Passive sub install, speaker wiring question
 

Passive sub install, speaker wiring question.

Hi Guys, i have recently installed a powered amp and sub in my Rover 75, Wifey loved the sound so much she wants same in her X5 e53, i have a passive sub to install but i cant work out where the speaker wires are in the boot area, any one here can give me a heads up on which is left n right wiring for speakers in the boot
i have been asking this question on various sites and got not one answer, am starting to think BMW drivers dont really venture into the wiring of their cars :dunno::dunno:
Thanks

I did that a while back for my E53 with Factory Nav and NO DSP.

I added a nice used DSP sub to the factory location to take advantage of the superior fitment they achieved with the factory box.

Factory DSP Subwoofer Box Attaching Hardware: 65106905660, 07119905720, and two 16131183133

I used this post as my initial guide

https://xoutpost.com/articles/x5/ste...ctory-amp.html

to connect to my external amp. I connected all the (-) to one point and all the (+) to one point for my speaker input. The factory DSP sub has dual voice coils and the math works out to about a 2 ohm resistance, IIRC.

This was a helpful calculator for speaker impedance:

https://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/w...igurations.asp

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OW...-=w668-h890-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/U6...9=w668-h890-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/X0...5=w668-h890-no

When I upgraded the head unit to an Eonon GA6166 I was able to feed the subwoofer amp directly from the head unit using the head unit's subwoofer audio RCA out.

I am thrilled with the results of adding the factory DSP sub to an external amp.

Enjoy!

Mike

It depends on the options your e53 left the factory with. I have the Professional CD and MID in the dash (SA663) and a 6 CD-Changer in the trunk (SA672) so there are zero speakers wires rear of the B pillars. Nada.

Does the sub sound muffled behind the cover? or did you cut in some grills?

The OEM factory sub used in the DSP systems was mounted behind the fully carpeted cover from the factory.

My use of the DSP sub connected to an aftermarket amp is in the same place and uses the same carpeted cover.

In my GA6166 install, I used the Blue "ant" wire to power on my aftermarket subwoofer amp that is connected to a DSP subwoofer. The DSP subwoofer was purchased on eBay and wiring retrofitted to be driven by the aftermarket amp.

I was looking for ease of installation and the factory fitting DSP sub fit the bill for me perfectly on that score and is enough of a low end bump to make me happy.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wi...g=w449-h599-no


It sounds decent to me and I can also tune it for the carpeted cover if I like.

One day I drove around with the cover off and to me there was a little improvement but not worth exposing the OE subs to luggage damage and not enough improvement for me to undertake putting grilles on the cover.

Your ears may experience things differently. :dunno:

Mike