Car stereo speaker and amp upgrade problems BMW F30

[najainitro]

Hi all I have a 2013 BMW F30 with the basic 4 speaker non amplified system.

I decided to improve the soundsystem and introduced a Vibe 65.4 power box... seems a really neat piece of kit with 4x65w output.

I then upgraded my door speakers to Rockford Fosgate P142s, same size as the original door speakers and came highly rated.
I thought I’d see a big improvement but if I’m honest I think it sounds a bit tinny and marginally worse.

The problem i think is the fact that the Rockford fosgate speakers are only 60w RMS so I think the amp is slightly overpowered. The amp also seems to get very hot.

Impulse buying without understanding unfortunately.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve it without changing the speakers again? I was thinking of adding tweeters and a passive crossover to distribute the remaining power? I don’t really know much about sound systems so this is all new to me. The only thing I thought was splitting the cabling and adding another speaker, so 8 speakers off a 4 channel output of that makes sense?

Alternatively is there any way of reducing the amps output to meet the speakers power rating?

Any advice or suggestions would be massively appreciated.

Cheers

[craigjm]

Is it still running on the original speaker wire? I would upgrade that first

[defblade]

I'd take a different view... I've run waaay more power than that through OE speaker wire with no problems at all.
60w vs 65w is also too small to make any real difference without hammering them at near max for hours.
The Vibe unit is cheap and cheerful, but unlikely to produce the best quality sound ever.
Are the new speakers well mounted and well sealed? Without some sealing and deadening, they are unlikely to perform to their potential.
Have you tested the system for clipping? That will lead to poor sound at higher levels, as well as quickly killing the new speakers.

[David Beer]

I would check the phasing of the wiring to the speakers , making sure the positive of each output goes to the positive of the speaker. If any are reversed the sound is deadened, the bass will almost be cancelled. Agreed the wattage difference would not cause any problems and the speaker wiring itself would not be a problem at that wattage.

[heisthegaffer]

najainitro said:

Hi all I have a 2013 BMW F30 with the basic 4 speaker non amplified system.

I decided to improve the soundsystem and introduced a Vibe 65.4 power box... seems a really neat piece of kit with 4x65w output.

I then upgraded my door speakers to Rockford Fosgate P142s, same size as the original door speakers and came highly rated.
I thought I’d see a big improvement but if I’m honest I think it sounds a bit tinny and marginally worse.

The problem i think is the fact that the Rockford fosgate speakers are only 60w RMS so I think the amp is slightly overpowered. The amp also seems to get very hot.

Impulse buying without understanding unfortunately.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve it without changing the speakers again? I was thinking of adding tweeters and a passive crossover to distribute the remaining power? I don’t really know much about sound systems so this is all new to me. The only thing I thought was splitting the cabling and adding another speaker, so 8 speakers off a 4 channel output of that makes sense?

Alternatively is there any way of reducing the amps output to meet the speakers power rating?

Any advice or suggestions would be massively appreciated.

Cheers

I think you can bridge that little amp so. Might be worth running the rears off the head unit and bridging for the fronts.

Def check the phasing and deadening etc though.