Need to upgrade sound

[protonic]

This is the first vehicle I've considered upgrading the sound system since my 20's (spent 5k back then). I don't have the HK upgrade but have every other option. I figured any standard system is fine for me now, but was I wrong.

It's worse in the back seat. Are there no speakers back there? Amy wife HATES spending money on car accessories but she is practically begging me to upgrade the speakers. She says she can't hear anything back there.

We don't need 12" subwoofers or anything. What is the best way to improve the sound from the back seat? When playing movies on the car screen on longer trips we have the volume turned up all the way up they still can't hear what actors are saying in certain scenes.

Has anyone installed extra speakers in the back? What is all involved in that installation? Would just upgrading the door speakers with multi-directional speakers work? I don't want to spend a lot of money on this. We're not looking for super high quality sound. Mostly just want to be able hear vocals. My wife says she feels like she's listening from another room with the door shut.

 

[alohart]

The base entertainment system includes 4 speakers, all up front, so there's no sound, climate control, windows that open, etc., for back seat passengers.

The i3 is basically a 2-door car with enhanced back seat access that is more suitable as a cargo carrier with the back seats folded down.

 

[skeptic]

Honestly, the best option is probably to hit up a local custom stereo store and have them upgrade you. They can wire in an amp and rear speakers no problem. While you are at it, there are aftermarket options to add Android Auto/Apple Carplay (something I added to my old Grand Cherokee that I miss in the i3). I know, paying someone ups the cost a bit, but at least around here the cost isn't terrible and they do a good professional job. Unless you are really strapped for cash, just pay the $100 or whatever for someone who does this all day every day.

I have the HK audio system in mine because I knew I wouldn't be happy with the base audio, and even that isn't all that great. I may end up adding a subwoofer and Android Auto (the other speakers are decently mediocre but good enough for me). Then again, my wife has decided the i3 is hers and she likes to keep her vehicles 100% stock.

 

[labtebo]

I would recommend you visit bimmertech - for :
1. speaker only upgrade
2. or amp/ speaker upgrade
3. or apple carplay/ android upgrade + amp

Mine have the premium HK sound system but still not as good as my CRV after market head unit upgrade.
But i'm contented with it for now.


https://www.bimmer-tech.net/

 

[eXodus]

There might be another way:
The base Audio is decent - just not all around. Wanted to start a thread to collect and share information about an upgrade:

Please add and correct my assumptions:

1. There are 3 screw speaker mounts in the rear doors behind a plastic cover and foam.
2. The speakers from the front and other BMW/Mini models should fit in these mounts
3. No Cable for the speaker in the rear door
4. The Head-unit has 4 Speaker! outputs
5. The NBT(evo) Head-Unit is the same as in a other BMWs which have speakers in the Rear (the pinout suggests it's there)
6. The Tone menu does not show the Fader - Front Rear balance

Does anybody know if the BMW drives the front 4 speakers in the i3 with all the 4 outputs of the HU? Or do they use a passive Hi/Low Pass?

The Idea I have:

Installing two BMW speaker (regular or HK) from the Junkyard for a few bucks (many models after 2004 have the 3 screw speaker)
(got two 7 Series speaker with tweeter for all of $11 from my local yard)

Snaking wires into the doors.

Taping into the rear speaker wire of the HU and see if they work. If not

- is adding a small high level input amplifier underneath the rear seats and powering the the speakers from that one.

Coding:
3002 AUDIO_TUNER_TRAFFIC

According to the Database 96: AUDIO_SYSTEM offers following options:

Stereo, HiFi, TopHifi, hk_surroundsound, - the i3 is standard set to "Stereo"

The information about Hifi is the "basic 6 speaker configuration" - 4 in the front and 2 in the back. So that would be basically what we are looking for.

While TopHifi is looking for another amplifier - The Top Logic 7 AMP amplifier.

