Well, since joining the forum - in the short time I have been here (very short) I have found it to be the best Forum on the web for the E46.

The advice received has been great, and some of the cars here are stunning. - What am I saying??? They are all E46's - there a stunning!

Anyway, following some of the sound advice received (no pun intended) I have ordered the following:

Pioneer MVH-8300BT Headunit - Ordered this due to its iPod control/ display. It also has 3x 4v Pre-Outs - which was essentially the minimum I wanted.

Alpine PDX 4.150 Amplifier - 150W RMS x 4 [4Ohm@14.4V 1% THD]

Focal PS165 Components - 80w RMS

12awg Gauge Speaker Cable

5m ISO Extension

40 Pin Flat to ISO Connector

20 Sheets of Silent Coat Sound Deadening

20 Door Panel clips

20 Trim Clips

New OEM Boot Carpet

Antislip grip liner

2x 6.5" 68mm deep mdf baffles

32gb Ipod

OEM Single Din center console

Single din fascia adpater

Alpine Front Window Mount Invisible Antenna

I will start by stripping out the entire interior, documenting it as I go, place sound deadening under both front seats, under rear bench on both sides, in the spare wheel well, in side both rear quarters (boot and back seat area), both front doors, Boot lid, both front foot wells, both rear foot wells - giving it all a good clean at the same time.

I will mount the mdf baffles direct to the door, so I can mount the speakers directly into them, and place the focal tweeters in the bottom corners of the windscreen.

The current 40pin connector block is in the boot (due to originally having OEM Nav), so I have bought an ISO adapter lead with a pioneer patch lead, and a 5m ISO extension, I will cut the canbus adapter of the lead, and extend it up behind the dash along with the iso extension so it can plug into the headunit with the patch lead.

I have high quality OFC RCA leads which I will run down the center of the car, by the gearbox tunnel. directly to their appropriate amps. I will then use the 12AWG speaker cable and follow back up the RCA leads from the amp, behind the dash, and fed across to each of the focal crossovers, which will be mounted behind the dash, I shall then feed from the cross overs to their tweeters on the dash and mids in the door.

Despite having a 4 channel amp, this is for possible future upgrade, as I will only be using two channels for now and its already almost double the output of the speakers nominal input as well as this, I need to consider the 4v high input from the RCAs. I will have the gain down pretty low, which should almost eliminate THD altogether, also allowing the amp to run cooler and under much less pressure.

I have a sheet of MDF (12mm) which I am cutting to the size of the wheel well, I am going to cut the old boot carpet to cover the mdf as the edges are frayed and torn on the carpet anyway. The amp will be mounted on this with cables from the battery, rcas and speaker cables running down the side of the MDF and being fed back up through the bottom, to try and keep wires hidden as much as possible. (obviously power cables will be kept away from all other cables) I will then place the boot liner, and new boot carpet over everything, so nothing is visible.

I may use the 3rd and 4th channels on crossover to feed my 12" subwoofer (instead of using my JL or JBL amps = ess Wires and Less Power Drain), which is where the nonslip grip liner comes in, I will staple it to the bottom of the sub, and hopefully it will help hold it in place - it should work better than velcro.

I bought the window mount antenna as I didnt want to run the fakra extension right up through the car. it will be easier to set up.

the Ipod touch, is obviously for storing apple lossless audio, for playback on the headunit - i didnt want to have to keep plugging my phone in and disconnecting it all the time, hence the choice for a permanent fixture (will only remove to add / change tracks)

As I have obtained a non NAV oem center console with business radio, I have been able to place the new A/C control unit to the upper part of the dash, and add a tray underneath it. Which meant I could buy a single din fascia adapter and fit the single din unit.

I can almost guarantee some door trim clips will break, as will some of the boot lining clips. hence buying 20 of each, so I don't end up breaking them and "putting back together for now" ending up with rattles that wont get fixed for months lol.

The clips I choose are anti rattle with rubber grips under their heads, giving a tighter fit.

I will document the whole project, with pics of everything. trying to find the most efficient placing of sound deadening, places noted are ideas, but I will be tapping different panels and measuring reverberations, getting people to hold the sound deadening in place and trying it again before permanently attaching it. I will share my findings if anyone is interested.

Is there anywhere in the forum I could document the install other than here?