I apologize for not taking many pics, but I never think to have a camera around while i'm working on the car.
In early Nov, I bought an '01 LeMans Blue M5. Since engine mods are outrageously expensive on these cars, I went the audio route this time around. I read the many threads on here and M5Board.com and decided on some components.
Head Unit: Alpine INA-W900BT, Sirius, PAC Steering wheel controls and parking brake bypass
Amp: Alpine PDX-5
Front: Alpine SPX 17-REF
These were really easy to install with the baffles purchased from 12v Electronics (
www.12velectronics.com). It was as simple as taking off the door panels, replacing the stock pods with the panels, wiring everything and putting the door panels back on. I have a bit of buzzing coming from the passenger side, so I'll take it apart in a while and dynamat the panel to quiet it down.
Rear Fill: Alpine SPR-13C
No drama here except for clearancing the stock rear pods a bit to fit the bigger magnets.
Now the fun part!
Subwoofers: 2x Image Dynamics IDQ12
I wanted to replace the stock 10" subs with something a bit more substantial. I made a baffle and it looked ok, but a friend of mine had a few ideas that made the baffle really nice. He took some measurements from my trunk, put it into a CNC design and made me some really nice looking baffles that mount up with 3 bolts.
He showed up with the baffle this weekend and we went to work. The woofers mounted in the holes perfectly. When I test fit the baffle, I notices that the shelf dips down a bit and might interfere with the woofer or the surround, so we had to space it out another 3/4 inch. After surrounding the woofers with 2 1/4" foam, and TONS of cussing, the woofers are mounted to my rear shelf. I wired them up to the stock anemic amp and they're ok for now.
Subs mounted:
Bottom view:
Mounted in the car, sorry for the low light.
I'll update this post with the amp/head unit install once my janus-design kit shows up. I've had really bad luck on this front. I ordered an Ebay kit first, which showed up as an E46 kit. After the seller not responding to emails for 3 days, I bought one from Janus and put in a dispute with Paypal. Of course, the seller responded once I put in a dispute but it was too late and that's another story. FYI, don't buy the Ebay kit, I still don't have repayment after sending it back.
The Janus kit shows up and seems to be missing some parts. After emailing their general email, I got immediate responses at many times between 11pm and 6am German time. They had sent me an E53 kit instead of an E39, so I had to ship it back to Germany. I still haven't received the replacement so the amp/head unit will be done later.