[pbsun]

The rear non-hk speakers in the e46 are horrible and so I decided to replace them. Instead of going with 6.5 inch speakers I opted for 5.25's. First thing I noticed was the discrepancy in the number of screws which hold the original speaker in (3) and the number of screw fittings in the after market speaker (4). There are adapters which solve this issue but after some thought I decided to reuse the frame from the factory speaker.

The crap speaker

Use a flat head screw driver to remove speaker paper

Upper speaker removed

Use a hefty cutter to cut plastic holding the speaker magnet to frame

Speaker magnet removed

Use the new 5.25 as a guide to making holes in the speaker frame

These are the screws i picked up from home depot

These clips help keep the speaker in place

Fits nicely

Final placement in housing

In the car

 

[emandizzy]

Great post PBSUN, i just wish you had a coupe, i have the same problem with my rear speakers. Except in the coupe the panel is extremely shallow.

 

[Custom3]

nice mod!

 

[Bandersnatch]

Very nice, PbSun. Crutchfield sells an adapter bracket for 5 1/4 " speakers, but I like the way you MacGyvered a free solution.

We used Infinity Reference 6022si speakers in the back of my son's '01 coupe. They are 2-ohm speakers just like the originals (so the impedance matches) and the "si" stands for shallow mount. They are 6 1/2 " speakers, and the '01 325Ci has a plastic basket that the speakers drop into. We cut off the mounting tabs on the Infinities and glued them into the plastic basket with a bead of silicone around the edge. Fit was excellent.

Eman, unless the 323 coupe is real different than the 325, these should fit in your car - the top mounting depth is 1 and 13/16 inches. The newer model (6032si) is only 1 15/16, so it should work too. Both models are great sounding and reasonably priced - you can find them for around $60 a pair.

We also cut out the connector built into the old speaker (visible in the 3rd and 4th pics above) and soldered it onto the new speaker wires so we didn't have to cut the existing harness.

The other nice thing about the Infinities is the tweeter doesn't stick up beyond the top of the woofer cone (unlike the ones above) so you can still use the stock speaker grill.

 

[Brilliant]

Very nice, PbSun. Crutchfield sells an adapter bracket for 5 1/4 " speakers, but I like the way you MacGyvered a free solution.

We used Infinity Reference 6022si speakers in the back of my son's '01 coupe. They are 2-ohm speakers just like the originals (so the impedance matches) and the "si" stands for shallow mount. They are 6 1/2 " speakers, and the '01 325Ci has a plastic basket that the speakers drop into. We cut off the mounting tabs on the Infinities and glued them into the plastic basket with a bead of silicone around the edge. Fit was excellent.

Eman, unless the 323 coupe is real different than the 325, these should fit in your car - the top mounting depth is 1 and 13/16 inches. The newer model (6032si) is only 1 15/16, so it should work too. Both models are great sounding and reasonably priced - you can find them for around $60 a pair.

We also cut out the connector built into the old speaker (visible in the 3rd and 4th pics above) and soldered it onto the new speaker wires so we didn't have to cut the existing harness.

The other nice thing about the Infinities is the tweeter doesn't stick up beyond the top of the woofer cone (unlike the ones above) so you can still use the stock speaker grill.

Thanks for posting what you did. A couple guys put in infinity kappa 6.5s but it was a sedan, I didnt know if there was a difference with the coupe

Crutchfield has the E46 adapters, I hear two sets will get me front 5.25 kappas and rear 6.5 kappa separates. Tweeters in the rear sidecard, not ideal, but meh wtf do I care. I don't sit in the back. Only thing I am wondering now is how to mount the front tweeters (hot glue may be it) and if a 6.5" JL/Kickersub will fit in place of the HK 6x9 'sub'.

I am wanting to keep the install as invisible as possible. I will be modifying the CD shelf and mounting the amp and crossovers on the CD shelf, somehow.

 

[Series3peater]

That's creative, I do have a point of observation. If I am seeing the pictures correctly, it looks like you did not seal or fill the gap between the old speaker ring and the new speaker. The speaker will not perform as designed with that gap present. Each side of the speaker needs to see it's own isolated airspace. For example a sealed box or in this case an infinite baffle.

You could use a thin peice of MDF to bridge that gap, the sound quality and volume should improve.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Crutchfield has the E46 adapters, I hear two sets will get me front 5.25 kappas and rear 6.5 kappa separates.

