'06 Coupe ICE Install *Picture Heavy*

[TLRominger]

Thanks Peddy. There is very little if any info on it here..

[Newbers]

th30d0r3, That is the most fantastic write up. Hats off to you for taking the time to document the process and being so public spirited as to share with us. I searched and searched for something similar before PawnSacrifice
put me on to this.

I really like the trouble that you have taken over your install.

I have a couple of questions if you would be so kind:

1. Why did you not mount the amp on to the rear bulhead? It seems like the obvious place, is there not room?

2. Where did your crossovers end up? Do you think they were causing the interference?

3. With the mids in the doors, do you think that the mids behind the seats add anything useful?

4. Had you considered putting the Orion Speaker Line/RCA unit for the rear speakers in the back - i.e. chopping in to the standard speaker wire just before the rear speakers? I'm thinking this makes sense but I could well be missing something......

5. Did you ever sort out the bass from your subs to your satisfaction?

Thx Newbers

[th30d0r3]

1. I didn't mount the amp on the rear bulkhead because I'd have to remove the rear firewall everytime I needed to tweak it; sitting it in the original amp position was just for easy access. there is around 2 1/2 inches behind the rear firewall so there is plenty of room.

2. Crossovers ended up further up in the dashboard away from the wiring looms, which reduced the interference a great deal.

3. I find the mids behind your head balance the sound a great deal, although I have them turned down a bit since they're a lot closer to your head. I have them on a crossover since I've amended the setup since this post.

4. yes however there appears to be an inline crossover for the rear speakers that I cannot locate which would interfere with the output; running from the headunit avoids that.

5. I did, and it sounded awesome but they are just not powerful enough to give that low frequency drop you'd get from a full sized sub so I've got a shallow mount sub in the boot that takes care of that for me, I'll show you a picture tomorrow

I'm taking out my Kenwood 729DVD system during the hols in favour of the OE navigation with an intravee now I've finally sourced all the bits (except the loom but I'm working on that). Since that's a job on it's own I'll be rewiring the entire car (seats out and everything) I wanna run fresh cables to ensure all 4 crossovers and orions were in the boot and hide the 2nd amp; I'll also be adding a passive crossover that will allow me to limit the the low frequencies to the components so they don't interfere with the sub. so that will be yet another picture fest.

[Newbers]

Thanks for the answers.

I just have the basic speakers (with cubby holes behind the seats) so haven't been able to look in to this too much but if what you say about the space being too big for the JL's is true then may be the answer would be two of those drivers in each cavity. You'd move a lot of air if you had four of them pumping! It doesn't seem like a lot of volume tho. (10l) for a sub. I'd expect that you'd need a vent to effectively increase the volume (although that gets very complex....)

I'm still planning my system but I anticipate something very similar to what you have done in the front but i'll probably just settle for a simple removable bass tube (my local shop had an MTX & a FLI that I could probably try.) Not elegant but self contained - and removable. I'm troubled by the rear mids tho. I was going to do without them and run just the sub from the rear speaker output (and use the fader on the head unit to fade the sub up and down) but I'm sure you're right that they do provide some balance. Perhaps there is a way to wire them to the door mids - athough that would probably require another amp (or the impedance change would mess up volume).

I look forward to seeing your Easter pictures!

[Newbers]

Hi th30d0r3 ,

How did you get on with your upgrades?

Nick

[Dr _Rod]

Hi

Could do with your help, been looking through your speaker install, very impressive, I wish to eventually get to the same audio install standard as yours however I wish to do it in stages to spread the cost. At present I have the standard 6 – speaker setup on a 2.2i 2005 z4- very poor.

Just complete DIY AUX lead to the head unit so notice more how poor the standard 6 speaker system is.!!

Be think of doing the following three stages first !

Stage 1) 1 x Hertz: ECX100.3 - 2 way 10cm speakers - £70 – Link
Door speakers - I bought these now sitting in study – split tweeter cables mount

Stage 2) 2 x JL Audio JL6W3v3-4 6.5" 150 W Sub Woofers - £89 each – Link
Foot well speakers I got these on order – just replace the present two stock speakers using the instruction provide in your install. Is it the 4 ohms version your order they retail at £113 now.

