Another 6 Speaker Upgrade plus Apple CarPlay - Subwoofers Installed!

Oof.. Don't envy you that.. My underseat sub took an hour with just 2 trim panels removed :D still it won't be a patch on your system...I honestly could not be arsed with that :rofl: Bravo mate :thumbsup:
 
mr.tourette said:
Oof.. Don't envy you that.. My underseat sub took an hour with just 2 trim panels removed :D still it won't be a patch on your system...I honestly could not be arsed with that :rofl: Bravo mate :thumbsup:

I procrastinated many days before getting to it, just the thought of tackling it kept putting me off! :rofl:
 
Finally after many days, my subwoofer install is more or less complete!

After removing trim from half the car I got access to the rear bulkhead where the original factory fitted subwoofers fit. The idea was to make an enclosure from that space. to do that I used sound deadening to seal up all the holes and to give better sound from the subs:

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Next I mounted a MDF panel for each side secured by the original mounting points for the factory subs and some strong automotive double side adhesive tape on the left and right sides. I then covered the exterior surfaces with more sound deadening to seal any gaps or holes and put some acoustic foam on the outer side of the MDF so it makes a good seal with the car's trim panel:

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I then fed the wiring for the subs by drilling a small hole in the MDF. These subs are DVC 2 Ohms so wired them in series parallel to give a 2 Ohm load at the amp:

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For the amp I made an amp board from MDF and covered it in subwoofer box carpet which I had laying around onto which the amp is mounted together with it's external fuse (this amp has no internal fuse) and cabling:

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And here is the install all completed:

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I also mounted a bass knob in the dash pocket on the driver's side:

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Having completed the sub install I decided to make sure the gains were correctly adjusted on all the amps using a cheap oscilloscope and some test tones, to make sure the amps aren't clipping but giving out their max potential:

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So the end results? At first they didn't sound right acoustically, no doubt due to not having a proper sealed enclosure made of MDF. Not sure how to describe it but they sounded a bit echoey if that makes sense. So to eliminate that I decided to put some polyfil in the enclosed space and that actually did the trick and now they sound great! These subs for the tiny size absolutely pound! Obviously they aren't going to rattle the windows or anything but are capable of putting out bass you can feel and they make a huge difference to rest of the sound upgrades I already made. For what little this system has cost me I am really chuffed! I wonder how well it sounds next to a Z4 with factory premium sound system? Now I just have to make some final adjustments to the crossover points and maybe bass eq on the amp and I am all done....... well at least for now :rofl:
 
Wow some really clever people on here,love reading all the build threads. Audiofile incar are doing my upgrade this week as its way too much for me to take on. Subs look really good in there.
 
Alan Crook said:
Wow some really clever people on here,love reading all the build threads. Audiofile incar are doing my upgrade this week as its way too much for me to take on. Subs look really good in there.

Zed Baron said:
:happyclap: well done, very impressive

Many thanks! Getting the subs in were real hard work! :D Alan Crook I am sure Audiofile Incar will do a fine job, they seem to have a good reputation with these things. :thumbsup:
 
mr.tourette said:
subs look great mate, a really clean install and I like the tucked away gain dial in the cubby..top work :thumbsup:

Thanks! The gain dial in the cubby was a good idea, I stuck it down with double sided tape but due to the felt like material in the cubby it keeps coming off so now I need to find another way to secure it.
 
Bmwrottie said:
Does the stock head unit have RCA outputs I can take straight to an amp?
No, it's either high level direct speaker connections or low level via the MOST fibre optic network.
 
Bmwrottie said:
Does the stock head unit have RCA outputs I can take straight to an amp?

As indicated by Anubiszed, sadly no. I took the high level route by using a line output converter but you can equally take the speaker wires direct to an amp with high level input.
 
So I tried taking the high level inputs from the footwell woofers.
This did run a spare seperate Amp and mid speaker, but it won't run an active subwoofer (all in one underseat thing) which is what I was wanting to install, and I don't understand why not.

