Radio upgrade woes

[OnFleekDonutLLC]

I have an E85, with the high end audio system (Carver 10 speaker, I think). However, when I got the car in December, previous owner had ripped out the nav and head unit and put in a sh*tty head unit. Sounded like garbage.

Since then, I got a nicer, Kenwood double DIN head unit and a nice 3D printed bezel I found online. (See first attachment, head unit is Kenwood now, the first one was an Atoto that I didn’t like).

Reviewing the wiring diagrams I learned that there are two channels going from the head unit harness, back to the amp. So I wired some RCA pigtails and plugged them into the front L/R output from the head unit.

It technically works, but the output is very low, and distorts at higher volumes.

So I got a Recoil LOC on Amazon, and it works, but the audio is still distorted, and maxed out volume is still very low. I can send low level and high level signals into the Recoil (it will take either) but the result is the same.

If I remove the LOC and send high (speaker) level signals to the amp, the sound is marginally better, but eventually distorts horribly at relatively low volume.

In scouring the interweb, most of the information I can find is people installing an aftermarket amp and keeping the factory head unit. My situation is reversed; I have an aftermarket head unit that I want to use to drive the factory amp.

So, the question I have is this: what is the expected input voltage for the factory amp? I know the output of the LOC and head unit hovers around 4-5 volts. I’m seeing mixed information that the factory head unit outputs closer to 10 volts. Does anyone know for sure?

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As an aside, there was a couple of times that I was sort of able to “trick” the Atoto head unit into outputting higher voltage (power cycling the unit after boot up a couple times) and it was perfect. So I know the amp and speakers are in good condition. I don’t know what the output voltage was at the time, but it was loud and clear throughout the frequency range.

[Clearancediver]

So…. You should have done some research prior to ….

The Carver 10 speaker DSP system can not be upgraded with a aftermarket radio. The head unit and associated OEM amp are integrated and the amp requires a signal from the radio… or vice versa….via the K Bus.

So, the cure for your problem, is to reinstall the correct radio required. Alternatively, if you are determined to use the aftermarket radio, then it is a “gut and rewire” of the wiring/speakers and a new aftermarket amp that can power all 10 speakers (or not). The BMW speakers aren’t standard.


I have the 10 speaker Carver system with original radio/amp etc…. And it’s absolutely great listening. Like all music today, what is important is the quality of the music. The higher the quality the audio signal is, the better the reproduction….. High quality CD disks give you the best audio quality quite frankly…

So if you are listening to low quality audio files, or Sirius music at low quality broadcast setting, don’t expect the radio system to produce high quality reproduction of the audio file.

You can google all of this……