[SwagginWagon]

Buongiorno a tutti! Good morning everyone! I've been scouring these forums for a few weeks now soaking up every bit of info I can about improving the sound in my new (to me) E91 320d. It's almost time to put a plan into action, but I'm hoping some of the experienced members around here can QC my ideas and maybe offer some suggestions for improve where necessary. Even if no one else reads this, it will at least serve as a repository of my thoughts so I don't get too far off course.

The car comes with the base stereo system, which we all know is basically a half-step up from mounting a Beats by Dre bluetooth speaker on the dash; or was it a half-step down? Anyway, here's a run down of the equipment currently in my virtual shopping cart:

• Eton B 100 T, 2-way component set (Front stage)
• Eton B 100 XT, 2-way coaxial set (rear doors)
• Eton B 150 USB, woofer (x2) (under seats)
• Eton SDA 100.4, 4-channel amp (Front stage & woofers)
• Eton SDA 750.1, mono amp (rear sub)
• Eton BAK, high-level wire harness

The first step is already complete; swap the Business CD headunit to the Professional CD headunit. Boy, what a breath of fresh air that was! There is hope yet!

Step two involves coding the unit to HiFi to flatten the processing and lower the output levels. I have the hardware, the software, and the will. I just don't yet have the experience, but that's been documented elsewhere, so I'll figure it out.

Step three involves planning out the install. I don't yet have the amps on hand, but I do have the dimensions, a ruler, and a piece of cardboard, so I'll likely be tackling that this coming weekend. I do know that having so few options on my particular vehicle means that there should be plenty of empty mounting space for the relatively compact amps in the rear of the wagon.

Step four, running the cables. I've already had the back seat out to clean up the fruit loops left by the offspring of the previous owner, thankfully they also left me a tip of almost 20 euro in change! Running the wires should be a piece of cake, assuming it's not too difficult to get from the seat down to the kick panels. With the battery in the back, and grounding bolts a-plenty, amp installation should be relatively straight forward. I plan to use the signal-sensing option to trigger the amps.

Other thoughts:

The SDA 100.4 has a selectable High-Flat-Low crossover on channels 3&4 in addition to a subsonic filter, which should allow me to basically bandpass ~40 to 200hz to the under seat woofers. I've played with the idea of swapping to the 150.4 for 120w/channel and a little extra under seat kick, but the front components are only rated around 50wrms. I could turn the gains way down, but then would it be worth changing? Eton also offers an asymetrical 4-channel amp that offers 80w on ch 1&2, and 115w on ch 3&4, with the addition of extra cost and extra length. Worth noting is the 100.4 and 750.1 share the exact same dimensions, making for some interesting mounting options. I may just opt to bridge ch 3&4 of the 100.4 for about 110w per woofer, providing no one vehemently objects to running them in mono rather than stereo.

The 750.1 will get its signal from the 100.4's 2ch output to run my 2ohm JL 10w3v3 in the high-output wedge enclosure. Pretty simple setup there, probably low-passing it around 120hz. If I need any further fine-tuning I'll probably add a JL FiX-86, but I think it's worth seeing where this setup puts me first before throwing more money at it.

So... here's where you get to punch a bunch of holes in my balloon! Is there anything that I'm forgetting, or have I completely under-estimated it all? If you've made it this far, please drop a line with your suggestions, comments, or anything constructive you could think to add. Thanks in advance, and I look forward posting pics of the unboxing and installation, and of course my totally subjective opinion of it all once it's together! Ciao!

-Jason

[ctuna]

Looks like you checked all the boxes . Eton is not a brand we
know in the US. You might want to get pro radio with built in
USB if you are going OEM.
Nice looking wagon.
Technic Harness might make things easier for you.

[Go Horns!]

I've been thinking of picking up that JL enclosure to use in my Tahoe. How does it sound?

[SwagginWagon]

ctuna, there are still some things I need to iron out like the recode, but everything else should be pretty straight forward. I wouldn't say Eton is one of the more recognizable brands here in Europe, but they seem to make premium grade products and get extremely high marks from the reviews I've seen. Also, Technic installed a full set of their products into his business vehicle a while back, and seemed to be extremely impressed, plus they're made in Germany, so it's gotta be good, right!? Haha I'm pretty sure the headunit I bought is a newer model that includes USB and Bluetooth. I haven't hardwired the microphone and USB adapter into the car yet to test them, but I'm hoping that will be a simple plug and play affair. I actually had Technic's harness on my wish list up until the point when I saw that Eton offered their own. I don't suppose I really have a preference between the two.

