anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

subwoofers consume alot alot alot of power.... your sub amp specs ? Not sure if there are rear stock speakers on the rear panel. REmove them if they exists.

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

btw, bass should be felt, not heard... if u can trace the direction of the bass, then theoretically its not "right". Of cos, personal preference comes into play.

 

[longhorn]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

subwoofers consume alot alot alot of power.... your sub amp specs ? Not sure if there are rear stock speakers on the rear panel. REmove them if they exists.

sub amp is Audison LRx 1.400 monoblock

also have audison VRx 4.300 driving front and rear speakers.

pardon my ignorance, whats the benefit of removing the rear speakers??

btw was at ice shop on monday but did not try the hertz woofers. instead i got the alpine 701...after hearing all its virtues...

but hav been away on biz trip since and haven't got the chance to "play" with it yet....

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

sub amp is Audison LRx 1.400 monoblock

also have audison VRx 4.300 driving front and rear speakers.

pardon my ignorance, whats the benefit of removing the rear speakers??

btw was at ice shop on monday but did not try the hertz woofers. instead i got the alpine 701...after hearing all its virtues...

but hav been away on biz trip since and haven't got the chance to "play" with it yet....

whoa hoa....some good stuff.. Try adjusting the gain on the sub amp.

the reasons i suggested removing the rear speakers are

1. its just rear fill, and sometimes it interferes...cancellation occurs. Save money also on speakers and amp unless u drive from headunit.

2. when u remove the rears, leave the cover on for aesthetic reasons, and it also allow subbass to pass thru... may help. And with the H701, u can now draw it to the front.

 

[__iceman__]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

"2. when u remove the rears, leave the cover on for aesthetic reasons, and it also allow subbass to pass thru... may help. And with the H701, u can now draw it to the front."

ONLY if you have a subwoofer in a custom enclosure inside your boot, do you cater for holes in your parcel shelf to allow bass thru.

IF your woofers are mounted freeair, then leaving holes like that will effectively cancel out bass. The idea is to have the boot SEALED away from the air mass of the cabin, and hence the woofer will use the boot as its enclosure and pumps bass into the cabin.

It is here that I also wanna repeat the theory of passive radiators again. If you have woofers and also rear mid range speakers mounted next to it, your rear speakers will work as 'passive radiators' that actually cancel your bass to a certain extent. When the woofer pumps forward, the mid range speakers will be coerced to move backwards to compensate for moving air mass.

Easier visualization; when building a sealed box enclousure, we are very concerned about the rigidity of the box, and a proper seal. The sides also must be made of sufficiently thick and sturdy MDF material for the subwoofer to maximize the enclosure's effect. Now imagine if you cut a hole at the side, and seal it with plastic bag. Definitely the subwoofer loses punch as the plastic flutters and wastes the pressure on flexing.

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

good example mate....

 

[longhorn]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

subwoofers consume alot alot alot of power.... your sub amp specs ? Not sure if there are rear stock speakers on the rear panel. REmove them if they exists.

decided to take your advice to remove the rear speaker.

went to hong guan yesterday. since already hav a 4-ch amp, what the heck, added in another 2-ch amp and run active for my 3-way components. all i can say...WOW!

HG spent 2 hours tuning it last nite...but couldn't finish as my car was running out of gas (also the WIFE was wondering where the hell was I)

still work in progress...and more tuning to be done.

just want to say thanks to oneheadlight and iceman for their advice

and the guys at hong guan are great... i wud recommend them anytime...

cheers

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

Hello...

don't say advice la... just suggestions.

I am glad to hear that HG didn't just tune for 2 hrs... as iceman said also previously, some installers simply tune for an hour and its assumed its completed.

forgot your setup already... care to repeat ?

decided to take your advice to remove the rear speaker.

went to hong guan yesterday. since already hav a 4-ch amp, what the heck, added in another 2-ch amp and run active for my 3-way components. all i can say...WOW!

HG spent 2 hours tuning it last nite...but couldn't finish as my car was running out of gas (also the WIFE was wondering where the hell was I)

still work in progress...and more tuning to be done.

just want to say thanks to oneheadlight and iceman for their advice

and the guys at hong guan are great... i wud recommend them anytime...

cheers

 

[Motofish]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

longhorn,

You have a mono block powering the sub, and 4 channel amp powering the 3-way components up front. Since you remove the rear speakers, why then do you add the 2-way amp? Do elaborate.

