BMW E70 X5 sound system upgrade

bmstuff · 13-07-2013 10:50pm #1

No surprise when it comes to BMW cars, the basic sound system is crap.
This high end X5 came with 6 speakers from factory.

So the plan was to upgrade those using Gladen Audio speakers, retrofit speakers with their original enclosures in the dashboard itself (central speaker) and on the D pillar to have a total number of speakers (Including tweeters) of 12.

Additionally to the speakers upgrade, 2 amplifiers were to be installed in order to drive those new components nicely. A 4 channel DSP Mosconi 120.4 to drive the front speakers and a 5 channels Alpine PDX-5 to drive

the rear speakers and underseat subwoofers.

Installation time: About 25h just for the installation alone. A few extra

hours to come for the amplifiers tuning, testing, CIC iDrive coding.

The project's overview.

The car

Let the fun begin, let's start with front speakers and actual tweeters retrofit.

Let's wire up that plug and play audio loom back from the radio to the trunk.

Let's focus on the Mosconi amplifier. For a proper installation I decided to get the original BMW bracket. After a few modifications the Mosconi amp fitted perfectly.

Some electrical wiring, along with a capacitor installation.

The Mosconi fitted and wired to its finale location.

bmstuff · 13-07-2013 10:51pm

Central dash speaker installed and wired up all the Mosconi amplifier

using channel 3.

And now let's upgrade those horrible underseat subwoofers with the Gladen
ones. 225w peak each. Get that sunroof opened I am telling you guys :-)

Rear doors speakers along with sound deadening material as usual.

Ok let's install those speakers in the D pillar.

Let's install some custom screw washers that are going to hold the

plastic enclosures.

Enclosures installed and brand new plastic cover installed.

Ok let's do the Alpine amplifier installation now.

bmstuff · 13-07-2013 10:52pm

Again let's install this in a way that is going to be secured and hidden.

Results?
A fantastic sound experience, night and day over the stock system.
Clarity, bass, details, imaging of the music is just breathtaking.

"It is like watching a blueray movie for the first time" (Copyright Paddy McGrath

)

Will sound even better after the amplifiers are fully tuned and the iDrive computer is coded to HIFI.

Physical change?
None, if you exclude the owner's new expression as a result of that new permanent smile while driving and overall mood improved.

That's it folks. Thanks for reading. Thanks to my crew as usual for helping to pull out those sound system upgrades.