View Single Post
      03-16-2013, 11:52 AM   #1
120d_estoril
Enlisted Member
8
Rep
34
Posts

Drives: F21 120d Auto - Estoril Blue
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Birmingham UK

iTrader: (0)

F20/F21 audio upgrade...my build thread with pics...

Hello,
I thought I’d make a bit of a diary of my audio upgrade as there seems to be limited information on the f20/21 at the moment in regards to this.

I’m afraid it’s not going to be a fast flowing build with new pictures and progress every 24 hours but I’ll do my best to keep the progress moving.

I do really wish I’d gone for the Harmon Kardon upgrade. I was umming and arrghing about it after placing the order for the car then whilst the wife and I were on holiday we decided that we’d definitely want to HK so I rang the salesman to be told the order was locked down and we couldn’t amend the car. I’m pretty sure once finished the little system I’m putting together should sound better than the HK system however it’ll cost quite a bit more and won’t add anything to the value of the car come re-sale as it’s not a BMW option. But as we plan on keeping the car for the next 3 – 4 years it should give us some enjoyment along the way and hopefully go in to the new car if we stick with BMW!

First of all the tools I’ve bought to help make things a little bit easier…
Draper Torx kit – already used to remove the seat, and un-do the grill and housing!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also a plastic trim remove to safely remove trim panels without hopefully causing any damage.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So that’s £32 in tools so far.
I’ve also ordered some new midrange and tweeters. I’ve always had a soft spot for DLS. It’s such a nice smooth sound very easy to listen to however still retaining details.
These are the speakers I’ve gone for …

http://dls.se/en/car/prod.html?produkt=en_923

And they ‘should’ be a direct fit behind the tweeter housing and to the door!

These cost me £320 from Matrix Audio.

I also managed to get a good price on a DLS amplifier so got this…

http://dls.se/en/car/prod.html?produkt=en_890

I paid £200 for this brand new so a nice little saving. I plan on using channels 1 & 2 to power the mids and tweeters and channels 3 and 4 to power the under seat mids.

I’ve also ordered some new tweeter housings from Cotswolds BMW.

These cost £70 however I didn’t realise at the time that they came with HK tweeters fitted so I have sold them on as I’ll be using the DLS ones.

So total price for these £35.

Today I decided to remove the under seat subwoofer from the passenger side. I’ve done this as there wasn’t a 100% answer with the F20/21 if an 8” sub would fit in the 6.5” sub enclosure and what depth the enclosure was.

I’m happy to clarify that the enclosure is the same as cars fitted with 8” under seat subs and you have approx. 3” to play with depth wise. To keep things straight forward I’m going to go with some earthquake SWS8 4 ohm under seat subs which ‘should’ fit straight in to the standard enclosure. I’ve not purchased these yet as I wanted to be 100% sure they’d fit in my enclosure.
I’ve added a couple of pictures of this if anyone’s interested although as I said at the start it’s nothing too exciting unfortunately.
Sub removed…

An idea of the depth…

Cover removed showing speaker…

20 minutes with a heat gun and my plastic removal tools…

And the speaker itself, pretty small!


Hopefully this week the speakers will arrive. I will then have a go at removing the door cards. I won’t be doing the full install myself as I’ll be fitting an audison bit ten D and don’t fancy wiring it in myself so I’m going to do a few basics and will get the tweeters in and mounted and leave the rest to the experts.

Total outlay so far £587 (£7 over the HK upgrade )
Appreciate 0