I know it’s only been a couple of days, but made any progress? 🤓
BMW F80 M3 amp and speaker upgrade
I’ve recently traded my older
2002 e46 M3 for a 2016 BMW F80 M3 so have gone from a reasonable diy audio system to a base factory system that needs improvement.
This time around I’m going to use the factory source idrive (id4) system as the base for the audio and replace the door speakers , underseat woofers and add a sub to the trunk.
Audio sources will mainly used via usb inputs , but it does have DVD / CD , compressed audio cd rips to hard drive BMWs Bluetooth / Telephone and also uses the usual apps like Spotify via phone.
The base system audio has has a 4 inch driver in each door that does mids and highand an 6,5 mid bass drivers in an enclosure that vents to the chassis side sills. The head unit is coded for boosted bass and treble on the front to make up for the speakers short comings. Rear speakers run a reduced frequency range, very much like adding rear fill speakers in the 1990s 😀
The amplifier on this system is the active design module that is a 25 x 4 amp. The F80 is a quiet car compared with previous BMW M3s so the module makes a synthetic engine sound and mixes it with the audio. This system will be bypassed as I’m not a fan but I’ll leave the module in place to avoid any chance of error codes.
![Car Wheel Tire Vehicle Land vehicle]()
2002 e46 M3 for a 2016 BMW F80 M3 so have gone from a reasonable diy audio system to a base factory system that needs improvement.
This time around I’m going to use the factory source idrive (id4) system as the base for the audio and replace the door speakers , underseat woofers and add a sub to the trunk.
Audio sources will mainly used via usb inputs , but it does have DVD / CD , compressed audio cd rips to hard drive BMWs Bluetooth / Telephone and also uses the usual apps like Spotify via phone.
The base system audio has has a 4 inch driver in each door that does mids and highand an 6,5 mid bass drivers in an enclosure that vents to the chassis side sills. The head unit is coded for boosted bass and treble on the front to make up for the speakers short comings. Rear speakers run a reduced frequency range, very much like adding rear fill speakers in the 1990s 😀
The amplifier on this system is the active design module that is a 25 x 4 amp. The F80 is a quiet car compared with previous BMW M3s so the module makes a synthetic engine sound and mixes it with the audio. This system will be bypassed as I’m not a fan but I’ll leave the module in place to avoid any chance of error codes.
1 - 20 of 28 Posts
I’ll do the build in a similar manner to my e46 build and have the interior look stock.
First area of attention will be using the factory A pillar tweeter location. With base audio there isn’t tweeter mounting point and the sail area is curved which would mean making holes and filling and then repainting.
I’ve opted for new BMW window trims as used for the Harmon Kardon tweeters which are quite cost effective for a BMW part.
Will swap the trims over when installing from components.
Have also been looking into door connector wiring. Unlike the BMW e46 which has 3 sets of speaker cabling the F80 only has 1 and it’s 18 gauge. .75mm. I think this size is getting a bit borderline although most 4 inch components are 60 rms or less at 4 ohm. My choice of speakers are either 60 rms at 4 or 3 ohms for front components.
The Door connector looks like there are two unused speaker positions so will this closer if I go active on the front components
My stock A pillar trim without tweeter mounts and replacement BMW trim
![Hood Automotive lighting Automotive design Car Vehicle]()
![Wood Electrical wiring Cable Wire Electrical supply]()
First area of attention will be using the factory A pillar tweeter location. With base audio there isn’t tweeter mounting point and the sail area is curved which would mean making holes and filling and then repainting.
I’ve opted for new BMW window trims as used for the Harmon Kardon tweeters which are quite cost effective for a BMW part.
Will swap the trims over when installing from components.
Have also been looking into door connector wiring. Unlike the BMW e46 which has 3 sets of speaker cabling the F80 only has 1 and it’s 18 gauge. .75mm. I think this size is getting a bit borderline although most 4 inch components are 60 rms or less at 4 ohm. My choice of speakers are either 60 rms at 4 or 3 ohms for front components.
