Help me with a new stereo for my car

[Nick_S]

Long story short, I've always loved having a killer stereo in my cars. I spend alot of time driving and value a quality sounded stereo. I will never claim to be an expert by any means though, not even close.

Since I've had my E30 I've struggle to get a decent sounding stereo out of it and gave up, taking out everything but the rear cheap polk speaks and the headunit. After building a nice sounding stereo and setup in my old E34 and working on one in my new CRV daily driver. I've been wanting to do something with the E30 again.

I've had these Polk/Momo MM6 components forever but they've been sitting around collecting dust since they didn't drop into any of the E30's, or E34 locations. These things sounded INCREDIBLE in my old Focus and were like $450 so I never got rid of them.



So I'm thinking I'll cut some MDF rings and cut the kick panels out so they'll fit up front, run the tweeters to the stock location and amp these.

My dilema comes in the form of wanting some deeper bass, but not wanting to use a large box in the rear. I know the Lukebox sounds fantastic but I just don't want to put a box back there again, trying to keep as much unnecessary weight out as I can.

So I was thinking, why not run 6.5 sub woofers in the rear shelf?
Something like these Earthquake shallow mount ones?




Or should I use my other Polk/momo 2 ways I have, amp all of them and enjoy the sound quality minus bass?




All of this is run from a mid range sony headunit and an Alpine V-power 4 channel amp.

[Codym42]

I'm no audio expert either but I've been researching and collecting audio components for my install.

This thread may help you: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=170725

He put bigger drivers in the kick panels and also installed a sub with no box.

[harv]

I know you said no Luke Box but man, that is really the way to go. There is plenty trunk room left. I know his box looks big but it really makes excelente use of the space. Roll aboard suitcases fit long ways, front to aft.

John

[StereoInstaller1]

Long story short, I've always loved having a killer stereo in my cars. I spend alot of time driving and value a quality sounded stereo. I will never claim to be an expert by any means though, not even close.

Since I've had my E30 I've struggle to get a decent sounding stereo out of it and gave up, taking out everything but the rear cheap polk speaks and the headunit. After building a nice sounding stereo and setup in my old E34 and working on one in my new CRV daily driver. I've been wanting to do something with the E30 again.

I've had these Polk/Momo MM6 components forever but they've been sitting around collecting dust since they didn't drop into any of the E30's, or E34 locations. These things sounded INCREDIBLE in my old Focus and were like $450 so I never got rid of them.



So I'm thinking I'll cut some MDF rings and cut the kick panels out so they'll fit up front, run the tweeters to the stock location and amp these.

My dilema comes in the form of wanting some deeper bass, but not wanting to use a large box in the rear. I know the Lukebox sounds fantastic but I just don't want to put a box back there again, trying to keep as much unnecessary weight out as I can.

So I was thinking, why not run 6.5 sub woofers in the rear shelf?
Something like these Earthquake shallow mount ones?




Or should I use my other Polk/momo 2 ways I have, amp all of them and enjoy the sound quality minus bass?




All of this is run from a mid range sony headunit and an Alpine V-power 4 channel amp.

Just for the record, all 6 cylinder RWD E30s that had a roof came with a 57lb weight in the trunk so achieve proper weight distribution.

Installing one of our boxes requires removal of that weight.

What this means is that our 10" boxes, when used in a RWD, 6 cylinder E30 cause a net LOSS in weight, even counting a full-size 5 channel amp.

Our LTW setup is even lighter, can be done for under 30lbs total. in fact.

So, as far as weight, it's your call. Our setups are lighter per DB than anything, especially if you count that SPL at low frequencies. Our E30LTW8 will make a solid 120+db at 30Hz, no IB setup that isn't using giant woofers will ever do that, and that pair of taiwan 6.5s won't do that period, ever.

Now, lets talk about your speakers. Your plan to put them in the stock location is not going to work out well. The issue is suspension, the Polk is designed for a huge airspace (doors of a Focus, for example) and when shoved into the tiny little airspace of an E30, sound like complete crap, plus cannot handle power due to the incorrect environment.

If you must use those, put them in the doors. They will still sound like crap compared to the Focus, but you sound pretty committed to using them. Trust me, I understand.

However, be prepared to be pissed at yourself if/when you hear what our components do. You could sell those old Polks for enough to do all 4 corners without hacking up your car and outperform them 10 to 1. I know, what I say is nothing like "all your buddies" say, even though they "know a lot about car stereo", I hear it all the time.

I'm no audio expert either but I've been researching and collecting audio components for my install.

This thread may help you: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=170725

He put bigger drivers in the kick panels and also installed a sub with no box.

You do know that thread is from 5 years ago, right? He pitched all that crap because it sounded just like I told him it would: weak, flabby bass with zero impact, tons of noise from the trunk and just generally shitty sound. The whole thing was a waste, experience from other cars just does not translate to a BMW system.

