How to replace your speakers with something better !
 

I've posted this as it hopefully serves a purpose for any people wanting to get improved sound in their cars without cutting/drilling/fabricating anything. This isn't the most complex job in the world - but there's very little material out there for those who want to dabble in a bit of OEM+

Have been keen to improve the audio in the CSL as although it has an amazing soundtrack of its own, the speakers are woeful and do not do a 60k car justice - not even close.

The problem with the CSL is that BMW used a mish-mash of E46 audio components - so even clever companies like Rainbow did not make a kit as an OEM replacement.

So I decided to dig further, and came up with a plan. The rear shelf speakers (mid-bass) looked as if they were the same as the E46 Coupe front speakers, based on info from RealOEM.com. I had this checked via my trusted audio installers and Rainbow - and I was right.

However Rainbow only sell the front kit as a component set (mid-bass plus tweeter, all interconnected from factory), meaning I would need 2 front sets and some tweaking to complete the job.

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So today I attacked the task of the rear shelf jobbies. Thanks to Rainbow for the clear instructions :119:

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A few tools needed, but nothing too exciting - main things were trim removal spatula and 8mm socket.

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Here's the working area, not much space so it's all a bit fiddly.

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OEM speaker in situ, having removed the grille and foam insert.

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Undo the three bolts (this is the killer design issue with all the OEM replacement sets on the market - none of them are designed as single items with the 3 bolt pattern) - and remove the OEM speaker.

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Compare OEM with Rainbow IQ-Line replacement. Notice the difference in magnet size, speaker cone materials and separate crossover for the Rainbow item. You can see why the OEM ones only cost about $30.

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Now the tricky bit - need to remove the crossover for the tweeter connection, so carefully strip back the wire join shrink-wrap, chop the tweeter connection wires and tape up.

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Leaving 2 "prepared" new speakers ready to be fitted.

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Next problem - the new speakers have the crossovers cable-tied around the magnets and BMW did not allow for that extra width when they designed the mounting assembly for the OEM versions - so they needed sliding round on the cable tie and I also tidied the wire extension around the magnets so that excess cable would not get in the way when refitting.

Now link up the new speakers ot the OEM connectors - remembering that the speaker "phase" (positive/negative connections) needs to be right. I do this by listening and checking the movement of the speaker at a low test volume - pretty easy to tell when it's wrong. Then need to secure the connection with a bit more tape.

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Carefully drop the new speaker into the OEM fitting, ensuring no wiring is trapped and allowing the large speaker assembly to fit into the OEM hole.

Replace OEM screws and job done. Foam insert and grille fits right back over the top no problem.

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What about the sound ? With just the two rears done it's a SIGNIFICANT improvement - there is actually bass and mid punch now rather than some muddled farting noises. Clear, precise (OK not exactly competition standard) - but a great upgrade for the money (about £125 per pair) and when the fronts are done it will be an excellent sound.

Planning on doing the fronts tomorrow so will add more here when done :thumbs:

looks good so have you joined the bm wires to the crossover or the speaker?

to the crossover - it limits the mid/bass drivers to 6kHz instead of 10kHz - am assuming the Rainbow design has a different "shift" point between the bass/mid/tweeter frequencies compared to the OEM setup.

Would also explain why the OEM setup sounds so crap if the bass drivers are trying to play 10kHz through cheap Hungarian paper cones :banghead:

sounds good might go this way also the standard stuff is horrendous

check back here Dave after end of tomorrow to take a look at the fronts (no idea what to expect yet on this).

also let me know if you want to order the same as I did - because my supplier might be able to get you a good deal. The kit came straight from Germany and took about 5 days.

speakers???

what do you need them for. Have you got one of thise modern fangled stereos!!??????

I get asked why on earth you would want to worry about speakers in a CSL quite a lot.

but I don't care :thumbs:

Nice info - cheers :beer:

Have now completed the fronts and the results are impressive for 3.5 hours effort.

Full instructions and pics to follow....

