Another 6 Speaker Upgrade plus Apple CarPlay - Subwoofers Installed!

[john-e89]

Absolutely....they look superb...!! PM me your name, acct’ number and sort code Silverstar, I think I’ll take the non gloss set you have for sale on here if that’s ok.

PM sent.

cough* comission *cough :rofl: :rofl:

You get any commission you can send it my way Steve....you’ve just made me shell out for these...couldn’t resist and I’m blaming you square on for my weakness..... :x :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Oooooooohhhhhh lurrrrrrrrrvely...!!

Missed these completely.... Top man Steve....!

Yep as Mr Tourette / Steve says handmade by myself. So can I interest you in a set? :wink: :wink:

Absolutely....they look superb...!! PM me your name, acct’ number and sort code Silverstar, I think I’ll take the non gloss set you have for sale on here if that’s ok.

I have one of his gloss versions awaiting fitment..

 

[john-e89]

Yep as Mr Tourette / Steve says handmade by myself. So can I interest you in a set? :wink: :wink:

Absolutely....they look superb...!! PM me your name, acct’ number and sort code Silverstar, I think I’ll take the non gloss set you have for sale on here if that’s ok.

I have one of his gloss versions awaiting fitment..

Sitting on your keyboard isn’t getting them fitted is it....! oke: :wink:

 

[AnubisZed]

.....
Also, where did you stick the antenna that connects to the back or the MMI please?
Many thanks

This is my recommended location for the WiFi antenna....

 

[Silverstar]

Dave what does the antenna do? I have been using the Carplay this week with and without it and I have not noticed any difference.

 

[Anonymous]

Absolutely....they look superb...!! PM me your name, acct’ number and sort code Silverstar, I think I’ll take the non gloss set you have for sale on here if that’s ok.

I have one of his gloss versions awaiting fitment..

Sitting on your keyboard isn’t getting them fitted is it....! oke: :wink:

Sadly correct...we live in a lovely house in a lovely location but no garage....add normal Southern Upland Scottish weather and I’m not feeling motivated ...I have some acoustic wadding to do so awaiting courage / time to do all that in one hit..

 

[Yoghurt]

Thanks Dave!

.....
Also, where did you stick the antenna that connects to the back or the MMI please?
Many thanks

This is my recommended location for the WiFi antenna....

 

[john-e89]

I have one of his gloss versions awaiting fitment..

Sitting on your keyboard isn’t getting them fitted is it....! oke: :wink:

Sadly correct...we live in a lovely house in a lovely location but no garage....add normal Southern Upland Scottish weather and I’m not feeling motivated ...I have some acoustic wadding to do so awaiting courage / time to do all that in one hit..

I get that....I don’t have a garage either but do have a workshop with a ramp, if I didn’t those new coilovers would still be sitting looking shiny in their shipping box.... :roll: My days of axle stands, a car creeper and wet driveway are long gone....been there done that, never again... :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Sitting on your keyboard isn’t getting them fitted is it....! oke: :wink:

Sadly correct...we live in a lovely house in a lovely location but no garage....add normal Southern Upland Scottish weather and I’m not feeling motivated ...I have some acoustic wadding to do so awaiting courage / time to do all that in one hit..

I get that....I don’t have a garage either but do have a workshop with a ramp, if I didn’t those new coilovers would still be sitting looking shiny in their shipping box.... :roll: My days of axle stands, a car creeper and wet driveway are long gone....been there done that, never again... :lol:

Sadly I don’t even have a car port..what I do about twice a year is beg the forebearance of one of my neighbours who has a lovely HUGE garage and spend a couple of days fettling there..

Must get him a bottle of malt and engender some credits for early January

 

[Silverstar]

So back on topic and the audio install. I made some progress today and managed to route all the cables from the amp in the boot / trunk to the front of the car. I routed the cables (speaker output, remote and RCAs) along the same route as the car's original cables towards the left of the car and through the pass through into the cabin. I left a spare RCA and remote on the boot floor for the second amp which will power the subs, all of which will probably be sorted in the new year.







I didn't remove the rear right upper side trim (the one that holds the rear speaker) behind the passenger seat completely because that would have involved removing the seat belt bolt and you have to replace that bolt with a brand new one and torque it down, so I left in place but freed the trim from its clips which allowed me to prise it open enough so that I could reach the cables passed through from the boot after which I just ran them behind the carpet along the same way as per the car's original cables into the passenger footwell. Once you free up the upper rear side trim you can easily remove the lower rear side trim to give you proper access to route the cables.





That leaves tomorrow to make the final connections and hopefully hear the new amplified setup for the first time!

 

[mr.tourette]

Exciing stuff, bet you cant wait to fire it up, have to say I'm very happy I decided to put the amp in what a difference they make when tbe speakers are upgraded, Im sure your efforts will be well rewarded tomorrow

 

[Silverstar]

Yes can't wait. Everyone I have spoken to have said that adding an amp will make a huge difference.

I just hope I hack into the correct wires in the CarPlay T harness tomorrow

 

[Silverstar]

Just finished wiring up the Amp and LC6i LOC and I have only one thing to say, WOW WOW WOW!

