Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 21:14:50 -0800 From: "Kit Wetzler" Subject: [uuc] my budget audio system After struggling through a few iterations, I've pretty much finished my 97 m3/4's audio system. I have a luxo package car, but without the HK system... needless to say, the stock system left quite a bit to be desired. Head Unit: My first addition was a Kenwood KDC-715S. It went in pretty easily, the only problem was in trying to stuff everything into the dash. I used one of those little harness kits that allows you to keep the stock harness in tact. Works really nicely, except that it's a real pain to get all those wires shoved back into the dash. Amp: Rockford Fosgate 400a4. Rated (very conservatively) at 50x4, or 200x2. I mounted it on the floor for now, I am probably going to try to move it to the stock amp location later. (since I'm no longer using the factory amp) It powers the front speakers with the front 2 channels and the rears is bridged into a subwoofer. Fronts: I used Rockford Fosgate FanaticX 5.25 components up front. Discovered that if you pop the grill out of the stock tweeters, the RF tweets drop right in. Looks kinda neat, hard to tell that they're aftermarket. They sound much better than the factory tweets. Crisper without being harsh, like the factory tweets are at high volumes. (Peter G, can you do me a favor and drop me an email about those speakers you sold me? thanks!) Subwoofer: Image dynamics dual voice coil 10" in an MDF sealed enclosure. Very nice, tight subwoofer, surprisingly does ok in the trunk of the M3. I really like the punchy sound of this woofer over the 12", which was what I was originally going to get. Nice woofer, you get the larger excursion of a dual voice coil driver, but, since both coils are 2 ohms, you present your amp with a nice, happy 4 ohm load. This is good for people like me, who bridge their amp into their subwoofers... otherwise, I'd end up with a nasty 2 ohm mono load, and my amp probably wouldn't be very happy. A couple of problems: I want to unplug the factory amp. I figured that I really didn't need rear fill, and I didn't want to melt it down, in case I ever wanted to use it again. I could get one of the plugs out of the amp, the one closest to the front of the car. The rearmost connector came right out, you just slide the little white lock down, and the connector pops out, but I can't figure out how to get the other one out. If anyone has some adivce, let me know. I got some gnarly alternator noise. Luckily, an inline filter (between the RCAs and the amp) solved 90% of it, but there is still some there. I suspect that it's because I ran the RCAs down the passenger side of the car. :( Live and learn. I think most of the noise will disappear once I get the cables routed better. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. Total cost was under a grand. $200 for the fronts, $240 for the amp, $250 for the deck and $250 for the subwoofer, and $50 in miscellaneous cables. -kit 97 M3/4 http://www.mindspring.com/~kitwetzler