The Door connector looks like there are two unused speaker positions so will this closer if I go active on the front components
My stock A pillar trim without tweeter mounts and replacement BMW trim
Looked into doing a false floor for the subwoofer. Wanting to reuse my old Boston SPG555.
On checking underfloor space whilst the area had roughly 1.2 cubic metres to work with it was only just over 7 inches deep. Became clear that the Boston was too deep at 8 1/4 and would have needed another 3 inches to allow for cone / excursion.
Tried the box I’d made for the BMW e46 and fit was quite good , orientation however for sub is facing passenger compartment as it used to fire through ski hatch armrest. Need to think this though and either modify the existing box or make a new one. Still keen to run passive radiator as well.
![Vehicle door Gas Automotive lighting Fixture Electrical wiring]()
![Tire Wheel Automotive tire Motor vehicle Vehicle]()
![Automotive tire Grey Gas Rectangle Tints and shades]()
On checking underfloor space whilst the area had roughly 1.2 cubic metres to work with it was only just over 7 inches deep. Became clear that the Boston was too deep at 8 1/4 and would have needed another 3 inches to allow for cone / excursion.
Tried the box I’d made for the BMW e46 and fit was quite good , orientation however for sub is facing passenger compartment as it used to fire through ski hatch armrest. Need to think this though and either modify the existing box or make a new one. Still keen to run passive radiator as well.
Decided to go with modifying the enclosure and will try it for sound when I get to installing some amps. Idea is to have it so box can be taken out for track days / track based driver training. Also there is a fuse box under the trunk liner by the back seat.
Added about 6 mm of MDF bottom of box so the top is against the metal trunk cross member. Don’t want it coming through back seat if I get into a decent accident.
Now need to find a carpet match to recover box and some L brackets. Will use thumb screwIs anchor to the factory tie down points.
![Wood Automotive tire Bumper Automotive exterior Gas]()
![Vehicle Hood Automotive lighting Grille Car]()
![Tripod Wood Drill Gas Grass]()
Added about 6 mm of MDF bottom of box so the top is against the metal trunk cross member. Don’t want it coming through back seat if I get into a decent accident.
Now need to find a carpet match to recover box and some L brackets. Will use thumb screwIs anchor to the factory tie down points.
Project is a slow burner. Focal door components arrive next month.
In the mean time have been ordering more bits.
I’m putting components into rear doors. This is primarily for rear passengers ( Daughter mainly who’s into music ) Currently the rear doors only have a 100mm speakers and no tweeters. Fortunately the inside of the door card has the mounting position so looking like a simple case of using a 52mm holesaw on a pre marked position.
Have brought BMW tweeter mounts and a set of Harman Kardon speaker covers which are more acoustically open than base / hifi audio option.
Bits so far
Harman Kardon 8 inch underseat wooefers and enclosures
Harmon Kardon mid bass and rear tweeter grills
BMW rear door tweeter mounting brackets
18uf Audio capictors for bass blockers on Front Focal K2 tweeters.
OEM style BMW speaker connectors for tweeters / mid bass.
MQS BMW door connector pins and sockets for 18 gauge 0.75mm wire ( seems too small but good for 220 watts at 4 ohms)
Wire for speaker loom , going to build complete new loom and leave old loom sound I take the car back to OEM.
Note , speaker wire will be Teflon insulated twisted pair silver plated OFC copper wire which apparently has been covered in fairy dust for the ultimate audio experience. Audiophiles will be impressed and this will be the envy of high roller DIYmoblieaudio members.
Not expecting to make any difference and who am I kidding. I can only hear to 11 kHz …. But you saw it here first ( probably nah , it’s been done )
![Automotive tire Automotive lighting Hood Motor vehicle Vehicle]()
![Audio equipment Loudspeaker Circle Electronic instrument Font]()
![Product Font Material property Screenshot Rectangle]()
In the mean time have been ordering more bits.
I’m putting components into rear doors. This is primarily for rear passengers ( Daughter mainly who’s into music ) Currently the rear doors only have a 100mm speakers and no tweeters. Fortunately the inside of the door card has the mounting position so looking like a simple case of using a 52mm holesaw on a pre marked position.
