When Car Audio and Electronics publisher, Joe Rafael, purchased his 2000 BMW 528i he had a minor dilemma: he could pay for the stereo upgrade from BMW (a measley $1,750 on top of the drive-off price) or spend a little time to choose his own components and a shop to do the work. Easy decision. The right one as well when you consider the kind of equipment that went into the vehicle. After all, no matter how much you pay for an upgraded system from the dealer you simply can't match the type of system that you see here in terms of the high quality and the style of install performed.
Like a lot of people in southern California Joe's commute is substantial, almost two hours total, not including a weekly trip to Los Angeles from Orange County for a regular business meeting. Add to that the driving time for taking his children to their afterschool activities and you're talking about a significant portion of the week spent in the car. But since the installation of his a/v system it hardly seems that bad. Where once he may have been reluctant to chauffeur his kids around, he now uses it as an opportunity to enjoy the music he loves, everything from R&B to Clapton and Hendrix (remastered recordings naturally) to Benny Goodman to hip-hop. Actually, the last genre is for his son. Of course, having that plush leather interior helps too.
Choosing components was something of a task. With so many great high-end products to consider it was difficult to decide what to get. Finally he settled on Panasonic's top-of-the-line DVD player, the CY-VMD9000U, as the source. This sleek single-DIN head unit comes with a remote that allows the user to adjust the angle of the monitor, move it forward or backward, and left and right. One of the reasons for deciding on the 9000 can be attributed to its wide 7-inch screen. Joe also liked the fact that the controls were easily accessible. Moreover, in November Panasonic will make it possible to have navigation via this unit. That also figured into the choice.
Selecting a shop proved less difficult. Joe talked with Marc Collins at Xtreme Audio where installers Mike Change and Alan Luong were assigned to the car. This shop is no stranger to these pages (see their Excursion in the Jan. '01 issue). Joe told the guys there that he wanted a stealth install; and that he wanted to retain as much trunk space as possible. They filled the order to a "T". But getting there did require some slick labor.
The first problem that Alan encountered was fitting the Panasonic unit in the dash. The factory stereo is much larger than the 9000, so a custom dash had to be fabricated in any case, but there was also the 2" Eclipse 80201 speaker that needed to be incorporated. Thanks to Xtreme's extensive experience and resources, this was no problem (they even do custom work for other shops), and they were able to direct-mold the piece with the CD holder, coat it with primer, sand it and coat it with six layers of paint in a little over a day. The finished look is absolutely smooth and factory.
The visual signal from the DVD player goes out to two headrest monitors from SAVV, the HR-N5.6BMWBs. The kids are particularly grateful to dad for adding that to the install list. The sound signal fires straight to two sets of MB Quart speakers in the factory locations. The QM215.61Q were fitted into the front doors. These 5.25" speakers deliver a pure sound. On the rear deck the RKC116 6.5" speakers handle the musical duties. The sound spectrum is rounded out with Kicker's L7 Solo-Baric 10" subs. To accommodate the two L7's the original rear deck had to be removed. What you see in its place is a re-created version with custom grills. The work is seamless and again very factory in appearance. And the enclosure below is compact so that it doesn't protrude very far into the trunk space, leaving plenty of room for a couple of golf bags.