 

[user 7688]

Hi,
I’m being in same project, so I’m following your posts.
That I already know, all 4 speaker out are wired in HU. All four wires go to front 4 speakers,
According internet kick speaker low band, door speaker mid&high and both band filtered in HU!

Today I measured the resistance on HU connector:
Pin
1-5 - 4 Ohm
2-6 - 6 Ohm
3-7 - 6 Ohm
4-8 - 4 Ohm

So, keep going. I hope we will solve this.

 

[spartacus68]

Protonic, I just resurrected an old thread on the technical chat. Just don't let your wife see it! :lol:

https://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&p=66947#p66947

 

[eXodus]

This is how the i3 is wired then?

This is from other BMWs

Got the picture from link from
https://obd365.page4.me/_blog/2016/09/19/389-bmw-nbt-evo-hu-pin-out-for-enet-coding-cable/

Putting it all together:

Rear Right 1-5 - 4 Ohm - Subwoofer Right (kick panel)
Front Right 2-6 - 6 Ohm - Mid Range Right
Front Left 3-7 - 6 Ohm - Mid Range Left
Rear Left 4-8 - 4 Ohm - Subwoofer Left (kick panel)

So, that is good information.

Wondering where the 6 ohms are coming from. BMW usually has 2 4 and 8 ohm speakers. Special configuration for the i3?

If we would put those in parallel with front Right and Left - 4 + 6ohm = 2.4 ohm
4+4 ohm = 2 ohm in parallel.

Which is kinda low. Bot not terrible - BMW drives parallel speakers in the 3 series of the head-unit or uses 2 ohm speaker in other models.

I just measured the speakers which I got from the 7series Those have 4 ohms on the label but when I measure them with my multimeter they are showing 2... need a better multimeter

Trying the speaker in parallel with the front speakers and see what happens.

 

[user 7688]

The question is: is there a built in band pass in HU or speakers have? Full band comes out from HU or already filtered?

edited: if 2 Ohms no problem then that is not a question.

 

[eXodus]

at least the signal to the woofers is filtered.
Just put the speakers I got from the junkyard in parallel to the front speakers - the resistance stayed at 5-6ohm according to my multimeter.

Which is weird - it should have dropped - or the headunit adjusted for it?

BUT it works - got nice sound with the speakers sitting on the floor in the back. getting some pictures.

 

[user 7688]

at least the signal to the woofers is filtered.

BUT it works - got nice sound with the speakers sitting on the floor in the back. getting some pictures.

Woofers exactly don’t need to filtered, because speaker coil can do that.
Mid-High speakers needed because low frequency can damage the not enough strong woofer.

That is a really good news! Sound was not much louder?
Please test it more, HU was not so hot?

Then we must just figure it out how can make a hole on rear door panel..

 

[eXodus]

So this is my test setup:

This is the door of the i3:

This is from the panel the inside - it's like easy to see where the speaker hole should go.

The speakers sitting on the floor - the sound in the car already felt better - more all around and fuller.

I'm not sure if I will need the tweeter - will be hard to find a spot for those. - at least in the front it didn't make a big difference. Maybe for the rear seat passenger.

 

[eXodus]

Next steps:

1. Get a better Multimeter and measure what Ohm the parallel connected speakers have
2. Test-run the system on the rear set and see for heat issues.
3. Find a way to bring a cable into the doors.
- the doors have a plug at the frame - so either need to add two pins to that or get a door wiring harness from an i3 with HK-System.

 

[user 7688]

Next steps:

1. Get a better Multimeter and measure what Ohm the parallel connected speakers have
2. Test-run the system on the rear set and see for heat issues.
3. Find a way to bring a cable into the doors.
- the doors have a plug at the frame - so either need to add two pins to that or get a door wiring harness from an i3 with HK-System.

Any update?
I’d like to do the same thing.

 

[eXodus]

Found a Multimeter, going to try it again this weekend.

I know the door side of the wiring good by now - the issue is the part from the Headunit to the connector in the door frame - Have to remove the trim pieces on the rear bench.