Another question - when you remove the rear speakers, does the reverse sensor (RDC) still work? Is the beep now coming out from your components?

 

[__iceman__]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

Longhorn - yes, right now you have a very decent setup now, really quite ideal as its a fully active front stage, with nice power ratings, and a monoblock powering the sub, with a 701.

Even with a stock HU (are you?) you can get damn impressive results already.

BTW - petrol is a must for tuning - go ask Thomas... he always complain I run out of petrol for him to tune, then one day I fedup, pump full tank... he damn happy to tune tune tune away.. and I drove home with almost 1/2 tank gone, but results were absolutely stunning

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

longhorn,

You have a mono block powering the sub, and 4 channel amp powering the 3-way components up front. Since you remove the rear speakers, why then do you add the 2-way amp? Do elaborate.

Another question - when you remove the rear speakers, does the reverse sensor (RDC) still work? Is the beep now coming out from your components?

He's gone 3-way active, thus he needs the addtional amp.

tweets 2 ch
mids 2 ch
midbass 2 ch

individual crossover settings thru his little baby H701 ... now he can tune and tune and time align and time align hehe... sounds like fun already.

 

[Motofish]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

oneheadlight - thanks again for the clarification. If you remember, I got 4 channel amp - 2 powering front CDT components and 2 bridge to power the sub. Also in the setup is a Mass pre-amp. Quite decent for a 2K investment. If I were to add a mono block amp for the sub and free up the 4 channels for the components, will I experience the WOW effect? Unlike Longhorn, I am without the H701.

Iceman & other gurus advise are always appreciated.

 

[longhorn]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

Hello...

don't say advice la... just suggestions.

I am glad to hear that HG didn't just tune for 2 hrs... as iceman said also previously, some installers simply tune for an hour and its assumed its completed.

forgot your setup already... care to repeat ?

set up:
subwoofer Boston acoustic C110 - amp Audison LRx 1.400 monoblock
Front Boston Acoutics Pro series 6.53 3-way components speakers - powered by audison VRx 4.300 and (just added) Audio Systems 2 -ch amp

Motofish - the reverse sensor beeps are now coming from the front speakers...no problem..still working fine. (we can meet this week and show u if you are free... still IOU one kopi)

iceman - yup, still on stock HU. Can't bear to change the original look. Even was very reluctant to allow thomas to move my ERP unit to the centre of my windscreen... but finally relented ..just have to get used to it. also Had to hide the H701 controller in the glove compartment.

Forgot to mention that after I installed the H701, got loud hissing sound from speakers. was told this is becos it is stock HU. but after hong guan changed the hi-lo converter, it is much better now..

 

[Motofish]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

Longhorn - really keen to listen to your new setup. kopi is fine but have to be another time cause will be flying around these 2 weeks. Will PM you when I am back. Cheers.

 

[__iceman__]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

oneheadlight - thanks again for the clarification. If you remember, I got 4 channel amp - 2 powering front CDT components and 2 bridge to power the sub. Also in the setup is a Mass pre-amp. Quite decent for a 2K investment. If I were to add a mono block amp for the sub and free up the 4 channels for the components, will I experience the WOW effect? Unlike Longhorn, I am without the H701.

Iceman & other gurus advise are always appreciated.

Going active for front stage will bring along sound quality for sure, you get more dynamic headroom, and the key is that you can finally play with the crossover settings for your tweeters and mid ranges. BUT - how are you gonna do it? You will need to add in one more electronic crossover that splits the front signals into frequencies for tweeter, and frequencies for the mid range. Longhorn has got this covered as the 701 is capable to process this signal. I'm not sure if the Mass pre-amp can do this - I guess not at all, it probably only has a crossover for your subwoofer.

OT - Before the days of time alignement, my kakis one by one were going active front stage. I could remember one friend of mine... Like you, he added an amp, electronic crossover to go fully active front... and got a 2 hour tuning job done.

The result - he told me that this setup improved his marriage!!! Why?

The sound in his E36 was so good that he would just go for idle night drives along East Coast Park with his wife listening to audiophile love songs - and recovered romance that was lost in the years of marriage and having kids...

So don't wait - improve your love life NOW !!!

 

[Motofish]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

Without the 701, can I bridge 2 channel of the 4 channel amp to drive the left components and the same for the right channel. Layman speaking - the power to the speakers would have been double and that should be a good thing right?