The amp in combo with the LC6i have really brought the speakers alive. I have still adjust the gain settings correctly on both the LC6i and the amp but today I have left the gains on the LC6i almost to its minimum setting and the gains on the amp to around quarter. The car is filled with sound and bass! It's really is amazing. I can only imagine how much better it will be once I get those Kicker subs mounted.

For anyone thinking of upgrading their basic 6 speaker setup, just do it. You will have no regrets!

I just have to tidy up the install and put the car back together again. Final job for tomorrow, well until I get around to doing the subs :rofl:

Write up on how I wired up the amp to the head unit via the LC6i LOC coming tomorrow

 

[mr.tourette]

well done buddy, i can only imagine how well yours sounds with the extra investment but as my budget upgrade was a tenfold improvement yours must sound fantastic

 

[Silverstar]

well done buddy, i can only imagine how well yours sounds with the extra investment but as my budget upgrade was a tenfold improvement yours must sound fantastic

Many thanks Mr Tourette! I am really pleased with the end result so far. Looking forward to the final stage of the install, the subs! but that will have to wait a while until I can find the right amp at the right price. Also space is a bit limited as to where I can mount the second amp.

 

[AnubisZed]

Dave what does the antenna do? I have been using the Carplay this week with and without it and I have not noticed any difference.

:rofl: Good question, I've no idea!! Last time I accessed my MMI I noticed that I'd snapped the connector, so mine was no longer connected to the antenna, and I've noticed no difference since. I do now have a replacement but haven't got around to fitting it. :?

Thanks Dave!

.....
Also, where did you stick the antenna that connects to the back or the MMI please?
Many thanks

This is my recommended location for the WiFi antenna....

No problem.

 

[Silverstar]

Silverstar wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:34 pm
Dave what does the antenna do? I have been using the Carplay this week with and without it and I have not noticed any difference.
Good question, I've no idea!! Last time I accessed my MMI I noticed that I'd snapped the connector, so mine was no longer connected to the antenna, and I've noticed no difference since. I do now have a replacement but haven't got around to fitting it.

I got a reply from the factory about this antenna. It is for the phone network signal between your phone and the MMMI box. But as I say I have not noticed degradation in the signal without the aerial, so I have decided to leave it off.

 

[Silverstar]

At last the first part of the CarPlay and Audio install is finished and the car finally put back together again!

The last job remaining on the MMI CarPlay box was to find a place to mount the external mic (since I chose not to connect it to the car's original mic). I managed to fix it using double sided tape in a very discreet place next to the engine start button from most angles it can't be seen and it functions well in this position:



For the audio upgrade I chose to use an AudioControl LC6i LOC to give a quality low level line output signal to the 4 channel JBL amp. To get this to work I made a T harness out of the T Harness for the MMI box this way the car's factory loom stays intact. I used this wiring diagram to work out the speaker wires from the factory loom / radio:



I then located the same wires in the CarPlay box T Harness, annoyingly the MMI box factory used the same colour wires for all the speakers meaning I had to cut and label each wire separately. I used insulated bullet terminals which if for any reason I want to bypass the JBL amp I can connect them back up without any problems. I used insulated terminals but the insulation adds a fair bit of bulk and space behind the radio is tight so I sliced the insulation off with a Dremel and used heat shrink instead:



I then made up a new loom to connect to the speakers wires coming from the radio (right side of the loom in the photo above) which would feed into the input of the LC6i and the speakers wires from the amp output connects to the part of the harness going back to the factory wiring, i.e. going to the speakers (left side of loom in the photo). From there the RCA cables from the LC6i would provide a low level signal to the amp.

I fixed the LC6i using very strong double sided tape to the top of the glove box and screwed the glove box back into place:



When putting all the trim back I ran into a slight problem with the upper right rear side trim, since I hadn't removed this entirely due to the seat belt bolt I couldn't properly seat it in the lower rear side trim and as a result the bottom of the upper trim sticks out a bit. The only way to fit it properly is to remove that seat belt bolt since the upper trim needs to slide in from the top into the lower panel. Oh well something to sort out when I get around to mounting the subs in the panel behind the seats.



In the boot I put all the trim back and left a set of RCAs and remote turn on wire on the floor of the boot ready for the second amp for the subs. Something I will tackle in the next month or two.



As mentioned earlier I am really chuffed with the end result. The difference really is night day compared to the stock 6 speaker system.

The total spend so far:

Crunch DSX42 rear coax speakers 36€
Crunch DSX4.2C component speakers for the doors 59€
Hertz MP165.3 6.5" woofers for kick panels 102€
AudioControl LC6i (purchased second hand) £50
JBL Stage A9004 4 channel amp 120€
RCA / Speaker Cables and misc. 70€
2 x Kicker Comprt 6.75" Subs (not yet fitted) 98€ each
Apple CarPlay / Android Auto MMI box $160

Still left to purchase, an amp for the subs.

 

[Silverstar]

The amp for the Kicker subs arrived ready for the next part of the install. This thing is tiny but apparently packs a punch! You can see my old iPhone 6 Plus next to it for comparison.

 

[Silverstar]

After many hours and stripping out almost half the car I finally managed to remove the carpeted trim panel behind the seats to where the subs will be installed. What a right pain in the backside this job is, I now have a room full of car trim parts in the house!

The good news is the carpeted panel has the markings for the original subs on the back, so I can use that as a guide to centre the holes for the Kicker subs that I have.