Upgrading my sound system a bit!

[Jonnoh2017]

So..
After modifying my exhaust I then came to terms with the fact my factory basic speaker set up is poor, I don't have the professional system like in my 320d coupe, I'm missing the mid range in between the seats, the 2 x 8" drivers behind the seats and the speaker behind the nav screen.
- I firstly replaced the 4" speakers by the seat belt reels with vibe coaxle - 4" speaker and built in tweeters.
- Then removed the 6.5" woofers in the footwell, and replaced these with Vibe component 6.5", I used the crossovers in this kit and ran the tweeter up to the dash, tucked right up by the windscreen.
With this done I played with the EQ and found the best volume from the system meant turning the bass to its lowest setting.
This still gave a good mid range punch and lots of treble. Perfect considering I will be fitting a 10" sub between the seats.

So yesterday I set about trying to fit the sub between the seats, there is just enough room for the 10" woofer.
It's not quite finished yet and I have a feeling there will be some rattles, but it's work in progress.
I'll post pictures of the finished item when its done.

Also if I don't feel like bass I have the remote switch above to turn the amp off.

Cheers,

 

[john-e89]

So..
After modifying my exhaust I then came to terms with the fact my factory basic speaker set up is poor, I don't have the professional system like in my 320d coupe, I'm missing the mid range in between the seats, the 2 x 8" drivers behind the seats and the speaker behind the nav screen.
- I firstly replaced the 4" speakers by the seat belt reels with vibe coaxle - 4" speaker and built in tweeters.
- Then removed the 6.5" woofers in the footwell, and replaced these with Vibe component 6.5", I used the crossovers in this kit and ran the tweeter up to the dash, tucked right up by the windscreen.
With this done I played with the EQ and found the best volume from the system meant turning the bass to its lowest setting.
This still gave a good mid range punch and lots of treble. Perfect considering I will be fitting a 10" sub between the seats.

So yesterday I set about trying to fit the sub between the seats, there is just enough room for the 10" woofer.
It's not quite finished yet and I have a feeling there will be some rattles, but it's work in progress.
I'll post pictures of the finished item when its done.

Also if I don't feel like bass I have the remote switch above to turn the amp off.

Cheers,

You could make a foam gasket for around the back of the baffle board to soak up any vibration jonnah. I assume that’s a free air sub that doesn’t need to be boxed? I can understand you wanting to upgrade, the business set up in BM’s are woeful.

 

[Jonnoh2017]

So..
After modifying my exhaust I then came to terms with the fact my factory basic speaker set up is poor, I don't have the professional system like in my 320d coupe, I'm missing the mid range in between the seats, the 2 x 8" drivers behind the seats and the speaker behind the nav screen.
- I firstly replaced the 4" speakers by the seat belt reels with vibe coaxle - 4" speaker and built in tweeters.
- Then removed the 6.5" woofers in the footwell, and replaced these with Vibe component 6.5", I used the crossovers in this kit and ran the tweeter up to the dash, tucked right up by the windscreen.
With this done I played with the EQ and found the best volume from the system meant turning the bass to its lowest setting.
This still gave a good mid range punch and lots of treble. Perfect considering I will be fitting a 10" sub between the seats.

So yesterday I set about trying to fit the sub between the seats, there is just enough room for the 10" woofer.
It's not quite finished yet and I have a feeling there will be some rattles, but it's work in progress.
I'll post pictures of the finished item when its done.

Also if I don't feel like bass I have the remote switch above to turn the amp off.

Cheers,

You could make a foam gasket for around the back of the baffle board to soak up any vibration jonnah. I assume that’s a free air sub that doesn’t need to be boxed? I can understand you wanting to upgrade, the business set up in BM’s are woeful.

That's the plan, I have sound deadening sheeting to apply behind, the panel behind the seats may vibrate also. These are things I will look into.
I have been looking into the sub enclosure, I have a couple of things to try as you suggest I don't think it is suited to open air - Infinite enclosure etc.
It's a work in progress, So will update when its live and working

Cheers

 

[john-e89]

There’s also going the whole hog to consider too..... :lol:

 

[Jonnoh2017]

There’s also going the whole hog to consider too..... :lol:

HA I've done my research and stumbled on these too .

