rogan

Pretty sure they don't sell Soundstream. You fixed on SS. If not let me know the following and I'll try and recommend something: budget, amp power, sub size, music taste, and loud vs quality.

Quick heads up: This saturday 20 Sept, 9am - 4pm Sale at the new Car Stereo Specialists premises: 155 Sunnybrae Rd Glenfield North Shore opposite entrance to Glenfield On Road vehicle testing (from the Harbour Bridge: Take Esmonde Rd off ramp, turn left at lights. Keep going straight ahead for about 3-4km. Building is on your right. If you get to traffic lights where you have to turn right or left then you've wasted 200metres of petrol.) I'll be there all day pushing the Image Dynamics subs. Expect Alpine, Fusion, Sony, Pioneer etc to be seriously discounted too.

When you pull that Kenwood thing out, expect there to be some cutting of the airbox behind it. What's the problem with your a/c, maybe this has something to do with it. I'd replace it with something decent. The factory headunit is a piece of junk (opens can of worms). Have a look at Panasonic, they tend to be a bit cheaper than the other big brands and have some good features.

Just for information, Karl at SLAP in Wellington managed to fit the midrange from the DLS UP36 components in there. The surround had to be trimmed to get it in the hole.

Not a neccessity but good practice. I reckon you need to get into the habit of disconnecting the battery. The front door pods are pretty flimsy. If you can, do some deadening on them which should help improve midbass. The cheap Bostik type basic sound deadening is probably worth doing. A few guys overseas have tried replacing the 5.25 speaker and keeping the pod. They've found that the enclosure is a little bit small. I'd look at the DLS B5. I had the DLS B6 in a very small sealed enclosure in my old Suzuki and it worked well in the small space - in fact it worked better than the DLS UP6 (way more expensive) I tried first. I agree with 5 star. The factory e39 stereo (think I had 8 speakers, haven't looked in the rear doors yet) is sadly lacking. To the OP. If the speaker doesn't crackle all the time then the problem could well be elsewhere.

http://www.janus-design.net/english/e46doubledin/index.php You realise you'd need to do some decent work to the airbox to fit a double din?

Thanks for all the help. Triggered off the LKM (white/yellow wire). All working well. Hardest part was running the RCA and trigger from the back seat to the headunit.

Swapping out the midbass drivers won't achieve that much. The lack of midbass is more likely to be install related. IIRC, the E30 front factory positions are absolutely useless so without a decent enclosure there's not gonna be any improvement by simply swapping speakers.

thanks

Right, have reversing camera above the numberplate. Double sided sticky to the metal between the boot release and the plate light, hole drilled through corner of the plate light lens and wires into the boot through that. Ran cable across boot and through grommet into cabin. Will get onto the rest in the next couple of days hopefully. PS: carbon powder worked brilliantly for running the cable through the grommet. Bit messy but very easy.

duh, what was I thinking? Yep, have the manual and it's a +ve feed not an earth trigger. The fuse on the loom gives it away as well. Got no intention of blowing up the headie so there's a double check before connecting any wires. Have got tow bar, so there goes the connection to the reversing lights. Guessing the same occurs for the reversing sensors?. I've got to take the centre console out to run the wiring so can get to the gear shift if that gives me a 12v feed as opposed to the 6v from the LKM. Is there's a 12V+ somewhere regardless of trailer connection. Can I hook to the trailer socket or does that fool the electronics and shut down the reversing lights?

Good thought Aftermarket headie with an RCA feed so no problems hooking camera to headunit. Need a powered reversing signal. So guess I'll need a relay to sense the earthing of the cable going to the rear lights. Up front need a hook up at the gear lever to trigger the headie to camera mode. Guessing that wire needs to ground when in reverse similar to the headunit handbrake sensor. Is it easy to hook up to the reverse trigger on the gear shift or should I run a cable to the lights in the boot (cos I'm gonna have to run the camera RCA cable and DVD stacker video cables so it'd be easy to do it all at once).

Thanks, has given me some ideas - bumper mount is interesting.

e39 sedan Have just got a reversing camera that interfaces with my stereo system. Wondering if anyone has hooked one up and if so where did they mount the camera and how did you run the wiring through the body. Thinking above the numberplate then carve out a bit of the numberplate light for the cable to go through. Haven't looked closely but maybe the boot spoiler is an option.

