Premium audio retrofit?

[Visionist]

First time poster here, I'm looking to buy a pre-loved 35is within the next month or two. It's all the car I could desire right now, and then some...

I've found a very well-specced example in Orion Silver, a colour which I just know I'll come to love before long. It's almost concept car-y; different and interesting but still elegant and refined, and it changes under different lighting conditions apparently. Interior is white with the darker wood trim, don't-know-its-name, and extended leather. I'll accept nothing else and so have turned down many a car.

Some of which had the 14 speaker HiFi. This car only has 11. Oh dear. I presume it's missing the subwoofer behind each seat and the extra tweeter for the rear centre channel? I've been looking and these components seem mostly available, along with the top-end amplifier that seems to have a cooling fan and so is less ribbed in construction, but bolts to the standard amplifier rack for the 11 speaker equivalent. I can't find the tweeter officially for sale, but I could add another high quality aftermarket one instead?

European supplier:
http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/E89/E ... #9182951_2
US supplier:
http://www.penskeparts.com/DiagramsMain ... d=03192010



What's very interesting is the side rear speakers; there's a hole for a component tweeter, but none is specified, even with premium audio. This would bring the total to 16.

How painless would it be, to fit these components and have a full-fat Premium system? Including the modes like higher-volume-with-top-down, 12 minutes before powering down after turning off the ignition etc? Of course going fully aftermarket and replacing everything is the best option, but I'm not sure if I want to go crazy, as I got severely stung with aftermarket modifications on my first ever car. This will only be my second.

Whew, quite the essay

[metal licker]

Don't know if this helps but take a look ( Nicked from supersebbo hope you dont mind )

[A1GSS]

Mine sounds like it's only got items 3 and 4.... Completely awful. I assume they do it so you feel the need to pay for the upgraded audio system.

[Zed Five]

The centre rear tweeter comes as part of the rear speaker grill. It is a single part. I retrofitted the door tweeters and the rear two centre speakers. Easy job. I did not add an amp, but it would be easy.

[Stark]

The 11 speaker system is the professional one which has 2 subwoofers ...it's not the top end logic 7 one......

[Visionist]

I see! So at least I'll have bass with the 11 speaker setup. I'll still want to upgrade to the 14 speaker layout (or even 16 if I can get two sets of BMW's component midrange/tweeter for the rear shoulder panels- the grille is large and there seems to be a tweeter hole: very weird that it wasn't used, unless maybe its a reflex port from behind the speaker enclosure, but this is midrange, so highly unlikely) and I'll thus be moving from 5 to 6 channels- perfect for 6 channel DTS DVDs on the iDrive screen Hopefully the car has the six disc DVD changer so I can load the entire 6.1 Extended Lord Of the Rings trilogy (two discs each film) for... my passenger's amusement whilst parked. If it lacks the changer, nuts, I'll retrofit that too. How hard can it be...

I guess that's why the premium amp is different; it's a six channel versus the five channel Professional affair.

Thanks for that very helpful diagram. I hope the rear central speaker and front tweeter aren't too hard to source. I mean, it's not like this is some 40 year old classic; it's a current car. Parts should be available...

[Zed Five]

The parts are no issue. I walked into a bmw dealership are described the parts. They were there the next day.