E30 M3 stereo set up

[Falkster]

My kenwood mask has broken and wont move from the straight out position. No-one seems to know where or who could fix it so I suppose Ill have to start from scratch.

I have the basic set-up from factory apart from different shelf speakers.

I was wanting to know what sort of set-up I should go for....from new head unit to speakers. I dont want to go barmy with loads of speaker and amps everywhere but do want something with 6 (or so speakers) that will give a reasonable sound.

When it comes to ICE I am proper dense so do need some good advice please

Chris

[Alex]

some good speakers and a small amp they make all the difference, all new cars have them

and if you want good quality sound get a decent alpine head unit

[fowler]

right the ribbon cable has broken on the kenwood and it will cost about 50 quid to fix

[Falkster]

right the ribbon cable has broken on the kenwood and it will cost about 50 quid to fix

Alright mate how you doing??

Yeah I know about the cable but all the stereo shops cant repair it, any ideas??

[BadDave]

I know of this lot

www.fixmyradio.co.uk

Haven't tried them personally

[harry_p]

i loved my old kenwood mask, 1st 'proper' stereo i ever bought, till the ribbon cable went. probably still got it somewhere, seem to remember you could choose red illumination too which would look great in the e30...

what rear speakers do you have?

my m3 had the premium stereo with seperate tweeters in the rear speakers and a dash mounted balance wheel, plus front tweeters on the mirror mounts (not sure if this was all standard on the m3 )

anyway, decent alpine headunit, replace the kick pannel and mirror pod tweeters with a decent componant setup, rewired with decent cable bypassing the balance wheel. the rear shelf speakers on mine still sound good, with a suprising amount of bass.

certainly not audiophile grade, but a noticable improvement over standard. the next step would be an amp, replacement speakers in the shelf, and a box in the boot to fill in the low end. some sound deadening wouldnt go amiss either.

it all depneds how much you want to spend and how much you're prepared to do. i realised i'd never get andthing amazing without spending lots of money, and possibly spoiling what the car is meant to be. it would be a crime to start chopping up an m3's interior or metalwork just to fit some phat sounds innit

[e34Murphy]

kenwood mask unit = ribbon fault, try that website, most local in car hifi shops like myself should have a repair agent capable of doing it but last one we did cost more like 75 quid.

As for the speaker set up, if its anything like the e34 you would need to run the dash speakers as mids, then buy the m5 tweeter pods that sat on the wing mirror housing on the door (wiring prob need to be run for that) and then some 5.25" kick panel speakers, now you prob also want some 3 way crossovers to drun the front properlly.

The other option is to buy a nice set of Rainbow 5.25" components and forget about the tweeter upgrade.

I am only going by what the e34 has so dont quote me on the e30 fittings

[sati]

Rainbow components dont come cheap , i had basic kenwood mp3 headunit and 6.5" Infinity Reference 6010cs in the kicks panles , tweeter mounted on the dash , back shelf cut to take jbl 6"x9" and all running off the headunit it sounded 10 times better then the stock system, then installed a 15" jbl gt3-15" subwoofer with a renagrade ren-2000 amp , and its turned heads!. but a desent set of 6x9 amped up will give nice amount bass , with out losing trunk space.

[Pete-M]

Nakamichi head unit, half decent amp, something half decent in kick panels and an Alpine sub works for me.

[Alex]

Nakamichi head unit, half decent amp, something half decent in kick panels and an Alpine sub works for me.

sounds awsome

[BadDave]

Nakamichi head unit, half decent amp, something half decent in kick panels and an Alpine sub works for me.

Nak h/u and poss genesis amp with a decent 2 way comp setup in the front,with the tweets in the mirror pods should do the trick nicely

[Pete-M]

I can't actually remember what the amp I use is. It's some big German sound-off job I got from a mate who works in a high end car audio specialist. Very very heavy, I know that much. Paid about £200 for it a 3 or 4 years ago, it had been ordered for a demo car but never fitted.

It's not a common make, but blatantly not a cheap job. I just can't remember what the feck it is.

[BadDave]

Pete

MA Audio ???

[Pete-M]

MA Audio ???

That doesn't ring any bells. I'll have a look tomorrow if I remember.

[JGTI]

Brax?

[sati]

if you want a cheap and cheepful system then u can get a set of 6x9 and door speakers and amp for only £50 from maplin.co.uk. i know the 6x9 they sell are really good. and for £50 you cant complain about it.



http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=227119

[Alex]

maplin stuff is Shite

im not joking here but ive baught about 15-20 different things from there and every single thing has broke i sware i will never buy anything from there again, its all cheap shite

might just be my bad luck i dunno