Enhanced Premium Sound to VERY Enhanced Premium Sound

[SCtud]

It took about a year of fiddling around and tweaking designs of the system, but I can finally say that the system is MOSTLY complete with only a few future changes to come.

Many thanks to Don at Unexpected Creations for being so patient and providing excellent advice along the way. His install skills are top notch and you can see the level of detail in the wiring and careful alignment of speakers. Same goes for the extremely helpful members on here - Technic for the info on the painstaking upgrade problems for those of us with Enhanced Premium Sound (EPS), VP Electricity for advice on options on the underseat subs, and 808MGuy for his kickass speaker rings.

I had several iterations before ending up with this one. I was pretty adamant on doing a single amp system and had chosen the Tru Technology Super Billet 8 for that task (which BARELY fits in an e93 positioned diagonally and requires modified RCAs since there is so little clearance on both ends of the amp). I wanted everything to look as stock and stealth as possible, so the initial speaker choices were Focal 100KRS for the tweets and mids. This evolved into Dynaudio MD102s for the tweets, Esotar 430s for the mids, and a variety of choices for the underseat sub. I had initially bought Hertz Space 8s for that, then wanted to keep everything Dynaudio so tried to see if an MD182 or Esotar 650 would fit, which was not possible.

The final system ended up as follows:
- Motus Lab AGW+ (located where the OEM amp sits) to interface with the Enhanced Premium Sound MOST output and provide digital sound processing
- 2x Tru Technology Line Drivers w/ Burr-Brown OPA2604 OpAmps
- Tru Technology B4100 w/ Stage IV and LME op amps driving 2 Esotar 110 tweeters in the stock mids location and 2 Esotar 430 midranges in Jehnert door panels
- Tru Technology B2200 w/ Stage IV and Burr Brown op amps driving 4 Esotar 650 midwoofers wired in parallel in Jehnert door panels (2 midwoofers per door)
- Tru Technology B2200 w/ Stage IV and Burr Brown op amps driving the 12" Esotar 1200 subwoofer running infinite baffle in the ski pass location
- Cascade audio sound deadening and JBL/Straightwire cables

Future upgrades include:
- I may switch out the Motus for a different processor at some point (hopefully the Zapco DSP8 if it ever comes out, and I would have to upgrade to a CIC head unit and program it for balanced RCA output). I am having difficulty procuring an extra set of USB cables from Motus so that settings can be tweaked. Also, the Motus randomly fails to connect at startup and I receive no audio for the entire drive (happens maybe 5% of the time). Very annoying. Anyone else with the Motus have this issue? They seem to be MIA on customer support right now.
- Switching the two line drivers for the new 8 channel line driver

Comments on the system itself:
- Audio sounds great of course. The system has not gone through a full tuning yet, but I am already impressed.
- I'm very happy that everything looks OEM and takes up very little space. The trunk floor is lifted a couples inches and I lose the door pockets where the Jehnert's go, otherwise I am losing no cargo space with this install.
- Now that I've seen how well infinite baffle subwoofers can perform, I don't think I will ever go back to a trunk eating box again if possible. It sounds excellent with the arm rest up as well - no material loss in sound quality.
- There was a bizarre issue with static and cell phone interference getting into the audio chain which did not occur with Don's installs on dozens of other BMW 3-series. Props to Don for troubleshooting it out!
- Anyone in the Tri-State area looking to amp up their audio should give Don a call. I sat in B-737's car while Don was doing a final test and it blows the Enhanced Premium Sound option out of the water at a similar cost.

[Technic]

Damn.

[kmarei]

love the ski hatch sub
been wanting to do that for ages

[jml]

Wow!

How much does your car weigh now?

[PKL]

Yeah.... that's a lot

[SCtud]

Originally Posted by jml

Wow!

How much does your car weigh now?

I'd guess probably another 100-120 lbs, but it's an E93, so it's pretty bloated as it is already.

[kaigoss69]

You make me sick, sir!

BTW, I think I just bought your "old" MD102s that were obviously not good enough for you...

[edcvin]

I think he could have did a better job on your door panels..must sound great though.


-Vin

[SCtud]

Originally Posted by vinnycg

I think he could have did a better job on your door panels..must sound great though.


-Vin

The door panels are basically bolt-on and custom made for the vehicle from Jehnert. Not much you can do to improve the actual product installation as it only fits in one spot. A complete custom fabricated door panel is probably the option you're referring to, but I was impressed with how OEM the Jehnert's look and had already far exceeded the budget I wanted to stick with

Originally Posted by kaigoss69

You make me sick, sir!

BTW, I think I just bought your "old" MD102s that were obviously not good enough for you...

Thanks for the purchase I may need to end up getting another set anyway for a 2nd less intense vehicle install.

[kaigoss69]

Wait...tweeters in the OEM mids location and mids in the bottom of the doors? Why?

[vp fiberglass]

Very impressive list of components. And a very clean install, props to Don. I'm sure the Jehnert door panels look great in person.

[SCtud]

Originally Posted by kaigoss69

Wait...tweeters in the OEM mids location and mids in the bottom of the doors? Why?

The Esotar tweets are too big to fit in the sails - they're 4.37" in diameter. They actually fit perfectly where the mids normally are with 808MGuy's speaker rings. I was a bit afraid the sound stage would seem a bit low, but it does not at all since the Dyn's perform very well off-axis.

[808MGuy]

That is pretty sweet! Curious to know how you fit that Super Billet in there in the last install. Not that I would be able to buy one but I can always dream!

[TMR]

VERY nice. I have the same issue with the AGW+ and yes, still no answer from the guys at MotusLab. But man does it sound good when it does decide to turn on! That is a system that is well done. I know the owner of TRU and his amps are top notch.

[SCtud]

Originally Posted by 808MGuy

That is pretty sweet! Curious to know how you fit that Super Billet in there in the last install. Not that I would be able to buy one but I can always dream!

The super billet can fit if angled diagonally in the same area the three billets are. It ended up being too much of a pain, so going with the three regular billets just made more sense - plus I felt better about giving the dyn's some extra power.

Originally Posted by TMR

VERY nice. I have the same issue with the AGW+ and yes, still no answer from the guys at MotusLab. But man does it sound good when it does decide to turn on! That is a system that is well done. I know the owner of TRU and his amps are top notch.

Not sure that I feel better that someone else has the same problem. Do you notice any rhyme or reason to it? Seems to do it more often when I stop for gas and restart the car to drive off, but then again, it doesn't do it everytime.

[TMR]

Originally Posted by SCtud

The super billet can fit if angled diagonally in the same area the three billets are. It ended up being too much of a pain, so going with the three regular billets just made more sense - plus I felt better about giving the dyn's some extra power.



Not sure that I feel better that someone else has the same problem. Do you notice any rhyme or reason to it? Seems to do it more often when I stop for gas and restart the car to drive off, but then again, it doesn't do it everytime.

I just noticed you have a 2008 which has the dvd based nav like my 335i had. I am going to install it on my 2011 M3 and see if it works any better. I had tons of phone issues too, like sometimes my phone wouldnt make any sound. Anyhow, if you happen to hear from them please let me know. I would love an updated firmware to fix these BS issues.