanel area, on the driver's side, that hood release is painful. I absolutely hated that piece of equipment. And I never did find a way to relocated it. If you can, life is a lot easier. I also gutted out the carpet foam under the foot rest as there's a pile of volume to be had there. The passenger side I think has some electronics to be relocated and the same foam can be gutted to gain some enclosure volume. Passenger side is a LOT easier to build.


Anyways, that's a bit of info......... hopefully some of it will be useful to you................ :dunno: