E36 Rear 6x9 Install - using plastic aftermarket adapters

  The 96+ E36s, without the Harmon Kardon premium sound package, came with 4 inch rear speakers and separated tiny tweeters. Its a two way component system in its own strange way. For sake of cost we opted to go with the traditional coaxial speaker setup. BMW put a two way system in back here so we replicated that same thought while looking for replacements.

  You can't just mount 6x9s in the 4 inch plastic baskets that come stock. You need some soft of adapter. You also cannot fit these pioneers in the stock HK 6x9 assembly due to the size of the magnets. You could modify them to work but, I wasn't happy destroying a perfectly fine working set of HK 6x9s. We thought about making one ourselves however, given the limited time frame I have, it was an easier option to find inexpensive plastic holders already made.

  We went with a two way coaxial speaker from Pioneer (TS-D6902R). From the same model as the front components. I like matching speakers given my limited knowledge of all things stereo. The pros can mix and match stuff and make them sound awesome. We needed a cost effective solution that doesn't sound like dookie. We listened to several different speaker variations from other manufactures before pulling the trigger on these. They are a good sounding entry level speaker for a good price.

  Install is also simple. The adapters accept screws that are about an inch deep/long. Jeremy brought the hardware over. We also used bolts with self locking washers to secure the adapters, using the stock holes.

  Wiring is fairly straight forward depending on how you would like to have these installed. If you want to bypass the stock amp all together you will need to clip and cut wires from the 26 pin connector going to the amp which, is located behind the carpeting, on the driver's side, in the trunk. Since these 6x9s want a full range signal you can get more highs/mids from them in this fashion. More to come on this. Replacing the speakers was the first step for this project.

We were curious how these would sound if that were hooked up to the stock amp on the sub outs. They are the larger wires in the 4 pin connector. Instead of cutting the stock 4 pin clip we opted to unclip the harness from the stock 4 inch boxes. Jeremy made quick work of busting them out.

  I then soldered and heat shrunk the leads that came with the 6x9s to them. So we still have the stock connectors and they are running from the bass speaker outputs on the stock amp. This runs, from what I've read, at about 22 watts RMS. The aftermarket Alpine that Jeremy has runs at 14 watts RMS by itself. So to really get the beats pumping we will probably need to add an aftermarket amp back here as well but, in the mean time, 22 is a bit more than 14. 

  To our surprise the sound coming from them was decent. Obviously comparing a new 6x9 to a blown 14 year old speaker is unfair. Since we only connected the bass outputs I figured we would only get low end. The factory amp does crossover/mix in some mid-range. Which makes sense. With the adjustment on the head unit for the treble we were able to reproduce decent sound. The treble is of course muffled still. The only way around that at this point, is to get the stock amp out of the picture, and get the full range signal to the speaker. Pushing the signal further through an aftermarket amp would  increase their effectiveness as well.

  I wired my 6x9s to bypass the stock amp. They do have more clarity in the high and mids however, they have barely enough bass to enjoy them. I would recommend either run off the stock bass leads or run and aftermarket amp. That's the fun part about testing things. Hearing the difference in real life vs just guessing.

  In current form, these are a large improvement for bass over the stock 4 inch Nokia's (duh), and the highs are more pronounced when increased from the after market head units' built in EQ. In comparison to the HK 6x9s (in my car) they are also more clear and have more bass. The magnets are bigger, and the tweeter is much larger. The tweeter on these is the same as the ones in the corresponding component set. 

We are going to leave these as is for now and refocus on taking care of the rest of front speaker stuff.