Stage 3) 1 x Hertz: ECX100.3 - 2 way 10cm speakers - £70 – Link
At present one of the behind head speaker passenger side is blown – I understand lot of trim to get access. I though just replace pair with the same type as door speakers.

Would this set up work ???
Regarding working with standard setup. I.e. ohms ratings and power required for speakers!! Etc.
I though I use this set-up like this for a while then follow the rest of your install

I assume I would have to install the amp and the bass speaker as part of the same process?

Or could I just put the amp in first? As making the sub holder will be pain?

stage 4) 1 x Kenwood KAC-X4D Amplifier (1200W, 4 Channel, Class D) - £275 –
1 x Kenwood KPX-T120 Tri Mode Crossover Network - £25
1 x Hertz: ESK163L.3 - 3 way 16.5cm components - £219 –
2 x Connection by Audison: FT2-550 - 5.5m RCA - £15 each – Link

Does this staged process sound possible?

Thanks for your advice – very grateful

Alan

[th30d0r3]

@ Newbers the install went well, couldn't take any pictures since the camera was on loan to friend for a wedding shoot. but I'll take some when I get it back.

@ Dr_Rod Be mindful of the mounting depths of the 10cm speakers if you can test fit them first that will help since you dont want them fouling the window mech or not being able to fit into tha tiny space left for the rear mids, or you'd be stuck with them and no refund option after fitting. I chose the Hertz: ESK163L.3 since I know it's very shallow on the mids.
Those JBLs will be vastly underpowered from the stock head unit, you need to run them off an AMP, stock unit only puts out like 25w per channel or something pony like that; hence the higher spec models have seperate amps.
I'm also not too sure they'll fit in the footwells since they are huge in comparison, however you can always mount them on thicker MDF, the concern with that is the passenger side as there's not much play behind the speaker grill. But if you're anything like me then you wont know till you try.

To put it plainly, the stock unit wont be able to power anything much larger than the speakers it's currently powering; you're going to need an amp if you start changing the speakers around or you'll be wasting your money.

For you I would recommend this:
Stage 1
Kenwood X4D (or any other Class D 4 channel amp) £275
1 x Hertz: ESK163L.3 for the front (or in the exact same places the speakes are currently) £219
leave the existing mids just turn down the amp volume so they don't pop

Stage 2
1 x Hertz: ESK163L.3 for the rear (can't buy the component seperately) £219
1 x boss 7 band graphic equaliser (defo needed to tune up the sound) £49

Far more simple and uniform since your layout will be linear with the various crossovers and frequency bands.
Here's a diagram of the install I have semi finished, I'm ditching my JBL's and rear mid since I now have a removeable boot sub and will be replacing them with the Hertz: ESK163L.3.


You probably wouldn't wanna do all that though

[Newbers]

Hi th30d0r3

I see that you now have an Eq in your system. This is the bit that's been really bugging me - since it was pointed out to me, it is very obvious how the bass roll's off as you turn up the volume on the factory head unit (to protect the puny factory speakers).

Did you ever find the crossover (that you referred to above) in the rear speaker (mids) line? I have a suspicion that the eq for this channel is set in the head unit (and not a seperate piece of hardware in the speaker wires).This is perplexing me because I just bought a sub tube for the boot (not got it out of the box yet) but I'm suspecting I'm not going to find much of a bass signal going to those rear mids which would be the obvious place to connect it.

I wonder by way of comparison if you ever tried powering your JL subs from the front channel rather than the rear? There may well be more bass on that line which would make them perform better.

On that topic something else that I'm wondering about, how difficult might it be for an electronics whizz to identify the circuit that sets the eq in the headunit and bypass it? It's presumably analogue (so coils/capacitors and perhaps a transitor or basic chip) so should be easy to spot. It would have thought it would be unique to each car (assuming the guts of the radio go in to the headunits for lots of different cars with different speaker set ups etc.)

May be even better would be to actually locate the signal from the radio before it goes to the final power amp stage (which is probably where the eq is applied). Then you could replace it with a simple pre-amp and have RCA outs... Where do I find an electronics expert.......?

In the meantime I'm anticipating biting the bullet and as well as an amp + speakers, shelling out for some sort of eq/bass restoration device.