No go for me though I need as much room behind the seats as possible being 6ft 6 !

 

[Jonnoh2017]

Few updates,
Got the sub fitted back in last night and all wired up - I wish I had a warm unit for all this work !.

Sounds alright considering there is no encloure as such.

Although when turned up there is some distortion, I am going to look into sealing the sub from behind so I'll update the thread once I've done this as I expect it to sound much better after this.

Also I think the grey is too light, I just used some carpet I had from another project, I will redo this in black at some point.

Also the woofer centre I am going to wrap the logo over in carbon wrap to make it look more subtle as orange doesn't really go with anything on the car.

 

[del_tl1000r]

Did something similar to mine only fitted an 8" kicker sub. I thought the 10" was going to be too tight for the space. Free air, sounds pretty good. Don't think you should be getting distortion though. Have you fitted a remote gain adjuster for the sub? That way you can adjust the sub volume independantly from the components.

 

[Jonnoh2017]

Did something similar to mine only fitted an 8" kicker sub. I thought the 10" was going to be too tight for the space. Free air, sounds pretty good. Don't think you should be getting distortion though. Have you fitted a remote gain adjuster for the sub? That way you can adjust the sub volume independantly from the components.

Yo dude,
That's cool !. seems the easiest way to mount something without taking up too much room.

I must admit im not greatly impressed with the sound, I think the sub moves too much in free air and it gives too much resonance when turned up.

The independent gain adjustment I do need to look into, There are settings on the amp but yes how would I go about doing this when they are almost maxed out ?
Wonder if i need a sealed enclosure and a more powerful amp maybe ?..

Thanks,

 

[john-e89]

Did something similar to mine only fitted an 8" kicker sub. I thought the 10" was going to be too tight for the space. Free air, sounds pretty good. Don't think you should be getting distortion though. Have you fitted a remote gain adjuster for the sub? That way you can adjust the sub volume independantly from the components.

Yo dude,
That's cool !. seems the easiest way to mount something without taking up too much room.

I must admit im not greatly impressed with the sound, I think the sub moves too much in free air and it gives too much resonance when turned up.

The independent gain adjustment I do need to look into, There are settings on the amp but yes how would I go about doing this when they are almost maxed out ?
Wonder if i need a sealed enclosure and a more powerful amp maybe ?..

Thanks,

You can’t use a sub designed for an enclosure in free air, it’ll sound pants. You also need the correct dimensions of box and to know if the sub needs to be ported or not.

 

[del_tl1000r]

I don't know how you have configured your system but I split the signal for the tbe front speakers through a line out converter to a 2 channel amp. The gain adjuster is wired between the LOC and the amp. One channel feeds the components and the other channel bridged to feed the sub. For the sub you will need to switch the low pass filter on and adjust the frequency to tune out all the vocals and higher frequencies. I see your sub is also a dual voice coil so you need to be careful how you wire this to match your amp. Can you tell me how you have wired it all up?

 

[Jonnoh2017]

Did something similar to mine only fitted an 8" kicker sub. I thought the 10" was going to be too tight for the space. Free air, sounds pretty good. Don't think you should be getting distortion though. Have you fitted a remote gain adjuster for the sub? That way you can adjust the sub volume independantly from the components.

Yo dude,
That's cool !. seems the easiest way to mount something without taking up too much room.

I must admit im not greatly impressed with the sound, I think the sub moves too much in free air and it gives too much resonance when turned up.

The independent gain adjustment I do need to look into, There are settings on the amp but yes how would I go about doing this when they are almost maxed out ?
Wonder if i need a sealed enclosure and a more powerful amp maybe ?..

Thanks,

You can’t use a sub designed for an enclosure in free air, it’ll sound pants. You also need the correct dimensions of box and to know if the sub needs to be ported or not.

I agree,
This was an experiment and to be fair it sounds better now I've made further adjustments on the Eq and amp.

The sub can be used either ported or sealed but I think Sealed from previous experience provides punchier bass.

