E92 M3 HiFi Upgrade PDX-5 Dotechs and SWS-8s

[Liger187]

I upgraded the HiFi sound system in my 2010 E92 M3 a few weeks ago and wanted to share the installation process to help others. I upgraded the subs with the SWS-8s the amplifier with the Alpine PDX-5 and the front speakers with the Morel Dotech Ovation 4s.

I will not cover the wiring of the amplifier or the installation of the SWS-8s since these have been covered in many posts. The only thing I will say is that for 2010 the head unit output colors have changed and I used the pin number to figure out the wires.

To mount the amplifier we created a metal bracket that was attached to the two bottom bolts and the two bolts on the wall. This made the PDX-5 much more secure and allowed it to sit low enough to snap the plastic cover on top.

The installation of the front speakers was very difficult in the coupe. I did not want to top mount the speakers and instead had to grind down the three plastic mount points and use the metal clips that came with the speakers to mount them. We also had to break one of the clips in the stock grill because it was stopping the speaker from going forward. Even after mounting the speakers as forward as possible my windows are slightly rubbing against the speakers. I will leave them as is for now because I don't put my windows down thanks to the lovely air of LA. We had to cut off the top part of the crossovers and mount them in the same location that Badfish used to make them fit. The crossovers have a -3 0 +3 setting on them for the tweeter. I left it on 0 but may lower it to -3 since they are more sensitive than the woofers.

I currently have the fader forward so that the back stock speakers do not get overpowered( my sub channel is getting the signal from the front so fading forward will not lower the sub volume). I have the SWS-8s crossed over at 190hz and the Morels at 150hz and up. My PDX-5 is rated at 109 x 4 and 431 x 1 so I have all the gains set to minimum so that I don't damage the speakers. Once I set the gains on the sub channel at 25% and change the crossovers to -3db for the tweeters the volume of all the speakers will be near equal and the system will be great. It is already close to great and was worth doing the upgrade even though it was very time consuming.

Here are some pictures from the install:

[MendotaMike]

Reviving kind of an old post here. Do you have any updates on your Morel door speaker installation on your e92? Still having problems putting the windows down? I'm looking for door speakers for my e93, having trouble figuring out what will work.

Anyone else with comments or suggestions, please chime in.