[bigtracing]

Ok i tried searching but every way i tried typing in three way it wouldnt seach with the 3
anyhow i have a 2008 pre lci e90 with the porfessional system in it. I was wondering if any one has tried to installl a 3 way component system into one of these and what it looked like.. And no im not just going to buy 2 ways i have heard the competition for my xrs in two ways and not nearly as nice. any how if anyone has pics or advice that it would be greatly appreciated

[VP Electricity]

By definition, every system in out cars is a 3-way system, in that we have a tweeter, a midrange, and a woofer under the seat.

You should do more research based on the car, rather than the speakers.

You don't have a Professional system. You have a Professional CD player. The system in the car is *probably* the HiFi system. For info on determining the audio amp-and-speaker system you have, click here.

[kaigoss69]

I suggest you do some reading. 3-way component systems don't work in our cars. You could probably fit the JL set you have, but that doesn't mean it will sound good. The placement of speakers REQUIRES the midrange speaker to be crossed over very low, say 150 to 250Hz, and a midbass speaker that is optimized to work in the very shallow underseat enclosures.

[Pavlo]

Ok i tried searching but every way i tried typing in three way it wouldnt seach with the 3

anyhow i have a 2008 pre lci e90 with the porfessional system in it. I was wondering if any one has tried to installl a 3 way component system into one of these and what it looked like.. And no im not just going to buy 2 ways i have heard the competition for my xrs in two ways and not nearly as nice. any how if anyone has pics or advice that it would be greatly appreciated

2 way vs 3 way has been long debated, common accepted industry knowlegde of 2/3 way systems is that for the same price, no extra tech, and with no skilled sound designer input, a 2 way system nearly always sounds better then 3. The amount of tuning/time/skill/tech required to achieve a perfect sound in 3 way can be a lot, as you’re adding an extra speaker and it to the set-up. So it’s a new pass/gains/frequencies/EQ to be set-up, as well as a headache for your amp choosing and load on it.

As VP pointed out in bimmers it’s a under seat mid-bass, in the base system (6 speakers) its running parallel with the front channels so the under seat nearly always sounds like a dog, so we are all running a sort of 3-way system (a messed up one at that)…

So most people separate the front stage of parallel tweet, mid, mid-bass and create a tweet and mid front stage 2 way (and most add a centre speaker) and then run the under seat mid-bass (which is normally upgraded to SWS8s) as a separate channel, as people normally don’t want/can’t add a sub, so run these SWS8 as a pure sub-woofer. So we are in essence converting the standard 3-way into 2-way running a DSP/Logic7 like BitOne or MS-8 to send and create a balanced surround sound across all speakers running individual/independent sound per speaker with the SWS8 producing thumping bass (well trying to anyway).

Plus ask anyone on here would they rather have the 3 way Top Hi-Fi system or a 2 way Focal/Morel/ Hybrid Audio 4” front stage with Vibe rears, an ms-8, JL HD and instead of the under seat mid-bass (so replacing/removing it out of the equation) add one of VP’s super-dooper ID stealth subs, the latter would come up trumps. This system would kick some ass…

I like what Derek Lee wrote here take note :

"Which sounds better? Audiophile philosophy says that simpler is better, and I agree in the broad sense. It takes more work to make three components work like two, yet never really succeeds. Just watch out for the voodoo that comes up as an extension of sound physics and true common sense. Those who claim they can hear grass growing are typically found on the Internet forums promoting all kinds of weird concepts as if they are industry veterans.

In the sound competitions I have judged starting with Car Audio Nationals back in the mid 1980’s, two-way systems always seemed to be the most natural and cohesive. The reason always made sense to me: if you drop a stone in a calm lake, you can see circular waves propagate outward from the center. Drop two stones close together and the waves appear to blend into one. Drop several stones and you get a mess. Audio follows a similar parallel in that if we can get the sound wavefronts from a woofer and tweeter to blend in time and phase, it will sound like the highly valued “point source”."
- Derek Lee is the former instructor and co-owner of Mobile Dynamics, Toronto, Canada, and contributing tech editor to Car Audio and Electronics magazine.

- "who claim they can hear grass growing" watch out guys we've been sussed out.....

[bigtracing]

So I did some research on the car as well as some upgrade options.... I have the professional head unit with hifi (thanks vp for the link)... That being said why does it say 10 speaker system on my window sticker if it only has 6?? anyhow... I'm trying to do this on a pretty tight budget so i was going to take your advice and add sw8s for mid bass.. Then my next question is can I use just the tweeter, mid-range and crossover from my components which should fit the stock holes? I was thinking the sw8s would take place of the 6.5 inch sub the 3 way system uses. I also have a autotek 1080 by 7 channel amp I was going to use to power everything. That being said what would be the best way to get signal to the amp while still using the oem head unit. Was planning on running aftermarket speaker wire from the amp to the speakers instead of using the oem wiring harness. Thanks for the help so far i have installed fairly complicated systems prior to this but into much simpler cheaper cars then this. So any help is greatly appreciated!