basic advice re ICE

[ChrisBarns]

My new cabby came with the orignal blaupunkt head unit and, i assume the original speakers (only in front - none in rear!).

I want to up grade but I'm not a big ICE buff and my requirements are simple - i wondered what people would recomend. I'm not sure what i want though - because i don't know what's availiable.

At the moment I listen to CDs and a lot of talk radio. I'm moving over to my Ipod in the house and want to do the same in the car.
I need sufficient clarity to be able to hear the talk radio with the roof down at 85. This means good high pitch response.
Needs to be able to play music loud enough to hear at high speed without distortion but I'm not too fussed about really brilliant clarity or anything.
head unit needs to be black with relatively small or dimable screen (current original looks soo lovely and the silver head unit in my other e30 looks silly IMO!)

I don't know what gadgets i want cos i don't know whats available. Help please!

[pictonroad]

Blaupunkt Woodstock Dab 54. You can get an ipod adaptor that shows ipod data on the screen, not tried this, and it's £50, or just an aux in cable and plug the ipod straight in. Loads of talk stations on DAB too.

Plays MP3 cd's, you can match the screen to the amber BMW glow and it dims automatically when the lights come on.

This combined with some decent replacement 2 ways from a reputable manufacturer, Kenwood, Blaupunkt, Focal etc will do the job nicely.

Doesn't look too shoody either.

[iDreamBeemer]

Depends on how much you want to spend and what you hope to do.

I recently went through this from scratch and learnt a few lessons on the way...!

If you want control, you will want a head unit that has 3 pre-outs, this gives you control over fronts,rears and sub.
A sub for base in the boot and you can do a straight replacement of the 13cm speakers in the car already. (Watch out for ones with bits that stick out, the can bash against the trim when you put it all back together like in the front foot well.)

Have an amp that will take the 3 pre-outs, or you can break this down into multiple amps but I find this make the wiring and problem solving that bit more complicated (just more bits to worry about!!).

I ended up with a 2 channel amp for the sub and 4 channel amp for the front and rears but this was part of my learning curve!

I ended up buying:
JBL: GTO-75.4 4-Channel Amplifier
Infinity: Kappa 52.7i - 13cm speakers
Infinity: Reference 7521A - 2-channel Amplifier
Infinity: Reference 1250w 12" sub
Sub Box
JVC KD-G731 HEad unit (with front usb for the ipod or other MP3)

There are a few books to help out with wiring. There are lots of other products around that will do the job as well too. I would give yourselve a range of well reputed manufacturers (Infinity, VIBE, JBL are just a few) and then see what deals are going - there are plenty of places that will do offers at different times, you just need to shop around.

Hope that helps a little!

[ChrisBarns]

Thanks for the time iDream. I think thats much more than I need! I want to keep it simple - just a head unit and some speakers.

[pictonroad]

that was what I thought from your post...

I left out the rest of my install pics....