Surely the footwell woofers aren't filtered above what it would take to run subwoofer?


This is what I'm trying to run tapped into footwell woofers.
https://nakamichicaraudio.com/products/nakamichi-nbf8-1a?_pos=1&_sid=181eefe15&_ss=r
 
Hey guys! I bought a 2003 BMW Z4 3.0i and it does not have a working amplifier. It was burnt and the previous owner did not care to replace it. What would be the best replacement for the amplifier? what other remedies should I do for it? I have installed the aftermarket head unit with back up camera, everything works including the back up camera view but just the sounds not working because of the amplifier. Please let me know. Thank you!!!
 
808bimmerZ4 said:
Hey guys! I bought a 2003 BMW Z4 3.0i and it does not have a working amplifier. It was burnt and the previous owner did not care to replace it. What would be the best replacement for the amplifier? what other remedies should I do for it? I have installed the aftermarket head unit with back up camera, everything works including the back up camera view but just the sounds not working because of the amplifier. Please let me know. Thank you!!!
Wrong section bud, this is the E89 (2009 - 2016) section. You'll be best off in the E85/6 section :thumbsup:
 
[ref]AnubisZed[/ref] love your videos on YouTube!
Re my issue here:
Bmwrottie said:
So I tried taking the high level inputs from the footwell woofers.
This did run a spare seperate Amp and mid speaker, but it won't run an active subwoofer (all in one underseat thing) which is what I was wanting to install, and I don't understand why not.

Surely the footwell woofers aren't filtered above what it would take to run subwoofer?


This is what I'm trying to run tapped into footwell woofers.
https://nakamichicaraudio.com/products/nakamichi-nbf8-1a?_pos=1&_sid=181eefe15&_ss=r

Do you think it's because I only have one speaker input?
 
Bmwrottie said:
[ref]AnubisZed[/ref] love your videos on YouTube!
Re my issue here:
Bmwrottie said:
So I tried taking the high level inputs from the footwell woofers.
This did run a spare seperate Amp and mid speaker, but it won't run an active subwoofer (all in one underseat thing) which is what I was wanting to install, and I don't understand why not.

Surely the footwell woofers aren't filtered above what it would take to run subwoofer?


This is what I'm trying to run tapped into footwell woofers.
https://nakamichicaraudio.com/products/nakamichi-nbf8-1a?_pos=1&_sid=181eefe15&_ss=r

Do you think it's because I only have one speaker input?

On the basic stereo each woofer is wired in parallel with its respective channel door speaker...

Full range signals are applied to those channels..the rear mid range speakers have a frequency attentuated feed.

You need to sum the inputs from both left and right to feed the subwoofer as a single channel
 
Bmwrottie said:
So I tried taking the high level inputs from the footwell woofers.
This did run a spare seperate Amp and mid speaker, but it won't run an active subwoofer (all in one underseat thing) which is what I was wanting to install, and I don't understand why not.

Surely the footwell woofers aren't filtered above what it would take to run subwoofer?


This is what I'm trying to run tapped into footwell woofers.
https://nakamichicaraudio.com/products/nakamichi-nbf8-1a?_pos=1&_sid=181eefe15&_ss=r

Effectively you are running two amps? One for the four mids and two woofers and the second amp for the sub (in this case the built in amp in the under seat Nakamichi sub)? In which case I dont know if splitting the high level signal to two amps is causing the problem but I would send the high level signal to an amp with level input but which has the facility to provide low level output to a second amp (your Nakamichi sub) or pass the high level signals via a line output converter like the one I have used which has the ability to provide two low level outputs.
 
Just one Amp was testing the other to make sure the wiring set up works.

Thanks for the help guys. Does anyone have the speaker wiring diagram? Trying to figure out which colour wires are for which speaker
 
Bmwrottie said:
Just one Amp was testing the other to make sure the wiring set up works.

Thanks for the help guys. Does anyone have the speaker wiring diagram? Trying to figure out which colour wires are for which speaker

It’s in page 3 of this thread.
 
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