There are a few things like http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_clea ... page_id=94 this basically flattens the Eq from the factory head unit so that you can the add amps and speakers but you have to have a seperate volume control so that's a non-starter. There is also this http://www.reqsound.com/home.aspx which at the moment is looking like my favourite option as it doesn't have a seperate volume control. I also stumbled across a neat equivalent (from Rockford Fosgate?) which you hide away but then adjust with a laptop or Palm device via bluetooth. (300 notes tho.)

There is also this http://www.audiotec-fischer.de/plugplay ... .html?&L=1 which I think looks very cool. It fits using all standard plugs you then down load an eq profile for your car on a memory card. They don't have one for a Z4 (let alone Coupe) but you can set it up manually from a laptop or using dip switches. This kills two birds with one stone because you get the amp as well in a steathy package. Again quite a lot of money although I've seen them cheaper on German ebay.

That's a really long way of saying what eq are you using?

[th30d0r3]

The EQ was just a test since I wanted more control over the sound, it does work well but you can't expect much for £49. I will be looking to replace it with something like a cleansweep methinks. (thanks for the link btw).

The channels do perform differently I'm pretty sure of it since I tried to run the subs of the rear channel and it was too flat to hear anything, that EQ is only fed by the front channel and it gives you front and rear out the other end as well as a sub channel, however it's not very good at all 3 so I have the sub running directly off the rear channel and I do notice the difference; it's just not as loud. as for an electronics whizz to figure out the circuits, you're better off buying the cleansweep for that. pay day will grace me with the cleansweep and the 2nd hertz kit.

I've never run the JL's off the front channel I never really thought of that; but when I think about it the EQ still feeds the components through the X4D from the front channel so technically that would be a yes.

That fischer amp seems nice but it's not very powerful, it's certainly not powerful enough for the hertz kit which is why I didn't go for the X5D which is the same size but with a 5 channel for the amp.

[powerontap]

that's some kick a.. write up and system, thanks for sharing I have the 10 speaker business unit system in my own Z, and as a long time audiophile freak for my home, the BMW system has much room for improvement, I just wish I had the motivation to do what you did.

[Newbers]

Hi th30d0r3

I think the point with the Audiotec Fisher Amp is that it is designed to work with factor speakers which are generally very efficient (although obviously comprimised in other respects).

I keep thinking that I don't need anything too fantastic from the stereo (I was more than happy with the HK in my E46) but the entry point to improvement really is very high due to the EQ in the factory radio.

Incidentally I spent an hour or so during a conference call Googling such things and I actually found an electronics engineer on a Subaru forum who hacked his radio and fitted his own pre amps before the eq stage. I have to admit tho he went to a lot of trouble and didn't srrm to be blown away by the results (although appatently a massive improvement with the upgraded amp and speakers.)

I'm currently thinking EQ to front channel (with sub out for the sub that I already bought) is the starting point.....

[th30d0r3]

I'm still thinking the cleansweep is the best option in this case, we'll know in 2 weeks once it arrives since I'm gonna get back in there and rewire it all for the 5th time. this quest for the perfect sound is a pain in the proctor.

I have discovered another interesting issue though; when I set my lights to auto I get interference from all the other electrical items in the car such as the windows power steering and so on... it's like the power is being sapped when they're used and the sounds crackles like a poor radio signal. I'd be interested to see if anyone else with an aftermarket system has this problem. since it's fine when the headlights are set to manual.

[BettyBmw03]

Great write up, I had considered replacing my subs with the JL's 6.5,....this may have confirmed it

[Newbers]

th30d0r3

Can't really help but sounds like a right pain - I like that auto lights feature. Any idea where the sensor is? Does it do it in the day (lights off) and the night (lights on)?

[th30d0r3]

Seems to be a red herring coz I spent an hour in the car drive up and down the same stretch of road testing the auto lights and various other things like the monitor on or off and such.
I just can't work out where the interference is coming from, I can only guess it has something to do with the nav install, alternator or a dodgy ground. so I'm gonna do a process of elimination with my trust meter and see where the volts drop or the resistance spikes in various places on the car... Joy!!!

I've also decided that I only want one Amp, so need to find a beefy multi channel class D replacement for the X4D.

More updates later today.