Fully refurbished OEM BMW Alpine CM5907 and CM5908 slider radios, Trunk Amps

[bradnic]

Are the Focal ACX130 coax's a good speaker option for convertibles?

Absolutely - 130AS components for the front, ACX130 coaxials for the rear. Check out Kevin Basdeo's vert on FB for a great example.
One caveat - you'll need to rebalance the fader control at the radio, because the speaker sensitivities of the 130AS and ACX130 drivers are close but different.

From there running a trunk sub can be done one of two ways

A) using Amp+ and a monoblock if you have the 5908 / BA31 / Display+ bundle. you can do fader control, crossover freq and EQ right from the radio. Try it with the factory premium speaker setup first, then go the Focal speaker upgrade route if you want.

Note: An amp bypass is required to use Amp+. I will have a simpler version of the amp bypass harness available for Amp+ users shortly to complete the setup.

B) using the amp bypass harness you can either (1) keep the OEM trunk amp and add a sub or (2) add amp and sub as follows:

• an LC2i+monoblock+sub - the AudioControl LC2i Line Output Converter (LOC) has two precuts and a sub-out
• add an LC1i to the setup above, or use an 1 LC5i. then add a 4 channel amp, monoblock+sub
• LC2i + LC1i or 1 LC5i with a 5 channel and and sub.

In any of these scenarios you can adjust the LOC line levels to rebalance the front and rear instead of the radio's fader controls.

This is a single LC2i 'budget' install (the 1st bullet above) using the no-cut amp bypass harness. It has line level front outs, sub out, and speaker level rear outs, 4 channel main amp and monoblock with passive tube sub. Swapping the factory amp and 4 channel in and out for A/B testing was pretty cool. In fact the BA31 audio is so clean the factory amp sounded great with the trunk sub. Oh and don't let anyone tell you that cutting sheet metal is required. it's complete BS.

Thought you were scaling back?

Thanks for asking. Expanding actually. More products, more radio models, continue to work closely with Cantaloupe Radio.
The biz won't pay the bills yet, so still a hobby right now whether I like it or not.

[bradnic]

Just got a new shipment of BA31s and Display+ LCDs..
get ready for Amp+

[ghrays]

I went backward, ripping out aftermarket amps, speakers, wiring and head unit. I had Brad refurbish a CM5908 and Blaupunkt Quadroboost trunk amp I got on eBay as well as install the new BA31 and Display+. I installed a premium (2 channel) wiring harness with the premium BMW speakers (used in the rear and new in the front). All that was required to convert the 2 channel harness to use the CM5908's four channel outputs was the 2 to 4 channel adapter for BMW SOUND SYSTEM / premium cars, part number 61-10-1-388-934, which substitutes for the in-dash fader control used on the 2 channel radios, such as the CM5907
and before. I think the sound quality is excellent.

[mbuse]

Meant to post this long ago, but just wanted to share another extremely positive experience purchasing a CM5908 from OEM Hifi!

Brad was super helpful with the install as I had a not so normal set-up in my 93 Touring. Brad and I shared some helpful info over on the wiring thread (https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...p-wiring/page4).

Radio looks awesome and functions as if new! Wouldn't hesitate to make the purchase again.