He now has a G.A.S. E30LTW8 and will soon have our Classic PCN with E34 drivers. Why? Because it works better. It sounds better, fits better, looks better, makes no rattles, traps the sound in the car and reduces road noise more than double it's weight in dynamat.

Hopefully that is some kind of help.

Luke

[Codym42]

You do know that thread is from 5 years ago, right? He pitched all that crap because it sounded just like I told him it would: weak, flabby bass with zero impact, tons of noise from the trunk and just generally shitty sound. The whole thing was a waste, experience from other cars just does not translate to a BMW system.

He now has a G.A.S. E30LTW8 and will soon have our Classic PCN with E34 drivers. Why? Because it works better. It sounds better, fits better, looks better, makes no rattles, traps the sound in the car and reduces road noise more than double it's weight in dynamat.

Well damn. I knew that was an old thread but it seemed like he was happy with the results. I guess not then. And I really need to hear some e34 drivers to see what the hype is all about!

Also, Nick has a 318is, so there's no trunk tar.

[Nick_S]

Well I tinkered with it a bit today and these damn components I have are just too big to fit without serious modification and/or some fiberglassing so I pulled the smaller 5.25 Polk components from my old wagon for the front and will keep the Polk/momo coax in the rear deck. I wish I had the money t just buy it all new but I'm sort of trying to swap around stuff I already have.

Luke, the car is a 318is so no weight ballast or trunk tar. I'll either buy a box at some point soon or I'll just not have a sub. I've tried to build my own boxes in the past and I just don't know what I'm doing, haha. I'll see how it sounds once I get it all in how I want it.

[StereoInstaller1]

Well I tinkered with it a bit today and these damn components I have are just too big to fit without serious modification and/or some fiberglassing so I pulled the smaller 5.25 Polk components from my old wagon for the front and will keep the Polk/momo coax in the rear deck. I wish I had the money t just buy it all new but I'm sort of trying to swap around stuff I already have.

Luke, the car is a 318is so no weight ballast or trunk tar. I'll either buy a box at some point soon or I'll just not have a sub. I've tried to build my own boxes in the past and I just don't know what I'm doing, haha. I'll see how it sounds once I get it all in how I want it.

Well, cool. I feel you on the "no money" part. I still don't get how people think we have money here, it ain't like building stereo stuff for BMWs is gonna get anyone rich these days. We are just struggling along doing our best to stay struggling along at this point, maybe one day we will get there, but for now...ya, I feel ya.

Let me know if I can help. If you decide to build your own box let me know and I will see if I can help you enough to have it turn out well.


Luke

[Gerta]

Well I tinkered with it a bit today and these damn components I have are just too big to fit without serious modification and/or some fiberglassing so I pulled the smaller 5.25 Polk components from my old wagon for the front and will keep the Polk/momo coax in the rear deck. I wish I had the money t just buy it all new but I'm sort of trying to swap around stuff I already have.

Luke, the car is a 318is so no weight ballast or trunk tar. I'll either buy a box at some point soon or I'll just not have a sub. I've tried to build my own boxes in the past and I just don't know what I'm doing, haha. I'll see how it sounds once I get it all in how I want it.

Nick,

Best investment made stereo wise. You can't not have a sub ... heresy!

[Nick_S]

Well, cool. I feel you on the "no money" part. I still don't get how people think we have money here, it ain't like building stereo stuff for BMWs is gonna get anyone rich these days. We are just struggling along doing our best to stay struggling along at this point, maybe one day we will get there, but for now...ya, I feel ya.

Let me know if I can help. If you decide to build your own box let me know and I will see if I can help you enough to have it turn out well.


Luke

Appreciate it man! I had both sets of these polk/momo's in my CRV with a box I built in the rear tire well. I just couldn't get it to sound decent at all because the god damn 15 year old honda was rattling itself to pieces Having never owned one, it gave me a new appreciation for my old BMW's.
I was hoping to use those components but they're too big to fit into anything without lots of cutting, glassing and modifying.

Waiting on a few bits to come in to "rebuild" the stereo in it.

I LOVED my old Alpine 9807 I had in my SVT Focus so I found a used one of those on Ebay, ordered a new harness and Ipod cable for it.

Then I'll be using these Polk 5.25's in the front with the tweeters in the factory location. (note this car didn't come with premium sound or I would have kept all of it)


With old coax's with the crossover in the rear deck. They're 6.5 but fit right into the E30 openings. These will all be powered by my 4channel Alpine V-power amp. Should sound OK. Anything is better than silence at this point.

[StereoInstaller1]

Well, sounds like it's time to get busy. Only thing I suggest is don't put the crossovers in the speaker cavity, you need all the airspace you can get and they can get rusty there.

If you have the opportunity, run three sets of RCAs now so it is easier to add a sub amp later.

Good luck and get busy!

Luke

[Nick_S]

Planned on putting the crossovers in the glovebox/under the steering column. I like my installs to looks clean. Here's what I did with this set up in my e34


Hopefully in a few months I'll have enough for a Luke box and a bigger amp.