EDIT: Looking at the Stereo 2/4 harness he offers, it says "Not applicable to Stereo systems with 2-wires at the woofer connector (pre 0909 production)." Being as my wagon is an 06, it sounds like that harness may not work. For all I know, the Eton harness may have the same 'limitation'. I suppose I need to pull my seats and see if my door speakers are wired in parallel with the woofers to find out. Maybe he can chime in on that.

Go Horns!, the enclosure and sub combo sounds great to my ears. It doesn't drop as low as my SVS subs at home, but it has far exceeded my expectations for a mobile audio setup. I highly recommend it, and I'm REALLY looking forward to hearing it in this wagon.

[ctuna]

Looks like you have it covered for the harness either way.

[SwagginWagon]

So I cut some templates of the amps from card stock, precisely 230mm x 173mm, just like both amps. It looks as if they may fit well in the location where the stock iDrive unit(s) fit. Heat is always a concern when fitting electronics in an enclosed space, but all the reviews I've seen about Eton's amps state that they run extremely cool under load, not even getting luke warm to the touch. If I have enough room for some neat and tidy cable management, I think I can make this location work.

I do have a couple questions though. Is it possible that the Pro HU I installed is already coded as HiFi with a flat eq and USB interface enabled, or is coding specifically for the car itself?

Also, would anyone happen to have the nomenclature or part number for a terminal that plugs into the battery's positive distro block? I saw someone do that in another thread to power their aftermarket amp and I can't seem to find it again to get the info for it.

[ctuna]

connectors
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...9&postcount=19
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ower+Connector

http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...3&d=1329017429

As far as the coding of your radio you should be able to read it with a k/dcan cable but cars or radios after 2008 needed ICOM cable to program.
I have asked why but never gotten a technical answer that was satisfying.

[SwagginWagon]

More reading and a few lucky deals later... new plan!

So here's what I now have on-hand/on-order:

• Eton B 100 T, 2-way component set (Front stage)
• Eton B 150 USB, woofer (x2) (under seats)
• Eton BAK, high-level wire harness
• Alpine PDX-V9 Amplifier
• Hertz DSP.2
• JL Audio 10w3v3 with enclosure

My new A-pillar trim pieces with tweeter accommodations came in last week while I was visiting Scotland, and I landed pretty good deals on both the Alpine amp and the Hertz DSP.2, both of which seem to be very well reviewed here on the forums. I've been playing with Hertz's v4 software already and I really like the interface and adjustability.

I still haven't dabbled with coding the headunit to HiFi yet, but if it requires an ICOM cable like ctuna said, then I may have to find someone who is more familiar with these cars to code it or even ask the dealer.

[ctuna]

You might be able to get away with a K/D can cable on an 06 for coding and coding to hi fi.
Never got a solid answer on this but the older
car are suppose to use the kcan rather that dcan.
The older stereo systems had the parallel
split either in the side kick panels or the door trim
area instead of going all the way to the under
seats then back up to the door speakers.

[SwagginWagon]

Originally Posted by ctuna

You might be able to get away with a K/D can cable on an 06 for coding and coding to hi fi.

Yes, but the radio is from an 09 or 10 model IIRC. By your last statement, it sounded like that could be an issue.

[SwagginWagon]

I received the Eton B100-T components tonight, and of course I had to throw them in. The box looks a bit cheesy, but they seem well packaged. Installation was a breeze since they're plug and play. I'll save my impressions for later once they've had some time to break in, but I can already appreciate the raised front stage. All other components are in transit, and should be here in the next week or so.

Also, I may have found a good deal on an Alpine H800 with controller. If it pans out, I'll probably return (or resale) the Helix DSP.2 I bought.

[SwagginWagon]

My Alpine H800 and RUX controller came in the mail today, the final pieces I needed to finish my install! Unfortunately, I've hit a snag and I'm thinking my install just got a lot more complicated...