Have brought BMW tweeter mounts and a set of Harman Kardon speaker covers which are more acoustically open than base / hifi audio option.
Bits so far
Harman Kardon 8 inch underseat wooefers and enclosures
Harmon Kardon mid bass and rear tweeter grills
BMW rear door tweeter mounting brackets
18uf Audio capictors for bass blockers on Front Focal K2 tweeters.
OEM style BMW speaker connectors for tweeters / mid bass.
MQS BMW door connector pins and sockets for 18 gauge 0.75mm wire ( seems too small but good for 220 watts at 4 ohms)
Wire for speaker loom , going to build complete new loom and leave old loom sound I take the car back to OEM.
Note , speaker wire will be Teflon insulated twisted pair silver plated OFC copper wire which apparently has been covered in fairy dust for the ultimate audio experience. Audiophiles will be impressed and this will be the envy of high roller DIYmoblieaudio members.
Not expecting to make any difference and who am I kidding. I can only hear to 11 kHz …. But you saw it here first ( probably nah , it’s been done )
Been sitting on the fence amp dsp wise for a while. OEM integration is important with BMW idrive to me and the BMW M3 run a smaller capicity lithium battery led me to consider power efficiency. Rather than go multi amp and traditional a/b on components as per last build decided to look for class D and . So been looking through 1 box solutions running class d with dsp . Also getting digital audio out of the BMW idrive system was important to me rather than processing and amplifying the analog outputs.
I initially did that on my last BMW system and got average results.
BMW until recently have been using MOST digital infotainment bus which is fibre optic based. MOST is a ring topology with a series of nodes with different functions. I’m order to get digital audio out of MOST you need a device that represents a amplifier to the system.
![Tire Wheel Vehicle Grille Car]()
BMW implemented MOST 25 with the 25 being the speed of 25 mbits a second ( similar to the bit rate on a Netflix 4K video with multi channel sound ) The audio outputs of the various devices is known as Sinks,Some are in mono and others such as parking distance is in surround. The amplifier recognises these sinks and maps them to the appropriate channel.
There aren’t many car stereo manufacturers that have engineered solutions for Most and those that do only map everything to two channel audio with the exception of Mobridge. They have three groups of products. First is a basic Most to toslink device, second group is MOST to DSP and the third is a MOST / DSP / AMP.
With the amp it’s a 10 channel DSP and a 9 channel amplifier. It has 3 levels of outputs ( peak ratings into 4 ohms so guessing half for RMS )
6x150 for running components
2x300 for running mid bass/ woofers
1x500 into 4 ohms or 800 into 2ohms.
1 rca out for bigger subwoofer amp although I understand it ca
This number of channels is perfect for my install and power is at good levels for my system.
The other feature is that you can map four dsp maps to the BMW idrive presets and toggle through them via the idrive. Great for changing dsp settings for passengers such as a map with different time alignment ot rear speakers turned up.
Going to do the following
Channel 1/2 Front Focal k2 tweeters
Channel 3/4 Front door Focal es100k
Channel 5/6 Rear door K2s / es100k running passive
Channel 7/8 BMW Harmon Kardon 8 inch underseat woofers
Channel 9 Boston Acoustics SPG555 & Passive radiator ( yes it’s old and I must be one of the few still running these)
So I’ve ordered a Mobridge Most25 8.1.1 Amplifier and @mobridge has been kind enough to hook me up and is sending one to New Zealand for my install.
I initially did that on my last BMW system and got average results.
BMW until recently have been using MOST digital infotainment bus which is fibre optic based. MOST is a ring topology with a series of nodes with different functions. I’m order to get digital audio out of MOST you need a device that represents a amplifier to the system.
BMW implemented MOST 25 with the 25 being the speed of 25 mbits a second ( similar to the bit rate on a Netflix 4K video with multi channel sound ) The audio outputs of the various devices is known as Sinks,Some are in mono and others such as parking distance is in surround. The amplifier recognises these sinks and maps them to the appropriate channel.
There aren’t many car stereo manufacturers that have engineered solutions for Most and those that do only map everything to two channel audio with the exception of Mobridge. They have three groups of products. First is a basic Most to toslink device, second group is MOST to DSP and the third is a MOST / DSP / AMP.