So onto the front speakers – replacement of OEM 6.5” mid/bass drivers and tweeters with Rainbow IQ-line components. This install differs from the rear install as it makes use of the full crossover capability of the Rainbow kit.
Same starting point – new components.

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I was a bit apprehensive about messing around with the door cards – but here goes.
Firstly remove the screw cover inside the door pull – use a very thin-tip flat screwdriver and take care not to ruin the fairly soft plastic. Mine already had some scratches. Undo this screw fully with a Torx T20 bit and put in a safe place.

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Then remove the 2 door handle bolts with a Torx T40 bit – they are very tight at the start then nice and easy – again put them in a safe place.

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Now the dreaded door card clips – using a wide, flat trim removal tool, start at the bottom left and work your way around the bottom of the door from left to right. A fair bit of (measured) force is required, don’t be afraid to give it a decent prising force but no sudden force as you could damage the plastic clips. Same for the upper left and right clips.

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Now the top edge by the window line needs unclipping. Again – a fair bit of force is required but be patient as they are quite tight. Start form the top left and move towards the right (door pin end) – obviously the direction changes dependant on which door you are doing.

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You should end up being able to pull the door card upwards and then completely away from the door metal – but it will still be held on by the door release cable. This needs unclipping by pulling away from you – quite easy but take care so as not to smack the door card back into the door metal.

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Now the speaker connections can be unclipped and the card is completely free of the door. So far so good.

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Find a good flat surface and lay out a towel or something else that will protect the carbon/plastic face of the door card.
Remove the sound-deadening around the speaker – I made the mistake of thinking this should be reused but we’ll come to that bit later. Unclip the tweeter connection from the 6.5” speaker unit. There are three cross-head screws that need removing for the 6.5” speaker and 3 Torx T20 screws for the tweeter assembly – undo all of these and remove the OEM speakers from the door card.

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The next bit needed a bit of thought – I didn’t want anything to rattle but using tape isn’t the best idea – so decided to combine the sticky properties of Dynamat Extreme sound-deadening with the routing of the component set wiring. I started with the 6.5” replacement, found a good location for the mini-crossover unit and secured it into place with thin acoustic carpet (as packing material) and the Dynamat then routed all the wiring – again using the Dynamat. More carefully-placed strips of Dynamat round the plastic bits immediately surrounding the speaker – this stop sound transferring from speaker to plastic and means the sound will project from the speaker rather than get all muddied and crap.

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For the tweeter I realised that the Rainbow pre-fab assembly could rattle – so again by using acoustic carpet I made a “sandwich” layer and cut out a rough hole for the tweeter to fire through. This plus the Dynamat means it fits nice and snugly when screwed back into place.

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For the 6.5” and tweeter units I just reused the OEM screws and everything went nicely back in. Some more tactical Dynamat on plastic surfaces that could resonate and the door card is ready.

Started with this

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Ended up with this (ignore the sound-deadening around the 6.5” speaker in this pic)

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Then back to the car – the metal door skin also needs Dynamat – particularly on the area directly where the speaker is going to fire. I cannot stress enough how much of a difference this makes – would recommend spending the time on the door metal to get the best value out of your speaker investment. I also chose to do a few other areas where resonance could occur. Note I haven't gone too mental with the Dynamat - just enough to stop the door metal trying to behave like a speaker.

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Then the door card needs re-hanging on the door. Reverse the approach to taking it off remembering to fix the door pull cable on first – but only clip in the top piece so the speakers need connecting to the OEM door wiring.

Then from underneath the door you can plug in the speaker wires to the OEM connector block – I then wrapped this in a small piece of acoustic carpet and taped round to ensure no rattling and some protection for the home-made connector.

This is the point where you MUST check the speaker phase (positive/negative connections. As with the rears – low volume and listening to the sound it’s pretty easy to tell which is the right way. Don’t leave this bit until after you’ve refitted as it will be a bugger to fix !

Then push in all the remaining door card clips – firm force required without being brutal. Make sure the speaker connection wires are safely out of the way so they don’t get damaged.