So where do I go from here? Does this mean my front components are wired directly from the headunit? I can't imagine that's the case unless the headunit has a true 6-channel output to run the underseats and rears independently from the fronts, and why would that be when the car came with just a base business unit? Now I'm stumped and feel like I've wasted the past hour removing seats and running the harness...

EDIT: Ok, so it looks like this is normal for pre 03/09 production models. That still means I need to know where the underseat woofer wiring and door wiring terminate. Do they all go right back to the headunit? If that's the case, I'm guess I'll need to do some splicing after all, and run my own wires from the amp to power each speaker independently? Damn, I wish I had known this beforehand.

[ctuna]

In the 06 model year the parallel connections are made along the
door sills or in the kick panels. There are some illustrations in the Alpine
retrofit kit pdf I believe.(starting at page 9)looks like door sills so easy access. Just pull the door sills straight out . When reattaching pull out the plastic pins for the door sill and reinsert in door sill strip and push down . I have pictures of this in my install
My install
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...3&d=1329017429

Alpine PDF shows parallel connection at door sill starts page 9 and lists color codes.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...tDpLJPcGkw_ui_

[SwagginWagon]

Originally Posted by ctuna

In the 06 model year the parallel connections are made along the
door sills or in the kick panels. There are some illustrations in the Alpine
retrofit kit pdf I believe.(starting at page 9)looks like door sills so easy access. Just pull the door sills straight out . When reattaching pull out the plastic pins for the door sill and reinsert in door sill strip and push down . I have pictures of this in my install
My install
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...3&d=1329017429

Alpine PDF shows parallel connection at door sill starts page 9 and lists color codes.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...tDpLJPcGkw_ui_

Thanks. Actually, that's exactly what I did after I typed that post. Nothing too difficult, just taking me a bit longer since this is my first time pulling apart this car. I got everything connected up and ran to the rear. Amp and harness is installed, but it's almost 2am and I ran out of time to get the H800 installed. We'll try again tomorrow. Thanks again for the assistance.

[ctuna]

Yeah don't push yourself and screw up take plenty of breaks
and be and check your connections for sanity and shorts
before you power anything up.

[SwagginWagon]

Everything is wired up and tested. Incredible improvement already with just 10 minutes of setting the X-overs and tweaking the P-EQ a bit. The only dilemma I have now before I button everything back up is where to pull a remote turn-on signal from. Other body styles seem to have antenna wires or signal wires from the factory amp, but my wagon has neither. I would tap off the 12v port in the rear, but it's only powered with the ignition on, and I'd really like to have the DSP and amp powered up with just the ACC on. Any tips that I'm missing before I go probing every wire back there?

EDIT: Maybe it's an extra button to push, but perhaps I can just use the RUX controller to power up and power down the H800 since I'm installing it discretely in the center sunglasses holder? The novelty of that may wear off pretty quick the first time I leave the car and forget to turn it off though...

[ctuna]

I think the amp on the Hi Fi is turned on by the 12 volt line that
powers the Hi Fi amp.
The Technic Hi Fi harness uses that to switch a relay the is connected
to the battery with larger power cables to power the amp.
On his Base system harness , that fits to the back of the Radio , he has a relay that does the same thing but he runs that line in his harnes to the amp.
There also are signal sensing switches if your amp doesn't have that option.

some of the head unit wiring diagrams in the following might give
you some added info.


head unit
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ight=head+unit
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1036190
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...hlight=dynavin
http://www.janus-design.net/english/
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=355089
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ight=head+unit
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...hlight=dynavin
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...hlight=dynavin
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...light=retrofit
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=993447
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1016187
https://www.bmwgm5.com/Logic7_E90_91_92_93.htm
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...hlight=dynavin

Just a thought if you have a TCU or Mulf it
might have switched power. US cars had pre wiring
for that stuff CD changer maybe.

[SwagginWagon]

Thanks for the links ctuna. I was able to wrap up the install today and get the car all put back together, just in time for my 12 hour drive tomorrow!

I haven't been able to hook up the mic and make use of all the tuning features, but I did get my crossovers setup and the P-EQ tuned with a few different presets saved to cycle through on my drive.

So far, the sound is just amazing. I don't really have the midbass sound that I want yet, but I'm still using the stock 6 inchers under the seats, so there's room for improvement there once I get the new drivers installed. Still, it's clear, and it is LOUD; an indescribable improvement over the stock system without a doubt.