# BMW E34 530 install



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

I just started to install a 3-way passive system in my car, this is my 1st complete sound system ever. The car is a '90 BMW 530iA:










System components:

* H/U - Clarion DRX 9575Rz
* Tweeters (1") - DLS UR1
* Midrange (5,25") - DLS UR5i
* Midbass (8") - Vifa PL22WR09-04
* Amp for tweeters and midrange drivers - JBL GTS-180x
* Amps for midbass drivers - JBL GTS-300 for each mid
* DIY 3-way passive x-overs

So far I've run all the wires from the cabin to the trunk and installed the tweeters in original locations in the corners of the dash. Temporarily there are Signat 6,5" mids in original locations in plastic side-panels under the dash and a JBL amp in the trunk powering all the speakers via some Rainbow 2-way passive x-overs.
I will take my time doing this install, the car should be finished in some time in 2008.
I will add some pics later this evening.

Tõnu


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Some pics.

This is how it all started.




























Speaker cables before going into the car.










Signat 6,5" drivers.










Some wiring pics.














































Original tweeter locations.



















DLS UR1's installed.




























Installing Signat drivers.





































Vifa 8" mids waiting to be installed.


















Tõnu


----------



## rekd0514 (Sep 24, 2006)

Looks like a good start. I like how you used MDF to integrate the speakers into the dash and kicks. Looks like a good easy alt to glassing.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

> Looks like a good easy alt to glassing.


You are right. 2/5" MDF that I used for tweeter and midbass installation and even in trunk for building a temporary amp rack is very easy to work with, at the same time it's strong enough to hold a 6,5" driver in place. But of course, for a good midbass installation one layer of it is surely not enough, one solution if thicker material isn't at hand at the moment is to glue many layers of it together which is an easy job too.

Factory tweeters that were replaced.



















Factory side-panels.



















You can see that the side-panels are originally quite poorly attached to the body of the car, there are 2 plastic "ribs" on one edge of the panel and 2 plastic "screws" on the other edge and that's it. Don't mind that 5,25" Hertz driver on the picture, I used it before as a factory midbass driver replacement (with no big improvement actually compared to factory sound).



















Right now the sound these Signat mids produce is quite bad, side-panels rattle like mad at higher volumes and it's very difficult to enjoy music in the car that way. That needs a quick fix truly.

Tõnu


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Today I bought an old-school used JBL GTS-300 amp, this is the last one I needed for the install. I'm really happy I found it, these are quite rare around here.










Tõnu


----------



## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

very nice. I may have missed it, but I'm guessing there wasn't room to mount the speakers behind the panel?

You can easily put an aftermarket grill over that speaker. Sand the edges of the baffle smooth, and hit the whole thing with primer and texture and it could look really clean with very little work.


----------



## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Thumper26 said:


> very nice. I may have missed it, but I'm guessing there wasn't room to mount the speakers behind the panel?
> 
> You can easily put an aftermarket grill over that speaker. Sand the edges of the baffle smooth, and hit the whole thing with primer and texture and it could look really clean with very little work.


bmw locations are a joke. Suffering from them myself.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

> I'm guessing there wasn't room to mount the speakers behind the panel?


A regular 6,5" driver like this Signat H16 is too large and doesn't fit without some extra cutting and rebuilding of the panel on the driver's side. Added to that you have to re-route some of the factory wiring and that's not fun at all.










You also have to cut out bolts that hold a 5,25" driver and that makes the side-panel even weaker. So it's much easier to install the driver on top of the panel.
This installation was done in August and it's really temporary. The side-panels are going to be rebuilt to house the DLS midrange drivers and then there will be proper speaker grills .

Tõnu


----------



## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

Nice work so far...it's always hard for me to do cutting on my own vehicles even with extra interior panels...it's so....permanent 

Could you fiberglass the front and back of those plastic kick panels to strengthen them and keep them from flexing? Any ideas on how to make the panels more securely attach rather than the flimsy plastic clip/'screws'?

Jeremy


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Securing a piece of MDF shaped like the panel itself to the panel and then bolting this all to the car body with 3-4 bolts should do the trick.

Tõnu


----------



## DearS (May 14, 2005)

Inspirational. I drive an E30 325is.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

> Inspirational. I drive an E30 325is.


Nice, my previous car was an E30 320, changed it to E34 this spring.
E30 has almost similar side-panels and no places for tweeters so it needs more work to install speakers in front.

Tõnu


----------



## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

MantaOwner said:


> Nice, my previous car was an E30 320, changed it to E34 this spring.
> E30 has almost similar side-panels and no places for tweeters so it needs more work to install speakers in front.
> 
> Tõnu


bmw family here too. 6.5" are definatly doable if you're ok with them sticking out past that plastic panel. I was going to do it in my brother e30, but he wanted stock look, so I ended up with 5.25" mid and 1" tweeter in stock locations.


----------



## DearS (May 14, 2005)

My E30 has the optional factory comp set, with tweeters in the A pillars. 

I measured the speakers this week. Its 5 inches exact. I'm a little scare about 5.5" peerless mids not working out. I'm scared about cutting things up too. geez...its difficult getting through this fear.


----------



## addissimo (Apr 10, 2007)

I've got an e34 540i6, and a e30 325ix. The ix is in the middle of second skin treatment. I can't wait to finish it.

speaking of bmw a bmw family...

mom- 1994 325i
mom's boyfriend 88' 528e with 80k miles
girl friend - 1992 325is
dad - 1988 325ic that I rebuilt pretty much from the ground up, and put an m50 in.

Our driveway is just stupid german sometimes.


----------



## bigjae1976 (Jun 21, 2007)

Subscribing...


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Received new candidates for midrange, these are DLS U4's.




