A pretty fair assessment I think. One of the problems in car is getting low midbass with authority. You've got to do a hell of alot of work to get frequency response below about 80hz with authority and alot of cars are nowhere near that (ie 120+hz). This leaves a gap in the frequency range output and alot of people try to compensate by boosting the sub or the midbass which then dulls the midrange. IMO, front low midbass is the key to a good system. Get down to 70hz and below and getting the whole system to start sounding good gets alot easier. There was a post on nzice from Ablomech (aka Dean) who'd probably be one of this country's most knowledgeable car audio people. I understand he's now working for Arvus doing R&D. Basically he was talking about trying to get low midbass (100hz from memory) from a 6.5" driver and the limitations of cone area in relation to db output for dynamic range. He theoretically demonstarted that you need drivers over 6" to get these frequencies at sufficient output. Auditioning speakers is very difficult. There's substantial difference between components in a shop comparator and those same components in car. Subs can also sound markedly different in the 2 enviroments. Unfortunately you can only really listen to big brand name speakers in most shops in NZ so I've found it's easier to do research and then take a leap of faith. It's worked for me but I'm sure one day I'll buy something that sounds cr@p. Realistically the enclosure you make in car will do as much if not more for your sound than your selection of speakers once you get to a certain quality point in speakers

Don't know if you're considering 2nd hand but this sub is worth a good look: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/C...n-170774647.htm The guy who's selling it had it running off a DLS amp and was only giving it about 200rms. It'll happily handle 400rms so it hasn't been thrashed at all. Box is 0.9ft3 gross. He's bought a pair of IDQ10 v3 for his new car so it's a genuine reason for sale. Guessing he'd take $220 outside trademe (have contact details if needed). The subs are ugly - pressed steel basket in a turquoise colour but damn do they make up for their ugliness in sound quality. Anyway you don't see the basket once it's boxed. Apart from the new IDQv3, this is the best sounding sub I have ever heard. Made my old Focal Utopia seem boomy! I'll be using the IDQv3 when I finally get round to my sub install. Also some brand new amps on sale: DC Audio opening sale Sale ends 17 Aug http://forums.nzicemag.co.nz/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=20306 Sundown brand. US brand with a good international reputation. Product - RRP - Sale - One Off Price SAX 100.2 - 549 - 439 - 360 SAX 100.4 - 799 - 639 - 530 SAX-100.2 CLASS A/B 2 CHANNEL SPECIFICATIONS: * 100 x 2 watts @ 4 ohms * 200 x 2 watts @ 2 ohms * 400 x 1 watts @ 4 ohms bridged * Damping Factor > 200 @ 4 Ohms * 0.2v - 6v adjustable input sensitivity * 10 Hz - 40,000 Hz Frequency Response * Channel Separations: 75 dB * > 90 dB S/N Ratio * 4-Way Protection Circuit (Thermal, Overload, Speaker Short, and Over Current) * Selectable HP / LP / FULL crossover * 50 Hz - 500 Hz adjustable 18dB Low-Pass Crossover * 50 Hz - 500 Hz adjustable 18dB High-Pass Crossover * 0 - 18 dB adjustable bass boost with 45 Hz center frequency * Wired Remote Control unit included * 3x 20 Amp Internal Fuses * 13.375" L x 9.9" W x 2" H SAX-100.4 CLASS A/B 4 CHANNEL SPECIFICATIONS: * 100 x 4 watts @ 4 ohms * 160 x 4 watts @ 2 ohms * 320 x 2 watts @ 4 ohms bridged * Damping Factor > 200 @ 4 Ohms * 0.2v - 6v adjustable input sensitivity * 10 Hz - 40,000 Hz Frequency Response * Channel Separations: 75 dB * > 90 dB S/N Ratio * 4-Way Protection Circuit (Thermal, Overload, Speaker Short, and Over Current) * Selectable HP / LP / FULL crossover * CH 1 & 2 Variable HP crossover 50 - 5000 Hz @ 12 dB * CH 1 & 2 Variable LP crossover 50 - 500 Hz @ 12 dB * CH 3 & 4 Variable HP crossover 50 - 500 Hz @ 12 dB * CH 3 & 4 Variable LP crossover 50 - 5000 Hz @ 12 dB * 10 Hz - 500 Hz variable subsonic filter (CH 1&2 and CH 3&4) * Subsonic filter allows for band-passed crossover configuration * 0 - 18 dB adjustable bass boost * 35 - 120 Hz Variable Bass Boost Center Frequency * Wired Remote Control unit included * 3x 30 Amp Internal Fuses * 16.5" L x 9.9" W x 2" H

There's a bit of a quantum jump from quality UK speakers to the Kicker L5. Personally I'd rather have a rectal examination from Edward Scissorhands than have that sub in my car. If that's the best sounding sub the store had then I suggest going to a different store. With that sub I'd save some coin and space and get class D amps, you won't hear the difference. B&W specs a frequency response of 72hz to 20khx for those speakers http://bwmedia.keycast.com/download/Librar...F_l10_w0_h0.pdf Where did you get 35hz from? If you get your front stage right you won't need anything much in the back if at all. Maybe a pair of coaxials for some rear fill but certainly not the type of rear system you're thinking of.

