Possible 4 Channel Amplifier and Front Speaker Upgrade

BMWAutos

Yeah, I plan to. But so I have an idea... how should I be wiring my amplifier and speakers?

BMWAutos

Unfortunately I don't have sound deadening material either. The speakers I have in my doors now sound fine and I haven't noticed any vibration coming from the doors or door panels. Although, it could change once I put in the SR's.

I'm assuming that the Alpine manual will have the different wiring diagrams, right?

Active, Biamp, etc?

Also, I'm assuming the manual will the recommened wire gauges as well? My sub amp had some info on it.

EndersShadow

BMWAutos wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't have sound deadening material either. The speakers I have in my doors now sound fine and I haven't noticed any vibration coming from the doors or door panels. Although, it could change once I put in the SR's.

I'm assuming that the Alpine manual will have the different wiring diagrams, right?

Active, Biamp, etc?

Also, I'm assuming the manual will the recommened wire gauges as well? My sub amp had some info on it.

anything from 12-14 gauge should be fine.

EndersShadow

DSkip wrote: »

12-14 for the speaker wire, 4 ga should be the recommended power/ground size.

It might be a month or two before you notice any rattles or shakes in your doors. Maybe you'll get lucky and never hear any. That's not the only benefit of sound deadening. It also decreases resonance.

Don't be upset if at first you don't notice the low end with the SR's. Like I said, it took me 2-3 months to really get that lower end worked in. These are quality speakers and will take some time to break in.

I added dynamat to all 4 doors and can say it made a big difference. I also did the trunk. I would do it all over again. I have a post in this forum that has the link to where I bought it. I have yet to find a cheaper price on their stuff.

There are other products you can use from different brands, but since I havent used them I wont comment on them, but I would highly suggest doing it right while you can, or the rattle will drive you nuts....

BMWAutos

Thanks for the info. I'll let you all know how everything goes once I get everything installed. I'll probably hook my amp up to the front speakers only as I like the bass more up front because I have my sub in the trunk to produce the bass.

arun1963

You need to deaden your doors to prevent the back wave (sound produced as the cone moves backwards) from cancelling the front wave(sound produced as the cone moves forward), this is largely what you hear.

You would lose a lot of the mid bass in this cancellation. Spending and extra $50-70 to seal your doors as a min is highly recommended.

BMWAutos

My speakers came in today. They shipped to my house in two days. :biggrin:

I'm waiting on my amp now. I'm going to try to get a head unit for Christmas. Any suggestions? I was thinking of sticking with Alpine unless there are some other brands I should be looking at.

I took some time to look at the Alpine head units but I don't know which one to pick. There are so many and they all have similar features.

BMWAutos

I currently have an Alpine head unit and I love it. However, I've noticed that Alpine head units require you to buy add on devices in order for some of the features to work.

Let me take a look at the head units and I'll reply here in a few minutes.

BMWAutos

I looked at the Alpine CDA-9886/9887 in depth and they have three 4V preouts, time correction, and even imprint (separate device required). Should I be looking at the digital media receivers at all?

kawizx9r

BMWAutos wrote: »

I looked at the Alpine CDA-9886/9887 in depth and they have three 4V preouts, time correction, and even imprint (separate device required). Should I be looking at the digital media receivers at all?

You should only look at digital media receivers if....all your music is in such digital format (non cd/disc that is).

BMWAutos

kawizx9r wrote: »

You should only look at digital media receivers if....all your music is in such digital format (non cd/disc that is).

Well, 99.9& of the time I listen to music via iPod... but I do listen to CD's every once and a while if a friend brings his CD or whatever.

I was reading up on the two head units and the 9887 allows you to go active where as the 9886 does not? Is active the better way to go?

BMWAutos

It looks to me that the 9887 has better tuning features and has the features that I should be looking for built in except for IMPRINT but I don't think I need that feature. Unless I'm missing something?

Now if I got active with the head unit that means I don't need to install the massive crossovers that came with the SR components, correct? So the head unit will control my speakers as if I had a crossover connected to them or something?

BMWAutos

It looks like the CDA-9886/9887 have been discontinued. It seems like the CDA-117 replaced the CDA-9887 and is actually better.

Check it out:

http://alpine-usa.com/product/view/cda-117/Specs

I think I might be getting this one. It looks like it has all the specs that DSkip was recommending.

What do you all think?

kawizx9r

Another thing to add, since you stated most of your media is on your iPod I would say don't look specifically into digital media-only HU's.

Just about all aftermarket HU's offer FULL ipod/iphone compatibility (mine does even though I didn't have an iPod, then I got an iPod touch free). so don't focus too much on that.

D is putting you on the right track. I'd follow his advice if you want some quality sound in your ride.

BMWAutos

Yeah. I really don't want to buy the IMPRINT device anyway. It's an extra device, more money, and I think with the features that come with the head units aside IMPRINT, there is no need for it.

If I can find a head unit that allows me to go active then my head unit basically takes place what the crossover boxes would do? I just control my speakers through the head unit instead of adjusting the crossover boxes? Is there any special way to wire it?

If I don't find a head unit that allows me to go active then I just keep the crossovers?

BMWAutos

I guess I could deal with the crossovers that came with the components since the Alpine head units don't have built in crossovers without buying the IMPRINT device and I don't really like the way the new Pioneer head units are looking. The P99 is nice but it's in the four digits.

If I use the crossovers that came with the components I would have to mount them somewhere so I could get to them, right? That way I can adjust the settings on the crossover and if I had to get to the fuse at any point.

Plus, it looks like the CDA-117 has enough SQ features without the IMPRINT device. With the IMPRINT device you get the crossover feature and some others.

BMWAutos

You basically get Time Correction, MediaXpander, the Bass/Treble controls, HPF, and EQ's. If you want the active crossover then you need the IMPRINT device.

I think going with this head unit is good and then if I want to go active I can get always get the IMPRINT device later.

BMWAutos

Here is what I ordered:

iDA-X305S
KarTunes recommended this head unit. It doesn't have a CD Player but all my music comes from my iPod so I barely use CD's to listen to music. I was playing with it at KarTunes and I liked it and it was the same price as the CDA-117.

PDX-F4

SR5250

My amplifier should arrive today, my speakers arrived on Saturday, and I bought the head unit from KarTunes as well as the wiring. I plan to install everything tomorrow. I'll tell you how it goes. I'm excited. :biggrin:

BMWAutos

Hello again!

I've had everything installed and been listening to music with amazing quality for months now (a solid 2.5-3 months now).

I must say that the SR components are amazing! The clarity on these speakers are phenomenal. My music is pulled to the front by these amazing components and its unbelievable how clear these speakers are, not to mention the bass that they put out as fillers for the front so you can turn down your subwoofer for more SQ.

I have no complaints except for one more minor problem. It could be just this one song or perhaps loose wiring from my car being lowered but my passenger front speaker as a mild crackle on this one song which you can only really hear if you put your ear directly towards the speaker. I'm going to check wiring and mess with some settings to find the issue.

Hopefully it's nothing big. Thanks again for all the recommendations and support on helping me find these amazing components.

At first I wasn't so sure about Polk when I had the db series installed throughout the car but now I'm sold on Polk. Now if only they had 6x9 SR rears! :biggrin: If you want SQ these are the speakers to get.

Vital

If it's just this one song i bet it's the way it's recorded/ripped/compressed to mp3....

arun1963

If it's just on one song, don't worry about it. If you like the sound now, add a PXA-100 and open up the time alignment option.