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petrolhead wrote:

E89_Gaz wrote:That little bit of heatshrink at the bottom of the last photo contains a capacitor.

I relise that, thats for the tweeter and is a high pass filter, however the mid will still be getting all the frequencies, inc high. Thats possibly why the sound stage is poor

Sorry, I need to read before commenting

An Eq would probably make a difference but I suspect that as the whole system is heavily equalised within the Head unit, it is probably a lost cause. The original speakers were pathetic, whereas these units give a much fuller sound along with more top end detail. (Its not quite as embarrassing as it was previously!)

The two rears seem to run at about 20% of the power of the fronts and only receive upper mid and high frequencies making any form of upgrade almost pointless. I did try adding a high level amplifier but it sounded awful.

Thanks

I have had a look on ebay for the mini speakers but there seem to be many variations. In the photo there is a number, does it have to be exact to get the better sound? The only ones I can find are in the US. I wonder if the BMW hifi speaker may be better.

Edit: These look very similar to the mini ones http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-1-3-5-X1- ... 3f4b4d8da1

petrolhead wrote:Thanks

I have had a look on ebay for the mini speakers but there seem to be many variations. In the photo there is a number, does it have to be exact to get the better sound? The only ones I can find are in the US. I wonder if the BMW hifi speaker may be better.

Edit: These look very similar to the mini ones http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-1-3-5-X1- ... 3f4b4d8da1

Yep they look perfect, a good price too. (There were none around for sensible money when I was looking, hence I ended up with the Mini equivalent).

Update:

Never go round to getting the better mids however I did buy 2 xovers for the door speakers. The beauty of this is it stops the high frequencies going to the mids which improved the soundstage but bring up to head level as opposed to chest level

Have just performed the upgrade on my standard speaker setup. Oh boy, what a difference. Why on earth BMW thought they should skimp £60 on a £30k car I don't know! I purchased the tweeters from the dealer and had them installed in 30 mins. Would never have persevered without the instructions!The tricky part was having the faith to simply pull the door fascia off the main frame... Follow the instructions and you'll be fine... Can't wait to go for another blast tomorrow!

petrolhead wrote:Update:

Never go round to getting the better mids however I did buy 2 xovers for the door speakers. The beauty of this is it stops the high frequencies going to the mids which improved the soundstage but bring up to head level as opposed to chest level

Update again. I ended up changing the mids, not sure I could hear much difference

I have just ordered the mini speakers + BMW tweeters. Seems a good idea.
Can some one point me in the right direction for getting the correct capacitor or cross over.


Is the capacitor to cut out mid range and bass to the tweeter?Or is it to cut out treble to the in midrange ?Is it connected inline to one of the speaker cables?
edit. .. after re reading post am I correct that the capacitor is already fitted to the bmw tweeter wiring loom?

Mini cooper speakers and bmw tweeters fitted.a bit fiddly but not too hard. Very good result. Saved £500+ doing this mod and not having to get amp and processor.

has anyone changed the mids behind the seats for the mini ones, looking on real- oem the part no for the door mids is the same for the ones behind the seats at ear level, so could only be an improvement not too sure how easy it is to get to them though

If you are running the standard package, the rear mids are heavily equalised so it is unlikely that you would hear any difference by changing them for something else.
I keep meaning to tap into the front bass driver (as it seems to be paired with the rears when faded backwards) to see if it is also heavily equalised, if not, a high level amp could be inserted to drive 4 channels. (The two existing front woofers and two additional rears in the rear bulkhead to boost the bass a little.