The Crutchfield adapters are for mounting 5 1/4 inch speakers in the front doors. 6 1/2s are too deep to fit there, but are OK for the rear deck. The adapters have the oddball 3-tab mounting system that the OEM speakers have and also have holes that match the holes for most other kinds of speakers. So you attach the adapters to the speakers and then bolt the adapters into the OEM mounting points in the doors. Here's a link with a picture:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-OwviBxKoeX9/p_142SABW525/BMW-Speaker-Brackets.html?tp=2824

These adapters won't work for 6 1/2 inch speakers on the rear deck. You can use the trick that the OP did - I think your new speakers will drop right in and rest on the bottom of the ring with no gap like there is with the OPs 5 1/4s. Or you could use the plastic basket as the mount like I did.

The Infinity components we bought came with 4 or 5 different mounting brackets for the tweeters - one was a screw on ring just like for the OEMs. I imagine the kappa components will have that too.

I can't answer your question about the sub (non-HK in my coupe), but you'll be able to tell after you get in the trunk and start poking around. Good luck. :thumbsup:

Edit: Just a heads up. The worst part of the rear deck speaker replacement was dealing with the stuff lining the speaker grills. There was some kind of foam rubber there that fell out in little chunks and if you tried to pick them up, they just turned into dust. Left little soot marks everywhere. The marks came up after scrubbing with Febreeze, but I'd suggest taking the grills outside the car as soon as you pop them off and deal with that stuff out there.

 

[RHLP3]

That's creative, I do have a point of observation. If I am seeing the pictures correctly, it looks like you did not seal or fill the gap between the old speaker ring and the new speaker. The speaker will not perform as designed with that gap present. Each side of the speaker needs to see it's own isolated airspace. For example a sealed box or in this case an infinite baffle.

You could use a thin peice of MDF to bridge that gap, the sound quality and volume should improve.

+1 you should be seeing a major lack of mid bass in this setup.

 

[Brilliant]

... but you'll be able to tell after you get in the trunk and start poking around. Good luck. :thumbsup:

yeah thanks. So you put 2 sets of separates in your coupe? I read someone did this so I was going to do the same, monkey see, monkey do. But I question that now. I dont know S about car audio just what I have read the last couple days. Also did you mount the kappa 50.9 tweeter in the mid or the tweeter spot in the front door?

Anyway... I was thinking of putting the kappa 60.9 woofer in the rear deck and getting a 3"? mid of the coupe rear side panels. This is more like the factory setup and I dont know if I want tweeters in the rear side cards. Like I said I dont know S, about this stuff but thats what I am thinking now.

Also the HK baskets might work with a low profile sub. I discovered why the HK subs sucked so bad in my car. The amp was broken, a piece rattling inside. Nothing was going through them.

 

[Bandersnatch]

We put components in the front - separate tweeters and mid-bass - and 2-ways in the rear deck. The built-in tweeter in the 2-way doesn't do anything because the crossover has already happened at the amp, but it cost less and there's no rear tweeter in the coupes anyway.

The spec to pay attention to is "top mounting depth". Unless you want to cut sheet metal, you're limited to about 2 1/2" in the doors and 2 3/4" in the rear deck. The 60.9s have 2 7/16 depth so you should be OK in the rear. The 50.9s have 2 3/16, so you should be fine in the front too.

The midrange is 2 3/4" diameter and about 1 1/4" deep. We didn't replace those because they sounded OK.

The midrange and mid-bass speakers are 2 ohms, but the tweeters are 8 ohms (go figure). We haven't put the (2 ohm) tweets in the front doors yet, and I'm a little bit worried about the impedance mismatch - at the very least it will require the treble to be cranked up a bunch and at the worst it could fry something. :yikes: I'll post after we do it.

Good luck with your install. PM me if you need more info.

 

[Shade00]

The spec to pay attention to is "top mounting depth". Unless you want to cut sheet metal, you're limited to about 2 1/2" in the doors and 2 3/4" in the rear deck. The 60.9s have 2 7/16 depth so you should be OK in the rear. The 50.9s have 2 3/16, so you should be fine in the front too.

2 3/4 in the back of the Coupe? I haven't tried to replace mine yet, but I was thinking about trying the Kicker 6.5" shallow mount woofers in the back. The stated top mount depth is either 2 13/16" or 2 7/8"... I wonder if that would fit.