I didn't buy them yet, just going to listen to them and compare with UR5i's, UR2,5's and probably I will receive UR5's soon too, all made by DLS. Can't wait to start rebuilding side-panels.
Meanwhile I bought a set of factory wheels for winter.









Tõnu


----------



## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Good progress so far.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Personally, I think that I haven't done or achieved much yet anything in my car to be proud of , but it's really nice to have support on this forum, I appreciate it.

Tõnu


----------



## addissimo (Apr 10, 2007)

I don't know when BMW started giving people 3 piece wheels from the factory- but good score! Those are pretty hot.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Did some drawing today.









Tõnu


----------



## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Those look like bbs rs to me, whimpy size, but nontheless. 

Here is 16x8:


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

You're right, these are BBS 15"x7J wheels I've got.
That's the only minor upgrade I did on my car other than the sound installation, no other fancy stuff in mind.

Tõnu


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

I did a small road trip last week and installed midrange/midbass drivers and JBL GTS-300 amp temporarily before going to the trip. I had only about 2 days to do this installation so it came out far from perfect but at least I do have much better sound system now than before with the 2-way system.













































The next step now is to rebuild the door panels and side-panels completely.

Tõnu


----------



## pikers (Oct 21, 2007)

Obviously other than painting the MDF to be black and invisible under the grilles, the only thing I would have done is take the opportunity to deaden the entire car since you had it apart.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

I managed to find some time yesterday and did a little A/B listening test between DLS UR5i's and UR2,5's. Surprisingly to my ears the UR5i's didn't sound noticeably better, their sound is maybe a bit more detailed but that's it. UR5i's cost about 3 times more than UR2,5's and I decided not to buy UR5i's now.
Instead I bought those U4's and during this weekend I hope to listen to them and compare with UR2,5's.

Tõnu


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Bought new candidates for 8" mids, these are Dayton RS225-4's.



























Going to do a listening test including Vifa, Dayton and DLS W308B drivers.

Tõnu


----------



## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

More candidates than next year's election, huh?? 

Those are some serious baffles you have there...I'm curious to see your panel buildup...I have huge door panels in my '94 Grand Voyager but zero panel clearance since they were never made for speakers...also handles nothing like a BMW if you can believe that 

Jeremy


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

> More candidates than next year's election, huh??


You're right. I have 2 sets of tweeters/midrange drivers and 3 sets of midbass drivers so I have some listening to do before something gets installed in the car. Only thing I'm really missing is time..
And about Grand Caravan - I had a chance to drive around the US in a '02 GC and I liked it a lot.
One picture that I took in the Grand Canyon, mine was second from the right (a rental car) .









The new '08 GC is a really nice car too.

Tõnu


----------



## Wayne-o (Oct 30, 2007)

MantaOwner said:


> You're right. I have 2 sets of tweeters/midrange drivers and 3 sets of midbass drivers so I have some listening to do before something gets installed in the car. Only thing I'm really missing is time..
> And about Grand Caravan - I had a chance to drive around the US in a '02 GC and I liked it a lot.
> One picture that I took in the Grand Canyon, mine was second from the right (a rental car) .
> 
> ...



funny thing is that pic right there, could be just about anyplace in the US and not a rental spot. easy to see 5-6 of the same vehicle parked together. at first when I saw the pic I was thinking...heh a Costco or Walmart parking lot. lol


----------



## Rockin'Z28 (Sep 26, 2007)

DearS said:


> My E30 has the optional factory comp set, with tweeters in the A pillars.
> 
> I measured the speakers this week. Its 5 inches exact. I'm a little scare about 5.5" peerless mids not working out. I'm scared about cutting things up too. geez...its difficult getting through this fear.


I was concerned about my kick panels as well, so I went to several junkyards until I found some that matched. Then, I cut those up instead...saving the originals for "just in case."


----------



## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Stock size for bmws of that era are 5.25 that are sitting on the squarish plate.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Did more testing today - made some simple pods and tried a different angle for midrange drivers.
This is how it looked before.



























New pods.


















1st try - did no listening, changed the angle.









Final result.



























At the moment it's not easy to say how big the difference is in sound because I also changed the midbass drivers just a day before, now there are Daytons playing in the doors. Having a lot of rattles coming from the doors doesn't help either.

Tõnu


----------



## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

have you considered trying to locate the drivers wider?


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Yes, at the end I'm trying to install them in a way that they take as less space as possible. The UR2.5's aren't so big and it's quite easy to find room for them, another story is with 8" mids in the doors, there's no way to recess mount them, only installing them at some angle is possible but that doesn't help much.

Tõnu


----------



## zoomski (Feb 11, 2008)

hm... this is a car i always wanted to own (and i did). but it was close to **** condition.

will buy one.. and it will have a one sweet setup . E34 ftw


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

E34 is a nice car indeed . But what do you think about E39 or even E38? IMO these cars are a big step ahead.
Installation works will hopefully continue somewhere in June, no free time before that.

Tõnu


----------



## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

MantaOwner said:


> E34 is a nice car indeed . But what do you think about E39 or even E38? IMO these cars are a big step ahead.
> Installation works will hopefully continue somewhere in June, no free time before that.
> 
> Tõnu


Better as a vehicle and better in sound possibilities. But that doesn't mean that it will be easier to install something good in it.


----------



## zoomski (Feb 11, 2008)

well i own a e39, and i dont know but i dont like it as much as my old e34. its just the body style... plus their built like tanks...


----------



## electrafixion (Oct 14, 2008)

I appreciate the original Poster's work...E34's are one of my favorite cars, but they aren't easy to work on. I'm going to start another thread to show the simple, stealth SQ system that I've installed in my 1990 M5.


----------



## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

A M5 install would be nice to see indeed.
I just sold my BMW so this thread should be closed.

Tõnu


----------

