Well, I picked up my M3 last week and I am already planning my stereo upgrade. I have my eyes on the Alpine CDA-7876 and was wondering if anyone has it or has an opinion about it.
Also, how easy is it to yank the stock unit out of the car? I can't see screws anywhere. In my last car (Nissan) they were all over the place and not hidden at all. :(
As far as wire harnesses go I called Crutchfield and beyond the standard harness and antenna adapter they told me I also need a $40 harness to still use the factory amp. Is this true??

That's a great deck, but it's probably not the best for your application. First off, you don't need the special adapter from Crutchfield. The CDA-7876 is a 60 watt per channel deck. Too much power to be feeding into your factory amp. You will be using the speaker outputs as an input to the factory amp. With that much power, you'll have difficulty making small adjustments to the volume. If you intend to eliminate the factory amp, it's a different story. A point about cosmetics. The Alpine deck has a lot of blue in the display. Some people don't like this with the amber/red dash lights on BMWs. The Alpine buttons can be changed to green or amber, but not the display. Welcome and happy tunes. Jay

For cosmetic purposes...check out my ride on sound domain...it has pics of the 7876 (both day and night shots) in my 95' 325i (Black car w/ black Interrior).

http://www.sounddomain.com/member_pages/view_page.pl?member_id=zinka325i

Friggin' Photopoint won't let me post the image here so just go to my sound domain page and check out the pics....

Thanks guys..Zinka, I like the looks of the deck at night..the blue display does not match completely but i think i can live with that..how is the sound??..Jay, i intend on doing a full stereo upgrade in the near future most likely including stealthboxes, new components up front, and 1 or 2 amps...will the alpine deck blow my stock amp completely or will i just suffer in the meantime until i add more upgrades??

Kman,

You may want to send these people an email....
http://www.soundgate.com/rad-repl.html
they make an interface for aftermarket radios to factory amplified systems. If it's not too cost prohitive it may be a good and safeway to interface the deck to your amp for now.

As for the Sound ....The Bass Engine Plus Is Really Sweet...the adjustable cross over points are awesome. SQ is good, but as with most aftermarket decks the Radio (as in FM/AM) quality isn't as good as factory (almost all aftermarket decks are notorious for this). Plus I think I may be jumping on the XM band wagon as soon as it hits the streets in my area, because it's supposed to be everything it's cracked up to be and more.

Some do not like the pre-amp level (Subwoofer 4Volts - 2 Other output are at like 2 Volts or something I think). But I do not have a problem with it. I can always add a balanced line driver (which will hook up to the blanced input EQ I am considering)....

Kman...

Too bad you're not closer to Utica...I would let you see the deck in person...I am going to be there visiting family and getting some work on my car done this weekend.

You shouldn't have a problem if you're careful. Just remember, if you or a well meaning friend cranks it up......you may toast the factory amp. That deck puts out a lot of power. Jay