# Upgrading the rear deck speakers in E90



## atgeorge70 (Jul 9, 2011)

I have a E90, with SA663 BMW professional radio, the front channel has two woofers under the seats and two midrange speakers in the door, which are wired in paralled. The rear deck has two midrange speakers which is also connected to the headunit. To improve the sound, I have fitted the Alphine retrofit kit, which comes with Alpine midrange speakers, tweeters and a four channel Alpine amplifier 80W. 

However, no upgrade is available for the rear speakers. They have an unusual bracket and no tweeters. I believe, I can use the BSW centre speakers to upgrade the rear, but how do I connect a tweeter. What would be the frequency response of the BSW speakers.

Since the rear deck is powered by the headunit, what alternatives is available to upgrade them. Also, I have read that the rear speakers are high passed for 150 and above is this correct, so can I expect any improvement after changing the speakers


----------



## admranger (Dec 24, 2005)

Why do you need rear speakers? The front soundstage is what is important. 

I'd look at what musicarnw.com has available. They know what they are doing and if you want a sub, they have those too (and it blends right in).

I'm getting their stage 1 kit for my E90M3 (when it gets here after euro delivery).


----------



## atgeorge70 (Jul 9, 2011)

Personally I prefer the soundstage shifted to mid of the car, around your ear level. Currently the soundstage shifts too much to the front, I like to have the sound stage around at the ear postion, while being seated in the front seat.


----------



## DennisCooper! (Jan 29, 2011)

Hi

What you'll 'generally' find with oem audio setups is the better quality reproduction will indeed be concentrated with the front speakers. The rears if there are any, will be more of a compromise in terms of driver choice/type. This is evident for when you go in a car and sit in the front and you'll often find a low to mid speaker in the door pocket area and a tweeter up higher in the door/dash or window corner. When you look at the rear speakers, often they'll be either a full range cone driver or maybe perhaps a 2 way co-axial. The rear is used for a bit of 'rear fill' to get somewhat of a more 'all round sound' in the car. It's 'acceptable' for an oem audio setup sometimes, however sometimes you can fade to the rear and the actual sound from the rear speakers is pretty rubbish sometimes and you wonder if it was even worth putting some in - this of course can vary from car to car and quality of oem components etc.

When an audio upgrade is mentioned using much higher quality and capable after market components, many cars do indeed dispense with the rear altogether. 'Soundstage' is then improved to be closer to the best way - which is to have all the sound 'appear' to come from the middle of the windscreen with suitable enough soundstage to have good stereo separation. After all, when you do usually listen to music say in a concert or hall, everything is in front of you - and thats how reproduction in a car tries to emulate - with the compromise 'sometimes' of having rear fill. 

As you've indicated you'd like to have a more all round experience, then i'd suggest to see where you can install or upgrade the rear speakers and possibly drive them with an amplifier so that you can actually get more of a chance of getting what you like. To be technical, you can have the soundstage set to the 'middle of the car' as it were, but usually involves the use of time alignment and processing equipment to get right. it sounds you want to keep things more oem, so you'll need to speak to a good audio installer - not sure if there's high end audio installers in India (namasteji & kiddah, I'm Punjabi!) so you may need to investigate further and read up reviews of people and installers who done things successfully. I can help if you need such info here in the UK as I'm involved in the Car Audio industry...

cheers, Dennis!


----------



## Technic (Jun 24, 2002)

atgeorge70 said:


> Personally I prefer the soundstage shifted to mid of the car, around your ear level. *Currently the soundstage shifts too much to the front*, I like to have the sound stage around at the ear postion, while being seated in the front seat.


That's the purpose of the Alpine OEM amp kit.

The problem that you have will not be solved by replacing the rear speakers just because the actual problem is one of power distribution: the Alpine OEM kit is powering the front and the underseat woofers with about 5 times the power going to the rear speakers.


----------



## atgeorge70 (Jul 9, 2011)

After reading both your suggestions, this is what I have planned. Use Hertz EP2 amplifier, EM100 midrange speaker, and DT16 tweeters. The amplifier has a power response very close to that of Alpine and should balance the overall volumes. EM100 and DT16 has been selected, because with minimal changes, they can be accomodated in the existing postion (DT16 with a more than minimal modification). The amplifier will be turned via the speaker cables. What are your views.

I have one question, does this affect the parking sensor.

As regarding time delays (being a audiophile myself) do not think this level of investment is required, especially when the distance between front and rear is just about 6 feet. In fact I believe, this adds to a natural echo (good for softer songs and not for hardrock etc)


----------



## bbates1968 (Dec 15, 2021)

atgeorge70 said:


> After reading both your suggestions, this is what I have planned. Use Hertz EP2 amplifier, EM100 midrange speaker, and DT16 tweeters. The amplifier has a power response very close to that of Alpine and should balance the overall volumes. EM100 and DT16 has been selected, because with minimal changes, they can be accomodated in the existing postion (DT16 with a more than minimal modification). The amplifier will be turned via the speaker cables. What are your views.
> 
> I have one question, does this affect the parking sensor.
> 
> As regarding time delays (being a audiophile myself) do not think this level of investment is required, especially when the distance between front and rear is just about 6 feet. In fact I believe, this adds to a natural echo (good for softer songs and not for hardrock etc)





atgeorge70 said:


> After reading both your suggestions, this is what I have planned. Use Hertz EP2 amplifier, EM100 midrange speaker, and DT16 tweeters. The amplifier has a power response very close to that of Alpine and should balance the overall volumes. EM100 and DT16 has been selected, because with minimal changes, they can be accomodated in the existing postion (DT16 with a more than minimal modification). The amplifier will be turned via the speaker cables. What are your views.
> 
> I have one question, does this affect the parking sensor.
> 
> As regarding time delays (being a audiophile myself) do not think this level of investment is required, especially when the distance between front and rear is just about 6 feet. In fact I believe, this adds to a natural echo (good for softer songs and not for hardrock etc)



I know this is an old thread, but hoping you see it. I bought the same Alpine kit and noticed the same thing - the rear speakers are underpowered. I also like the sound from the middle. Just wondering if the setup you installed sounded good. Also wondering how you wired it.


----------