But no idea where to start, currently scouting ebay for the parts which need o be removed to see where the clips are on the back. Don't want to break things

BMW tends to do like 3-4 clips on a part - and then one or two screws.

 

[eXodus]

I have not found a way to get to the back of the plug for the door cable.

Yet I found a work around - just adding a second cable in the door jam.

Maybe not the most pretty solution but in the rear doors - it shouldn't matter.

 

[kutzsche]

Hi guys,

I had exactly the same idea. I replaced the front speakers with Bavsound and now want to put the original door speakers in the rear door. My plan was to connect them in parallel as well. Were you able to find a way to route a new cable through the door connector to the HU and if so how ?

 

[peterb]

Hi eXodus:

This is great work. I am not an audio expert, and my demands are low, but I'd like to improve the audio in my i3 for the back passengers.

My idea are simple 4ohm 30w speakers like:
https://www.amazon.de/Uxsiya-tragbares-Lautsprecher-Audio-Lautsprecher-Anschluss-default/dp/B08N427TM4

and put these simply under the back seats, left and right, near to the floor. Essentially behind the feet of the rear passengers.

I recognize that there they are not ideally positioned for sound, but their obscure position makes it also less crucial that the speaker integration looks as awesome as the i3 interior.

Nor are these speakers high quality; but they are small, black and easily attachable on top of anything that one can punch a hole in; and that is certainly true for the softish cloth material there.

question 1:

Is this a bad idea for some reason?

question: 2

The picture of your speakers in the head unit you posted is awesome, but it is not completely visible for me in which contact you exactly put the wires (in parallel with front speakers). Could you clarify?

Thanks so much for any response!! Once again, this seems a simple way to fix the complete lack of audio in the back..

Peter

 

[peterb]

today I went ahead and installed the boxes, mentioned in my previous point.

I stuck them into the middle connectors. The outer connectors (is that 1:5?) seemed woofer. the next ones were a speaker, and the following ones too. So we used these middle pairs for the back speakers.

So these small boxes are now in parallel with the front speakers and we get reasonably good sound off them. These boxes are probably not very good, but they are black and small and do not catch the eye down there.

We are not audiophiles, just wanted reasonably audible sound in the back seats and have that now.

 

[peterb]

After driving around with the small speakers, despite not being an audiophile I had to conclude the sound coming out of that was really sub-par, telephone quality and no bass (unsurprisingly as they did not get a bass signal).

So I went ahead and bought a pair of speakers (2-way) and a pair of woofers, both quite compact (<=4 inch diameter):
- https://amzn.to/34Tyn3A PIONEER TS 1002i
- https://amzn.to/2SZhthg AUDIO MASTER CW400/4 woofer

both 4 ohm, not very many watts - more would not make sense with the simple 4x25W head unit. With the filtered left/right door speaker sound, only midrange and high, so you would still be missing bass in the back. In fact, even the Harman Kardon setup in the i3 is low on bass, certainly in the back (given that all there is comes from the kick panel speakers in front).

Hence my choice to add separate bass speakers as well.

Of course, there is no way one can put two 3.5inch speakers in a single i3 backdoor. Plus the fact that i3 backdoor trim panels with Harman Kardon speaker holes are impossible to come by aftermarket (for a reasonable price). I also dropped my idea of putting the speakers in the wall under the back seat (behind the legs). They would be quite visible and I would need to mutilate the car quite a bit, drilling holes to push the speaker magnets through.

Thus I placed the speakers under the front seats, pointing slightly upwards to the back (like 70 degrees. a 90 degree would also make them too high for the front seats to pass over them). Using some simple metal brackets.

See image with the left front seat fully moved forward (normally it is at least halfway to the back):

the right seat has a similar setup.

There is still 10cm room beyond the end of the floor mat, so there is still just enough foot space for the back passengers. With the front seat in a more normal position the speakers are not visible.

With this setup, in the front the sound is a bit fuller. In the back there is a world of difference.

best,

Peter