# fitting replacement front speakers + headunit?



## mystic_528 (Jun 1, 2003)

newbie here with first post

ok i just got my 528 (e39) 96 model last week , i want to upgrade the standard stereo , i have been into car audio for a while and i have some nice equipment , i need to buy new front speakers as the 6.5" ones i have are too big .
Can someone confirm the front doors are 5" speakers ?

Anyway i want to avoid running wires thru the doors , so i want to know where are the xovers for the front speakers ? If i can locate these i might be able to connect speaker from my amps to the wiring after the xover as i want to run my fronts active.
This means the front channel from the head unit goes into an active xover and the split into high pass and low pass for both left and right thus giving me 4 channels which i will amplify with a 4 channel amp outputting a high pass signal and low pass signal to the mid and tweet on each front door . So if i can locate where the standard xover is i can connect my speaker wires from the amp to the standard wiring going to the doors for the mids and tweets .

Is there any high quality adaptors for fitting a new head unit as here in the uk its cheap poor quality plastic ones that are available .

I hope you understand what i meant . Thanks in advance for any advice .


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## BillP (Jan 4, 2002)

I am more familiar with US-spec E39s, so I'll describe what they are like:

Fronts are indeed 5" (or 5.25"). Most speakers of that nominal size will fit, though some may require some minor surgery of the speaker boxes (cutting out the lip is a common one). Focals are pretty deep and may not fit.

Crossovers are in the amp and/or the cheezy little capacitors (bass blockers, in effect) on the speakers. If you are replacing the speakers but not the amp, I would not wire up the aftermarket crossovers but use what's already there. Optimal? No. Better than the alternative? Yes.

If you are replacing speakers and amps, then go ahead and wire up your crossovers. BTW, the crossover method you seem to be describing is called "bi-amping" (running tweets and mids off of different amp channels) and is a smart thing to do.

All the wire you need is sitting in the trunk.

OK, all of the above was for US spec. I understand that the base stereo for non-US cars may NOT have an amp in the trunk so the wiring may indeed be from the head unit directly to the speakers in the doors. Can't help you if that's the case.


Bill


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## mystic_528 (Jun 1, 2003)

it seems i have little chance of replacing my head unit as to fit one it would mean removing the information display in the mid console , its not really what i want to do . 
I dont want to connect my standard stereo to an aftermarket amp i would rather use a decent head unit but it seems a lot of sacrifices would have to be made .


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