I will try and get it sealed up this weekend and see how it goes from there

Thanks,

 

[Jonnoh2017]

I don't know how you have configured your system but I split the signal for the tbe front speakers through a line out converter to a 2 channel amp. The gain adjuster is wired between the LOC and the amp. One channel feeds the components and the other channel bridged to feed the sub. For the sub you will need to switch the low pass filter on and adjust the frequency to tune out all the vocals and higher frequencies. I see your sub is also a dual voice coil so you need to be careful how you wire this to match your amp. Can you tell me how you have wired it all up?

Thanks for the reply bud,

Hmmmm.. So It came with wiring instructions and suggested to link the one side up, pos to neg and then the other side neg and pos to terminals on amp. I'll double check this also. good shout.

What made you use the front speakers for the line converter ? I used the speakers by the rear shoulder ? maybe the fronts have better amplification (guessing they do by gauge of cable?)

Thanks,

 

[Jonnoh2017]

I don't know how you have configured your system but I split the signal for the tbe front speakers through a line out converter to a 2 channel amp. The gain adjuster is wired between the LOC and the amp. One channel feeds the components and the other channel bridged to feed the sub. For the sub you will need to switch the low pass filter on and adjust the frequency to tune out all the vocals and higher frequencies. I see your sub is also a dual voice coil so you need to be careful how you wire this to match your amp. Can you tell me how you have wired it all up?

This is the Amp I am using,

Can you suggest the best way to wire it up please ? Also thinking I could do with a bigger amp ? Gain is almost right up.

Thanks

 

[del_tl1000r]

Hi again. I had the 6 speaker set up. Woofers in the footwells, mids in the doors and mids at the shoulders. No tweetets and no amplification other than the head unit. The signal level going to the rear speakers on that set up is dire!! That's the reason I used the signal for the front speakers. Is that the same speaker set up you had? I used the signal for the front speakers and used an LOC that takes the front speaker signal,1 input-left and right and splits into 2 outputs. That then allowed me to to send the same signal to both channels of my amp. One channel for the sub and one for the components. If you have the same speaker set up as me and you've used the rear speaker outputs to feed the amp and your sub then this could be the main issue. What head unit do you have? I kept the original head unit (professional)IMO I think if you're running an amplified sub you should really be running amplified components. You also mentioned that your gain is maxed out. Remember, gain is not volume. You should never have it up at max. I can see from the pics your sub has a max of 1200w. What is it's RMS? The RMS of your sub should be similar or slightly less than your amp.

 

[del_tl1000r]

I've tried to find some info on your subs RMS but can't seem to find any. I'm guessing though that your amp is way underpowered as you suspected. This, along with using the signal for the rear speakers, if it's the same basic speaker set up I had, is definetely going to cause you problems.

 

[john-e89]

Not meaning to sound patronising but have you definately bridged the sub? Easy thing to overlook.

 

[Jonnoh2017]

Hi again. I had the 6 speaker set up. Woofers in the footwells, mids in the doors and mids at the shoulders. No tweetets and no amplification other than the head unit. The signal level going to the rear speakers on that set up is dire!! That's the reason I used the signal for the front speakers. Is that the same speaker set up you had? I used the signal for the front speakers and used an LOC that takes the front speaker signal,1 input-left and right and splits into 2 outputs. That then allowed me to to send the same signal to both channels of my amp. One channel for the sub and one for the components. If you have the same speaker set up as me and you've used the rear speaker outputs to feed the amp and your sub then this could be the main issue. What head unit do you have? I kept the original head unit (professional)IMO I think if you're running an amplified sub you should really be running amplified components. You also mentioned that your gain is maxed out. Remember, gain is not volume. You should never have it up at max. I can see from the pics your sub has a max of 1200w. What is it's RMS? The RMS of your sub should be similar or slightly less than your amp.

Thanks for the info Del,
It sounds like there's a few things to look into, i used the rear speakers so yes if i used the fronts then it would be a better source.

I've got a bigger amp in the garage to try and if all else fails ill design a new box and fix in the boot and have the hole as a pass through for the sound.
Sub rms is 400 I think, amp is 200rms bridged. so could do with being a bit beefier i think.

Thanks,