ah thanks

minor update -- tried one bav midrange in the back doors and it made no difference vs. stock. in fact, stock sounded a little better. so i'm keeping the rears stock. funny, i've read that at least one of the pro installers that do a lot of bmws (systems costing thousands) will not touch the back door speakers as they don't really make any difference up front according to him.

only thing left for me is to see if there is any way of getting better base out of the central woofers without adding an amp. even though everyone says it won't work, i'm going to try an sws-8 off of the stock headunit. will post results.

Of course you can try but from what I understand the Earthquakes need more power to be effective. I used them in my X5 and they sound great but I'm using a Zapco 650.6 to power them as well as my other speakers.

can anyone confirm that the x5 base system (2011 vintage) uses 4 ohm underseat woofers? the door midranges are 4 ohms (i removed them so i know).. but are the woofers also 4 ohm?

think i might blow the headunit if i try a 2 ohm woofer (if the base really is 4 ohm)??

I just checked mine and they are labeled as 4 ohms. I totally forgot how light and cheesy they are. No wonder there is such little bass.

thanks for checking..

another minor update. i changed my mind about leaving the rears stock and i believe i have figured out a solution i am happy with. i happened to notice that the center channel from an e90 is a direct fit for the e70 rear doors. i was under the impression from what i had read elsewhere that the e90 and e70 speakers were different sizes :dunno:. are the door and center channels on the e90 different sizes? anyway, the e90 center channel fits the e70 doors. results:

e90 logic7 center -- better than stock, but not by a whole lot. bass is tiny bit better and it seems to play a little louder. not really worth it imo.

e90 individual audio center channel coaxial -- not amazing but better than stock base audio midrange. of course you would expect the treble to be improved since you are adding a tweeter..

next step is to try the individual audio separates up front i guess...

All door speakers in the e70 base system are that smaller e90 size (center channel and rear door/shelf speaker size)
I actually changed all my door speakers to that logic 7 speaker and added the smaller logic 7 tweeters to the blank door triangles. Did not do the rears even though I do have a set laying around as the issue with rear door tweeters are the base door cards do not have the cutout.
Hope that info helps

Just my 2 cents, if anyone thinking about upgrading a top hifi sound system in their E70 X5, don't do it. The components are not inferior. If you look inside a top hifi amplifier you will see discrete circuitry with Rubicon Blackgate caps. The amps are made by Lear Corporation. The speakers are carbon fiber and have small but powerful neodymium magnets, Siemens Polypropylene caps for the tweets, The Subs are made by ETON. If the sound is not good it is because the inside plastic panels need rubberized sound deadening. Do that and you will save yourself from destroying your car. Somehow Bavauto generaly says how cheap the BMW speakers are, mine are 8 years old and never had issues. The only issues I had were rattling panels when I cranked it up, that is all history now. Their is also a provision on top high fi amplifiers where you can add a cooling fan which can be had for 5 dollars at newegg.com. I will say, before 2006 BMW audio sucked. Base audio model need alot of help. Just my 2 cents.

I finally decided on MB Quart set for my X5... only question now is, how do I get the cheap 6.5" sub out of the plastic enclosure? Mine looks to be glued in place. Some other pictures show for screws/bolts at the corners...

@SchweetMunkie - Please keep us updated on your progress. I have the base audio in my 2011 X5 35i Sport Activity. Although, I don't think it sounds as bad as others say, I wouldn't mind some small upgrades. Maybe starting with putting tweeters in the empty covers! I will definitely subscribe to this thread and follow your progress. Thanks!