ICEman- Your theory of ICE improves marriage and love life is great. Should suggest to the government as this would encourgae marraiges which will churn out more babies. The government may even give a rebate for all ICE upgrades and you should be given a national day award as the person to solve the population problem

 

[__iceman__]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

yes, you can bridge it for more power. That can be done too.

Another point about having addition crossover like the 701 - you can basically define the high pass point of the midrange. This will channel and streamline the power into properly defined portions so that your speakers will make the best use of it:

Tweeter - 20khz to 3.5khz.
Midrange - 3.5khz to 80Hz.
Subwoofer - 80Hz to 20Hz.

Have you cranked up your front stage and hear it distort? Why does it distort? Probably because your midrange is playing all frequencies below 3.5Hz, all the way down to the subwoofer frequencies of 50hz, 40hz etc. It is these low low freqs that really rob power, and cause the overall distortion. If we can filter away anything below 80Hz for the mid range, all the available power can then give you nice clean mid range vocals - and you can go louder without worries of destroying /overloading the speaker.

Like the subwoofer, I set my lower crossover point to filter away subsonic frequencies below 20Hz, so that it punches good, and all the power is dedicated into a nice range of audible and musical sub frequencies.

Without the crossover, yes, you can also double the power into your components, and fully utilize your preamp to tune for better sound.

National day award I dun need. Giving me 10k to build up another demo system for marriage counselling purpose I don't mind. Add another 10k for me to build up another DVD 5.1 system. Conduct classes of audio appreciation to build up a common hobby for husband and wife, and both can enjoy quiet and soulful moments together - babies will come naturally, and already be pre-conditioned to good quality audio and perhaps that's where musical prodigies will come from.

OT again. I just bought a musical mobile for my 3 week old son. It plays 3 melodies of Beethoven/Bach/Strauss. But sound quality is crappy, just a computerized speaker beeping the tunes. He enjoyed it for a while (like 3 mins) and then found it irritating.

I then remembered that my wife used to play Mozart pieces on my hifi at home before birth. When I played the same audiophile CD on the hifi to the kid now, he recognises that, and can be kept happy just listening for quite a long time!

Thinking of getting a MP3 player and some speakers for his daily background music - I just hope that the soundquality of this combo are up to scratch!

Implementation of such policies can be easy. Submit your ICE receipts during income tax time, and make it a tax deductible item. However, you may also be required to submit evidence tapes of you using it for your wife and going on driving trips!

 

[Motofish]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

Cranking up the power till the sound get distorted. Will try when I am back home tis weekend. But I doubt my ears are sensitive enough to pick up where the distrotion is coming from. The Mass pre-amp have only limited parameter that user can adjust. Maybe should save up for the 701 before I consider more amps.

Congrats on your new baby. Looks like you already have your musical prodigy in the family. 3 weeks old and he already has the same high taste for good music. I don't know how long he will be satidfied with MP3 music.

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

oneheadlight - thanks again for the clarification. If you remember, I got 4 channel amp - 2 powering front CDT components and 2 bridge to power the sub. Also in the setup is a Mass pre-amp. Quite decent for a 2K investment. If I were to add a mono block amp for the sub and free up the 4 channels for the components, will I experience the WOW effect? Unlike Longhorn, I am without the H701.

Iceman & other gurus advise are always appreciated.

I think there will be an improvement cos basically, u are pumping more power into your front. Monoblock has class D and Class AB. Depending on who you speak to, u may prefer one over the either. Anyway, the monoblock power is dedicated to the sub itself which is the preferred setup.

whether u will experience the wow factor, its hard to say and its subjective. But i am sure with more power into your front, it will DEFINITELY sound "better" especially the detail part. HArdware is just one third of the equation, the others being installatio and tuning. So u will improve that portion.

hope it helps.

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: anyone upgraded ICE on E90?

set up:

Forgot to mention that after I installed the H701, got loud hissing sound from speakers. was told this is becos it is stock HU. but after hong guan changed the hi-lo converter, it is much better now..

Hissing is a known problem for H701, which is why most people tend to change the headunit to a optical one as well. A good Line output converter is needed. Some time ago, i suggested David Navone LOCs.. i believe some users experienced hissing , but as clarified by my ICE frens and Mr Navone himself, he has quite simply converted the signal to 9 times our original signal from factory HU.

Longhorn... i have a sneaky feeling u will change your HU soon and improve your rel'ship as iceman promoted haha...