So why not reuse the OEM sound deadening round the 6.5” speaker ? Well I tried the door card half-on with the volume up a bit – then 2/3 on to double-check – and it sounded pretty rubbish. The Rainbow kit seems to prefer having more room to breathe – so I ditched the material.

Double-check all the clips are tightly fixed, then refit the large Torx T40 bolts – might need some nifty handiwork to get them lining up correctly inside the door card – then refit the Torx T20 screw into the door handle assembly, replace the plastic cover and all done !

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The difference is pretty astonishing – I’ve gone for fading the system back 1 or 2 notches, Bass up 2 and Treble at the middle setting. For a speaker-only upgrade, this is well worth the ££ and time.

The rears took me 2.5 hours and the fronts 3.5 – but I did the second front door in about an hour including removal and refitting. Very glad I spent the time routing all the wires and checking everything carefully as it all worked first time and has now given me the audio quality that the car should have been given from factory. More than happy with the with the results !

Great write up...... enjoyed that.

Its always difficult to do this DIY unless you are 100% confident that you aren't going to shag the door cards etc..

I might have a go though :thumbs:

Actually you don't have to use a thin-tip flat screwdriver to remove that plastic blank plate - just push it on one corner and it will lift up the other corner allowing removal (hard to explain - but if you look carefully you'll see that there's a cutout built into it, allowing the blanking plate to 'pivot' and raise the other side so it'll pop out without prying.

Just a tip I found when I removed my door card for fun ...

I need to do this... Just need to get the balls to have a go! :eek:

rs32
Thats a great wright up you done
I am sure it will come in handy for lots of members

:thumbs:

Thanks for posting it on here

Mark

I have done something similar in mine. Like Rich, I have got Rainbow speakers up front, but went for JL's in the rear. (although unlike Rich, I paid a man to fit them!!!!)

I am very impressed with the speakers, they give a great sound. I wasn't looking for mega sounds, and wanted everything to fit within the existing speaker pods.

Hi rs32,

I'm interested in doing what you have. Are you able to PM me details please. Cheers :thumbs:

Rob

I replaced my rear shelf set with Rainbow components today. It was very straight forward due to rs32's excellent write-up and fitting instructions and took me around an hour to do :smt023

It took me a few goes at deciding which way round the connection should go as there didn't seem much difference between +/- in either position? The Rainbow units were also much quieter than the OEM ones for the same volume setting! I settled for the slightly louder/deeper one in the end. Maybe my Alpine head unit affected this but not too sure... :smt017

Due to the above paragraph, i was sceptical of just how much difference it would actually make, but i'm pleased to report that i now have some bass and depth of sound in the car for that rare occaision when you want music rather than 'straight-six' to listen to! :whistle: It's particularly noticeable when you fade the speakers front to back and you realise just how pants the BMW OEM ones are!

I will certainly buy a second set now to complete the setup and improve one of the CSL's few weak spots. Just need to psyche myself up to remove the CF door cards... :smt104

great great write up! thanks!

being a bit new to this forum I've ont seen this write up before.. it's superb, stuff like this is a great help

I completed my speaker upgrade this weekend by fitting a set of Rainbow components to the front just as rs32 did.

My installation took a bit longer than i'd planned on, however... Firstly, upon removing the door card i found that my fronts were already rather shoddily upgraded with Rockford Fosgate speakers! :bigcry:

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I decided to continue as the Rainbow set was of a higher rating and also due to the fact that the RF set had been fitted with no sound deadening of any sort...

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I used a pack of 'Dynamat Extreme' in addition to a sheet of 'Skinz' that had come free with my Rainbow speakers. B&Q was the source of a roller and some felt pad for the tweeter (due to the fact that i had no acoustic carpet)!

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The door card removal was nowhere near as fraught as i'd imagined it would be due to using a decent 'Bojo' trim removal tool. I decided to use the Dynamat more around the speaker pod and place the thicker Skinz sheeting on the backside of the CF door panel as this vibrated before with the old RF speakers. I used black silicone sealant to keep the tweeter relay in place. One problem that i had was two of the speaker screw receptacles started to rotate in their mounts and i had to Araldite them in place!

