Picture request - amplifier / subwoofer installations

[Tusker]

I'm getting ready to install a subwoofer and a couple of amps so I'm looking for any pics of installations especially old school stuff and trunk installations.

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

I'll go take some photo's of the junk in my trunk and get back to you I have a professionally installed single amp and 12 inch hiding in there somewhere.

[Nebraska_e28]

Go with a BassPump if you can find one, you'll have no 2nd thoughts. I'd post a pic but mine is currently out. Check Duke's page for this.

[Mless5]

Redoing everything now though.

[pdx 528e]

Small and stealthy.

[D Unit]

I'm trying to put together a budget friendly audio system and wanted to bump this up to try to get more pics from you guys. Here's some I found that were quite innovative and clever.

M. Holtmeier




This one was interesting...

There is also the BassPump option if you can find one.

For reference, here is a pic of the amp rack I have in my 535:



And a 'during' install pic of whats behind it:




Jay3

Progress has been made.

This was the blank slate...


First shot of the amp board from the front ...


and from the back...

Note the cut outs for the headrests and cabling. Took me almost three hours to get all that cut and together but I was measuring again and again and again before cutting

The board goes down parallel to the back seat as far as the beam across the bottom. I will make another panel to sit against the "beam" at the bottom probably attached with velcro.

Here's some photos of the cabling progressing. At this stage I have decied to go with the more modern JVC KD-LH7R head unit.



Power cable from the battery is 4AWG with an 80amp fuse near the battery. It's routed through the same place as the factory loom. Needed a bit of silicone but once started slipped through easily. The 4AWG power cable goes to a twin 30amp fuse in the boot and from there 8AWG cables take the power to the amps. I'm connecting everything up to test it before carpeting, routing the cables properly through the amp board and mounting the board on the bulkhead. I've wired in an on/off switch into the remote power lead for the sub amp so that I can switch it off if I need to take the sub out to use the trunk.



Front speakers and sub installed at the weekend. One of the reasons I bought the JL TR400-CX 4" components for the front was that they came with a 6" x 4" adaptor. It fits neatly onto the cutout, behind the carpet, and does not interfere with the hood release.





I'm waiting for some spacers to be made for the rear speakers but powered it up for the first time anyway. Big grins. :mrgreen:

It all looks easy but I've found there's a lot of thinking things through in advance. Luckily I'm good at just standing and looking at things with a beer in my hand

In the trunk, held in place with velcro so as it can be taken out easily if needed:

[/quote]

The midbass from a 6.5 is going to be better, but the e28 is really not an optimum layout for any sort of decent soundstage. Run some high quality 5.25s and put a sub under the rear seat with some 5.25s or 6.5s in the rear parcel.

Here's a picture of the setup in NNarth's car.

[/quote]

I finally got an afternoon to myself and I finally got around to installing my MB Quart RCE 213 component system.

I knew I would need some kick panel adapter plates to make them work and needed to retain functionality of the hood release as well as the glove box. I chose to use 1/8" MDF which would be covered in carpet. I made some cardboard templates and set to cutting. The carpet I used was purchased at PepBoys and is an ok match, it's not perfect but it looks pretty good. The lighting makes it look more severe than it really is. Here is one of the panels before installing it into the car.


Here are a couple of shots of the finished product installed in the car. Please excuse the dirty floormats, I need to clean out my car.
This pic is shown w/o the grill for a view of the speaker.




The tweeters were a little more difficult. The stock tweeters are glued/epoxied into the housing and you have to basically dig out the epoxy and pry out the tweeter.
This is what the inside of the housing looks like with the tweeter removed.

I then opened up the pod being careful not to damage the ring that hold the factory grill in place.

I then installed the tweeter with a provided strap and epoxied the speaker into place.


The factory grill fits back on and looks completely stock. I am very satisfied with how it turned out.
The crossovers are mounted under the rear seat and all new wire was run, even to the tweeters. Tomorrow I will work on dialing in the system.
Even "out of the box" the RCE 213s are awesome. They are an amazing improvement over the 4x6 polk plates I had. There is much more midbass and it just should more full and tight. Money well spent.

[vinceg101]

Recently installed into the M535:
Kenwood KDC-X895 Excelon HU
Kenwood KDC-C669 CD Changer
a/d/s PH15 Amp, 300watts
a/d/s 642CSi Crossover Processor
a/d/s 325is Rear Component Speakers (in custom enclosures)
a/d/s 344is 4" Front Mids with Orion px Concept 2 1" Tweeters (Mids behind stock speaker covers, tweeters imbedded in door card caps)
Kicker Comp8 Sub Woofer in enclosure (existing in the car ported through rear wall behind seat back, not my preference)

Rear Trunk Amp Board, Crossover and CD Changer (in extreme foreground mounted to underside of parcel shelf):

Custom MDF back plates for the 344is Mids:

a/d/s AC500 Remote Sub Bass Control Knob in location of factory Fader Knob, perfect fit:

Crossover network mounted to board under passenger side rear seat:

[Paul in N FL]

Mines a bit messy, but:
1 10" sub in the trunk from a pawn shop
1 50wX4 channel amp on the left side of the bulkhead
1 60wX2 @4ohms amp bridged to 150w @ 4 ohms
1 Clarion EQS746 7-band equalizer/crossover/line driver
- increases output voltage to 7v
1 Alpine CDE-9872

Not very good pictures or recent, but a basic idea.
I'll snap some more today.