Show car then; all show no go. What you find with serious competitors is that they'll turn off all but one sub in competitions to avoid cancellations from phase, reflections etc. In fact sq competition rules limit the number of subs and speakers you can run

Why an sq car would have 5 subs, let alone 14 speakers in beyond me. 10 speakers 2 sub is about the absolute max and most serious competitors are doing plenty less. There's good stuff being written overseas about the HAT Clarus components. Aside from that it's audition audition audition. Totally agreeWouldn't recommend the Jaycar amps or the DD components. Have got a high end set of Focal compoenets for sale if you're interested. Focal Utopia 165W3 3 way components

Although most component speakers have specs like 55hz-22khz frequency response, you'll be hard pressed to get down to 55hz. I think if you can get <80hz with authority from front speakers then you're doing well. The speaker companies aren't lying, it's just you'll struggle to make an enclosure that allows the speakers to drop that far in the car environment. I know what you're saying about sub localisation, but what does give sub locations away is rattles. I have mine crossed at 71hz with 24db slope and it's hard to pick location. If I change it up to around 90 with 12db slope then you can start to locate it. In my opinion the better you can get your front midbass, the better blend you get with the sub. If you have weak midbass then you are going to struggle integrating the sub regardless of how well you tune it.

And the Focal Grande Utopia Be which retail for $200k ish use a 15" driver for <50hz. The point of the whole concept is that different sized drivers suit different cars; there's no golden rule.

x2. really good forum that one, and sad to say but the Aussies beat us hands down in car audio knowledge.IMHO the best way to do bass in a BMW is Infinite Baffle. Sealed facing through the ski hatch is simple and effective, but the design of the seat back and rear deck of BMers just cries out for IB. Advantages: plays lower, hits harder, weighs less (less enclosure), more available boot space. Boston Acoustic were the top of the pile over here for a while. They went downhill but some of their recent stuff is getting back to where they were. I had a listen to some Boston Z6 splits paired with a G5 sub, running off my old headie and Boston amps. Maybe it was tuning but it didn't do it for me. But hey personal preference. As 5 star pointed out, the size of a sub does not dictate it's ability to keep up with the music. I run a 15"and it would make some 10"s sound sloppy. Idid some testing of an IDmax10 vs and IDmax12 in my car (saloon with ski pass open) vs a friends car (stationwagon). The 10 sounded better in the stationwagon, and the 12 sounded better in the saloon. No idea why and there's probably no golden rule but it was an interesting little experiment.

Meant to throw this link in - well worth a good read. Despite it actually being a product manual for a 3inch driver, it actually covers most of the main concepts of car audio http://www.hybrid-audio.com/downloads/Hybr...rs%20Manual.pdf Hybrid Audio is very new on the scene but seems to be taking the industry by storm. The L series speakers have toppled DLS on the international competition scene and I've spoken to a few people who use then who reckon they're the best things since sliced bread. AFAIK there's no NZ distributor so you'd need to import from the States.

That's why you need to draw a line somewhere. You can start off with something like the Pioneer P80rs headunit and have sufficient eq, time alignment and a 3 way active crossover which will handle a well above average system. The next step up from that is really going to the headunit and processor combos which will give you 7 or 8 distinct preamp channels, multiple crossover slopes, phase control, 30 band eqs per channel etc etc. You're looking at 1500 2nd hand for a combo set up or about 3k brand new. Realistically if you're an audiophile you're not going to get change from $7K when building a good system. If you've got that kind of disposable income then go for your life but otherwise it's probably best sticking to a good headunit like the P80 and getting a 4channel amp to either run front and rear passively or fronts actively, and then look at a mono amp for sub duty. My advice is leave you factory rear speakers in there. Try your B&W speakers up front and if it all works to your liking then look at getting an amp for aub frequencies.

There's been a few forays into Class A amps in car audio. Some like the Alpine 3558 were class A for the first 5w then changed over to A/B. Tru Tech had class A in their copper range and HSS and Milbert are class A in their tube amps. With high price, high current draw and high heat output they don't mate well into the car environment. Class D is extremely common in car amps. There's a reduction in damping factor and a few other sq'y area but the trade off is higher power output per ampere, smaller footprint and less heat output. Just to add confusion there's a few Class G and Class T starting to appear. Stick to A/B and you'll be right. It's definitely worth a crack putting the B&W speakefrs in. A friend has the 800D and they're absolutely glorious. Have a nosey here for a guy who used B&W Nautilus speakers: http://www.milbert.com/autos/earl