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Refitting was reasonably straightforward, taking care to not bend the plastic plugs. I did have to fiddle a bit to make the rear door handle bracket align properly but it all went back together ok. I used some Loctite 243 thread lock on the door bolts as a few were found loose on disassembly. The LHS tweeter connection was temperamental but with some 'bodging' all is ok now.

And the result? Much as rs32 says, a much better overall audio experience. The sound, although not massively louder, is much clearer and more well rounded with some depth at last. I think the sound deadening has played a large part to thank for that. It will certainly make those long distance trips to the Ring less boring when passing through Belgium! :hahaha: :thumbs:

Looks good! :smokin:

I have full Harmon Speakers fitted and custom Harmon Ipod unit! Works great and nothing is seen apart from an Ipod lead in the glove box! Great sound now!

just need the illuminating skull gear knob and neons now then tim :smokin:

Its defo a great mod for the CSL! :smokin:

Easy Michael, or the next time I see your car I will some greasy finger marks on it!!!!!! :hahaha:

:bigcry: sorry

glad to see that others are having success with this upgrade :thumbs:

the Rockford Fosgate speakers would have worked better with a small amp - the Rainbow units are designed to work with your stock BMW head unit.

Shame the previous owner hadn't taken the time to sort the wiring routing and general tidyness - it looks so much better now you've redone the work :-D

enjoy !

Excellent - cheers

just caught up with this again, another tip for interested owners

using the foam inserts/covers for the rear speakers, turn them upside down, mark holes using your old speakers then sandwich them between the new speaker surrounds and the rear parcel shelf fixings. This will remove some vibration from the rear parcel shelf.

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also you can improve the front setup by adding Dynaliner (Dynamat foam sandwich product that weighs next to nothing) - it completely deadens the whole door assembly and stops rattles.

The added bonus of the dynaliner is that you get more exhaust sound inside the car as you are hearing less road noise through the door metal :-D

With my new Becker head unit and the speaker setup as documented I've ended up with exactly what was hoped for - a decent sounding, clear, punchy system with no real custom build work, no cutting of anything and no significant extra weight. Plus I have Nav, GSM with built-in SIM and an SD card for 4GB of music.

Perfect for the 1500 mile trip to Scotland in 3 weeks :beer:

Great write up guys :thumbs:

This something i have been meaning to do for sometime now.

I have a Genesis 4 channel amp that i plan to fit to use with the four speakers

rs32

Which speakers should i be looking at to use with this amp. I think i might get a new head unit at the same time but not sure what spec to get.

my recommendation would be to first consider how much effort you want to put into the speaker mounts if you are going to use an amp.

I've stuck with head unit + speakers only because if you up the power to the next level you are asking an awful lot of the OEM mounting points to give you good sound.

e.g. mounting the front drivers onto the door cards has its limits, it really needs proper mdf door pods, which means cutting the door skin (something I wasn't prepared to do).

If you're not to bothered about all this then I would say the Rainbow kit (as per my install) will be fine (don't set the amplifier gains at their highest though) or if you want even better sound then go for the JL Audio XR 650 drivers.

:thumbs:

Thanks for this.

I don't want to do anymore work than you have done to be honest.

My thinking was i have the amp so why not use it???

Can you still get the Rainbow kit you got a cheaper rate like you mentioned??? PM if you would prefer.

Me too, please! :thumbs:

Plus, where do you get Dynamat from? :smt100

I got my Rainbow speakers for £265 in the end from my local car audio place.

I got my dynamat extreme off ebay...

Added as a sticky for the newer members' benefit. :thumbs:

If you want a better sound inside the car...simply remove the air intake flap !!:thumbs::whistle:

Very pleased I just found this thread. I started one in the CSL section on PH to ask if it was possible to upgrade the speakers.

Good 'how to' write up. As stupid as it sounds to many the audio quality of the standard car would be a bit of a show stopper as the CSL I am looking to buy in the near future will be a daily and I have LOGIC7 in my current BM so have been spoilt.

:hahaha::hahaha::hahaha: Also use proper tools and no knives