[landspeed]

I don't have many pics, but:

Kenwood Excelon kdc-x994head unit
MB Quart DUA 213 5.25 components in door cards
Infinity Kappa 5.25 coaxials in rear shelf premium sound housings
10" Polk mm1040 sub under left rear seat
All powered by Infinity Kappa Five 5 channel amp under right rear seat.

[D Unit]

landspeed, did you have to drill out some of the door frame to mount the 5.25 speaker that way?

[Spen]

I just finished a stereo on the E28 I have...

AMPS:
US Amps 150 4ohm 75w x2 underrated to rear speakers
US Amps 425 4ohm bridged 100wpc (135 actual) to front speakers (separates)
Phoenix Gold XS2500 4ohms bridged run to subs in parallel

SPEAKERS:
Front -6.5'' Precision Power 356CS separates, re-used stock tweeter wiring and housing, used kickpanel speakers as junction boxes
Rear - a/d/s/ 325i/m 5.25 coax in rear parcel shelf (cut out rear shelf sheet metal 'cups' and modified stock premium speaker housings to fit speakers with dremel
Subs - 2x 10'' Diamond Audio M6 run @ 500 watts parallel bridged.

Gains turned quite a far ways down... I could tune it a little better, but it sounds AWESOME and hits hard. I put in an optima yellow top, 4ga power, 4ga ground in supplement to stock ground to same location, ran 3 Scosche RCA's through firewall in back under seat, through carpet under center console, side of heater blower, into the radio console. have ipod and 1/8 stereo input, it's a JVC El Kameleon KDC-AVX44 I believe. I used 14ga speaker wire and 10ga on subs, with a removable bandpass box. System pounds, has no noise, and is great. Hard work was cutting out sheetmetal in doors, measuring, and putting the super big 6.5's into the doors. Fished all wires through factory grommets, soldered and crimped and heatshrank everything I could within reason. I can put more pics, but here is the amplifier board:

http://fogmann.com/ndragan/bojana/2011_ ... G_6703.jpg

[landspeed]

landspeed, did you have to drill out some of the door frame to mount the 5.25 speaker that way?

No, and here's why: the window frame is directly behind the speaker, but the door metal dips at that spot but is vented to the rest of the door cavity. The speakers that I used use a front mounted voice coil and are 1.65 inches deep. I screwed the speaker directly to the door metal, solidly mounting the speaker frame to the door frame. They sound good, good imaging, but they lack good midbass which I could probably improve with better dampening. There are some 6.5 components that would fit depth wise and would have better midbass due to more air movement.

[D Unit]

Those US Amps were actually the first amps I've ever owned and I loved them. Please post more pics, especially the door panels. Keep posting pics guys, this is great!

[landspeed]

I just finished a stereo on the E28 I have...

AMPS:
US Amps 150 4ohm 75w x2 underrated to rear speakers
US Amps 425 4ohm bridged 100wpc (135 actual) to front speakers (separates)
Phoenix Gold XS2500 4ohms bridged run to subs in parallel

SPEAKERS:
Front -6.5'' Precision Power 356CS separates, re-used stock tweeter wiring and housing, used kickpanel speakers as junction boxes
Rear - a/d/s/ 325i/m 5.25 coax in rear parcel shelf (cut out rear shelf sheet metal 'cups' and modified stock premium speaker housings to fit speakers with dremel
Subs - 2x 10'' Diamond Audio M6 run @ 500 watts parallel bridged.

Gains turned quite a far ways down... I could tune it a little better, but it sounds AWESOME and hits hard. I put in an optima yellow top, 4ga power, 4ga ground in supplement to stock ground to same location, ran 3 Scosche RCA's through firewall in back under seat, through carpet under center console, side of heater blower, into the radio console. have ipod and 1/8 stereo input, it's a JVC El Kameleon KDC-AVX44 I believe. I used 14ga speaker wire and 10ga on subs, with a removable bandpass box. System pounds, has no noise, and is great. Hard work was cutting out sheetmetal in doors, measuring, and putting the super big 6.5's into the doors. Fished all wires through factory grommets, soldered and crimped and heatshrank everything I could within reason. I can put more pics, but here is the amplifier board:

http://fogmann.com/ndragan/bojana/2011_ ... G_6703.jpg

Please post pics of PPI components.

[PROJECT. E28]

little something i made sr year in highschool

[D Unit]

Anyone try to install their sub infinite baffle on the rear deck or behind the rear seats? I have been using a 15" sub in a sealed box and a ported 12" sub, but they both take up too much space. I was thinking of mounting either sub in this configuration creating a 1" baffle that attaches to the rear trunk, then attaching the sub to the baffle. Anyone try this?

