Z3 Audio Upgrade - Need Advice / Info

[cheezewiz]

Hey Guys,

Its been a long time since Ive posted. School and work have kept me busy. Ive garaged the e30 for the school year and bought a 1997 z3 with 30k miles on it for my daily. Im hoping someone here can help me out with my audio nightmare.

The car has what I believe to be the stock basic audio setup (two front speakers, two tweeters, stock headunit, amp in the trunk) along with a 6 cd changer.

It is my desire to replace the amp and speakers while keeping the changer and headunit. But here are my questions.

1. Is it safe to assume that the headunit is not outputting linelevel audio? (Is it safe to run the outputs of the headunit to a new, non bmw, amplifier)?

2. No wiring diagram I have seen for the z3 makes any sense when compared to mine, all the wire colors are different and im having a heck of a time sorting out which ones go to what. Does anyone have a wiring chart for an early z3 with a basic audio system?

3. Does anyone see anything wrong with what I am trying to do?

ANY information or advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

Colby

[StereoInstaller1]

Hi Colby.

OK, so what you can do is use an Audio Control 6XS crossover as a line output converter. You can use the speaker positive from the deck into the 4 channel inputs by simply soldering a RCA on the end of the wire...use the speaker positive as the center pin and the chassis ground as the negative.

The 6XS is best suited to run 7 or 8 channels of power. Best configuration would be 2 channels for the front tweeters, 2 channels for the front midrange, 2 channels for rear mids/highs and a subwoofer amp.

The 6XS also comes with a sub level control you can mount on your dash.

As far as wiring, all of the Z3s I have done (like 3 or them, maybe 4) use pretty normal BMW late model bullshit...a buttload of yellow for one channel and a similar buttload of blue for the other channel.

For some reason, BMW has chosen to put all of the crossovers inside the amp, so the easy way to deal is to mount your passive crossovers in the trunk should you decide to use them.

GL!
Luke

[cheezewiz]

Hey, thanks for the reply.... Ill give it another go this afternoon.