With the amp it’s a 10 channel DSP and a 9 channel amplifier. It has 3 levels of outputs ( peak ratings into 4 ohms so guessing half for RMS )
6x150 for running components
2x300 for running mid bass/ woofers
1x500 into 4 ohms or 800 into 2ohms.
1 rca out for bigger subwoofer amp although I understand it ca
This number of channels is perfect for my install and power is at good levels for my system.
The other feature is that you can map four dsp maps to the BMW idrive presets and toggle through them via the idrive. Great for changing dsp settings for passengers such as a map with different time alignment ot rear speakers turned up.
Going to do the following
Channel 1/2 Front Focal k2 tweeters
Channel 3/4 Front door Focal es100k
Channel 5/6 Rear door K2s / es100k running passive
Channel 7/8 BMW Harmon Kardon 8 inch underseat woofers
Channel 9 Boston Acoustics SPG555 & Passive radiator ( yes it’s old and I must be one of the few still running these)
So I’ve ordered a Mobridge Most25 8.1.1 Amplifier and @mobridge has been kind enough to hook me up and is sending one to New Zealand for my install.
Thanks for the correction Fraser. Amp has arrived 😀
Amazing that Mobridge 8.1.1 amp fits 1.1 kw of audio power and a DSP in something that will fit OEM amp location. Standard iPad for a size comparison.
Also had a call from the new NZ focal distribution agents today. My K2 es100k speakers ordered start of Feb are fin the country so should get them next week or so. Few more items to get such as OBDIi Wi-Fi adaptor for programming car , sound deadening and I’ll be able to start the build.
![Peripheral Computer keyboard Input device Personal computer Space bar]()
Amazing that Mobridge 8.1.1 amp fits 1.1 kw of audio power and a DSP in something that will fit OEM amp location. Standard iPad for a size comparison.
Also had a call from the new NZ focal distribution agents today. My K2 es100k speakers ordered start of Feb are fin the country so should get them next week or so. Few more items to get such as OBDIi Wi-Fi adaptor for programming car , sound deadening and I’ll be able to start the build.
Just doing some basics over last couple of days.
First was sort out amplifier mounting. Car had base audio and uses the active sound module to power current speakers. It’s bracket looks like it’s also used to mount hifi or Hk amp options. Bracket is designed quite good in that allows the surface area under the amplifier to be exposed for passive air cooling.
Reused one hole and drilled a couple more and installed rivnuts. Amp nice and secure.
Then spent a couple of hours twisting the silver tinned wire together for the new speaker loom. Will run to the spare pin position to door connectors for that OEM style fit. So basically two pairs to each door.
Just waiting on a Most fibre cable order. Took a while to find correct combo of connectors as path is straight from idrive HU to amp. Could only find a 4 meter one so looking like I’ll daisy chain it with Mobridge patch fibre connector as will take fibre cable path behind glove box ( RHD ) and down passenger side.
![Motor vehicle Bag Trunk Auto part Automotive exterior]()
![Motor vehicle Gas Automotive design Auto part Machine]()
![Motor vehicle Automotive lighting Hood Grille Automotive design]()
![Body jewelry Eyewear Automotive lighting Jewellery Font]()
First was sort out amplifier mounting. Car had base audio and uses the active sound module to power current speakers. It’s bracket looks like it’s also used to mount hifi or Hk amp options. Bracket is designed quite good in that allows the surface area under the amplifier to be exposed for passive air cooling.
Reused one hole and drilled a couple more and installed rivnuts. Amp nice and secure.
Then spent a couple of hours twisting the silver tinned wire together for the new speaker loom. Will run to the spare pin position to door connectors for that OEM style fit. So basically two pairs to each door.
Just waiting on a Most fibre cable order. Took a while to find correct combo of connectors as path is straight from idrive HU to amp. Could only find a 4 meter one so looking like I’ll daisy chain it with Mobridge patch fibre connector as will take fibre cable path behind glove box ( RHD ) and down passenger side.
1 - 20 of 28 Posts