[Duke]

[Spen]

Here are some pics of me re-doing the door panels. If anyone is interested, I can explain what I did. I did not use dynamat, just Lowe's "Tite Seal" window/door butyl flashing. Works great so far. Lubed all windows and refurbished and cleaned doors and components, tracks, wiped down everything, and had to cut out sheetmetal on doors.

http://www.fogmann.com/ndragan/bojana/2011_08_08/

And here are some pics of the PPI components mounted in the doors:

http://www.fogmann.com/ndragan/bojana/2011_08_12/

This install is complete, but a couple door pins are popping out, so I got some heavy duty ones and need to re-do the door panels (just re-attach them) after I trim some of the foam I glued to the interior door panels out to make room. I wanted no rattles or noise and I worked hard to make it sound bad ass.

Spen

[D Unit]

Hey Landspeed,

Did you have to drill out your door frame too even if your speakers only had a 1.65" depth? Is the grill simply mounted to your door card? Did you use a speaker baffle for the speaker to door frame?

I don't have many pics, but:

Kenwood Excelon kdc-x994head unit
MB Quart DUA 213 5.25 components in door cards
Infinity Kappa 5.25 coaxials in rear shelf premium sound housings
10" Polk mm1040 sub under left rear seat
All powered by Infinity Kappa Five 5 channel amp under right rear seat.

Hey Spen,
Did you mount the speaker to the door frame or door card? What was the depth of your speaker? I wouldn't mind an explanation if you got a minute. BTW, who loves you so much to take all those pictures of you working outside. When I work on my car, no one comes outta the house to greet me...

[Spen]

I cut out the hole to ensure the magnet would fit in the sheet metal. Speaker is attached only to the door card.

With a circular saw, a dremel with a sanding wheel, and a 5'' holesaw, I cut out a plywood 'ring' to fit the speaker and have a strong drilling surface to screw into. I then carpeted that 'ring'. The inner hole is 5'' (holesaw) and then I mounted the speaker in that hole (test fit), put the trim ring on it to get the outer circle diameter, and traced it with a pen. Then I used the circular saw and slowly cut around the traced line. I took the dremel and sanded down the rough spots. It would look better with a router probably, take as much time as you want to make it look nice.

Then I carpeted that trim ring.

I test-fit (holding speaker, set into ring, in my hand) into the door (I also cut out the door card, measure equidistant on each door the hole to cut out of the door card(s), also use a razor blade for the initial cut of the black fabric, then cut out the door card MDF as you want to.

I attached the trim ring I cut and carpeted into the door card ONLY, but I glued some foam on the back of the door card and also dynamated/tite-sealed it to fill the gap in the door card and the sheet metal so the vibration would be minimal, and it makes the door panel very tight and solid.

I used the stock tweeter housing(s) after a little dremeling and fished the 6.5'' door speaker wire (ran new wire) through the factory door grommet for wiring. Easy with a fish tape, hard if you don't have one - just buy a tape or borrow one.

Feel free to ask more questions.

Spen

[Spen]

My girlfriend is into photography and will be thrilled to hear that! She took pics of the whole thing almost, really. The whole stereo install start to finish.

[Spen]

Sorry. My speaker depth was I think 2.25 or 2.5'' which is quite deep, so I used 3/4 plywood. The window regulator/mechanism is about 1/2'' behind the sheetmetal on the inner door frame that the card clips to. I think I have a quarter or a half inch clearance between the magnet and the regulator. I just used a tape from where the speaker mounts and measured from the mounting surface back to the end of the magnet. Then, I just checked against the door card and the trim ring I made. It had some room, so I went for it, and tucked the wire back into the foam or ran it through a hole in the door... I forget which, I think both. And of course ziptied the shit inside the door so the speaker wire won't get caught and chewed up by the window mechanism.

The install, to do it right, and do other shit too, was a long process, due to how busy I am with my life. I worked evenings and weekends as often as I could, and a lot of time was sourcing parts and doing it as nice as I could, so I didn;t have to do it again... and again... I just wanted it solid and industrial from the start, I don't care about fancy as fuck, I just want it hella reliable and nice looking enough.

[D Unit]

Thanks for the explanation Spen. I might give that a go once I'm done re-installing my amps and sub. Sorry for the boat load of questions, but what size are your components... 5.25" or 6.5"? What model/brand name are they? How's the midbass response? The first pic makes them look huge!

Here's a pic for the lazy asses...

[Spen]

Precision Power 356CS 6.5'' midbass with 1'' tweeter and inline x-over (real nice x-overs, big and biampable and tunable).

They are huge! I made a minor measuring mistake ,the glove box rubs when opening. It's a CM too close to the glove. I don't care though =)

Feel free to e-mail me anytime with questions, but I hope this thread helps people who try it themselves.

Spen

[Spen]

Apparently a/d/s was purchased by Precision Power and they did some minor changes, maybe a kevlar cone, and then released a sweet a/d/s speaker as a PPI speaker. They pound bass too. No problem with bass, they will hit fucking hard and handle like 150 watts! They just want big juice! I am going to turn up my gains and my deck down and go hard as soon as I get back the busted hooptie from my mechanic. Then bodywork, paint, and tint and some interior ocd and I'm done. Then It'll probably go up on sale here in a few months!