This was an install in an MY2010 E93 M3 without iDrive, with the decontented 8-speaker HiFi system (2 rear tweeters missing). The idea was to keep the interior and trunk look and space intact, no cutting of any OEM wires and the absolute minimum of non-visible modifications possible.
Very few photos were taken as most of this type of installation has been already documented in other threads (especially the SWS-8 install). However, there are a couple of "notes" to be considered for those interested in installing speakers in a Convertible/Coupe in particular, due to the limited space in the front door panels compared with the Sedan.
The equipment to be installed was:
- Morel Hybrid Ovation II component set (front doors)
- Morel Integra Ovation XO coaxial (rear panel)
- SWS-8 (4 ohms, underseat)
- JL Audio MHD900/5 (Marine version as the vendor did not have the mobile version available in stock)
No processor of any kind for now.
Preparation:
Because I only have one particular day to install all this equipment and in the place of work of the owner, all the pre-wiring, connectors and speaker mounts have to be built and completed pre-install. Pictured above are the four Morel crossovers, a prototype HiFi OEM amp harness (availability for public sell soon) with speaker, remote and RCA cables already labeled and ready to connect, custom-made Morel speaker rings for the front doors and the elusive OEM speaker connectors, for a PnP connection to existing OEM jacks in the doors.
Front doors install:
The first thing that you will notice in an E92/E93 front door panels is how shallow they are for aftermarket speakers, with just a maximum of 35mm of depth available for speakers and its magnets. The second thing that you will notice is that the Hybrid Ovations are 50mm deep:
To find an extra 15mm of space to avoid hitting the window mechanism with the Morel magnet while keeping the OEM grilles, the grilles themselves have to be modified by cutting their mounting tabs:
... and then fixing them on the Morels:
The custom-made MDF mounting rings were fixed from the back of the door panel with Dynamat and the Morel were installed from the front of the door panel. The crossover were mounted inside the door panel as well, with all the speaker connections secured with Dynamat as well:
The Morel tweeter was too big to snap in the OEM tweeter pod, so the tabs were cut and the Morel tweeter just placed in the OEM foam insulation so it is held by the foam pressure itself once the tweeter pod is re-installed.
Rear coaxial:
The current HiFi system does not have tweeters in the rear, so a Integra coaxial set was chosen as the OEM replacement. The rear panel does not have the space limitation of the front door panel, so the OEM grill did not have to be cut. In this particular case, I decided to use Dynamat as the mounting bracket again as it really can hold speakers in place in all weather and road vibrations, with the benefit of it s excellent malleability to fit anywhere and any form tightly:
The rear crossovers cannot fit inside the rear panel, so they were installed behind the lower rear seat back cushion.
SWS-8: They were the easiest to install by using the jtsherri spacers, no need to even remove the enclosures just the OEM woofers. The spacers were prepared with the wires and connectors to match both the SWS-8 and the OEM connector jack, so this was also PnP.
MHD900/5:
Because the HiFi harness was pre-made to match this particular amp connections, it was just a matter of plugging all the labeled connectors in:
Battery connections were made to the distribution block and the ground terminal using the OEM connectors and a 60A fuse.
Sound quality improvement: I will leave the actual review to the owner, but for sure he's extremely happy...
