Hello all. I'm thinking of getting new speakers for my non-HiFi system and will probably go ahead and get an amp for them. I am thinking I only need a 2-channel amp and I want it to fit in the little compartment in the right side of the boot. My estimation is that the available space is around 9"x8"x3". Here are a few amps I found on crutchfield that I think seem to fit the bill:

1. Boston GT-20 $179 55w2
2. RF Punch P200-2 $199 50w2
3. Orion Cobalt CO300.2 $129 60w2
4. Sony XM-4S $199 50w2

Any other suggestions for something around 9x8x3?

I'm looking for reasonable SQ in a small package preferably under $200. I Probably won't be pushing it real hard, I just want a little headroom above what the stock offers. The Orion seems suspiciously cheap but from what I've read it seems the Orion name has some respect. Its also the only one that has speaker inputs; I'd prefer to not have to find space for LOCs.

What is that space normally used for, and what's on the unused connector in there? Anyone else put an amp there?

Also, I know I could find this by searching, but are there actually separate tweeter wires coming from the doors or are they just tied together inside the door? As in, could one install crossovers inside the car without having to pull extra wire into the door? Otherwise I'll look for components with small crossovers.

 

Are you stuck on 2 channel amps??? A great online buy is a Mono Pioneer GM-D7400M for about $150. Its 9x9 inches, fits under passenger seat, and will hammer the heck out of a single subwoofer.

 

Thanks for the reply

I was originally looking for a 2 ch amp to run front components. I'm not sure I want to go to the trouble of having a sub.

I have the DSC so the under-seat spot is taken. I just put a pair of Alpine SPS-600c in the front today, so I'll decide where to go from here. Initially the stock head seems to have enough power for me, but we'll see after living with it for a while. Those Alpines have terrific high end but need a little more mid-bass.

On the other hand, I might think about putting either one of those pioneer low-profile subs in the the boot floor or possibly some sort of mini-subs in the 6x9 holes. All of which would probably call for a 4-ch amp.

As for four-channel amps, I was also looking at the Alpine MRP-F300 which can be had for ~$130 on ebay but I don't think it will fit. I really want the amp to go in the little cubby in the right side of the boot.

Do you know of any 8x9 four-channel amps? Something class G perhaps?

 

My car has DSC as well. DSC only takes up about 2 inches under the passenger seat. There is still enough room under the passenger seat for a 9 inch wide by about 12 inch long amplifier depending on your wires adding to those measurments.

Now, if your car has XM radio then you dont have any room under the seat at all... There were a few pictures floating around from several weeks back showing this... I dont know about bluetooth modules either. Like my car, if you dont have BT or XM, youve got a 9x12x2.5 inch or so space under the passenger seat, under the plastic cover.

 

Sweet! I never did actually look in there. I do however have the bluetooth option. Well I'll have a look under there today and see. It looked like there might be a tiny bit of room under the driver's seat as well, perhaps enough for a cleansweep or LOCs at least...

As a side note, I'm going to have a go at hacking the cleansweep in my Mazda3 to get rid of a few nasty resonant midrange frequencies by altering the eq of the calibration tone in Sound Forge.

 

I peeked under there today, and you were right there still is plenty of room under there. I just saw the one small box which must be for the DSC and some other unused wires. So the bluetooth stuff must be somewhere else.

Guess I'll have to read up on taking the seat out...

 

For what its worth, the other unused wires are for factory Satalite Radio. My installer used some of those wires for remote amp turn on, but it didnt work very well. Just make sure your amp stays OFF after 20-30 minutes and you'll be OK. After 20-30 minutes the car goes "to sleep" by sending a low voltage signal for everything to power off... however this caused my GM7400 Pioneer amp to actually come ON, and then the car snored as loud as the amp/speaker could play. it was awful. My installer ended up running the remote turn-on to engine ignition because of it; which I think may also be under the seat.

 

The secret to removing the rear seats is documented in one of the speaker replacement threads. There's a centre latch that's easy to pop with a flat bladed screwdriver or the bottle opener on your swiss army knife.

That pops the centre part loose.

The secret part is that you have to tilt the seat forward to around 45 degrees or further, and it will magically come out! No swear words or special BMW tools needed!

To get the bottom section loose you have to pull out the four plastic thingies (technical term) along the back of the seat bottom -- oh, and they're labeled "LH" and "RH", so remember which one went where.

Once they're out, you can lift up on the back of the seat, and the front comes off easily.

Like the gal said in the movie, "Many Bothan spies died to get this information..."

 

Thanks but it's the front passenger seat I expect to need to remove. The main thing I've read about that is to be absolutely sure the battery is off the whole time its disconnected otherwise you'll trip a costly airbag warning light.

Also I read the entire How To Replace Speakers thread and I don't think I ever saw a definitive answer about the easiest place to get front speaker audio from in a Non-HiFi car. Are the speakers indeed run to the back where the HiFi amp would be and back or do you have to go behind the stack to get it?

 

The front seat wants a T40 torx.

You can pick up the signals from the connector on the back of the radio. On the non-HiFi cars, the speaker signals do NOT run off to the back, at least not that I've determined.

Check out this site:

http://www.mcaw.info/wds/mini/us/r56/index.htm

(you need to use IE under Windows and have the Adobe SVG plugin loaded)

This site will let you look at wiring diagrams, and the locations of things. The connector that I'm interested in is X9331, which is located ahead of the driver's door, and has all four speaker signals (8 wires). That's where I'm going to do my experimentation. It's got to be easier to get to than the back of the radio!

 

Wow that would be beyond sweet. Perhaps that's a junction where the harness to the HiFI amp normaly taps off. I'll check out that site -- funny you mention about needing IE under Win; I happen to be running firefox under Ubuntu at the moment; I'll check it out when I get home

 

I haven't searched for wiring diagrams for the HiFi amp -- from the pictures, I know it lives behind the left rear speaker, so it makes sense to run a harness back and forth from that connector to the amp.

I tried a bunch of things to get the website to work fully, but some parts just have that Windows smell to it...

 

To get back to the question of small 2 channel amps:

I installed a Blaupunkt THA275 PnP in the dashboard above the glove compartment. It fits well there and is very easy to connect using the "plug and play" cables you can order with the amp. I fixed the amp with cable straps because there is no possibility to use screws. The THA275 PnP is a 2 channel amp. I connected it with the front speakers (I've replaced them with JL Audios before). The next option for me is to add a small active Sub, maybe behind the drivers seat. I would take the rear signals from the PnP cable to connect it to the radio.

The 4 channel amp (THA475) is too big for the space above the glove compartment, but I think it would fit under the seat.