E30 Sound Setup

[StereoInstaller1]

Yes, absolutely. Even shit cables can be well shielded, and I would guess those weren't.

Good catch!

Luke

[potatomash]

God dam..what do you know, turns it the black RCA above is just a piece of crap. Rerouted the RCA's down the middle of the car sound was still there, stole a spare RCA that was going into my TV put it in and no annoying noise! I thought the RCA I was buying was "good" too...apparently not..thanks for the help anyways people.

[potatomash]

Ok so I was playing around with it again today, it seems that when I have either, both Left or both Right RCA's plugged into the head unit only, then I dont get the noise over the tweeters. But as soon as i plug in a left sub or a right front speaker then the noise comes back when I hit the brakes. Pic shown what i mean when there is no noise

Does that narrow it down or does anyone have any ideas what that means?

Garhh this is annoying me

[potatomash]

Ok so I tried the above. Still got noise when I hit the brake. Where is the best point to ground the head unit?

[StereoInstaller1]

Yeah, if you have a Pioneer, it's likely that the little Pico fuses in the preamp outputs popped, you may want to swap another deck in to see if that is the case

[rcsoundn1]

I was trying to make a funny?

[potatomash]

The intranets say I should try this, common issue with pioneer head units apparently..

[potatomash]

It's not amp ground though cause tried to isolate it by connecting amp straight to negative on battery to check if problem went away but noise was the same..

[StereoInstaller1]

Oh man.... Yes, show a pic of the amps ground point

[potatomash]

Haha yeah, wouldn't be worth sending for the cost of shipping..

Question for Luke, I've got the setup going at the moment with amp and sub and just the Focals cause haven't tracked down any BMW fronts yet. When I hit the brake I get a nice loud crackle/pop out of my tweeters.

Is it a bad ground somewhere? or interference from the brake light switch/cables?

[StereoInstaller1]

He is in New Zealand....

[rcsoundn1]

i have an app for those focals if you are looking to get rid of them....

[StereoInstaller1]

Ugh, why did my advisor not warn me of this before I bought the focals. Thanks for the advice thats what I needed to know!

Well, here's the thing...no one knows.

It's my theory. I wrote it from the ground up. It's been proven now hundreds and hundreds of times, plus it is easily verifiable through measurements, and if you explain it to any knowledgeable speaker designer, they will say "Oh shit! That makes all the sense in the world!" because the symptoms are so obvious once you think of the environment.

I just happen to be the guy who thought of it.

Took a long time too, lots and lots of cars, huge systems, small systems, years and years of back breaking work. Hell, I have specialized in BMWs since 1984, it's been a very long time coming. This entire concept has matured into a viable, explainable concept only in the last 3 or 4 years, it's still relatively new to me...and because I am known only in a tiny microcosm of the internet...no one knows.

So, don't blame "your adviser" too much, the entire industry has it wrong, as did I for many many years. We all learn, right?

I have heard "Premiums" are rare down there in NZ, so, for now, go find an E34 or E36 and grab the front speakers out of it, just the 2 midwoofers. You need 4, so hit 2 cars. Throw those in place of the Focals, do some listening, and report back when you can.

Luke

[potatomash]

Ugh, why did my advisor not warn me of this before I bought the focals. Thanks for the advice thats what I needed to know!

[StereoInstaller1]

I have 4 speakers, two fronts two rears, currently, everything is running off headunit, but next week I will be running just the fronts off the amp and the rears off the headunit.

I guess my main question is are my focal ps130f's crap or do they just need an external amp (which I have waiting to go in)...

If it sounds like crap at 1 watt, it will just be louder crap.

The issue is simple: your Focals were designed to sound good in a display board, as are all aftermarket speakers. That fortunately also works well in a Tahoe (Camry, CRV, you name it) door panel, meaning essentially, infinite baffle.

Your E30, and all BMWs actually, has a tiny little chamber behind each speaker. We know what hapopens when a speaker is put in too small a box: bottom end is limited, upper frequencies get squashed....so, your Focals, which sound great in the doors of a normal car, sound like complete crap in the stock locations of the E30.

It's just bad math, and no amount of power can fix it.

Conveniently enough, there is a company making aftermarket crossovers designed to work perfectly in your car's interior, using OE BMW speakers...

but, seriously, swap out a set of Premium midwoofers in place of those focals. It will still be bright as hell, but at least there will be some bottom end to go with it.

Luke