I bought an E30 radio on eBay that I intend to install in my 1971 2002 this Spring - before I drive the car to Midamerica02fest and Oktoberfest @ Elkhart Lake. Any suggestions on what speakers to get, where to install them and how to wire them/ Craig Reisser 'CCA Member #4264
Nice speaker kick panels here, so you don't have to cut holes in your door panels: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,329333/ For the rear stage having them in the hat rack panel will provide better sound, but some put a pair in the vertical carpeted piece that supports the rear seat bottom, to provide a bit of fill. You want round speakers - no more 6x9 Tri-axials!
There were several "radios" installed in E30s, so it depends on what you bought. Some had a "power amp" built right in. That would be best for your application since you could simply connect speaker wires directly from the radio to the speakers (left front, right front, left rear and right rear). The other kind of E30 radio had a "line level" output (headphone type power) which had to be amplified. Those were the premium sound systems which had a factory power amp in the trunk. This would be a more complicated installation since you would have to install a power amp somewhere (trunk) and run the speaker wires from that. The weird thing about this configuration was that they also had a "fader" control installed separately in the dashboard which split the left and right stereo output into the 4 channels (left front, right front, left rear and right rear) which all went back to the trunk. Probably the simplest way to see which kind you have is to just hook up a speaker to the outputs at the back of the radio and see if you get sufficient volume out of the speaker. Regarding what components work with what, you might give Crutchfield a telephone call. It never ceases to amaze me the kind of obscure stuff they have in their database. Also note that BMW radios of that vintage had a "theft proof" system which locked the radio when power was disconnected. Put your best clothes on, comb your hair and go to the dealership: if you look honest, they can look up the code for the radio based on the radio serial number which is somewhere on the unit.
All E30 radios had speaker-level output, even those that used the Hi-Fi sound system with the trunk-mounted amps used the same head-units. They can all be used without amps as in the base 325 if you're not very demanding about what the system sounds like. Might as well squirt some DeOxit in the volume control before you slam that ancient pile of transistors into your 2002 dash! As long as you don't care about how it sounds ( since you're using an E30 radio) you can fit the 4"x6" speakers from an E21 or E12 in the under-dash panels of a 2002 using the stock grilles without making any visible changes to the doors or the kick-panels. I did it on my tii and my 1600 cab. Personally I'd prefer to use a modern CD/MP3/USB/iPod controller unit from any of a dozen manufacturers and they all have much more stock output power than the old BMW radios. Of course they don't look as "BMW" as a BMW radio, but many of them have that same red lighting as the E30 radio, a fairly simple mostly black faceplate, and cost under $100. My 1600 Cabriolet (not the beige one, Craig) has a Becker Mexico Cassette signal-seeking radio out of a Mercedes 600 Pullman. Now that's a period piece! -Phil Marx
CraigBMW2002; you might be safe then, no matter what radio you bought. FWIW, I installed an iPod jack between the outputs of the radio and the power amp in my 1987 325ic and got good sound from it. That must mean my radio isn't sending my amp more than a few milliwatts of power.
They wire the Hi-Fi system differently, taking only the + terminal from the DIN output on the radio and running them to the amp and then through a different "high-power" fader control on the dash. The radios are all the same. It's the amp that's designed for a high-level (speaker level) input but then the headphone output from an iPod is output level. The dock connector contains line-level.
One thing to take into account is the impedence of the Factory speakers (E30). Its very common for the factory systems to run "odd" impdedence levels. Typical off the shelf speakers are going to be 4 OHM in a Car Audio application (there are exceptions). Unfortunately I cannot recall what the factory speakers in an E30 typically are, I have been E30less for too long (my personal issue, need to rectify). The reason this is significant is because the amplifier (on board or external to the headunit) may or may not be able to run speakers of a specific OHM value very well due to the current draw. Here is a decent writeup about OHMs and how they relate to Car Audio. http://www.carstereo.com/help/Articles.cfm?id=44
Exactly, which is why it works connected directly to the factory amps in an E30 and doesn't need to go through the head unit. Line-level output wouldn't work the same way. Parts listing show the E30 used either a 4-ohm or 8-ohm speaker without the sound-system (amplified) option, and 4-ohm with the sound-system amps. The E21 320i also shows both 4 and 8-ohm speakers available with all but the "4-ohm 20-watt" discontinued. Looks like as long as you stick with 4-ohm or greater and don't hook too many in parallel you should be fine.
Ahhh, great info, good to know on the Ohm ratings, sorry for throwing out some confusing info for nothing!
