Adding compact Amp to Base Stereo set up HELP

[ph001]

I appreciate that these are probably cheap rubbish but would these work better in the cubby holes?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F232518646473

They may give you slightly more bass extension yes, but I guess it depends if you want any mids or highs (of which of course you will get virtually none of).

 

[Ferglar]

I appreciate that these are probably cheap rubbish but would these work better in the cubby holes?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F232518646473

They may give you slightly more bass extension yes, but I guess it depends if you want any mids or highs (of which of course you will get virtually none of).

In a car so small I'm guessing the sound from the footwell, tweeters and doors will be enough.

The 6x9's are mainly there to add some bass or depth. Now I'm thinking if they are the only thing being driven by the amp I might be better getting some cheap subs in the cubby holes instead?

 

[ph001]

Hard to judge the quality tbh and in a 6 litre enclosure you are pretty restricted what you can do with bass. In theory you have a bigger cone area on the 6x9" but you probably have more throw on the subs.

I suppose one option might be to do it the other way around - i.e. keep the back of the cubby hole enclosures open and block the vents up in the rear bulkhead (and any other obvious airways that lead from front to back). Then you effectively use your boot as the box and you should be able to easily hit the mid 30Hz on the bass. Parcel shelf will probably rattle like crazy so you would need to address that and I'm just not sure if the car would ventilate properly with the hood up and the vents blocked. Food for thought though.

 

[Ferglar]

Right, I'm pretty sure I have exhausted every search option on this topic and not found the answer so bare with me...

I've finally acquired a 2007 roadster (just 7 years after my initial test drive) after the starting a family put my idea on ice!

I have the base stereo 6 speaker set up. After putting in an aftermarket stereo and subsequently removing due to ruining the look of the dash I want to improve my sound.

So I've ordered some 2 way 6x9's to go in the rear cubby hole's which I plan to run from the rear speaker wiring and not use the factory speakers.

I have also ordered 4" speakers for the doors to replace the current blanks which I will run off the tweeter wires.

Now to run this I've ordered a Pioneer GM D1004 compact amplifier that looks like it can run directly from the stereo with a din adapter. It's here...

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/Amplifiers/GM+Digital+Series/GM-D1004

Now will this work?

Or have I ordered all the wrong stuff?

I know dangerously little about car audio and amp's so ideally want to avoid setting fire to my beloved zed!

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks

Have you looked into motorbike amps, there are some excellent small amps available, will put some links up when i get home.

Thanks buddy, that'd be appreciated!

 

[Ferglar]

Hard to judge the quality tbh and in a 6 litre enclosure you are pretty restricted what you can do with bass. In theory you have a bigger cone area on the 6x9" but you probably have more throw on the subs.

I suppose one option might be to do it the other way around - i.e. keep the back of the cubby hole enclosures open and block the vents up in the rear bulkhead (and any other obvious airways that lead from front to back). Then you effectively use your boot as the box and you should be able to easily hit the mid 30Hz on the bass. Parcel shelf will probably rattle like crazy so you would need to address that and I'm just not sure if the car would ventilate properly with the hood up and the vents blocked. Food for thought though.

I think I'll just run it like you said originally, I'll order up some polyester fibre stuff and half fill. Run off the amp on the bulkhead and go from there!

Thanks for all your help buddy, new to the forum but you've been a massive help!

 

[ph001]

You're welcome

 

[markalp]

I have listened to both of these and they sounded awsome when linked to focal k2 speaker setup in my old RX7, and were both small enougth to be mounted behind the dash.

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/rockford-fosgate-punch-pbr300x4-amplifier
http://www.biketronics.com/bt4180-180-watts-rms-x-4/

If i had to choose I would say the biketronics sounded better.

Another option could be.

https://www.nvx.com/mvpa4-4-channel-compact-car-amplifier-400w-rms/

We picked up one of these cheap off ebay when we were installing a surprise audio system on a mates quad bike, and was really impressed with the sound, very loud and clear for a 45 quid ebay find.

 

[Ferglar]

You're welcome

Sorry, one last question (probably)...

It is worth putting in this amp to power the rear 6x9's over just running off the factory stereo?

 

[ph001]

Oh yes - the amp will make a massive difference.

 

[john-e89]

Not that I want to put my oar in but have you considered 4” components and tweets in the doors and a 10” sub in the boot run off a 3 channel amp? Two channels for the comps and 1 for the sub. Sound staging suggests keeping things up front rather than 6x9’s behind the seats.

 

[Magicarcher]

What are 6" drivers or what do I look for on Google? Are they 6" subs?

I went for Reckhorn D-165 which are 6.5" sub woofer drivers that work well in small enclosure. On paper in a 6L sealed enclosure the -6dB frequency is 50hz with a correctly designed port they can go down to around 35hz. They are around £30 a piece, I haven't installed them yet, but from a construction perspective it looks like very well engineered German engineering.

In lots of ways I had the same dilemma as you I wanted to improve the sound of the Z4 without it costing the earth (the law of diminishing returns applies on a Z4 IMHO). A key decision is what you want from the cubby box speaker. I decided that I did not want a full range speaker for two reasons: I don't like audio coming from behind my ears i like ideally two point sources in front; any mid to high range frequencies from the cubby box behind the drivers seat are unlikely to reach your ears, the seat will block them, but you will hear the one behind the passengers seat. I don't like such a soundstage.

