My stereo guy finally convinced me to change the head unit in my '06 E55 to a Kenwood Excelon DDX9903s with an Alpine amp, using the stock Harman Kardon speakers. This added true streaming bluetooth, a rear-view camera, iPod use through the head unit (not the aux jack), HD radio, and even the ability to play DVD or digital video files (which I don't). The unit gives much more control over the sound quality, subwoofer level, crossover points, and other computer enhancements to digital music files. Pandora and Spotify play right off the face of the unit, using the account set up on my phone and bluetooth. Android Auto-Play is also available, but you have to connect it by wire, not bluetooth, which means you cannot have the iPod hooked up at the same time. (Auto-play is pretty lame. Limited functionality.)

Unlike a demo ad on Youtube from Kenwood, this unit will NOT screen mirror an Android phone. It forces you to get the Auto-play App, and the lawyers have reduced the functions available on the screen.

First, I was surprised how good the stock Harman Kardon speakers sounded with the new amp and head unit. They are decent, and certainly better than before, but not "wow" fantastic. By lowering the crossover point for the subwoofer (assigning it the lowest frequencies only), it stopped sounding muddy and actually puts out a nice punch. But I don't think the door speakers can cover all the way down to that crossover point. When set that low, they are punching pretty hard, too, and I'm worried they might blow. So I actually have a tiny gap in my bass frequency coverage.

Second, iPod syncing has been around for a decade, yet this unit is supposedly compatible only with the newest iPod Touch, and even then it's not fool proof. Sometimes it can take 40 seconds for new song to play after being selected from the touch screen. Still, it's nice to have all of my music in the glove box, on the iPod, and to have the dual processors in the headunit handle the music instead of the single tiny processor in the iPod.

Anyway, my Audio Gate Way had been glitching out every once in a while, and the problem was getting worse, so it was only a matter of time before I had to do something. This is one option. Now I wish I had opted for new speakers. Might still do that at some point.

 

Would you please post pictures of the setup and did you retain the center channel ? Which amp did you get (model) or how many channels does it support ? Thanks

 

The amp is the Alpine MRV-V500 5 channel. I did not keep the center dash speaker, and I'm still using the stock sub.

I'll post some pics of the HU and amp when I get home from a New Years' trip.

 

Also, did you run all new speaker wire or just use the factory wires? (I am wondering if there are inline crossovers.) Ideally the speakers are designed as true components and I could purchase a 5 channel amplifier and connect to the factory wires (rather than run all new speaker wires into the doors, etc.).

Then it really is just a matter of selecting a decent head unit, amp, and in my case backup camera.

Thanks in advance for your pictures and help.

 

Head unit (really dusty after long trip).

 

Here's the amp mounted upside down in the trunk.

 

I paid for new speaker wires, so I hope the installer used them.

 

could you follow up with him to see exactly how he installed it? a few on MBWorld suggested that aftermarket amps are not able to power the factory speakers correctly as they're 2ohm if I recall correctly. running lower than rated ohm on an amplifier will eventually burn it out.

 

I don't know when I'll visit the car stereo shop again, but what you're saying sounds like the same arguments people made when the Bose head unit in my old Infiniti went kaput. Everyone said I'd need new speakers because the Bose speakers would not work with standard equipment. The stereo shop just laughed at those arguments and told me they do those types of reconfigurations all the time. They replaced my head unit, and everything kept working fine for years until I sold the car.

 

There is another thread just recently that documented the speaker resistance. Most amps these days can effectively operate at 2 ohms.

 

Here are the specs on my amp from the Alpine website. Looks like 2 ohm is no trouble:

Overview
500W RMS x 1 (2Ω, 14.4V, ≤1% THD+N)
300W RMS x 1 (4Ω, 14.4V, ≤1% THD+N)
Same power in a 40% smaller chassis
Evolution to Class D digital platform
New snap-on terminal covers for easy installation

 

sounds good...I eventually plan to do some sort of upgrade to my car too...just haven't really gotten around to it though. thanks for the review of the factory speakers quality.

 

You can customize the start-up screen:

 

The fiber optic module is only 150$ on eBay now. Keeps the factory amp intact with aftermarket stereo.