 

[Bandersnatch]

It's kinda weird back there - the pocket where the speakers fit slopes to one side, so the depth depends on where you measure it. Right in the center there's almost 3 1/2 if I remember correctly, but then it slopes up to one side. If the Kicker magnet is not too big in diameter, it should fit.

But take a look back there - it's real easy to take the old speakers out and measure. Pop off the grill, remove 3 screws and lift the speaker out. If you have the mounting lug for a child's car seat, you have to take that off first.

Edit: Not sure I explained this clearly. If the speaker magnet is say, 4" in diameter, then you want to measure 2" off center toward the shallow end and see if you have enough depth. If it's 6" in diameter then measure at 3" off center, because the space is getting shallower the farther away from center you go. Hope this helped.

 

[Brilliant]

Bandersnatch... you've be a lot of help. Thanks.

I placed my order today for 50.9s 60.9s and an amp. I will probably add 2x mids to the rear doors and sell the tweeters. I couldnt tell if the 2x kappa would fit under the grill so it was a bit more for the 60.9 just to get the woofer than a 2x, but hopefully someone will want a tweeter for a few bucks and it wont be too bad.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Glad to help. :bow:

Let us know what you find for mids in the rear, and how you like the kappa tweeters in the front doors. Good luck.

 

[Alex323Ci]

I recently bought some Focal speakers that are exact 6" replacements. They dropped in the rear deck baskets when I removed a slip-on rubber cap on the bottom magnet. Nice fit, easy install and great sound.

*EDIT* see below for fixes, not exact fitment and Diamond Audio not Focal. Overall shoot me for posting inaccurate info, my number one pet peeve on information forums.

 

[Bandersnatch]

I found some 6 3/4" Focal speakers at Crutchfield's site, but no 6". They seem to have a lot of possible mounting hole configurations.

Were you able to find 3 holes that matched the OEM mounts in the rear deck?

 

[Alex323Ci]

I found some 6 3/4" Focal speakers at Crutchfield's site, but no 6". They seem to have a lot of possible mounting hole configurations.

Were you able to find 3 holes that matched the OEM mounts in the rear deck?

I must be getting old, memory loss. :facepalm: Actually a total fail of a post because I'm wrong on so many points.
I pulled out photos of the install and forgot i had to glue the speaker to the basket ring, so no the mounting points weren't the same. The Speakers were Diamond Audio 363 . I'd pull my whole post, but leaving it to answer your question although it makes me look like an idiot(rightfully so).

 

[Bandersnatch]

Hey, no problem. I do stuff like that all the time.
:facepalm::rofl::lmao:

 

[ddombrowski]

I must be getting old, memory loss. :facepalm: Actually a total fail of a post because I'm wrong on so many points.
I pulled out photos of the install and forgot i had to glue the speaker to the basket ring, so no the mounting points weren't the same. The Speakers were Diamond Audio 363 . I'd pull my whole post, but leaving it to answer your question although it makes me look like an idiot(rightfully so).

Alex,

I just wanted to confirm, you dropped in the diamond audio 363 6.5" rear speakers into the stock speaker basket and glued them in place - what exactly did you glue? Did you cut apart the mounting ring of the stock speaker and glue the diamond speaker to that? Or are you talking about the lower basket that sits underneath the magnet?

Also, how is the sound of the diamond being that they are 4-ohm speakers?

 

[Brilliant]

I can verify that the Kappa 60.9CS woofers will not fit in the rear deck baskets. You must remove the baskets and mount to the parcel tray itself. Which is bad since the support is actually the basket. If you mount to the parcel tray you can use your baskets as speaker adapters by cutting off the basket from the mount ring, the Kappa diamter is a perfect fit, just not its depth.

I drimmeled away about half the basket to allow the 6.5 to fit depth wise in the basket. I then saved about half the speaker support. I am happy with the kappa setup. I am running CDT 6x9 subs, 50.9CS fronts, 60.9CS rears w/the high pass filter pressed on the rears to keep the rear from being too bright. Powering it is a Kappa 5. It gets very loud and far clearer than the OEM HK setup I had. Plenty of bass too with the 6x9s.

My objectives were reached: maintain OEM apperance, improve sound.

Nothing looks non-oem except the amp power cable running under the panel where the spare tire spot/mobility kit spot which cannot be seen until you remove the trunk lid. Overall I think the setup was pretty perfect. No perm mods to the car.