So my requirements were simple i only wanted a sub woofer in the cubby box. Like yourself I was also interested in fitting a 6x9 speaker (I also looked at 7x5 and 10x7) but when I did the maths on the speaker parameters I could not find one that would give sufficient bass (thats not to say they don't exist, I just couldn't find one). I found many 6-6.5" sub drivers with a good calculated bass for a 6L enclosure (I even found some 4" that worked well theoretically and considered doubling up). I settled on the Reckhorn because it comes from a manufacturer with a good reputation for quality audio and it was much cheaper than the competitors.

It is unlikely I will get them fitted soon because I need to do a lot of work on my garage, but hopefully by spring i will have them installed and can give some feedback.

 

[Ferglar]

What are 6" drivers or what do I look for on Google? Are they 6" subs?

I went for Reckhorn D-165 which are 6.5" sub woofer drivers that work well in small enclosure. On paper in a 6L sealed enclosure the -6dB frequency is 50hz with a correctly designed port they can go down to around 35hz. They are around £30 a piece, I haven't installed them yet, but from a construction perspective it looks like very well engineered German engineering.

In lots of ways I had the same dilemma as you I wanted to improve the sound of the Z4 without it costing the earth (the law of diminishing returns applies on a Z4 IMHO). A key decision is what you want from the cubby box speaker. I decided that I did not want a full range speaker for two reasons: I don't like audio coming from behind my ears i like ideally two point sources in front; any mid to high range frequencies from the cubby box behind the drivers seat are unlikely to reach your ears, the seat will block them, but you will hear the one behind the passengers seat. I don't like such a soundstage.

So my requirements were simple i only wanted a sub woofer in the cubby box. Like yourself I was also interested in fitting a 6x9 speaker (I also looked at 7x5 and 10x7) but when I did the maths on the speaker parameters I could not find one that would give sufficient bass (thats not to say they don't exist, I just couldn't find one). I found many 6-6.5" sub drivers with a good calculated bass for a 6L enclosure (I even found some 4" that worked well theoretically and considered doubling up). I settled on the Reckhorn because it comes from a manufacturer with a good reputation for quality audio and it was much cheaper than the competitors.

It is unlikely I will get them fitted soon because I need to do a lot of work on my garage, but hopefully by spring i will have them installed and can give some feedback.

Thanks for the advice!

I've just received my pioneer GM D1004 amp and it's certainly compact! And even better it runs completely off the stereo wiring! Power and speakers. It even tucks under the stereo mount.

Just got to order a quad lock to iso adapter and I'll be able to test!

Ended up ordering some focal 6x9's but still not sure how they'll sound!

 

[Ferglar]

You're welcome

Little update!

I've received the little pioneer amp today (gm d1004) and it turns out it runs completely off the head unit. It gets its power and supplies all the speakers in the car. No power/ground cables needed at all! Can't install to check just yet as I need to get a quad lock adaptor but looks promising!

It even fits in the dash just below the stereo so if it delivers some sound wise it could be perfect!

This leads to my problem though. I was going to follow your advice and just run the new rear 6x9's but now I'm powering the whole lot.

The amp has a few settings and I wanted to know what you'd recommend. I have separate switches for front and rear (lpf and hpf or off) and I'm assuming it'll be set to 4 channel as apposed to 2?

Any help would be great!

 

[Magicarcher]

The amp has a few settings and I wanted to know what you'd recommend. I have separate switches for front and rear (lpf and hpf or off) and I'm assuming it'll be set to 4 channel as apposed to 2?

If you wish to drive 4 channels you will use 4 channel, if you just want to drive 2 channels for example for the rear subs only, you will select two channels. this will normally bridge two amplifiers to give twice the power output into each channel.

the LPF and HPF refer to low pass filter and high pass filter. Generally these are used if you are choosing to drive a dedicated subwoofer. If LPF mode is selected it will only pass frequencies below its designed threshold (usually in the range 80hz to 120hz) everything above the threshold will be filtered out. for a HPF everything above the same threshold will be passed and everything below will be filtered out. These switches are only really applicable if you are driving a sub woofer and are designed so that if you have additional speakers in the car with a low frequency response (say 50hz) they don't cause an undesireable peak in bass response due to frequency overlap with the sub woofer.

If you are driving full range speakers you should set these to off.

 

[Ferglar]

The amp has a few settings and I wanted to know what you'd recommend. I have separate switches for front and rear (lpf and hpf or off) and I'm assuming it'll be set to 4 channel as apposed to 2?

If you wish to drive 4 channels you will use 4 channel, if you just want to drive 2 channels for example for the rear subs only, you will select two channels. this will normally bridge two amplifiers to give twice the power output into each channel.

the LPF and HPF refer to low pass filter and high pass filter. Generally these are used if you are choosing to drive a dedicated subwoofer. If LPF mode is selected it will only pass frequencies below its designed threshold (usually in the range 80hz to 120hz) everything above the threshold will be filtered out. for a HPF everything above the same threshold will be passed and everything below will be filtered out. These switches are only really applicable if you are driving a sub woofer and are designed so that if you have additional speakers in the car with a low frequency response (say 50hz) they don't cause an undesireable peak in bass response due to frequency overlap with the sub woofer.

If you are driving full range speakers you should set these to off.

Thanks for that!

After trying to get the pioneer amp to work and finding that it just freaks the bmw head unit out (disabled)! I've had to go for the aftermarket route!

Installed a pioneer stereo and managed to get my kenwood underseat subwoofer under the passenger seat (less first aid kit).

That combined with the new door speakers and focal 6x9's in the cubby holes has created a great system! Really pleased with the end result!

Thanks again for those who've helped along the way!!