good sound system without cutting holes

In Car Entertainment - NO SELLING OF I.C.E. PLEASE

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Richy325iTouring
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Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:41 pm

The new jbls go straight in the rear shelf of the e30
but they got o be 6inch though. and they a good sound as well.

I tried them against infinity, kenwood and sony and the jbl were loads better.

But im a jbl fan anyways. Put a set in my exes mini and the sound was awsum for just 2 6 inch speakers.
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jahsean
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Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:42 am

Hello
I not sure how a 6 inch speaker just fitted in the hole of a 51/4 in speaker. There must have been a hole for a 6 inch speaker made at some stage. But thats my opinion. According to placey some cars had 2 speaker and some had 4 spk systems. I have a feeling that some dealers had their own additions to spice up systems. Those pioneer spk with the uprite tweeters were very popular for that era.

The 6 inch spk fits very easily. My car has some jbls as well. They are aftermarket ones someone could have cut it to fit them. I dont know who cut the bigger hole but 5 in speakers dont fit.

The problem I have found is there is not a lot of space for the grille especially some Jbl grilles which is square. I have a round Kenwood grille which just fits.
m40 316i
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Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:34 am

My advice is to buy new speakers and a used amp off of eBay.

If you're sticking with the stock size, then you'll want to get a 5.25" component set for the front. Definitely find some premium tweeter pods for the tweeters. You'll just need to chisel the old crappy 'premium' ones out and glue yours in behind the grilles. I'd look on some US forums or ebay.com (the us version) because you can easily get some tweeter pods for around $30 USD and shipping to the UK isn't that bad for something that small.
For fronts, I'd look for some a/d/s/ 235is components. You can get them stateside from www.audionmore.com for $136 (CHEAP). They're excellent speakers for an excellent price.
For rear speakers, I'd get some 5.25" coaxials for rear fill (if you must have rear speakers). audionmore.com has CDT CL-5X speakers for only $55.
Now for an amp. I'd try and find a nice 4 channel amplifier around 40-50 watts rms into 4 ohms per channel. a/d/s/ makes killer amps and you can get them for great prices used on eBay. Precision Power and Soundstream are also companies to look into.

If you have any questions feel free to email or PM me. I've been infatuated with car audio for about 6 years now (since I was able to drive).
placey
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Thu Jan 20, 2005 12:59 pm

billgates

i dug out some reviews as promised. at around the 150 mark for 5 1/4inch components then check out the models from alpine (excellent quality but large magnets - so watch for mounting depth issues. i did put a set of these in e30 kicks once but they didn't fit without using mdf rings as i recall, they then hit the trim at full excursion so the trim had to be cut), rockford fosgate and audiobahn. if you go over the 200 barrier then this brings jl audio and focal within reach. i am running jl audios right now - they look like they've been put together for about 10p but they sound terrific and handle loads and loads of power. the focals are almost legendry - but avoid the utopias - it's not commonly known but they are designed for in home use (where they excel) and can be very difficult to get right in a car.

if you're going to put speakers in the back without a sub (sounds likely in your case) then i'd recommend putting the same back there as in the front for a coherent overall sound. if you can't bring yourself to custom mount tweets in the rear then at least go for coaxs from the same manufacturer.

i have heard amazing results from ads and directed kit but if you buy from the states how will you hear it before parting with any money?

hope this helps.

paul
i saw a doctor and she gave me some pills....
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nwmlarge
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Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:31 pm

those pods could easily be reproduced with a yoghurt pot or similar.
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Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:36 pm

I'd steer clear of Focal altogether. Their tweeters are really harsh and many people complaign of fatigue after listening to them for long durations.

How much are you looking to spend on speakers and an amp?
billgatese30
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Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:46 pm

thank you every one, i have read all your posts and am serioulsy considering many options. for the record i am not looking to spend more than 300-400 pounds on a system and am looking tospend less than that if at all possible.
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Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:09 am

If you're wanting to spend 300 GBPs or so, then I'd get two pairs of the a/d/s/ 235is components from audionmore.com - they're $139.95 each and I'm sure you'd be able to get international shipping on them to the UK. Even with the added shipping costs and the weak-ass dollar, it's still a hell of a deal.
I also have a friend who will be looking to sell a NICE 4 channel amp soon too. It's a Precision Power PC450 (Power Series). It's 50 watts x 4 @ 4ohms RMS. I think he's probably looking to get around $100 or so for it, then it's probably $50 to ship to the UK or so.
So with shipping and everything, I'd estimate that you'd spend about 300 GBPs on the system listed above (a kickass one at that).
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huggybear
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Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:43 pm

Look at this. Different from what you want,, but it gives you another angle

http://www.cardomain.com/id/huggy_269
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