rogan

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

And you wonder where the component suppliers /build houses for these UK, German and US speaker manufacturers are?? Hint - Korea. Not China, their QC isn't good enough, but Korea is one of the dominant audio companies. Pioneer head units are pretty good. The best deal recently was on the P80rs. Apparently there was a stuff up by Aussie and NZ got shipped the P80RSII which is slightly different from the P80rs. For some bizarre reason, Monaco dumped the P80rsII stock on the market at half the retail price of the original P80rs. Result is that it knocked out the 2nd hand value of the P80rs. Not sure about usb compatability through the pbus system, but the P80 has front/rear/sub pre out (can be changed to low/mid/high for 3 way use), time alignment and independant 16 band eq. Their ipod control isn't the best but otherwise they're right up there with the Alpine stuff and as mentioned earlier their BT is better. Don't touch Pioneer speakers (except maybe PRS) with a 4000ft barge pole. There's a hell of alot better out there for the same coin. DLS / Rainbow speakers are well worth looking into if you home theatre speakers don't work out. Out thing to note is that hone speakers have generally much smaller tolerances than car speakers. Home speakers aren't built to handle the vibration of cars and hence the different construction. As you're probably well aware, you speakers are only as good as the enclosure you're putting them in. Amps, I guess your limiting factor is class A/B. You won't find many class A amps and most are actually a class A/B with bias. There's alot of class D around which you won't want.

One of the inspectors told me. No idea what the legislation is on it.

Forget UK, most of the best stuff is made in Korea!! The only decent car audio Britsh company is Genesis but they're not over here and you'd have to import from the UK. In RHD, BM's are a bitch for front stage. The e34 has a bigger kick than most and you can get a 9" midbass in there Even so, they're not really big enough to angle midrange and tweeters so you're left with door/dash/A-pillar installing there. Only other option is horns. I use Image Dynamics CD2 pro horns in my e39 and having come from Focal Utopia components previously the CD2 are damn good. But at $1800 for a pair they ain't cheap. One of the easiest tweeter installs as well and gets round the path length problems with dash/a-pillar installs. Depending on budget, another option would be Brax Matrix, regarded as the second best components available. There was a pair for sale in Hamilton, not sure if they're sold or not. They're regarded as second to the Rainbow Platinums which retail somewhere round $22K for the pair. I think John was looking for $1500 for the Brax 2nd hand but they're in immaculate condition. Not for a few things that differ between home and car. Don't buy expensive speaker wire or expensive RCA. Complete and utter waste of time and money. If you're an audiophile, then doing your car system properly is gonna cost big dollars and it won't really compare against a home system of similar cost. You can get much better results at home for far less dollars. Before you get into this, have you thought about just having an averagely decent car system and instead indulge your ears at home. Disposable cash would determine this. For a headunit, have a look at the top of the Pioneer and Alpine ranges. Not sure which headunits will do BT and CF. Alpine have an add on Bluetooth module 300BT. I've been looking at it myself but from overseas reading it appears they don't work that well. Pionner seem to have better BT stuff. I suppose the big question is what's your budget for audio.

Not a WOF requirement. You can have a TV screen playing within view of the driver. Spoke to VTNZ about this last time I went thru. Due to navi, cellphones etc it was a pointless requirement.

For anyone that gives a damn. Got a wof from VTNZ with these plates on today.

Nope, no pre-cut for ski hatch, and no pre-cut for the 8"subs, but there is a pre-cut for some small holes where the 8"subs go.

What about e39s. Some came with a apir of 8"subs in the rear tray. The flat section is there but the holes arent cut. It's one of my options but I'll be speaking to a certifier before blade touches metal

That seller is North Shore Auto Sounds in Piermark Drive, Albany. If you're looking at those specific components then ring around the shops for a price comparison. I found Paul Money to always be cheaper than them, but haven't dealt with them for a long time.

I hear that BASS have closed down

ID announced them at CES but they're not due for release until 2nd quarter 2008 and to be frank ID havén't been great at keeping to release times. The mono does: 400rms at 4ohm, 800 at 2, and 1200 at 1 so should mate nicely with a single IDmax or a pair of IDQ. The other amps are a 75x4 and a 175x2 (from memory). Thinking a mono on the subs(s) and a mono for each midbass. Not sure what to do for rears and horns, probably just get a 75x4

FATGAS (for anyone that gives a sh!t) Have started my stereo install and have posted a thread on both Bimmerforums and NZice forums. In a nutshell, the whole factory system is being replaced: Headunit: Alpine IVA-W202 Shuttle: Alpine CHA-S624 (if I can get the damn thing to go!) Processor: Alpine PXA-H701 Amps: Image Dynamics Q series when they're released later this year. Currently hooked uo some Bostons. Front speakers: Image Dynamics CD2pro horns, Image Dynamics XS69 midbass Rears: Image Dynamics CTX5 Subs: Image Dynamics IDmax or IDQv3. Sound deadening: Dynamat Extreme Rushing to get it done before wife drops a sprog so will be a work in progress. Linky to Bimmerforums here http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=913748 PS. Ray - hurry up and find me some door cards fella

1/ Toss up between the Mini and the Beetle. Both sold sh1tloads and production lasted forever but I'm gonna take the beetle over the mini because of Herbie films. 2/ The classic Rangerover. Starter of the SUV craze and had an amazing amount of snobbery when you consider how crap they were. Makes it very easy to recognise the w@nkers on the road. 3/ Lotus seven. Balls out performance and handling that current supercars can barely compete with. If you own an e30 M3 then whatever you do don't drive one of these. 4/ Lambo Countach. Everything you could ever want stuck on a poster on your wall at age 10. Would pull serious growler too. 5/ The batmobile (original one please). I wanna car with rocket launchers and a flames that comes out the back. Forget big bores, it made the best noise in the world too. Godammit I want the cape and mask and I might even start wearing undies outside my trousers. There definitely wouldn't be a BM in my top 30 cars.

All sorted, for some reason battery has died and was only showing 10v when I multimetered it. Swapped it out and car going good again. Thanks anyway Hartage, spot on the ball

E46 318, 1998 NZ New, 120kmh fsh Turn the key and you get a clicking noise, bit like a flat abttery but louder. Turn the ignition a couple of times and she starts. Replaced the Battery a wee while back with an orbital blue top. Yesterday I doubled up the -ve to chassis and positive power leads in case there was a poor connection at the battery terminals. Battery has dual terminal so just ran extra 4guage leads as a precaution. Other weird thing is the headlights flash on as you try and start it. Any ideas or known issues??

They're 17x8, with 5x120 stud pattern. Standard BMW offset whatever that is?

Suppose it's love em or hate em with tri spokes. Was always in 2 minds whether to change them for something else and finally came across some mags I couldn't resist. Run true, no wobble issues Looking for offers $400+. Just the mags, no tyres. Located Nth Shore, Ak Any interest and I'll email close ups of each tyre