94 740IL - new amplifier?

Recently bought a 94 740IL in excellent condition, except for the stereo not
working. The previous owner said he took it to the dealer, where they said
the amplifier was bad and that a new one would cost around $1,000. Do I
need a BMW factory amplifier (proprietary), or could I take it to the local
car stereo shop, get a generic adapter installed and it'll be good as new?

> haute in die Tasten:

> Do I
> need a BMW factory amplifier (proprietary), or could I take it to the
> local car stereo shop, get a generic adapter installed and it'll be
> good as new?
>

AFAIK BMW has sold sound packages with active speakers, which means that
the amplifier is not integrated in the frontend but separately. The parts
may be proprietary. I do not know how much quality you demand from a car
stereo, but I would ask at an independent car stereo shop and replace the
BMW sound system with a new radio and new speakers if necessary. This would
also give you options like MP3 ability and such. Car stereos have become
better in the past decade, you know;-)

Frank

--
please replace spam-muelleimer with fk-newsgroups for e-mail contact

Citroen - Made in Trance

Pull the amp(trunk?) figure out which one it is(all different) and head over
to Ebay. That's what I did, cost me @$50.



> wrote in message
...
> Recently bought a 94 740IL in excellent condition, except for the stereo
not
> working. The previous owner said he took it to the dealer, where they
said
> the amplifier was bad and that a new one would cost around $1,000. Do I
> need a BMW factory amplifier (proprietary), or could I take it to the
local
> car stereo shop, get a generic adapter installed and it'll be good as new?
>
>

> wrote in message
...
> Recently bought a 94 740IL in excellent condition, except for the stereo
> not
> working. The previous owner said he took it to the dealer, where they
> said
> the amplifier was bad and that a new one would cost around $1,000. Do I
> need a BMW factory amplifier (proprietary), or could I take it to the
> local
> car stereo shop, get a generic adapter installed and it'll be good as new?

That's entirely possible, but you'll probably find that unless you a shop
that is REALLY familiar with BMW's, it can't be made to work properly, or at
all. I know this first hand from going to several shops to replace a
buggered changer. Almost everyone had a different idea about which
aftermarket changers would work, and a few of them outright contradicted
each other.

Unless you find something specifically made to interface with the BMW buss,
you're looking at aggravation. The only aftermarket audio mod that I have
seen that is a true plug and play was a subwoofer. I also hear there are
some good iPod interfaces but as for amps, I haven't heard of one yet.

"Frank Kemper" > wrote in message
...
> > haute in die Tasten:
>
>> Do I
>> need a BMW factory amplifier (proprietary), or could I take it to the
>> local car stereo shop, get a generic adapter installed and it'll be
>> good as new?
>>
>
> AFAIK BMW has sold sound packages with active speakers, which means that
> the amplifier is not integrated in the frontend but separately.

That's not quite correct. "Active" speakers by definition have the amp at
each speaker and are fed by line level (not amplified) signal.

The parts
> may be proprietary. I do not know how much quality you demand from a car
> stereo, but I would ask at an independent car stereo shop and replace the
> BMW sound system with a new radio and new speakers if necessary. This
> would
> also give you options like MP3 ability and such. Car stereos have become
> better in the past decade, you know;-)

Bull****. Nothing comes close to listening to Quadrophenia in TRUE 4 channel
sound through my Muntz 8 track!
>
> Frank
>
> --
> please replace spam-muelleimer with fk-newsgroups for e-mail contact
>
> Citroen - Made in Trance

> wrote in message
...
> Pull the amp(trunk?) figure out which one it is(all different) and head
over
> to Ebay. That's what I did, cost me @$50.

Did you install it by yourself? How difficult is it?